I’ve been testing robot vacuum cleaners for years, and in that time they’ve gone from an expensive dust-pan on wheels to a must-have appliances for busy households. Today’s best robot vacuum cleaners are capable of spotting and avoiding dangling cables and shoelaces, scrubbing floors with spinning mops and even emptying their own bins and washing themselves.
Roomba is still a byword for robot vacuum cleaners but, while the classic brand was first to market, I’ve found myself increasingly impressed by high-tech rivals from brands like Eufy, Roborock and Tapo, each armed with an ever-growing list of clever features.
With so much advanced tech on offer, choosing the right one can feel like a chore in itself. To help you decide, I’ve put the top robovacs through their paces in real homes to find the models that genuinely make life easier.
How I tested
I tested each robot vacuum cleaner over many months and in different homes (some with pets), paying close attention to how each robot performed in new surroundings. As well as allowing the robots to clean routinely, I subjected them to some more rigorous tests, too, including my top three:
- The rice test: To test suction power, I dumped an entire cup of basmati onto hard and carpeted floors. You need a decently powerful robovac to lift grains out of fabric, and weaker models that didn’t make the cut left some debris behind or transported rice around the flat. Some models have a tendency to fling grains away from the robot – though a second pass will usually catch these runaways.
- The cornflour test: Cornflour is a much lighter particulate that even powerful robots might struggle to completely clear with vacuuming alone. Like dust, it tends to stick to surfaces with electrostatic forces, making it a good stand-in for daily dirt and an ideal demonstration of a robot’s mopping capability.
- The shoe test: For robots with obstacle avoidance, I deployed a single trainer in the middle of a hallway with its laces snaking along the floor. More advanced robots can spot the shoe and its tantalising lace before navigating around it, but cheaper options get snarled up on the footwear.
As well as testing their hoovering skills, I rated each robot’s app and how easy they were to set up and maintain. I also considered the costs of any replacement parts – all robot vacuums wear out over time and require fresh filters, brushes, dust bags and rollers.
Why you can trust IndyBest reviews
As a technology journalist with a decade of experience under my belt, I've been weirdly fascinated by the rapid evolution of the robot vacuum cleaner, watching it develop from a clumsy, novelty gadget into a genuinely useful and worthwhile piece of home tech. By deploying them in a variety of real homes (including my messy two-bed flat with a long-haired chihuahua who sheds), I can see how each robot vacuum cleaner holds up when the pristine lab conditions are stripped away. As someone who’s tested dozens of robovacs (and other tech) over the years, I know which features are essential and which are expensive gimmicks, ensuring that every recommendation in this guide (and all of my reviews) is based on genuine experience and real-world testing.
The best robot vacuum cleaners for 2025 are:
- Best overall – Eufy X10 pro omni: £699, Amazon.co.uk
- Best obstacle avoidance – iRobot roomba combo j7: £799, iRobot.co.uk
- Best quiet cleaner – Tapo RV30 plus: £229.99, Amazon.co.uk
- Best with mop – Roborock S8 MaxV ultra: £1,099.99, Appliancesdirect.co.uk
Eufy X10 pro omni robot vacuum cleaner
Best: Robot vacuum cleaner overall
Battery life: Up to 180 minutes for vacuum mode, up to 120 minutes for mop and vacuum mode
Bin capacity: 2.5l (station dust bag)
Suction power: 8,000Pa
Voice control: Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant
Onboard camera : Yes
Why we love it
- Dual mops don’t just wash, they scrub
- Very good object detection
- Detailed customisation modes
Take note
- App could be improved
Eufy’s X10 robot vacuum is the company’s latest high-end model, and it’s the most hands-off machine we’ve tested yet. Not only does it vacuum and mop, but it’s clever enough to refill itself with water, as well as wash and dry its own mops. The only thing you need to do is change the water in the base station every seven days and swap out the dust bag every couple of months. Other than that, it cleans and mops for you.
The mopping function is excellent. It doesn’t just swish a mop pad around on the floor, it actually scrubs the floorboards, helping get rid of dried coffee stains. Plus, the X10 features Eufy’s best-in-class object avoidance tech, which has been trained like a self-driving car, dodging over 100 different objects, including cables, slippers and socks.
While I’m not the biggest fan of Eufy’s app, it’s smart enough to map your home automatically, and you can customise how hard it mops, how deep it cleans and the level of suction power it exerts. It’s a really smart little vacuum that needs almost no human input to work.
Read our full Eufy X10 pro omni review
Buy now £549.00, Amazon.co.uk
Roborock Q7 M5 robot vacuum
Best: Budget robot vacuum cleaner
Battery life: Up to 180 minutes
Bin capacity: 470ml
Suction power: 10,000Pa
Voice control: Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri
Onboard camera: No
Why we love it
- Great value
- Powerful suction
- Great and intuitive app
Take note
- Basic mopping
- Basic obstacle avoidance
The Roborock Q7 M5 (previously called the Max) hits the sweet spot between premium features and a more accessible price, making it one of the best value-for-money robot vacuums you can buy. It brings core high-end features like simultaneous vacuuming and mopping, precise LiDAR navigation and an optional self-emptying dock down to around £200.
Powered by a robust 4,200Pa of suction, the Q7 M5 has no trouble lifting dust, debris and pet hair from both hard floors and carpets. The mopping system uses consistent pressure for an effective wipe-down that’s great for daily sprucing. The laser-based navigation is fast and accurate, creating detailed 3D maps of your home and navigating around furniture with ease. Once you’ve built your map, the Roborock app lets you set no-go zones or choose specific rooms to clean.
As a cheaper model, the Q7 M5 forgoes some of the fancier tech found on top-tier models. While it will clean around furniture and table legs, it will get tangled on any shoelaces and cables you’ve left lying around, and its mopping pad is the basic sort, with no scrubbing action. You’ll need to prep your floors before sending it around, but these are smart compromises for a budget robovac.
Buy now £239.99, Amazon.co.uk
iRobot roomba combo j7+
Best: Robot vacuum cleaner for obstacle avoidance
Battery life: 110 minutes
Bin capacity: 400ml (plus 2.5l in charging base)
Suction power: Unspecified
Noise level: 66.2dB
Voice control: Google Assistant, Alexa
Onboard camera: Yes
Why we love it
- Fully autonomous
- Excellent object detection
Take note
- Small water tank
- Now more expensive than competing vacs
One of the best roomba iRobot makes, the combo j7 is a robot vacuum cleaner with an intelligent mopping function that switches modes automatically when it moves from hard floors to rugs and carpets.
Roomba’s best-in-class obstacle detection can spot and avoid common household hazards such as dangling cables, shoelaces, stray socks, toys and pet mess, meaning you can confidently set it going without having to “pre-tidy” – exceptionally handy in busy homes. The robot even sends you pictures of anything it’s avoided, so you can clear the space and send it around again (or, if you’re lazy, like us, dismiss the notification and promise you’ll get around to it later).
I would recommend choosing the version with the self-emptying charging base. It sounds like a jet engine when it’s emptying, but the bin holds weeks’ worth of dust and makes the robot basically fully autonomous.
The mopping tank is small, so you’ll need to refill it with detergent fairly frequently if you use it routinely. The app lets you reduce the amount of water being used to help extend the mopping function further between refills.
Read the full iRobot roomba combo j7+ review
Buy now £999.00, Irobot.co.uk
Shark powerdetect nevertouch pro 2-in-1 self-empty
Best: Robot vacuum cleaner for allergies
Battery life: Up to 110 minutes
Bin capacity: 300ml / 2 litres with dock
Suction power: Not listed
Voice control: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant
Onboard camera: Yes
Why we love it
- Does a great job of removing dirt
- Manoeuvres well over obstacles
- Clears allergens well
- Very little maintenance needed
Take note
- Don’t love that you can see the dirty water tank
- You have to buy the Shark cleaning solution tins
My brother-in-law, who is an ex-Apple employee, called this vacuum “the best piece of tech” that he’d used since Apple vision pro, which is a rather impressive claim. Putting it to work in a house where four dogs are often running around, shedding every day, was no small job, and it’s worked miracles in terms of the hair that it can pick up. Getting it set up was relatively easy, but it did come with a lot of unnecessary packaging.
I made sure to test the vacuum on everyday incidents – vacuuming up hair following a cut on the living room floor, spills from a cup of tea, and mopping up muddy paw prints. There was no issue in sweeping up dirt and mopping the floor after that, thanks to a figure-of-eight technique that the Shark powerdetect nevertouch uses. Better still, it found particular areas of the room with ease when I sent it to corners and patches to clean.
One irk was that there is no option to map two floors, unlike the Eufy 25, and so whenever sending it upstairs to clean, I needed to reprogram the ground floor upon return. But, it’s a small price to pay for a fantastic piece of equipment that sits mid-range in the robot vacuum price bracket, but operates in line with some of the higher-end models.
Buy now £800.00, Argos.co.uk
Eufy robot vacuum omni E25
Best: Robot vacuum cleaner for heavy carpets
Battery life: 216 minutes (vacuum), 125 minutes (vacuum and mop)
Bin capacity: 264ml / 3 litres with dock
Suction power: 20,000pa
Voice control: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri Shortcuts
Onboard camera: Yes
Why we love it
- It does a good job of picking up dog hair
- It’s not as noisy as other models
- It cleans itself
Take note
- You have to buy the Eufy cleaning solution to use the mop function (£19.99)
- Can be a bit patchy
- Expensive
I was excited to be trying out the Eufy omni E25 – which is sort of the older sibling to the best buy pick (the X10 pro omni). The E25 costs £150 more, so I was looking out for signifiers that this model would be worth the extra cash. While the X10 has a suction power of 8,000pa, this model has an impressive 20,000pa, meaning that it can complete a deep clean on both carpeted and hard floors.
With a dog at home, I’m used to having to vacuum floors in the living areas every day. Thanks to a combination of the high suction power, auto-detangling brushes and a corner arm that gets to hard-to-reach areas, I noticed nearly all hair was swept up in the first clean – including under the coffee table, around the corners of the dog’s bed, and in small crannies where dust gathers. The mop feature is a handy addition and definitely offers a welcome quick clean after work. But, the Eufy-supplied solution left laminate flooring a bit sticky, and a small stain from a spilt sauce took three tries to remove completely.
Using object avoidance tech, the E25 skirted around tables and chair legs, avoided the dog’s paws, and I didn’t hear it bump into anything once, which was a considerable difference from some other robot vacuums I’ve tried in the past. The vacuum gets over threshold strips and rugs with ease, and is relatively quiet as it travels around the room.
Buy now £849.00, Amazon.co.uk
Dreame X50 Ultra
Best: Robot vacuum cleaner for homes with steps
Battery life: Up to 180 minutes
Bin capacity: 3.2 litres
Suction power: 12,000Pa
Voice control: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri
Onboard camera: Yes
Why we love it
- Robotic arm extends mop for perfect edge cleaning
- Base station washes mops with hot water
- Extendable legs can scale small steps
Take note
- Premium price tag
- Large, bulky base station
The Dreame X50 Ultra is a high-end robot vacuum cleaner and mop that’s crammed with some cutting-edge technology, most notably its extendable legs, which can clear steps of up to 6cm. It won’t climb a staircase – robovacs still have their limits – but if you have an awkward step in your home, the Dreame X50 Ultra will be able to clamber over it and continue cleaning.
The innovations don't stop there. The Dreame X50 Ultra uses a small robotic arm that swings the spinning mop pad out from the robot’s body to clean right up to the edge of skirting boards and around furniture legs. It’s a simple but effective solution, reliably reaching corners that other robovacs miss.
The all-in-one base station not only empties the dustbin and refills the water tank, but it also washes the mop pads with hot water, helping to dissolve greasy stains and keep things hygienic. It even has a built-in hair-cutting roller that automatically shreds any tangled hair from the main brush, saving you from one of the grubbiest robot vacuum maintenance jobs.
Of course, all of these features come at a price, placing the Dreame X50 Ultra firmly in the premium category alongside the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra. The base station is also fairly bulky and requires a dedicated spot, but if you want a robovac that cleans brilliantly and won’t get stuck on a step, the Dreame X50 Ultra is your best choice.
Buy now £1199.00, Amazon.co.uk
Tapo RV30 plus robot vacuum cleaner
Best: Quiet robot vacuum cleaner
Battery life: 5 hours
Bin capacity: 4l (with self-emptying bin)
Suction power: 4,200Pa
Noise level: 55dB
Voice control: Yes
Onboard camera: No
Why we love it
- Affordable for a self-emptying vacuum
- Useful and unique app features
Take note
- Mopping mode needs manual attention
This mopping, self-emptying robot vacuum comes from networking giant TP-Link – probably best known for its internet routers rather than its home appliances. The Tapo RV30 plus has the clean and fuss-free appearance of a wifi hub, but the performance and features of a top-end robot vacuum.
Lidar navigation powers some competent obstacle avoidance. During my tests, the RV30 could navigate without bumping mindlessly into furniture, building a detailed map of the floor plan as it goes, to help it clean more efficiently on future runs.
The mopping function is fairly basic. You need to manually swap in the attachment any time you want to mop, and it will happily try to mop your carpets and rugs given half the chance. That said, the app lets you easily designate rooms, so assigning the vacuum to mop just the kitchen or the bathroom is straightforward.
The app also adds convenient features not seen in other robot vacuums in this guide. You can tell it to only use the self-emptying bin during certain hours of the day (self-emptying is loud), and you can disable the physical button on the vacuum itself, so mischievous kids and dextrous pets can’t set it going.
The Tapo RV30 is also quieter than most, particularly when on the weakest setting. Noise isn’t a concern if you set your vacuum to do its thing while you’re out of the house, but a less cacophonous vacuum should benefit those who spend more time at home.
Buy now £199.99, Tapo.com
Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra
Best: 2-in-1 robot vacuum cleaner
Battery life: 180 minutes
Bin capacity: 270ml
Suction power: 10,000Pa
Voice control: Alexa, Google Assistant
Onboard camera: Yes
Why we love it
- Mops and vacuums
- App setup is seamless
- Self-emptying and self-refilling
- Mapping is quick and accurate
Take note
- Noisy
- Obstacle-avoidance isn't perfect
- Base station isn't pretty
The Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra is one of the more expensive robot vacuum cleaners on the market, but it’s packed with enough premium features to justify its price. It mops and vacuums, switching modes depending on the surface. It can refill its own water tank and empty its dustbin into its base station, and it uses dual rollers, an edge brush, accurate mapping and powerful suction to deliver impressive all-around cleaning performance.
While an effective helper around the home, the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra’s docking space is larger than expected, measuring around 45cm on every side to house its dual dust and water buckets. The base station isn’t that pretty either, so you’ll need to hide it away. The setup is straightforward, using a slick app which is easily accessed by a QR code.
Cleaning commands can be customised for different rooms, letting you designate your kitchen, lounge, hall and downstairs bathroom separately, for example. Voice commands can then send the robot vacuum to wherever it’s needed. The S8 MaxV Ultra’s obstacle-recognition system generally does a good job at avoiding obstacles like chairs and shoes, but it occasionally needs a little intervention.
A multi-map function means it can clean different floors - unlike most robot vacuums on the market. Obviously, the robovac needs to be carried up the stairs, but this is a big improvement on other robot vacuums, which are usually limited to a single floor.
Mapping is fast and accurate, and I was impressed that the floorplans will automatically update whenever doors are left open and the robovac “discovers” a new part of the house it hadn’t seen before.
The mopping mode uses a pad rather than rotating brush heads, so results are more of a light wipe-down than a proper scrub. The S8 MaxV Ultra’s 10,000Pa suction power ensures deep cleaning, even reaching tight corners, though this comes with the downside of being rather noisy. Thankfully, it’s easy to schedule the robovac to mop and clean while you’re out of the house.
The £1,000 price tag is steep, but the convenience and saved cleaning time offered by the S8 Max V Ultra justify the investment.
Buy now £899.99, Amazon
Samsung jet bot AI robot vacuum cleaner
Best: Robot vacuum cleaner for remote operation
Battery life: 90 mins
Bin capacity: 200ml (plus clean station capacity)
Suction power: 30W (adjustable on hard floors)
Noise level: 74dB
Voice control: Alexa, Google Assistant
Onboard camera: Yes
Why we love it
- Powerful suction
- Works well on carpets and hard floors
Take note
- Charging base needs lots of space
I was intrigued to see how the Samsung robot vacuum would fare, because it’s designed slightly differently from all the other models. It’s chunkier, for a start, and has a flat front and no spinning brushes at the side. It also has the most powerful suction of any robot vacuum I tried, which did mean it picked up plenty of dirt and debris around the home.
After it has finished its cleaning cycle, the jet bot returns to the clean station dock, which then sucks the dirt out of the robot and stores it in a tower. You’ll need some dedicated space for this tower because it does take up a fair amount of room. But this means you have to empty it a lot less often, and it traps dust particles in the system rather than releasing them back into the air – great for allergy sufferers.
The gadget is controlled via the Samsung SmartThings app, and, once set up, my vacuum got to work scanning and mapping the house with a good degree of accuracy. The object-recognition function meant it successfully avoided toys, piles of laundry and whatever else was left out on the floor. It mounted thick rugs with ease, too.
You can also use the app to access the camera on the vacuum and see where it is in real-time – handy if it has got stuck or you want to check up on your pet (you can guide it remotely, too). I was impressed with how clear this image was.
The jet bot senses what kind of surface it is cleaning and adapts its suction accordingly. It did a brilliant job both with hardwood and carpeted floors, getting all but a few scraps.
Buy now £244.16, Amazon.co.uk
Your questions about the best robot vacuums answered
What is the best robot vacuum cleaner?
For homes with both carpets and hard flooring, I would recommend the Eufy X10 pro omni robot vacuum cleaner. It’s remarkably good value for a self-emptying and self-refilling model, and its mopping action applies pressure to a pair of rotating brush heads to actually scrub the floor, rather than dragging a wet pad across it. The results are fantastic.
How do I choose a robot vacuum?
Choosing the best robot vacuum cleaner for your home can feel like a chore in itself. To narrow down your search, focus on a few key considerations.
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