Best Robot Vacuums of 2025: These Machines Do the Work for You

Each robot vacuum we consider for recommendation gets put through its paces in our test lab in Louisville, Kentucky. In addition to test floors where we run our controlled pickup tests, we monitor each robot vacuum in a special test room filled with mock furniture to gauge how well it navigates around common obstacles. Past that, we check each robot vacuum's ability to gobble up pet hair without getting clogged or leaving loose strands behind, we consider mopping capabilities, and we check to see how well it navigates fake dog messes too. Let's dive a little deeper into the main considerations, starting with our performance tests. Robot vacuum pickup power When it comes to vacuuming prowess, we want to know how effective each robot is against common crumbs and other debris, and also how it fares against much smaller particles like dust, dirt and sand. To find out, we use dry, uncooked black rice as a stand-in for the crumbs and sand as an analog for finer particles. In each case, w ... Read full article.