The best robot vacuum and mop to keep your house clean in 2025
First things first: manage your expectations. Over the past year we've tested several high-end models, most of them vacuum/mop combos offering varying levels of self-cleaning and the promise of robust, AI-powered navigation. Not one of them is perfect; a model that's good at vacuuming falls short at mopping, another that's good at mopping gets tripped up on cords. Put simply, if you're expecting Rosey the Robot-level efficiency (that's a Jetsons reference, kids, look it up), you're going to be disappointed.
Just how effective these machines can be in your home depends a lot on your home. Do you have carpet, rugs, hard floors or some combination of the three? Do you have a pet that sheds or a kid that smears jelly on every surface? What's the clutter situation like? Ultimately, the more obstacles and mess and floor variety a robot vacuum has to face, the more likely it is to get stuck or fail to clean well.
That said, when you come home from a long day and find freshly vacuumed carpet and shiny kitchen floors, it's a thing of beauty. And you didn't even have to fight with a surly teenager to make it happen.
Best robot vacuums for 2025
Factors to consider when choosing a robot vacuum
How we tested these robot vacuums
Other robot vacuums we tested
Robot vacuum FAQs
Read more:
The best vacuum cleaners of 2025
The best handheld steam cleaners
The best air purifiers
Update, Mar. 21, 2025: We checked all product prices and availability and included new reviews for the Ecovacs Deebot T30S and Shark PowerDetect 2-in-1, which we added to our top picks. Our pick for the best robot vacuum overall remains unchanged.
(back to top)
Good news: Even inexpensive vacs do a pretty good job sweeping floors, and many of them now offer what was previously a premium feature: a self-emptying bin, a nice time-saver. Without it, you need to manually dump the debris after every cleaning or two. (Looking at you, Dyson 360 Vis Nav.) With it, you can often go a month or more before emptying.
Don't focus too heavily on the suction rating (expressed as "Pa," short for "Pascals"). Although a higher number translates to greater cleaning power, it doesn't necessarily mean "better at cleaning," as there are other variables at work as well. iRobot, makers of the famed Roomba robots, doesn't even specify a Pa number for its products. That said, I'd look for a minimum of 5,000Pa, which should be enough to suck up Cheerios (arguably the most important measure of vacuum acumen).
What else should you look for? These are some key features to consider when evaluating robo-vacs:
App-based mapping and scheduling: Once upon a time, you had to deploy special sensors or even strips of magnetic tape if you wanted to keep your vac out of certain spaces. Modern models will use smart mapping to scan your entire space, label individual rooms and allow you to create virtual "no-go" zones. (For example, my desk chair sits on a plastic mat that's curled up at the edges, so I've established a small zone to keep the vac away from it.) Mapping capabilities happen in a companion app, which also allows for scheduling, spot-cleaning, smart-assistant integration and much more.
Self-cleaning mop dock: I already mentioned the self-emptying dustbin, which is great, but most of the models here can also self-wash their mops. Without this feature, you'll have to manually remove/clean the mop pad on a regular basis — not fun. Some also self-dry.
Auto-rising mop pad: Speaking of mop pads, you don't want a wet one dragging across the carpet, do you? Look for a vac with an auto-rising pad, one that will lift up when sensors detect carpet. (If you have medium- or high-pile carpet, though, it may not raise high enough.)
Smart obstacle-avoidance: Got pets? Cords? Curtains? Kids? Newer, smarter vacs can avoid toys, socks, pet accidents and other items that would trip up other models. Take note that this feature sometimes relies on a camera, one that may be able to stream a live feed to your phone through your WiFi. It's also a potential (but tiny, in my humble opinion) security risk, something to consider if you think hackers are interested in what's on your floor.
Battery life: Ideally, any robot vacuum should be able to sweep your entire floor in one cleaning session without needing to recharge along the way. But this depends on the size of your home (or, at least, the size of the selected cleaning area), the size of the included battery and the overall power of the vac. (The higher the Pa, the higher the battery demand.) How much runtime is required to completely clean your house? Hard to say, but take note that most robot vacs have a rated runtime of anywhere from 90-210 minutes. If you live in an apartment, a shorter time may be fine. If it's a big place, consider a longer-lasting battery.
(back to top)
After unboxing the vacuums, we studied the instruction manuals and checked reviews from real-life shoppers. We evaluated how easy the vacs were to set up then put them to work in our homes, making sure they traveled into various rooms and over different surfaces. We dropped extension cords in their way to see if they got tripped up (bad news: most did). If the vac offered mopping capabilities, we tested those out, too, against everyday dirt and grime.
(back to top)
Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra Robot Vacuum & Mop ($1,800): It's great at vacuuming and good at mopping, but at this price, it should have a better map editor and be able to avoid something as simple — and common — as an extension cord. Read my full Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra review to learn more.
Dyson 360 Vis Nav Robot Vacuum ($1,199): Even if you can afford it, the Dyson 360 Vis Nav isn't a smart buy. While it does an admirable job sucking up dirt, it's quite limited overall. (It's just a vacuum — no mopping — and it doesn't even self-empty its dustbin.) It's bright blue-purple, so it hard on the decor, too. Read my full Dyson 360 Vis Nav review to learn more.
Ecovacs Deebot T30S ($650): This sophisticated robot zips around quickly and efficiently, and you can even control it with your voice. But it frequently got caught up in low- and medium-pile rugs, and the instructions tell you to block off stairs so it doesn't fall down them, which is surprising considering how techy it seems. The app is very detailed, but the instruction manual was a bit confusing, which made setup more complicated than it needed to be. FYI it also comes with a separate handheld vacuum with three attachments that fit into the dock, which is a nice bonus. Too bad it makes the dock massive.
(back to top)
They absolutely do, and usually without a problem. However, if your vacuum is also a mop, it's possible that wet mop pads will drag over the carpet, especially if it's high-pile. While many modern robo-vacs can automatically raise their mops when carpet is detected, in my experience they don't go high enough. The DreameBot L20 offers a potential solution to this problem — it can automatically detach its mop pads before heading out — but it's not smart enough to mop hard floors first, go back to the dock, drop its mop, then head back out. (You have to configure it manually if you want to do that.)
I'm not sure there's a "best" place, but ideally the dock should live somewhere out of the way, the better to preserve your decor and avoid tripping over it. For example, I have ours parked in our laundry room next to the washing machine; I just have to make sure the door stays open so the robot can roll out to the rest of the house. I also recommend placing the dock on a hard floor instead of carpet, if possible, especially if there's a mop involved.
Absolutely, though with a few caveats. First, if you have a large dwelling, it may need to return to the dock to recharge before whole-house cleaning is complete. Second, these things obviously can't climb stairs (yet), so if your home has more than one floor, you'll have to manually move the robot up or down.
(back to top)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
How software is shaping the future of mobility
The automotive industry is undergoing one of the most significant transformations in over a century – driven not by hardware, but by software. Vehicles will be digitized and increasingly defined by the compute architecture and software that powers their functionality and intelligence. The rise of the Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV) is changing how cars are designed, built, and experienced, but to realize those benefits, automakers, T1s, software, and semiconductor vendors must evolve. Switch Auto Insurance and Save Today! Great Rates and Award-Winning Service The Insurance Savings You Expect Affordable Auto Insurance, Customized for You The digitization of the car Before we look at how the industry needs to adapt, it's worth taking a step back and considering what we mean by SDVs. These aren't just vehicles that are developed, built, and sold, but vehicles which evolve and improve after they've left the production line based on a dynamic digital platform. This transformation is about redefining the vehicle's core architecture and how it is experienced. In a software-defined vehicle, features and functions are increasingly abstracted from hardware and run in software. To achieve this, some sort of central compute architecture is required – a platform that enables continuous updates, upgrades, and even personalization of the car. This means vehicles require a powerful and scalable electronics architecture based on semiconductors (hardware), efficient and scalable software drivers and middleware to integrate all the electronics, and on top of it intelligent and feature-rich application software to define the functionality of the car. Such an SDV platform manages everything from ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) to IVI (In-Vehicle Infotainment). Most importantly, it includes the core vehicle functions to operate and to propel the car, which becomes even more important for electric vehicles where intelligent energy flow and battery management significantly impacts the lifetime and range of the vehicle. This new approach to vehicle compute architecture makes it possible to activate new features after the car is sold, adapt vehicle behavior in real time, and evolve interfaces as technology and user preferences shift – such adaptations are prohibitively complex in traditional vehicles. SDVs therefore enable a completely new value proposition: the car gets smarter and better with age. With the rise of AI, the SDV platform only becomes more critical, with AI-powered ADAS, preventive fault detection or range optimizations, for example, transforming how we use our vehicles. Together, these shifts mark a clear departure from the traditional vehicle lifecycle defined by depreciation and eventual obsolescence. But this evolution brings complexity. Building a car that improves over time – and is ready to integrate the next-generation of AI – requires a fundamental rethinking of design, supply chains, and safety. Processes and priorities that have been in place for decades now need to evolve. Rethinking traditional architectures Traditionally, vehicle functions were tightly coupled to specific electronic control units (ECUs), each often developed by different suppliers. This hardware-centric approach meant that adding or modifying features required changes to the underlying ECU hardware and their specific software modules – making updates complex, time-consuming, and costly. Engineering teams had to navigate a patchwork of tools, processes, and dependencies, resulting in limited flexibility once the vehicle left the factory. In short, the system was rigid, expensive to maintain, and difficult to scale. The SDV concept is creating a platform that can be updated, upgraded, or personalized over time, and also enables carmakers to revolutionize how they develop and produce new vehicles. This concept allows the highest level of hardware and software re-use, which enables carmakers to develop new vehicle platforms a lot faster. Such platforms are inherently scalable. The fundamental architecture can be used across entry-level models right up to high-end models, and it can be scaled across various OEM brands. This drives speed of innovation, faster time to market, and optimizes total cost of ownership. Automakers have started making key decisions about how to evolve their compute architectures to tackle engineering challenges. Some are consolidating multiple domains into centralized compute platforms to streamline processes and reduce complexity, while others are adopting zonal architectures that distribute compute closer to the edge – near sensors and actuators – to improve latency, modularity, and scalability. Regardless of approach, meeting these demands requires more powerful semiconductors, scalable compute, greater energy efficiency, high-bandwidth communication, functional safety, the highest standards of security, and new system-level innovations. From supply chains to ecosystems This transition is also redrawing the lines of the automotive supply chain. The historical model – where automakers, Tier 1s, and semiconductor suppliers operated in a linear hierarchy – is giving way to an ecosystem of strategic collaboration. This shift is driven by the growing realization that vehicle digitization depends not only on the compute, networking, and power management technologies of a vehicle but the software that runs on it. As digital features expand, so does the complexity of integrating hardware and software efficiently across the vehicle – and no one company can do this alone. Delivering that innovation at scale calls for a new model of collaboration – one where automakers, suppliers, and technology partners work in parallel from the start. The development model behind SDVs is no longer a linear supply chain; it's a tightly integrated ecosystem. As vehicle architectures evolve to support software-defined capabilities, NXP is increasingly engaged earlier in the design process – contributing not just silicon, but system-level expertise and software solutions that helps define compute architectures. From vehicle compute and zone controllers to networking and power management, we support OEMs and Tier 1s in building safe, scalable platforms that enable long-term software innovation. Both emerging manufacturers and legacy players should play to their strengths Today's shifts in the industry are impacting automakers in very different ways. New entrants, without the burden of legacy systems, can design vehicles from the ground up with software at the center. Their streamlined product lines and software-native cultures often align more naturally with SDV architecture (as well as today's consumer preferences). However, they may face non-trivial challenges when it comes to scaling production and safety while offering a wide range of models to meet different consumer needs and expectations. Legacy OEMs and automakers, on the other hand, must manage a complex change to manufacturing processes while continuing to support existing platforms and products. Their strengths lie in deep automotive expertise, quality assurance and safety, supply chain management, and manufacturing scale. For these companies, the transition to SDVs must be carefully orchestrated and is often incremental. There's a balance to be struck for traditional manufacturers between increasing agility, playing to existing strengths, and delivering the SDV innovations that consumers increasingly demand. For both emerging and legacy manufacturers, however, several foundations will be non-negotiable: energy efficiency, robustness, cybersecurity, and functional safety to name the most critical. And each will require an increase in testing, validation, and verification across the supply chain. For electric vehicles in particular, energy efficiency is fundamental. After all, every watt consumed by processors and electronic systems is a watt not available for propulsion. Manufacturers must therefore optimize everything – from the processor architecture to power management at the ECU level – to ensure that digital performance doesn't come at the cost of driving range. Cybersecurity is equally essential. Greater digitization increases the attack surface of the vehicle. Without robust, multi-layered protections, the risk of intrusion grows. Just as homes use locks, alarms, and safes, SDVs must implement security across all domains. Cars call for the highest level of robustness and safety – the stakes are high when a software or hardware issue has the potential to put people in danger. Hardware isolation between functionalities (rather than software isolation only) is also vital for this reason. With isolation, if one function fails (or is attacked by a bad actor) failures don't spread to another. To return to the building analogy, hardware isolation acts as a series of fire doors – keeping the vehicle safe and protected even if one area is compromised. The road ahead: A smarter and safer industry As SDVs become increasingly widespread, and ADAS, IVI and core vehicle functions grow in sophistication, including anticipation and automation by AI, the auto industry is poised for profound and lasting changes. Underpinning this transformation will be a more collaborative industry – one in which legacy and emerging automakers, OEMs, and vendors work directly with one another. This will help to address the new challenges that arise and tackle them efficiently, safely, and at scale while improving time to market and total cost of ownership. It calls for all stakeholders – from semiconductor and software vendors to system integrators and vehicle manufacturers – to move beyond limited views and build an understanding of the entire system. With the industry working together in this way to build a new approach to vehicle development and functionality, significantly smarter, safer, and more secure vehicles are on the horizon. By Jens Hinrichsen, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Analog and Automotive Embedded Systems, NXP Semiconductors "How software is shaping the future of mobility" was originally created and published by Just Auto, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
%25202.jpg&w=3840&q=100)
WIRED
21 hours ago
- WIRED
This Company Promises to End Your Home Security Fears… Forever
An exclusive first look at The Guild's revolutionary home security assistant. Victor Thane, The Guild's CTO entered the sun-dappled foyer of the warm modern home that he shares with his family: all blonde wood and creamy marble. Next to him was a quadrupedal robot, its LEDs shifting from green to a glowing orange, clearly noting my arrival. Thane reached out to shake my hand. 'Stand down,' he instructed the security bot. It dropped to its haunches with a chime of acknowledgement. 'Paw?' said Thane, gesturing that I should greet the robot. Another friendly chime and the robot's titanium paw (or rather, hoof) gently came to rest in my outstretched hand. 'Good dog.' 'In ten years,' he said, finally fully addressing me, 'there will be one of these in every living room in the developed world.' That wasn't hard to believe, as the Guild's security and sensor tech is becoming deeply enmeshed in the fabric of our homes. While the Guild was founded in 1992 as a shipping and logistics company, new leadership pivoted the company to consumer electronics in 2002 focusing on civilian applications of military grade systems, where they immediately began cementing their image as the 'good guys' in the space, launching a series of useful connectivity and security devices. 'No matter where you live or what kind of home you live in , there's always something to worry about… something that nags at your subconscious,' Thane, who became CTO in 2019, told me. 'It's an innate, animalistic fear of the unknown inside all of us, and we're the only company with the mandate to vanquish that fear.' Consumer protection became the company's focus—so much so that a team of engineers famously got matching tattoos: red butterflies framed with the Latin phrase Una, Cras Non Timebimus ("Together, We Won't Fear Tomorrow") across their forearms. From ultrasecure mobile phones to internet-connected fire, carbon monoxide detectors, and home cameras, The Guild built its security bona fides by linking these devices to their smartphones via an end-to-end encrypted feed and setting bug hunting bounties, all in the name of fear-reduction. At the same time, their marketing team deployed an arsenal of pithy advertisements calling out competitor data breaches and subsequent trips to congressional hearings in ads and across social media. (In fact, the brand has just erected a series of billboards up and down the stretch of California highways 101 and 280 that funnel rival executives in and out of Silicon Valley with slogans like, 'Don't Be Evil, Be Protected' 'We're not owned by a tech billionaire. Are you? and 'You Don't Need More Friends, You Need More Security.') As you'd expect, The Guild has its skeptics. In 2018, the home security team gave local police access to doorbell camera feeds with homeowner consent. It was an unprecedented olive branch to local governments—and it was popular. Every day people were happy to hand over a livestream of their front yards for a break on their insurance rates. 'We didn't receive a whole lot of pushback from end users. A lot of the noise came from the tech press.' 'The real breakthrough came when we launched our Generative AI division in 2020,' Thane explained. 'It unlocked incredible features—automatic false alarm detection, lighting and arming automation, face detection, perimeter defense and target tracking—things that our users had been requesting for years.' When faced with questions regarding a whistleblower report about The Guild using AI to map intricate interior models of user homes from sensor data, Thane waves my concerns away with his signature enthusiasm, explaining, 'We're creating tech that people can trust. Sensors and algorithms that move us away from a future filled with uncertainty and fear, and into one we control and feel confident in.' He punctuates his statements by lightly rapping the table with his knuckles. Dressed in a crisp white t-shirt over faded lightwash jeans, he seemed part archetypal techno-optimist, part Gabriel come to Earth to deliver hope to humanity. 'The only way that works is if we're woven into the very fabric of every home in America.' 'Just take the disarray of our urban centers,' Thane continues. 'We were uniquely positioned to launch the next generation of home security products.' He gestured to the robot at ease at his feet: 'One that users can trust with their lives.' Their most ambitious security tool. A new breed of home security According to The Guild's marketing materials, D.A.W.G. (Deployable Autonomous Weaponized Groundcraft) was developed over five years by the company's skunkworks division. The small team of multidisciplinary engineers and product leaders leveraged the firm's vast portfolio of patents to develop an infinitely customizable home security product. By now, Thane's youngest child (whose name and age are being withheld out of respect to his family's wishes) had toddled into the room and began poking at the D.A.W.G.'s LiDAR sensor. 'This isn't a mechanized Doberman,' Thane said. 'D.A.W.G. is fully alert and outfitted to take on even the most serious threats. It's not a pet, but it is designed to integrate into consumer homes.' In fact, D.A.W.G. has more sensors than the self-driving taxis roaming some major cities: GPS, LiDAR, thermal imaging, deep neural network-powered AI, satellite connectivity for over-the-air updates, and a microwave emitter are all standard features, and yet it ignored the child. 'Your D.A.W.G. should fit your family's specific needs,' he continued, settling back into his chair. As he did so, the D.A.W.G.'s mini LiDAR spun up with the whir of an electric vehicle, and the junior Thane scurried off in a huff. 'This little guy is a model that we consider 'a family's best friend': friendlier than some of the 'pro' units, with a dialed down aggression matrix, but still fully capable of sentinel duties.' The Guild envisions these D.A.W.G.s to be deployed as everything from elementary school security to elder care and companions. VIPs with large estates or farmers with valuable livestock can option their D.A.W.G. to operate with zero audio feedback and available cloaking capabilities. 'That's for those who believe security should be experienced, not heard,' Thane winked. No matter how consumers outfit their new best friends/sentries, Thane assures me that the baseline programming is uniform across the releases. 'They're constantly on patrol, using proprietary, entirely unbiased AI-powered threat assessment schemas to understand a scenario and take appropriate action, dialing its response up or down based on premodeled frameworks.' Safeguarding the Future Pending final clearance from the relevant government institutions—'It's less the AI and 24/7 cameras, and more about the solid state batteries powering these guys,' Thane says—The Guild plans to roll D.A.W.G. out to consumers in the next few years, with a waitlist opening on August 19th of this year. Potential owners can demo D.A.W.G. at special branded showrooms by the 2026 holiday season, 'We're just so excited to see our creation out in the world, helping people with their anxiety,' Thane adds. 'We're talking to some governments in the Global South—places with a deep need for help—about onboarding D.A.W.G. to augment their security forces. This is something that we can build to change the world.' As Thane spoke, my gaze drifted out a window that framed his older children playing a game of catch in the lush garden where a handful of D.A.W.G.s patrolled the treelined clearing. The baseball, the victim of a wide toss, flew within a few feet of the D.A.W.G. It was obliterated midflight. Neat. Visit to learn more. The Guild is a fictional property of Activision. Trademark & Copyright 2025
Business Wire
a day ago
- Business Wire
Circus SE Receives NATO Approval for Defense Contracts and Multinational Procurement Programs
MUNICH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Circus SE (XETRA: CA1), a global technology leader in AI software and robotics for the food service industry, has been officially listed by the NSPA, qualifying Circus as a certified supplier for NATO and its member nations. This certification marks a significant expansion of Circus' defense sector presence and grants access to NATO-wide defense, logistics, and crisis response programs. The company is now eligible for major defense programs and will appear alongside trusted global suppliers such as Lockheed Martin, Renk, and Rheinmetall, used by procurement officials across the NATO alliance. Inclusion in the regulated NSPA supplier registers is the formal prerequisite for participation in NATO procurement tenders and direct contract awards as the registration is only open to companies with a significant presence in the relevant field. It allows Circus SE to take part in defense procurement programs and supply contracts issued annually by the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) as the first registered provider of fully autonomous systems like CA-1 and CA-M powered by AI-robotics. The certification verifies that Circus meets NATO's security, quality, and financial requirements including AQAP and relevant ISO standards and will simplify future contracts via the Alliance's digital procurement systems. As NATO procurement increasingly prioritizes technology-driven and autonomous solutions, Circus is particularly well positioned to benefit from the fast growing defense market. 'This NATO certification confirms our compliance with the alliance's strict standards and unlocks the next phase of our global expansion,' says Nikolas Bullwinkel, CEO and Founder of Circus SE. 'It strengthens our leading position in defense sector applications, and allows us to actively contribute to mission-critical operations across all NATO member states.' Building on its recent U.S. government and Department of Defense supplier approval, the NATO listing positions Circus as a reliable, rapidly deployable partner for AI-powered nutrition systems in field operations, exercises, and emergency missions. About Circus SE Circus SE (XETRA: CA1) is a global AI and robotics company developing autonomous systems for food supply in both civilian and defense sectors. Its flagship robot, the patented CA-1, is the world's first fully autonomous food production robot, now in serial production. Powered by proprietary embodied AI, Circus delivers industrial-scale, high-reliability meal output with minimal human input. Headquartered in Munich, the company is building the global infrastructure for autonomous food supply — on a mission to fuel humanity.
