Tag: gear

Max mode: No | Wi-Fi capabilities: Yes | Object detection: Yes

Both iRobot and Shark impressed with their affordable robo-vacs. But we think iRobot’s Roomba 694 will be the best cheap robot vacuum cleaner for most people thanks to its good cleaning power and easy-to-use mobile app. The Roomba 694 replaced the Roomba 675 last year but, aside from an updated exterior, it has the same build quality and is fundamentally the same vacuum. It looks much sleeker now with its new all-black design, giving it an aesthetic similar to some of the more expensive Roomba models. It has three physical buttons on it — start, dock and spot — and it connects to Wi-Fi so you can control it via the iRobot app. Unfortunately, your $274 gets you the vacuum and its necessary parts only so you’ll have to pay up immediately when you need a replacement filter or brushes.

Setting up this powerful robot vacuum is straightforward: Open the companion app and follow the instructions. Once it’s connected to your home Wi-Fi network, you’re able to use the app to control the vacuum whenever you don’t feel like using the physical buttons. However, the spot-clean function is only available as a button, which is a bit of a bummer.

iRobot’s app is one of the biggest selling points for any Roomba. It’s so easy to use that even someone with no prior experience will be able to quickly master the robot’s basic functions. iRobot’s app puts most pertinent controls on the homepage, so you rarely (if ever) need to navigate through its menu to do things like set a cleaning schedule.

We recommend setting cleaning schedules to really get the most out of the device. After all, these are semi-autonomous robots, so why not make it so you rarely have to interact with them? Doing so will ensure the Roomba runs through your home on a regular basis, so you’re always left with clean floors. The Roomba 694 in particular did a good job sucking up dirt and debris on my carpets as well as the tile flooring in my kitchen and bathrooms. The only thing I try to do before a cleaning job is get charging cables off of the floor – the Roomba will stop if it sucks something like that up and it’s relatively easy to extract a cable from the machine’s brushes, but I’d rather not have to do so if I can avoid it.

When it comes to battery life, the Roomba 694 ran for around 45 minutes before needing to dock and recharge. iRobot says run times will vary based on floor surfaces, but the 694 is estimated to have a 90-minute battery life when cleaning hardwood floors. While 45 minutes may be enough time for the robot to scuttle around most rooms in my apartment, those with larger homes may have to wait for it to recharge in order to clean everywhere.

iRobot has made a name for itself in the autonomous vacuum market for good reason. Its machines are polished, dead simple to use and the accompanying app is excellent. That ease of use (and the reputation of the iRobot name) comes with a slightly higher asking price, which many will be willing to pay. But there are plenty of solid options now that didn’t exist even just three years ago.

Max mode: Yes | Wi-Fi capabilities: Yes | Object detection: Yes | Cliff sensors: Yes

The Shark RV765 is the updated version of the RV761 that we previously recommended. Like the Roomba 694, the Shark RV765 has a slightly different design and a longer run time than the RV761, but otherwise they’re the same vacuum. You can still find the RV761, but it’s a little difficult to do so now that the latest model is available. Although we haven’t tested the RV765, we feel comfortable recommending it since we found the previous version to be a great affordable robot vacuum.

One thing that the RV765 fixes about the previous version is the latter’s ugly bowling-shirt design. The new model nixes that and opts for a sleeker, all-black look with three buttons for docking, cleaning and max mode. You could rely just on the buttons, but it also connects to Wi-Fi so you can use the Shark Clean app. As for the longer run time, that’s just a bonus. The RV761 ran for about 90 minutes before needing to recharge, which was plenty of time for it to clean my two-bedroom apartment. The additional 30 minutes of battery life on the RV765 should allow it to clean larger spaces more efficiently.

Some other things we liked about the RV761 include its spot-clean feature; adjustable wheels, which raise and lower automatically depending on the “terrain” and the obstacles in its path; and its intuitive companion app that allows you to start and stop cleaning jobs, set schedules and more.

Max mode: Yes | Wi-Fi capabilities: No | Object detection: Yes

Anker’s $250 Eufy RoboVac 11S was one of the cheapest vacuums I tested but it also proved to be one of the most versatile. First thing to note: This robot vacuum doesn’t have Wi-Fi, but it does come with a remote that gives you most of the functions and smart features you’d find in an app (including a schedule feature). Eufy also includes additional brushes and filters in the box.

The “S” in this robot’s name stands for slim, and it’s roughly half an inch thinner than all of the other vacuums I tested. Not only does this make the 11S Max lighter, but it was the only one that could clean under my entryway table. This model has a physical on-off toggle on its underside plus one button on its top that you can press to start a cleaning. It always begins in auto mode, which optimizes the cleaning process as it putters around your home, but you can use the remote to select a specific cleaning mode like spot and edge clean.

The 11S Max has three power modes — Standard, BoostIQ and Max — and I kept mine on BoostIQ most of the time. It provided enough suction to adequately clean my carpeted floors, missing only a few crumbs or pieces of debris in corners or tight spaces around furniture. The cleaning session lasted for roughly one hour and 15 minutes when in BoostIQ mode and it has remarkable obstacle avoidance. Sure, it bumped into walls and some large pieces of furniture, but it was the only budget vac I tried that consistently avoided my cat’s play tunnel that lives in the middle of our living room floor.

As far as noise levels go, you can definitely hear the difference between BoostIQ and Max, but none of the three settings is offensively loud. In fact, I could barely hear the 11S Max when it was on the opposite end of my apartment running in BoostIQ mode. Thankfully, error alert beeps were loud enough to let me know when something went awry, like the machine accidentally getting tripped up by a rogue charging cable (which only happened a couple of times and neither robot nor cable were harmed in the process).

Overall, the Eufy RoboVac 11S Max impressed me with its smarts, despite its lack of Wi-Fi. The lack of wireless connectivity is arguably the worst thing about the robot and that’s saying a lot. At this point, though, the 11S Max is a few years old, so you could grab the RoboVac G20 if you want something comparable but a bit newer. We recommend getting the $280 G20 Hybrid if you’re just looking for a Eufy machine with some of the latest technology, but don’t want to spend a ton. It has 2500Pa of suction power, dynamic navigation and Wi-Fi connectivity with support for Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands.

Max mode: Yes | Wi-Fi capabilities: Yes | Object detection: Yes | Cliff sensors: Yes

TP-Link came out with the Tapo RV10 Plus vac-and-mop combo earlier this year, and while its standard price is $400, we think it’s worth a mention. It vacuums and mops, which is remarkable in itself since you don’t see many combo devices in this price range, it has a comprehensive yet fairly easy-to-use companion app and it comes with a self-emptying base. Top all of that off with the fact that you can often find this machine on sale for $300 or less and you have a robot vacuum that gives you a ton for your money.

Compared to the other cheap robot vacuums on this list, TP-Link’s did a similarly good job sucking up debris and mopping hardwood and tile floors. It also has a decent battery life as well: after one hour of cleaning, it was only down to 55 percent, so you should be able to get roughly 2-hour cleaning sessions out of this model regularly. The self-emptying base holds up to 70 days worth of debris, but note that it does use a propriety garbage bag that you’ll have to refill.

TP-Link’s companion app provides an impressive amount of control over your robot-vac, too. You can easily change the suction power level, the watering level when you’re mopping and cleaning run times. A dedicated “maintenance” page lets you know how long before you’ll have to replace parts like the main and side brushes, and extra settings like spot clean, child lock and emptying settings let you make this vacuum truly your own. Plus, the companion app is also the home for other TP-Link IoT devices, so you could build onto your ecosystem with more of the brand’s gadgets and control them all from one app.