Evening Standard

Best robot vacuum cleaners of 2024 reviewed

Genuinely labour-saving home appliances like the robot vacuum cleaner are invented once in a blue moon. These remarkable robots navigate around the floor, vacuum cleaning as they go. Some of them also have a mop mode, providing a 2-in-1 shortcut to spotlessness.

Almost all robot vacuums have two core components: the robot itself, which will be a circular or roughly-circular bot with an in-built vacuum and dust tank; and a slender charger called a base unit, which can be placed up against a wall. The robot vac docks back to the base unit once it has finished cleaning, so it can charge its on-board battery ready for the next bout.

An important point of difference among robot vacuums is their method of navigating around obstacles. Many robot vacuums have one or more bumpers around their circumference. When the robot bumps gently into an obstacle, the bumper detects the impact and changes the direction of travel. Some robot vacuums remember these collisions so they can avoid the problem areas in future. Higher-end vacuums sometimes use cameras to enhance their collision avoidance, meaning they can avoid bumping into obstacles pretty much entirely.

All the robot vacuums featured in this article can be operated either manually, or using an app. Manual operation tends to be the simpler approach,

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