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Door staff@engadget.com (Jack Whitcombe) - 19 Sep 2026
What type of dirt are you expecting to clear up? A robot vacuum is versatile, but it's not infallible, and it's not the ideal tool for some environments. Picking up crumbs from a wooden floor is certainly in its wheelhouse, but pulling out dirt from a thick carpet is a much harder job. Cleaning up surface debris is where you'll see the best results.
You'll notice, if you use a traditional vacuum cleaner, that the best models feature a powered floorhead that can agitate and lift up dirt that's been engrained in carpet fibres. You're able to move back and forth to get the dirt out. How well a robot vacuum is able to do this itself will depend on its brush design, but the advertised suction figure won't give you a clear idea of how well it cleans.
It's also going to be tricky moving across different surface types. Floors aren't just flat, even surfaces. You've got tiles, rugs, carpets and wooden boards. A raised rug edge, or a doorway that creates a bridge between tile or wood and carpet is going to cause problems. The moment the vacuum gets stuck, then its suction power becomes irrelevant.
That's before you consider corners. Corners are the perennial problem for the robot vacuum. If you've noticed, most are circular in design, with the main brush situation underneath. Side brushes do help to pull in dirt, and some models even have extending brushes, but tight corners are always going to be difficult to clean with most current-gen models.
For those, you're going to need your regular vacuum. It's the same for stairs and upholstery. Current generation robot vacuums aren't cleaning up our staircases yet, although companies like Roborock are showcasing prototype models that can climb stairs, they're not on sale yet. A robot vacuum is good for keeping on top of lighter dirt between bigger cleans, but it isn't a full-blown replacement yet.
You'll notice, if you use a traditional vacuum cleaner, that the best models feature a powered floorhead that can agitate and lift up dirt that's been engrained in carpet fibres. You're able to move back and forth to get the dirt out. How well a robot vacuum is able to do this itself will depend on its brush design, but the advertised suction figure won't give you a clear idea of how well it cleans.
It's also going to be tricky moving across different surface types. Floors aren't just flat, even surfaces. You've got tiles, rugs, carpets and wooden boards. A raised rug edge, or a doorway that creates a bridge between tile or wood and carpet is going to cause problems. The moment the vacuum gets stuck, then its suction power becomes irrelevant.
That's before you consider corners. Corners are the perennial problem for the robot vacuum. If you've noticed, most are circular in design, with the main brush situation underneath. Side brushes do help to pull in dirt, and some models even have extending brushes, but tight corners are always going to be difficult to clean with most current-gen models.
For those, you're going to need your regular vacuum. It's the same for stairs and upholstery. Current generation robot vacuums aren't cleaning up our staircases yet, although companies like Roborock are showcasing prototype models that can climb stairs, they're not on sale yet. A robot vacuum is good for keeping on top of lighter dirt between bigger cleans, but it isn't a full-blown replacement yet.