Best robot vacuum of 2026: Shark, Eufy

I recently submitted A few friends for the power of a great robot vacuum. One of my friends calls it a marriage saver, while another was thrilled and horrified by the number of stains the vacuum cleaner’s AI found on her floors. Personally, my robot vacuums keep me from wanting to start a litter box fire, since my cat is on a mission to create her own navigational path of litter through my house.

The best robot vacuum cleaners these days aren’t just limited to cleaning floors, nor are they roaming around your home blindly like they used to. These tools mop, remove stains, lift themselves out of obstructions, and even remind you to clean the dirtiest areas of your home more frequently. A good robot vacuum can cost a lot, but it doesn’t have to be, depending on what you’re looking for. Curious what model is best for you? I’ve been testing every new robot vacuum I can in my three-story house filled with three adults, a preschooler, and a cat on a mission to spread trash throughout the house.

Here are the best robot vacuums we tried this year, and everything we really liked from recent years. Looking for more vacuum ideas? Don’t miss our guides to the best Dyson vacuums, best cordless vacuums, best vacuums for pet hair, best carpet cleaners, and best vacuum cleaners.

What is a robot vacuum?

A robot vacuum is a robotic vacuum cleaner, usually disc-shaped, that moves around your home to vacuum (and mop, as many models these days include mopping) for you. You may have heard some call these devices the “Roomba,” which is the brand that made the concept popular, but today almost every cleaning brand — from the high-end Dyson to the more affordable Bissell — makes some type of robot vacuum. They come with either a charging station or a larger docking station that can self-discharge.

Can you use robot vacuum cleaners on all types of floors?

You can, especially since there are so many mopping models out there now to clean hardwood floors better. You can use these on anything from hardwood to LVP and tile, though I wouldn’t recommend leaving smaller carpets for these free-standing tools to stick to. Large rugs are fine, but bathroom and kitchen rugs or any thin rugs that are easy to move out of the way should be removed and placed in the washing machine instead of being vacuumed by your robot.

What will your robot vacuum need?

There are a few things that most robotic vacuum cleaners need to function properly:

• The space around the base station. Many robot vacuum manuals recommend leaving at least a foot of space on three of the four sides of the vacuum’s base station to ensure there’s room to get back into the house.
• Good wifi signal. If your robot vacuum is connected to Wi-Fi, as many do these days for app control and software updates, it will need a strong connection wherever it is placed. Most can only connect to the 2.4GHz wireless band, so make sure you get that (and only choose that band when setting up if your Wi-Fi network offers those bands separately). confused? Check out our guide to setting up your smart home.
• Regular maintenance. It may be a robot, but it can’t take care of itself. See below for my tips on basic robot vacuum maintenance, and be sure to read your vacuum’s manual to find out what your specific model requires.

How often should you maintain your robot vacuum?

Taking good care of your robot vacuum will help it last. Here’s the debris removal process you should follow for each robot vacuum style.

• If it only has a charger base: This means that debris is stored within the vacuum. You’ll probably want to empty it after each use. If your vacuum has a fill line that you can see, you can empty it when it reaches that line, but after each use is really the best practice.
• If it has a self-discharging docking station: Each manufacturer will have different advice on when a self-emptying station should be emptied, but it is usually between 30 and 60 days, depending on design and use. If you run your vacuum daily and have a lot of debris, such as pet hair, you may want to aim for 30 days or less.
• If it has water tanks: Dirty water tanks should be cleaned after each vacuum sweep. Clean water can be kept full in the station.

Be sure to check your robot vacuum’s manual for any other steps the manufacturer recommends you take regularly to keep the vacuum running as long as possible. Many brands also carry replacement parts, so you can swap out individual pieces like brushes without needing a whole new vacuum.

Best robot vacuums of 2026

I tested the latest models from our favorite cleaning brands. Here are the top three I would buy right now.

I was surprised by how much I liked the AI-powered Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal. The UV light revealed spots on my floors where I know I’ve had spills previously, and its built-in AI made the vacuum come back to deep clean those spots in a way it had never done before. UV Reveal also did a great job on my hardwood floors (both LVP and tile) as a mop and vacuum combo, as well as on construction grade carpet and a large rug in the living room. I was impressed to feel that the carpet actually became fluffy and vacuumed well, as if I’d whipped out my favorite Dyson vacuum instead of just sending a robot vacuum to do the work for me.

It has an extendable arm, which did a good job of passing my angle test. I’ve put three Cheerios in tough corners in my house, and got two out of three that performed better than the last Dyson vacuum. I managed to get the two more difficult corners too; I skipped the third Cheerio to avoid bumping into my bar stools. I also did a spill test using a couple drops of cherry juice at my house. I got rid of the first spill with no problem, but I had to put it back in to finish cleaning up the second spill. The UV Reveal performed great at avoiding obstacles and has a “NeverStuck Technology” to lift itself off obstacles, and it worked to distance itself from the long flat legs of one of my side tables. The vacuum finished the cleaning process in no time, cleaning the entire main floor in about 60 minutes, but it came back to clean all the stains it saw on the floor. This took another 30 minutes for me, but I assume that will get shorter over time, the longer you live with this vacuum and clean it. However, 93 minutes to walk around four rooms and come back to do some cleaning is a solid window of time.

Overall, this vacuum really shines on hard floors, but I also liked it on carpets and rugs if you have a mix of them in your home. It has an auto-empty dock with a bagless debris system, so you don’t have to worry about buying debris bags to empty the dock. The only downside is that the vacuum can only recognize one map, so it doesn’t work on multiple floors in your home unless you want to remap each time (which only takes a few minutes, so it’s not a terrible experience, but the vacuum will also want to drag the base station up or down the stairs, too.) Suction is also a mystery; The shark declined to comment on the delicate suction process. However, we’ve loved low-suction vacuums before, with great results.