Why we love it: In addition to a HEPA filter, the Shark Stratos also features a sealed system to help keep dust inside the vacuum, making it a great choice for families with allergy sufferers.

One of the big benefits of a Roomba is that they're relatively slim in height, meaning they can venture places other bots can't. On test, we found this one was especially good at handling pet hair, with its grippy rubbery rollers.

like traditional pleated HEPA filters and likely will trap some small particles, but they could miss the tiny, microscopic ones that can't escape a true HEPA filter. Vacuums with HEPA filters are generally more expensive.

Over the past 10 years, we've tested dozens of robot vacuums, both by performing objective tests as well as real-world setups. Each model we review is first evaluated to see how well it can pick up three types of debris. We measure out 20 grams of Cheerios, 20 grams of kitty litter, and 20 grams of pet hair. Next, we scatter each individually across a hardwood floor, and then weigh the contents of the robot vacuum's dustbin to see how much of each it picked up. We then repeat the same three tests on a low-pile carpet. Afterwards, the robot vacuum receives a cleaning performance score, which is the percentage of debris it was able to collect. After we record each robot vacuum's scores, we let these machines loose in our tester’s home to see how each holds up in terms of navigation, obstacle avoidance, and coverage in real-world testing.

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In a separate 4x5-foot Top 3 Automatic Vacuum Cleaners framed area, they note whether the vacuum gets caught on power cords or carpet fringe and whether it can transition over different materials. They also measure the height of the vacuum to determine how likely it is to glide under furniture.

Alistair is a London-based journalist who has been writing about tech for over a decade. He has tested numerous robovacs over the years for TechRadar, from brands like iRobot, Eufy and Roborock. His favourites match intelligent navigation with smart design.

That might feel like overkill, but if you're planning to use the L40 Ultra regularly then it's going to save you a significant amount of time and effort.

✅ You want a stylish dock: The Freo X has a space-age, curvy dock that I wouldn't mind having on display.

Plus, when the battery is running low, the vacuum returns to its charging base, empties into a sealed large-capacity bag for mess-free disposal and resumes cleaning where it left off.

We look at how well the vacuums remove large and small debris, like gritty sand and dried orzo pasta, from hard flooring, how well they clean along edges and how much suction they draw through the tools.

James has tested robot vacuums of all sorts from the most basic models to the ones so feature-packed that they can be used as a security camera. He appreciates models that can suck up all sorts of debris, clean the edges of rooms, and allow easy room partitioning in-app.

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