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Reviewed's mission is to help you buy the best stuff and get the most out of what you already own. Our team of product experts thoroughly vet every product we recommend to help you cut through the clutter and find what you need.
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Pets are wonderful. Pet hair? Less wonderful.
One of the worst parts of pet ownership is keeping up with the sheer amount of fur and dander your dogs or cats shed on a daily basis. Some pets shed enough that you could sweep and vacuum in the morning and have enough fur strewn about by evening to make an entirely new pet.
If that sounds familiar, maybe it's time to get a robot vacuum designed to pick up cat and dog hair, along with other dirt, from your home's floors. These automated cleaners can be set to run on a schedule, so the only thing you have to do is occasionally empty its base of dust. A good rule of thumb is, the bigger the battery (and the longer the battery life), the better the cleaning job.
To narrow down which robot vacs are the best at cajoling cat hair from carpet or cleaning summer shedding from your hardwood floors, you really need to test them out first. So we did, focusing on their ability to pick up pet hair. The Samsung JetBot A.I.+ (available at Samsung for $1,299.99) is our favorite pet-focused vac because it cleans up after your pet and tracks their movements with its camera, while the iRobot Roomba j7+ (available at Amazon) is perfect for cat owners specifically.
The Samsung JetBot A.I.+ is our pick for best robot vacuum for pet owners because of its ability to suction up hair and avoid messy pet accidents.
Excellent navigation
Easy storage
Good cleaning performance
Loud
Excellent dirt pickup performance
Able to direct towards or away from specific rooms
Able to climb on to thick carpet
Expensive
Can empty itself
App allows you to choose what rooms to clean
Powerful dirt pickup
Expensive
Slim design allows it to clean more areas
Excellent dirt pickup
Can get caught on throw rugs
Clean cycles can last up to two hours
Powerful suction
Climbs thresholds
Affordable
Bumps into furniture
Lacks barriers
We ran our robot vacuums through a series of tests to help you clean house.
Hey, I'm Jon Chan, the senior lab manager at Reviewed. If you clean with it—whether it’s laundry detergents for dishwashers—I oversee its testing. This expertise extends to vacuums: upright, canister, handheld, and robotic.
I've been testing robot vacuums for years and have seen them change a lot. In my belief, the term robot vacuum is a misnomer. Robot vacuums are designed to help maintain your floors in between manual cleanings.
When it comes to pet hair, that's a big deal because you need to let your machine run cleaning cycles every day to keep the loose fur at bay. I also think that virtual barriers are very important to help keep your robot away from areas that are sensitive to your pet, like their bed or food bowl.
Most of the tests involve our robot obstacle course. The area contains analogs for furniture legs, shelves, and thresholds. Each robot vacuum has three chances to prove itself. The first two runs, we place cork pellets under the shelves and between the furniture legs.
Then we let the robot vacuum loose, examining how long a cleaning cycle takes, what obstacles it was able to clean thoroughly, and overall debris pickup. For the final test run, we replace the cork with pet hair.
We also spend time looking at how each robot vacuum could benefit a pet owner with their personal cleaning schedules.
The Neato BotVac Connected is great for pet owners.
After testing dozens of products, we think the name “robot vacuum” overpromises. Robot vacuums really need a full week to do anything approaching the job a full-sized vacuum can do. You’ll be happiest with them if you think of them as just maintaining floors between manual cleanings.
We should also point out that most robot vacuums are designed for bare floors and medium carpet. If you have rugs taller than one-half inch, your robot vacuum might not be able to climb atop it or may get stuck if it gets up there. This fact is vital for pet owners because it means pet beds are a point of contention.
You can thank your dog’s or cat's hormones for all of the pet fur on the floor. Shedding occurs when the hormones in an animal's body react to the amount of daylight that it's exposed to. When the days get shorter in the fall, it's a signal to a cat or dog that it's time to shed their summer coat and grow in thicker fluff for the winter.
As the days grow longer in the spring, that heavier winter coat has got to go—your best friend will shed it to grow a new coat better designed for warmer climes.
The amount of fur that your cat or dog grows and sheds in this messy circle of life depends on a number of factors, including their breed, what climate they live in, and how much time they spend frolicking outside vs. relaxing indoors.
Over the years, three technologies have developed to help keep robot vacuums from running amok: magnetic strips, virtual barriers, and app-based barriers. All three of these methods have their pros and cons.
Magnetic strips are the simplest. You lay them on the floor and they create a barrier that designated robot vacuums will not cross. While they don’t require batteries, magnetic strips are cumbersome. Most robot vacuums that included them only ship with one, so you have to cut them if you want to cover multiple entryways.
The next step up is virtual barriers. These battery-powered devices emit an infrared line that tells robot vacuums to turn back. Some specialized barriers, like iRobot’s lighthouse, can create a “halo” or a circle barrier to encompass a piece of furniture or a pet bowl.
The final method, aside from shutting doors, involves specialized apps. New mapping technologies allow robot vacuums to have a better understanding of their surroundings. They can then send that information to your phone.
Certain models from iRobot, Neato, and Ecovacs let you draw lines on virtual maps to denote where the robots can and cannot go.
Most robot vacuums navigate with either infrared beams that measure distances to obstacles, or with cameras that use contrast and landmarks to navigate. The latter can’t clean in the dark, so bear that in mind.
The latest innovation is a robot vacuum with object recognition. These automated floor cleaners can actually see obstacles with a forward-facing camera combined with machine learning. This allows them to understand their surroundings better and avoid common pitfalls like socks and pet droppings.
Generally speaking, the more power robot vacuums devote to navigation, avoiding dog poop, and smart features, the less power they have for cleaning ability. However, some newer models have come along that excel at both skill sets.
We tested robot vacuums to help you find the best of the best.
If you’re a pet owner, a robot vacuum removes those omnipresent balls of stray fur and dander. As a floor maintainer between manual cleanings, they can save a lot of time and energy.
To best get your money’s worth, set your robot vacuum to automatically run every day. Getting one with a smartphone app control is also great for when you need to give your floors a once-over before coming home to any last-minute surprise guests.
Jonathan Chan currently serves as the Lab Manager at Reviewed. If you clean with it, it's likely that Jon oversees its testing. Since joining the Reviewed in 2012, Jon has helped launch the company's efforts in reviewing laptops, vacuums, and outdoor gear. He thinks he's a pretty big deal. In the pursuit of data, he's plunged his hands into freezing cold water, consented to be literally dragged through the mud, and watched paint dry. Jon demands you have a nice day.
Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.
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