Whether you’re swimming in dog hair, got kids who keep spilling food on the floor, or simply want to spend more time with your family, a robot vacuum ought to lighten your chore load. We’ve scoured Amazon and Best Buy and found three little automatons that can help make your life a little easier. Get the Ecovacs Deebot 500 and iRobot Roomba 675 and 960 today starting from just $155.
Ecovacs Deebot 500
– $155, was $280
The Ecovacs Deebot 500 only costs $155 (down from $280) at Amazon but it’s surprisingly outfitted with advanced features that are normally reserved for higher-end models. This robot vacuum boasts app control, cleaning schedule programming, smart-home compatibility, anti-drop detection, and plenty more. Most importantly, it does a bang-up job of making sure your floors remain virtually spotless. It’s not the best at avoiding wires though, but for the price, it’s very hard to complain.
Underneath the Deebot 500 is a single bristled roller brush and two rotating brushes that are extremely capable at removing dirt and debris from your floors. It has three cleaning modes: Auto, Spot, and Edge. These modes have varying degrees of suction intensity and are meant for certain types of floors and surfaces. Auto mode is optimized for carpets. Edge mode will make the Deebot travel the perimeter of a room and clean its edges and corners. Spot mode is meant for thorough cleaning of concentrated dirt, cleaning in a spiral pattern (the device usually travels in a straight line with the first two modes) on a specific area. Through the Ecovacs Home mobile app, you can set up cleaning schedules, remotely control the robot, check its battery life, and determine whether it’s time to do some light maintenance. This robot also has the ability to pair with Alexa and Google Assistant so you can order it to clean through voice command, a next-level convenience hard to find in a robot vacuum of this price. When the Deebot 500 is about to lose power, it will automatically return to its charging dock, recharge itself, and resume cleaning.
The Deebot 500 is equipped with anti-collision sensors that allow it to smartly navigate its surroundings without hitting anything. It also has anti-drop detection, so it won’t fall down the stairs. Unfortunately, the Deebot does have the tendency to get itself tangled with cords that are just lying about, so you’ll need to make sure that the floor area that it’s going to clean is clear. Other than that, there’s no real issue with how well it performs. The Deebot 500 is a superb robot that comes at a very reasonable price. Make this little gizmo do the cleaning unsupervised for just $155 at Amazon.
iRobot Roomba 675
– $270, was $300
We all know that Roombas tend to be really expensive, but if you’re hellbent on owning one without breaking the bank, we recommend the iRobot Roomba 675. This robot vacuum is virtually identical to the pricier Roomba E5 and even has the same set of features. It’s only missing the Virtual Barriers which you put in areas you want it to avoid, and not much else. Right now, you can get this budget Roomba for the very affordable price of $270 instead of $300 at Best Buy.
The Roomba 675 uses dual multi-surface brushes to grab dust, dirt, and large debris from carpets and hardwood floors. Its edge-sweeping brush is specially designed at a 27-degree angle to loosen and lift debris away from edges and corners. During our test, this robot vacuum was able to remove approximately 99% of debris on hardwood floors. It also performed admirably on low pile carpets. However, it didn’t do that spectacularly on a high-pile carpet, removing 90% of particles, which is still a pretty good number for a budget robot vacuum.
Equipped with a full suite of intelligent sensors, the Roomba 675 is pretty good at navigating floors. It doesn’t have any advanced navigational smarts or an onboard camera, but it is quite adept in the “bump and continue” method, having a rubber bumper that prevents damage. Finally, this robot vacuum is compatible with Alexa for voice-activated assistance, as well as a mobile app to make it start or stop cleaning, see cleaning history, and schedule future cleanings on a weekly basis. The iRobot Roomba 675 is simply a great value with its advanced features and excellent cleaning prowess. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better robot vacuum at such a relatively low price. Get it for $270 at Best Buy today.
iRobot Roomba 960
— $450, was $500
The Roomba 960 is one of iRobot’s upper-tier offerings, boasting a plethora of advanced features including voice control, Wi-Fi connectivity, camera navigation, and a smartphone app that gives alerts and detailed cleaning reports. That is why it’s a wee bit pricey, normally retailing for $500. Luckily, you can get it at Best Buy right now for a cool $50 off.
This robot vacuum’s front-facing camera helps it map out your floors and intelligently avoid obstacles (most robot vacuums solely rely on sensors, including the Deebot 500 and Roomba 675). Underneath it are two roller brushes that do all the dirty work, lifting tiny particles and large debris with relative ease. There’s a side brush that the robot uses to clean along walls, baseboards, and furniture. It also has a built-in sensor that detects high concentrations of dirt for a more thorough cleaning. You can set up and make this robot vacuum perform its duties in three ways: Manually pressing the clean button, using the mobile app, or issuing a voice command through Alexa or Google Assistant. It has three cleaning modes: One-cleaning pass, two-cleaning pass, and automatic. The first mode makes the Roomba 960 pass over an area once, the second twice, and the third gives the robot autonomy to decide how many passes it will make, depending on the mess and the room size.
With a patented AeroForce Three-Stage Cleaning System and suction power that’s five times greater than the Roomba 600 Series, dirt and debris won’t stand a chance. It also has a high-efficiency filter that can capture 99% of particles as small as 10 microns. This robot is capable of cleaning for up to 75 minutes when fully charged and will automatically return to its charging dock to juice up and do even more cleaning. The iRobot Roomba 960 is easily the best and most powerful robot vacuum on this list. Get it for $450 today at Best Buy.
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