Best cheap robot vacuum cleaners – technical advisor

This is a newer model, with good navigation and strong suction. It can distinguish between hard floors and carpets, and when it reaches a carpet, it increases the suction power for a deeper clean.

We found the maps to be accurate and that you can create maps for different floors or areas of your home and customize the cleaning.

It comes with an auto-draining dock, which means you can set a cleaning schedule and then not have to think about it again – for up to 3 months.

It also mops, but you have to fill the built-in tank and apply the mop pad by hand, then wash the mop pad.

This robot vacuum cleaner has powerful suction (4,000 Pa), carpet detection and if you have a mix of floors, thick carpets or raised thresholds, it can handle a bit of climbing well.

It has some features you won’t find on every model either, such as voice notifications: the D10 Plus lets you know what it’s doing while it’s doing it.

The mapping is detailed and accurate and allows you to vacuum, mop individual rooms, rooms in a specific order, the entire area or a specific zone in a room or vacuum and mop at the same time. You can also adjust the vacuum and mop settings for different rooms.

You get 45 days of cleaning before you need to empty the charging dock, but the charging dock is larger than many in this review, so you’ll have to find room for it.

This is an older model that has come down in price and is a good option for pet owners, with strong (4,000 Pa) dual turbine suction and an anti-tangle roller brush – although we think you’ll still need to remove some hair by hand.

We found the laser navigation to be solid except that it struggled to spot low objects and, although it stopped gently at higher obstacles, it plowed into low feeders.

The mapping was precise: you can merge and section rooms, and set custom cleaning settings for each room, choosing the water level (when mopping), suction power, and whether the room is cleaned once or twice.

The auto-empty base is compact, but includes a 2.5 liter antibacterial dust bag, which gives you up to a month and a half of cleaning before needing to be replaced.

Mopping is not so hands-off. You will need to fill the tank on board and place the mop, but you can then specify the mop levels for each room. One thing to note is that there will be a slightly damp trail left after mopping, so you may want to designate carpeted areas as no-go zones.

This is another slightly older model that you can now get for less. As with many similar models, the compromise is less advanced mopping features.

The N8+ has impressive suction, decent mopping and a brilliant mapping system that lets you set up advanced cleaning schedules, with off-limits areas marked.

Thanks to its automatic carpet detection, it automatically increases power when it encounters a rug or carpet, saving power for when it needs it.

On the other hand, the N8+ isn’t the best climber and got stuck more often than many of the robot vacuums we tested.

The Proscenic X1 vacuums, mops and has an automatically draining dock. The X1 also has carpet detection and will boost the vacuum cleaner if necessary.

You can create and save up to five cards and set cleaning schedules per room. However, the battery life is shorter than that of many models, at around 30 minutes.

It’s not the best climbing robot and got stuck a few times during our testing.

We also found the app connection to be a bit buggy at times and the app to have poor translation, but the X1 comes with a remote control that you can use instead of the app if you prefer.