What is the best robot vacuum?

What do you need to take into account when buying a robot vacuum and which models are worth betting on? That’s what we’ll tell you in this guide. Over the past few months, we’ve tested some vacuum robots, and each one with a different characteristic. This gave us a lot of experience to understand how they behave and what to take into account when buying yours.

This rationale is important for you not to be disappointed in the future – you need to understand how it can help you. The first thing I need to tell you then is that a robot vacuum, no matter how good it is, is not a substitute for cleaning your house… 7

But calm down, don’t close the video, no! Let me explain you. They vacuum the house well and some models even wipe, but they won’t deliver the same quality of cleaning we have when we do it manually, even the most intelligent ones – and look, you can spend a lot of money.

But in the rush of day to day you can’t do heavy cleaning, so the robot vacuum becomes an assistant to keep your house minimally clean on a more constant basis – and you give that final slap from time to time.

Better to have a house 80% clean every day than wait for it to reach that level that you can’t take anymore and then clean. That’s how the robot vacuum helps… it maintains well, especially when you have animals.

The second point is that he will always need your help, but this dependency will decrease the more expensive it is. You pay more for comfort generally. A more basic robot just aspires, needs to be plugged in, and cannot go back to base alone, while intermediate models gain connection with voice assistant, remote control, app and of course, for more expensive models, mapping functions appear.

Also, the number of cleaning modes increases with the price. The fewer cleaning modes and functions, the more he will need you to ‘guide’ him in cleaning the house, closing rooms or creating routes for him to be more correct in cleaning, leaving fewer corners missing.

And finally, that tip we give in every video. When using, prepare the environment. Take out smaller rugs, treadmills and anything that hinders the passage of the vacuum, and be careful with stairs because, even though everyone has a technology that prevents falls, accidents do happen.

With all that in mind, it’s also good to know that prices vary a lot, and we’ll be introducing models that range from the most basic to the advanced. If the investment is not so big, there are models up to 400 reais, but if it doesn’t weigh in your pocket, there are robots that exceed 5000 reais. Shall we go to them?

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The Multilaser HO041 , the popular ladybug, because of the choice of colors in red and black, is very basic indeed, and serves as a gateway for those who want to automate the task of vacuuming the house. We already talked about him for a while in this video . It is 7.6cm tall, which makes it easy to get under all your furniture, such as a rack, bed and even a sofa. It doesn’t have a charging cradle, so the power supply feeds the battery directly into the device.

There are three cleaning modes: automatic, spiral and corners, which the vacuum cleaner defines when it is activated, but as is natural for models at this price, it faces difficulties in large environments, and needs your help to be able to clean a larger room on its own, and much of this is due to the lack of mapping, as the cheaper ones only have sensors to prevent falls.

He wipes, but what I’m going to say here is for all models: he’s not enough for what we think is house cleaning, but he can help in a small room, maybe.

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Still in the same price range, but a little more expensive, is the WAP ROBOT W100 . The brand’s entry-level model has characteristics very similar to its Multilaser competitor, but bets on a more sober design, made only in black. It’s the same 27cm in diameter, but a millimeter less in height, that is, 7.5cm.

Don’t expect a loader base or any other extra accessory here, but it’s powerful enough to handle the most everyday cleaning effortlessly. It alternates well between the three available modes, but it always favors your right side, so the same reasoning applies here: always monitor cleanliness.

The 250ml of the reservoir is enough for a cleaning cycle in an average house, like mine, with 77 m². That is, you will always need to empty the compartment before cleaning again.

I like the battery on the W100, which gives it a battery life of 2 hours, enough for one pass just vacuuming and another for wiping. You can find the W100 for R$440 at some retailers, but it’s worth saying that the two are very similar.

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After going through the basics, it’s time for the cost-effective models. And here we open on the same brand, with the WAP ROBOT W300 , which is an evolution within the comfort zone when compared to the W100.

It gains 3 cm more in diameter, reaching 30 cm and is a little taller, at 7.8 cm. Here comes a necessary remote control and the base charger, which is nice, but this process of returning the vacuum to the base is basically trial and many mistakes. It withstood 1 hour of cleaning and it took another 4 hours to get back to 100%.

His drop sensor is an infrared that understands the distance from walls and prevents stronger falls or bumps. Wap has bet here on the red and black finish that picks up marks from quick use, but the side brushes that come with it are more durable, and come with replacement parts in the box.

However, the best accessory here is the remote control, which corrects the route when cleaning, in addition to giving access to the five cleaning modes that you can use however you like. Maybe I don’t think the upgrade from the W100 to the W300 is that big, but the remote is something that makes me think, and since I already found the W300 for R$790, it makes more sense. But know that it has no dedicated app, nor support for voice assistants, unless you do a little workaround.

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The POWERbot-E VR5000RM is Samsung’s newest model in Brazil, which we can call a premium intermediate vacuum, with features ranging from construction to integration with the dedicated app that lets you control everything from your cell phone, since the vacuum cleaner from Samsung is Wi-Fi.

This is basically the main advantage of the South Korean robot, as you can schedule cleaning, modes and even know if filter and side brushes need to be changed. In addition, those who have a Samsung cell phone can also use the Smart Things app, the company’s owner, and schedule tasks there.

It doesn’t have mapping, although it has improved presence and fall sensors, but it is the most powerful we’ve tested, and its battery is no exception, with an average autonomy of 2 hours of use.

It also wipes, but you don’t need to wet the mopi directly, as it has a dedicated 300 ml water reservoir for this. The waste collector can withstand two or even three cleaning cycles, depending on the interval between them and the amount of dust in the house.

Like all the others that have passed through here, the Powerbot-e faces difficulties in removing dirt from corners, even due to the circular shape itself, and not even the side brushes are able to remove everything.

At the height, it’s 8.5 cm, and it’s good to take a look at the height of your furniture, and if one gets too close to that height, it’s good to avoid it going through there so it doesn’t scratch. Speaking of maintenance, changing the extra parts is easy, as is cleaning the dust reservoir. It arrived for R$ 2700, but has retailers selling for R$ 2100.

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For those who want to raise the stake even higher, Samsung itself has the Powerbot VR7200, which is more expensive, around R$ 3700, and promises more efficiency on hard floors, but we haven’t tested this guy here to tell you more details . Who passed through our hand was the iRobot Roomba 675 , which brought technology to our daily lives and is the most premium we’ve seen.

In our tests, we noticed two cool things: the first is that iRobot claims that the 675 has more than 60 sensors, and yes, they work, the robot slows down when it gets close to a wall, actually giving it just a touch, not a shit with everything. It also circles objects very closely and at a slower speed.

The other point is a technology they call dirt detect, which makes the robot turn around and pass again somewhere with more dirt. I’ve seen him fool himself into thinking he had dirt, but I’ve never seen him go straight through a dirty spot and not come back, so he’s at least cautious.

It also doesn’t have mapping, characteristic of the iRobot 800 series, but it is connected, and all the configuration is done by the smartphone, and in Portuguese, including the voice that comes out of the robot. The dedicated app even sends a signal if you lose sight of the Roomba 675, in addition to allowing you to program washes remotely and have battery information, which can withstand 1h30m of use.

Here it’s okay to connect the robot to Google Assistant or Alexa, but it’s basically using your voice to start cleaning or programming a routine. One of its drawbacks is that it can be quite noisy. It is not that much more expensive than Samsung’s Powerbot-e, costing close to R$ 2700.

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Conclusion

You may have noticed that the format, cleaning functions and the basics work the same in all models, and what changes is the connectivity and the facilities that each one offers you.

Therefore, the purchase depends on how much you are willing to invest, of course, and how much you want to work in partnership with your robot. They all clean the house, but they have natural limitations that won’t let you just give up the habit of weekly or biweekly cleaning.