These are the robot vacuum-mops I recommend for every type of home

A striking development has emerged in artificial intelligence. | Photo: Rose Tuohy / The Verge Inviting a robot vacuum-mop into your life is a big decision. An autonomous floor-cleaning machine roaming your home is equal parts glorious and intrusive. But if it does its job well, you may forgive it for eating your rug tassel, running over your Apple Watch, smearing strawberry jam across your carpet, or chattering to you in Chinese at 3AM — all things that have happened to me in my six years of testing these things.

Over that time, I’ve learned that the best robot vacuum-mop is the one most likely to consistently vacuum and mop your floors with the least intervention. And doing that depends far more on your house than on a spec sheet. The first thing I ask someone who wants to buy a robot vacuum is to describe their house.

Technical Details

What is your flooring type, how many rugs do you have, what’s the furniture style, are there big room transitions, and how is the home laid out? All these details factor into which robot will work best for you. Here, I’m going to tell you which robot vacuum-mop I would pick for my home and why, and then go through those I would choose for other common home scenarios — from all-wood floors with the occasional throw rug to a home with wall-to-wall carpet and tile floors.

These recommendations aren’t from lab tests or spec sheets; they’re based on actually living with these bots. First, let’s set expectations. Robot floor cleaners have improved significantly in the last few years, especially for mopping.

Many can now “scrub” your floors instead of just dragging a damp cloth around your house. But they still don’t clean as well as picking up a vacuum and a mop yourself, and they are far from hands-off. Most still struggle with corners, baseboards, tight spaces, and dried-on messes, and all of them need maintenance — mopping robots even more so than vacuum-only models.

Industry Implications

But if these tradeoffs are worth it to you, these robots will keep dirt, dust, and pet hair under control with far less effort on your part. The biggest decision when choosing a robot vacuum-mop is the mop design. In my testing, spinning mops work best on textured flooring like tile; roller mops are excellent for hardwood or vinyl; and flat vibrating pads are gentler and use less water, making them better for floors that require a delicate touch.

Each design has its tradeoffs, but the best choice comes down to which one is most likely to get the job done in your house. Other things I look for in a capable robovac that can mop are: reliable obstacle detection automatic carpet sensing the ability to remove, cover, or raise the mop when on carpet a mop that can extend into corners and along edges a dock with hot water washing and hot air drying I’m not convinced by the new AI-powered stain detection feature several models offer; in my tests, it’s been inconsistent. And while some have neat pet-specific options, all the robots I recommend do a good job cleaning up after your critters — I have two cats and an 80-pound dog who will agree.

For this article, I tested 16 robot vacuum mops, and these are the ones I recommend. The robot vacuum mop I would buy for my complicated house The house: I live in an older three-story house with mostly small rooms, hardwood floors, and several high-pile rugs, including a thick tasseled one in my living room. I remember thinking it was the ideal robot trap when I bought it.

This advance offers important signals about the future of the sector, and the tech world is watching closely.