How we review robot vacuum cleaners

We take reviewing stuff seriously. It's in the name of the site afterall. Every single product we review is tested by a member of our team, and the review is a reflection of their experience with the device. Of course we take specs into account, but a spec list is just a small part of any tech device. At Reviews.org Australia we pride ourselves on telling the whole story - the good, the bad, the weird - and letting you, the consumer, know why any of that matters.

When we review robot vacuum cleaners we assess these products through two lenses; how the technology compares to what else is on the market, and the real life experience of using it. It's all well and good to have every bell and whistle, but if it is impossible to use then a product is ultimately useless.

We do this by spending a solid amount of time with each robot vacuum cleaner, and pitting it against the usual ebbs and flows of daily life. For some of us that means plenty of animal fur, for others it means messy toddlers, for all of us it means manouevering around a thousand cables on the floor. Then we crack into our formalised testing schema. 

Our formal testing follows the same formula for every single robot vacuum. We look at four main categories; price, design, performance, and expert testing. Each category has its own testing parameters, and every one is assigned a value in our schema. The better they perform, the higher the score is. 

Our expert testing holds the highest weighting in our testing schema. Practical performance is the most important experience with a robot vacuum cleaner, so we hold it to a high standard. Our experts (who tested over 100 products in 2024 alone) run every robovac through the same tests so we can accurately compare the products on the market. We take a lot of pride in being giant nerds about this, not just because we love it, but because it gives you the best indication of what you can expect at home.

Our expert testing is designed to assess the vacuuming and mopping prowess of every robovac we get our hands on. We assess the clearance rate of a range of debris, and assign a score based the percentage of dander the robot vacuum removes. Our testing includes;

• Clearance rates of oats, salt, and hundreds and thousands
• Clearance rates of honey or maple syrup, and various dipping sauces
• How well these are removed along edges, and corners

We also assess manufacturer claims such as "zero-tangle rollers", object avoidance size, and threshold clearance heights to make sure they live up to expectations.

Our experiential testing also takes the robovac's app into account. We look at the ease of set up, how accurate the mapping is, how useful the app is day-to-day, and its limitations.

The design aspect is less about the look, and feel of the robot vacuum, and more about what it claims it can do. When we assess the design we are looking at the features the manufacturer has included, or omitted.

Our main focus is on the vacuuming and mopping technology employed. We ask questions like;

• Does this have the latest roller brush technology?
• What kind of mopping techniques does it use? 
• Does it include an all-in-one base station?
• And if so, is it really all-in-one, or just some-in-one?

Naturally we also look at the aesthetic of the device, and how practical it is to have in your home. Robot vacuum base stations can get taller than 70cm high - that is probably a bit much for most people.

In the performance section we compare how the robot vacuum stacks up against the best-in-class in this category. We run through the most advanced performance features available in robovacs, and see where each device falls in that threshold. Note that here, we're looking at manufacturer claims, our expert testing is where we weed out whether they actually accomplish them or not.

Some asepcts we look into are features like;

• Battery life claims, and whether the device will resume cleaning after it recharges
• Smart carpet detect and auto-lift
• Obstacle avoidance
• Adaptive cleaning technology

Price is simultaneously the most boring, and most important aspect of assessing a robot vacuum cleaner. When we look at price, we use it as a waypoint to assess the value of the device.

Naturally, the cheaper the robovac, the better it will score on price. But if an expensive vacuum is feature-poor, then it will score worse than a mid-priced device with mid-sized features to match. 

When we write about price we will always discuss it in the context of what else is available at around the same cost, at the time of writing.