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GADGET LAB → CLEAN UP
EUFY 11S MAX
The Eufy is the most
affordable of the robot
vacuums we recommend.
The trade-off is you skimp
on luxe features: It doesn’t
empty its own 0.6-liter
bin like the higher-priced
bots, and it uses infrared
and touch sensors to navi-
gate your home instead of
scanning your floor plan
and creating a virtual map
to follow. But if you’re OK
with the 11S Max bumping
around as it picks its way
along your baseboards
and around your ottomans
and chair legs, it does a
great job. Bonus: The lack
of internet-connected
smarts is a boon for pri-
vacy, since you never have
to sync the vac to your
phone.
IROBOT ROOMBA S9+
The newest flagship
Roomba also tosses its
garbage into a recepta-
cle in the charging base,
but the best feature is
the machine’s excep-
tional wayfinding. iRobot
based its vSLAM (visual
simultaneous location
and mapping) naviga-
tion system on the same
tech that helps military
robots locate land mines.
A 3D sensor on top of the
S9+ scans its surround-
ings 25 times a second
to draw a hyper-detailed
map of your home. The
map doesn’t just help the
vacuum plot the most effi-
cient path, it also keeps it
from getting stuck—unlike
cheaper botvacs, this one
rarely needs rescuing.
SHARK IQ ROBOT
Our favorite feature
on the Shark IQ is its
self-emptying bin. After
cruising around the house
for about 10 minutes, the
bot scoots home and—
whooosh—deposits its
payload into the 1.85-liter
canister in the docking
station. While it’s there,
a blast of air cleans the
roller brush, prepping it
to tackle the next filthy
sector of the house. The
IQ is slow to recharge
and, with a single optical
sensor, slow to map and
navigate your home, but
otherwise it’s the best
choice for homes with
multiple children, pets,
or anything else that gen-
erates a lot of bin-filling
detritus.
Dust
Brothers
Pushing around a vacuum is so last century. Let these
robots corral your crumbs. —Michael Calore
$450 $270 $1,100
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