The 4 Best Robot Vacuums For Hardwood Floors - Fall 2024

The Roborock S8 Pro Ultra is the best robot vacuum for hardwood floors we've tested. Its suction inlet is positioned high enough to easily pass over bulky debris and suck them up. One of its standout features is the multifunction dock. Compared to the standard Roborock S8+'s dock, this dock not only empties out its dustbin but also refills its water tank from a refillable reservoir and washes and dries its mop pad. The other major advantage of this high-end robot vacuum is the dual-sensor navigation system. It combines a LIDAR sensor that maps out your home with a structured light sensor at the front of the vacuum. This allows it to identify and avoid common obstacles like power cords, furniture legs, or even pet waste in real-time.

The vacuum can also store up to four floor maps, and it can output a 3D representation of your home after mapping. It uses its camera sensors to spot landmarks and automatically determine which room it's working in. You can also specify cleaning settings for different rooms, set up no-go zones, or use the pin-and-go feature to direct it to a specific area to clean small spills. Unfortunately, as good as the performance is, you might need to manually clean finer debris piled up against walls or in corners; also, its mopping system isn't particularly effective and will require many passes for stubborn stains. Finally, while the multifunction dock makes for an excellent hands-off ownership experience, it's simply enormous—it may not fit in smaller living spaces.

For those who want premium maintenance features without the premium price tag, the Roborock Q Revo is a very good option. Like the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra, the multifunction dock empties the vacuum's dustbin, refills its internal water tank, and washes its mopping pads. Its hardwood floor performance is also fairly effective, especially for dealing with pet hair and smaller debris. The Q Revo's older twin-pad mopping system is the better option for mopping duties, so it performs better on hardwood floors. Also, in terms of automation capabilities, there isn't all that much to tell the two vacuums apart: the Q Revo supports multi-floor mapping, offers support for room labeling, has no-go zones, and has custom cleaning settings for different user-defined areas.

That being said, there are some important differences compared to its bigger sibling. For example, its real-time hazard avoidance system is less sophisticated than the S8 Pro Ultra's Reactive 3D hazard avoidance system. Also, the Q Revo's single-roller cleaning head differs from the pricier model's dual roller arrangement and does a much worse job of handling pet hair on carpeted surfaces. But if these differences don't bother you, the Q Revo is sure to please, as it ranks among the best robot vacuums for hardwood floors we've tested.

If you're looking for a decent feature-rich model, the Roborock Q5+ is a great mid-range option. Unlike the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra, it isn't capable of mopping floors and doesn't have a set of front-facing cameras that would allow it to avoid hazards in real-time. That said, it's available at a much lower price point than its bigger sibling and offers a pretty full suite of features, including an auto-empty docking station, which lowers hands-on maintenance requirements. It does a good job of maneuvering itself, and you can use the coverage map it generates to set up no-go zones the vacuum won't enter, label separate rooms, or schedule cleaning sessions for individual areas.

Its performance on bare floors is superb, and it does a passable job of cleaning any carpets you might have lying around. Unfortunately, while it feels well-built, there are some gaps in its plastic construction through which fine allergens can spew out, most notably through its LIDAR sensor.

For those on a tight budget, the Wyze Robot Vacuum is the way to go. While you lose the Roborock Q5+'s self-emptying feature, its LIDAR mapping system offers a similar range of functionality to the more expensive vacuum, and it does a better job of maneuvering itself around furniture and other obstacles. You can use the map it generates of your home to set up virtual boundary lines or schedule cleaning sessions for specific rooms. The vacuum feels well-built and has an allergen-trapping HEPA filter, producing good allergen-sealing performance.

Unfortunately, while it does a fantastic job of cleaning bare floors, it has a challenging time with debris on carpets. It also has a small dirt compartment that needs emptying often, even by the standards of other robot vacuums, which isn't ideal if you have more than one heavily shedding pet. If you're interested in a similarly priced robot vacuum that can deal with stains on hardwood floors, consider the Shark IQ 2-in-1, which boasts a highly effective mopping system. That said, its companion app isn't as intuitive or reliable as the Wyze's, and this vacuum tends to get stuck around furniture more often.