Best Robot Vacuums We’ve Tested (January 2026)

Here are the robot vacuums that we tested with our new testing methodology and didn’t earn a spot on our best list. Some of these might be worth buying for the right use case.

3i S10 Ultra: We haven’t reviewed many of 3i’s robot vacuums, but the company has some unique offerings, including the S10 Ultra, which it says is the world’s first water-recycling robot vacuum. This means that it is capable of purifying and distilling its own wastewater extracted from the robot, as well as using water vapor and air condensation to fill the robot’s water tank with clean water. This is a fascinating implementation that can help reduce the amount of water wasted during cleaning.

In terms of performance, the S10 Ultra is a capable robot vacuum, removing 93.45% of sand from hardwood floors, which is the third highest score on our list. However, carpet performance was not as good, with 37.68% low pile and 17.68% medium pile, giving an average of 49.6%. That said, it has all the key features you’d expect from a high-end robot vacuum, including advanced lidar navigation, dirt and liquid detection, a self-cleaning rotating roller mop, and AI obstacle avoidance. Our lab technician, Schylar Breitenstein, noted that the app wasn’t very user-friendly and had Wi-Fi connectivity issues. Obstacle avoidance was also disappointing, with a complete failure for all six obstacles. The bulky and heavy base station weighs 50 pounds and takes up a lot of space. All of this keeps it off our best list.

Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni: It comes with premium features including advanced navigation, all-in-one dock, auto drain, and self-cleaning mop. In terms of performance, it falls in the middle of the pack, at 88.32% for hardwood, 45.22% for low-pile carpet, and 20.87% for medium-pile carpet. This gives him an average of 51.47%, putting him in the top five in terms of performance. Navigation isn’t as good, with room coverage of 76.42% on our heat map and a few key points missed. It also only avoided two out of six obstacles, making it hard to recommend with its $1,300 price tag, or even its discounted $700 price tag.

S20 Switch Robot: The Switchbot S20 is available in two models, one with a base station for cleaning and automatic draining and the other with a water refill station that can connect to a water connection similar to a dishwasher. Both will cost you $800, making it relatively affordable next to other Robovacs we’ve tested. We tested both models, although we were unable to fully complete laboratory testing of the water connection feature. In terms of performance, it’s the second worst robot vacuum we’ve tested, scoring 21.90% on hardwood, 42.9% on low-pile carpet, and 10.72% on medium-pile carpet, for an average of 25.17%. It does a little better in navigation, covering 79.3% of the test room, putting it just behind the Mova V50 and it also excels in obstacle avoidance, managing to avoid five out of six obstacles. Unfortunately, poor performance prevents it from getting a recommendation.

Narwhal Flow: The $1,500 Narwal Flow is similar to the cheaper SwitchBot S20, with two models that include an auto-charging base station. Where they differ is in performance. Flow does better, scoring 93.43% on hardwoods, 46.09% on low-pile carpets, but much worse on medium-pile carpets at 8.12%. In navigation, he is in the middle of the pack at 77.11%. It does pretty poorly at obstacle avoidance, failing to avoid every obstacle tested, which, combined with the medium pile carpet’s poor performance, serves to keep it off our list.

Narwal Freo Pro: The Fro Pro is a more affordable alternative to the Flow, costing you $700 at full price. In terms of performance, it’s unfortunately a big disappointment, achieving the lowest average score at 20.17% for all flooring types. It also performs poorly in individual scores with 37.33% hardwood, 20.87% low-pile carpet, and 2.32% medium-pile carpet. In terms of room coverage, it managed 73.8%, but there were some notable missed spots compared to other models. When it came to object avoidance, it did better than the Flow, avoiding two of the six obstacles.

THE Eureka J15 Ultra will cost you around $999 at full price, which puts it below the Dreame X50 Ultra and Mova V50 Ultra, and even less when it’s on sale, but performance-wise it didn’t live up to our expectations. Although it earned our highest low-pile rug pickup score of 60.58%, it only scored 1.74% for medium-pile rugs, curiously giving it our lowest score for this category. It also only recovered 60.58% of hardwood, giving it an average of 40.97%, the third lowest score we tested. Navigation was decent with 76.47% coverage in our test room, but object avoidance was a complete failure, with the J15 Ultra failing to avoid our six test objects.