❌ You have an open plan home: The Narwal app won't let you demarcate open plan spaces into 'rooms'.

These smart devices navigate your space, picking up dust and debris with minimal effort from you. Choosing the best automatic vacuum cleaner can save you time and keep your floors spotless. Many models offer features like powerful suction, smart mapping, and scheduling capabilities.

To help you find the best vacuums, I've gathered a list of top-performing vacuums from our tests. In the Lab, we put all types of vacuums through extensive testing based on ASTM International industry-standard methods and use a custom-built machine to quantify the amount of embedded dirt that the vacuum cleaners remove from medium-pile carpeting. In addition, we assess bare floor cleaning, pet hair pick up, ease of use and more.

That might not be an issue if you're cleaning on one floor as the bot will just return to its dock to recharge as required, but it becomes more annoying if you're using it on multiple floors.

Why we love it: We've tested many Dreame stick vacuums, robots and vacuum mops in the GH Cleaning Lab and can confidently say that it's one of our favorite brands because it performs well for the price in multiple categories, including robot vacuums, vacuum-mop combos and mops for hardwood floors.

There are some downsides, though. The suction power is low for the price bracket – in fact, generally, you're paying a premium for the small size here.

They rate the ease of removing the dust cups or bags and the ease of operating the vacuums’ controls. We also test any other features like battery charge indicators, brush roll control buttons and other tools and accessories.

We test fine dirt pickup by sprinkling a mix of flour and cookie crumbs on the floor, and large debris pickup using oats.

Experience effortless cleaning with the eufy Robot Vacuum 11S MAX. Its super-thin design slips under furniture with ease. Enjoy powerful suction that tackles Top 3 Automatic Vacuum Cleaners hard floors and medium-pile carpets.

This pint-sized but powerful robovac is perfect for small homes – and it just dropped to less than half price

❌ You're dealing with lots of dust: There's no self-empty on the dock, and the small onboard bin will fill up quickly if you're dealing with lots of dirt or hair.

That's due to a lack of features at higher prices or more niche use cases that aren't as versatile as the top models in our list. Still, the models below are worth checking out if money isn't an issue.

As well as these standardized tests, my reviewers integrate these robovacs into their daily cleaning setup, to get a feel for how effective and user-friendly they are in general.

Combo models might also have mops that can kick out from the side of the vacuum to get closer to the sides of rooms.