In the February 14 blog we liked the Roomba 650 and on March 2 posted that the Neato-XV-21 was a more affordable alternative. Well we live in a dynamic world and technology changes by the minute. So to update you on the best robot vacuum cleaners today, we refer to the July 2015 issue of Consumer Reports. The issue has their latest lab test results and they provided their latest robot vacuum cleaners reviews for half a dozen models. They rated the models on their effectiveness on cleaning carpet surfaces and bare floors, ease of use, navigation, and cleaning time. The quickest models used a grid pattern to cover the room in 15 to 19 minutes. The longest cleaning time was nearly two hours and used a combination grid and random pattern. The sections below list the reviewed models in the order Consumer Reports ranked them.
iRobot Roomba 880
The iRobot Roomba 880 is a recommended product and scored an 87 in their tests. It is rated excellent on carpets, bare floors and navigation. The ease of use is rated very good and it completed cleaning the test area in 57 minutes using a random pattern.
iClebo Arte YCR-M05
The iClebo YCR-M05 Arte is a recommended as a CR Best Buy and scored an 86 in their tests, just behind the Roomba. It is rated excellent on bare floors and navigation. The carpets cleaning and ease of use is rated very good although it took the longest to complete cleaning the test area, 119 minutes using a grid and random pattern.
Ecovacs Deebot D77
The Ecovacs DEEBOT D77 scored a 73 in their tests. It is rated excellent on bare floors. The carpets cleaning and navigation is rated very good and and ease of use is rated simply good. It took 95 minutes to complete cleaning the test area using a random pattern.
Miele Scout RX1
The Miele Scout RX1 scored 70 in their tests. It is rated very good on carpets, bare floors, ease of use, and navigation. It completed cleaning the test area quickly in 19 minutes using a grid pattern.
Neato Botvac 80
The Neato Botvac 80 Robot Vacuum was the quickest of the bunch, it completed cleaning the test area in only 15 minutes using a grid pattern. However it scored only a 68 in their tests. It is rated excellent on navigation, very good on cleaning carpets and bare floors and good for ease of use.
Neato XV-21
The Neato XV-21 came in at the bottom of the group of units tested, scoring only 56 in their tests. While it was rated excellent for navigation, no doubt due to the speedy 17 minutes took to complete its grid cleaning pattern, it only rated a good for cleaning carpets, bare floors and ease of use.
