Pet owners know that no matter how often you manually sweep, mop, or vacuum, pet hair always seems to find its way back onto the floor.
Consider a robot vacuum for pet hair: These small vacuums work wirelessly, often running off a pre-programmed schedule, to suck up pet hair and debris on multiple surfaces from carpet to hardwood. Though not a replacement for traditional upright vacuums, robovacs can be a complementary machine, maneuvering around and under furniture more easily.
We had real pet owners test six popular robot vacuums over two weeks, comparing their ease of setup and use, features, and overall performance. All of the robot vacuums produced a noticeably cleaner environment, but a few came out ahead.
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This robovac automatically detects the necessary suction power for each floor and debris type and adjusts accordingly while cleaning. It had no issues moving between ceramic tile and medium-pile carpeting, and it picked up pet hair and surface dust with ease. Since robovacs can be clunky, we appreciated the small profile and quietly efficient operation of this vacuum. Plus, simple directions made the setup a breeze.
A few notable features: the edge-only cleaning mode which focuses on tracing the space perimeter, the manual suction power adjustment, and the spot clean function which allows you to clean a specific area using the highest suction level. This was particularly ideal for removing “tumbleweeds” of dog hair on the floor immediately after a petting session.
However, the lack of an integrated app (often a standard feature) felt limiting, especially when setting up the cleaning schedule. It only allows you to schedule one automatic cleaning per day, at the same time each day.
Dimensions: 12.79 x 12.79 x 2.85 inches | Weight: 5.95 pounds | Recommend Floor Type: Hard surfaces, medium-pile carpeting | Controller: Remote, manual buttons | Decibels: low, 55
Meet Our Furry Testers
- Bea Arthur is a 5-year-old, 40-pound mutt, with medium-length coarse hair who sheds “incessantly.”
- Felix is a 12-year-old, 12-pound Tabby cat with short silky hair. His parents say he sheds “an average amount.”
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Impressive lidar sensor mapping and object avoidance
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Ability to set up no-go spaces, create rooms, and draw invisible walls
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Superb app functionality with flexible options for scheduling cleanings
This vacuum’s lidar (light detection and radar) sensor technology stood out for its accurate room mapping and object avoidance — and pet hair, dust, and even paper scraps from kids’ art projects were effectively cleaned up.
Customized scheduling lets you choose times, days, rooms, and even noise levels. And while the suction power trails behind standard vacuums, this little device made a visible difference with just a few weekly cleanings and spot treatments. Plus, the unit’s dustbin empties into a larger bin in the charging station, so you don’t have to manually empty the bin as often.
The physical setup and maneuverability was seamless, but the vacuum struggled with electrical cords strewn across the floor as well as app connectivity, so we couldn’t place it in our top spot.
Dimensions: 13.78 x 13.78 x 3.8 inches | Weight: 15.4 pounds | Dustbin Capacity: 470 milliliters in unit, 2.5 liters in charging station | Recommend Floor Type: Hard surfaces, carpet, wood, tile | Controller: App, voice, manual buttons
Meet Our Furry Testers
- Sadie is a 1.5-year-old, short-haired cat who “sheds constantly.”
- Samantha is also a 1.5-year-old, short-haired cat with frequent shedding.
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Comes ready to plug in, charge, and use
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Straightforward and simple app sync with no unnecessary steps
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Utilizes three brushes and a HEPA filter
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No mapping option
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Noisy operation
Due to the price and performance, we’d recommend this device for novice robot vacuum users. The Shark robot vacuum was ready to go right out of the box — we only needed to sync the app.
Our tester previously had an iRobot vacuum but was impressed with this Shark device’s ability to navigate their house despite not having a physical mapping feature: It avoided precarious stairs and other obstacles and found its way back to the charging base with ease. Plus, the low profile fits under furniture more deftly than other models, and the Tri-Brush system (a main brush roller, channel brushes, and side brushes) helps streamline debris cleanup. It’s a little noisy, but everything else exceeded our expectations.
Dimensions: 12.4 x 12.6 x 3.54 inches | Weight: 9.92 pounds | Dustbin Capacity: 425ml | Recommend Floor Type: Hard surfaces, low-pile carpet, tile | Controller: App, voice, manual buttons
Meet Our Furry Testers
- Maebel is a 4-year-old, black Labradoodle with short, soft hair, and whose fur is hypoallergenic (though it does shed).
- Polkadot is a 10-year-old, white mini Goldendoodle (who was a little camera shy during testing).
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Customizable cleaning options and built-in virtual assistant
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Multi-floor mapping and floor type detection
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Self-cleaning mop and dustbin features
This vacuum-mop combo is worth the investment for those willing to spend — having earned the highest score in our test. It skilfully cleaned all traces of pet hair across three different flooring types: carpet, natural stone, and luxury vinyl plank. The 6000 Pa suction lifted this debris, while the hot water mop function worked in its wake (though it left streaks on the vinyl flooring).
It also comes with a handy built-in voice assistant and uses 3D multi-floor mapping technology to avoid obstacles and falls. It can detect floor surfaces and lifts the mop when moving over carpet. Plus, the operation is fairly quiet and the self-cleaning mop and dustbin features limit maintenance on your part. At the end of testing, we were still uncovering new features and settings on the app, including a child-lock and customized cleaning modes for scheduled runs.
Dimensions: 19.13 x 24.99 x 20.98 inches | Weight: 51 pounds | Dustbin Capacity: 3 liters | Recommend Floor Type: Carpet, hard surfaces | Controller: App, voice, manual buttons
Meet Our Furry Testers
- Pearl is a mini Australian Shepherd/Poodle mix with short, wavy hair. Pearl often leaves behind fur balls that either sit in corners or roll across the floor.
- Toby is a Havanese with short, white hair that always shows up on the floor.
Others We Tried
Bobsweep Pet Hair Slam Robotic Vacuum Cleaner and Mop: This vacuum was ultimately no match for Rexford, a heavy shedding, part-Maine Coon cat. The physical setup was easy enough, but the app proved a challenge to sync to. It picked up pet hair on carpet better than hard surfaces but pushed larger pieces of debris around before sucking them up. It was just unnecessarily complicated to use and didn’t have the intuitive features of our other picks.
iRobot Roomba Combo i5 Robot Vacuum and Mop- Woven Neutral: We ran into trouble with this robovac immediately with app-syncing and mapping. Once it finally worked, it picked up pet hair (our tester’s dog Pup is a short-hair, super-shedder Chihuahua) and even kibble pretty well, but human hair kept clogging the brush roll. The mop feature was also frustrating to use.
People / Erin Johnson
What To Know About Robot Vacuums
Scheduling Capabilities
With scheduling, you can pre-program when your robot vacuum will automatically clean a selected area. Most robot vacuums can schedule at least one cleaning per day at a specified time, while others, like the Ecovacs Deebot T20 Omni Robot Vacuum and Mop, allow multiple cleaning schedules on specific days and times with designated areas, rooms, cleaning modes, and suction levels.
Noise and Suction Levels
Though not as powerful as upright vacuums, robot vacuums are comparable with some handheld vacuums. Their noise levels correlate with their suction levels (usually 2,000 Pa to 8,000 Pa). Keep this in mind when a vacuum claims to have a quiet operation (most clock in between 50 to 80 decibels) — as it often means when it’s operated on the lowest suction level.
Control Options
Control your robot vacuum with manual buttons on the unit itself, voice control through a synced home device like Alexa or Google Assistant, or via your phone on an integrated app. App-based controls — like those on the Shark Ion Robo Vacuum — are usually the most convenient since you can operate them from anywhere. They also tend to offer more features.
Dustbin Size
Don’t overlook dustbin size: The larger the dustbin, the longer you can go without having to empty it. Smaller dustbins may need to be manually emptied after each vacuum, or even in the middle of a cleaning cycle, depending on the size of your space and how much pet hair, dirt, and debris is on the floor. Many robot vacuums have automatic dustbin emptying, or a smaller dustbin on the unit itself that automatically empties into a larger dustbin receptacle in the dock — like the Roborock Q5+ Robot Vacuum.
Additional Features
Robot vacuums come with a huge range of features these days, from 3D room mapping to built-in mops. Prioritize features like object avoidance, creating no-go zones, and highly customizable scheduling as these are the most convenient and greatly extend the value of your robot vacuum.
People / Sarah Roberts
Behind the Scenes
We selected six of the highest-rated robot vacuums for at-home testing, paying specific attention to how well they picked up pet hair. Over a two week period, we evaluated each robot vacuum across a handful of categories and used our tester insights to bring you our top picks. We collected over 1,050 fur dust bunnies throughout 85 hours of testing.
- Setup: We took note of the setup process step-by-step, timing how long it took from unboxing to operating. Special attention was paid to how easy or complicated the process was. This included the physical setting up of the vacuum as well as any app syncing or Wi-Fi connections.
- Effectiveness: We ran the vacuums on various flooring surfaces, including luxury vinyl plank, tile, natural stone, hardwood, and carpet with different pile heights. Performance was evaluated by how quickly and effectively the vacuum picked up pet hair, followed by its effectiveness at removing other common debris on the floor from dust to kibble.
- Maneuverability: We noted how easy the vacuum moved around the space, if it was user-friendly to control or program the vacuum, and what type of control (i.e., voice, manual, app-linked) the vacuum operated on.
- Features: Finally, we scored the product on convenience and variety of features, like self-cleaning capabilities, scheduling options, cleaning modes, mapping outcomes, object avoidance, and dustbin size. We also tested the different features of each vacuum and scored it by how well it performed said feature. We also took into account the size of the vacuum and whether it was a pro or con to the overall performance.
We will continue to test these products and update our findings.
People / Erin Johnson
Why Trust PEOPLE?
K. Alex Beaven is a freelance commerce writer for PEOPLE. In compiling this list of the best robot vacuums for pet hair, she relied on the reported and scored experiences of PEOPLE’s team of product testers. Overall, PEOPLE has tested over 300 vacuums, from robot vacuums and handheld vacuums to canister vacuums and upright vacuums. For this story, we put our top robot vacuums for pet hair through multiple rounds of testing in our homes and the lab for a total of 85 hours. We will continue to test these products over time and update this piece to reflect our experience.
What Is PEOPLE Tested?
We created the PEOPLE Tested seal of approval to help you find the very best products for your life. We use our unique methodology to test products in three labs across the country and with our network of home testers to determine their effectiveness, durability, ease of use, and so much more. Based on the results, we rate and recommend products so you can find the right one for your needs.
But we don’t stop there: We also regularly re-review the categories in which we’ve awarded the PEOPLE Tested seal of approval — because the best product of today might not be the best of tomorrow. And by the way, companies can never buy our recommendation: Their products must earn it, fair and square.
In short, PEOPLE Tested provides recommendations you can trust — every day, every purchase.
