Best Robot Vacuums Of CES 2022

Robot vacuums are a big investment. Even the basic models can ring in at a few hundred dollars each, and if you want ones with the newest and most useful bells and whistles — both vacuuming and mopping, automatic emptying, auto cleaning, object recognition and avoidance — you can expect to pay $1,000 or more. So when it comes to purchasing a robot vacuum, buyers need to do their homework to make sure they are worth the money.

Several manufacturers announced new robot vacuums and mops as part of CES 2022, the global consumer tech show held each year in Las Vegas. Many of them have a few newer technologies and improvements, including:

Laser or camera navigation for more accurate home mapping
Object recognition and avoidance, which means no more tangles, tumbles, or getting hung up
Actual scrubbing of floors during wet mopping
Self-emptying and self cleaning abilities, plus refills for mopping functions
Direct speech recognition, so no need for a Google Nest or Amazon Echo device

Those new enhancements join existing features like voice control, adjustable suction/noise levels, scheduling, home mapping for room-by-room control, and combination vacuum/mop models.

Best robot vacuums announced at CES 2022

While 2022 has already been a good year for the robot vacuum world, several new bots were also launched during the latter part of 2021, including iRobot’s more compact vacuum-only j7+, and the more affordable Neato D9 and D10 models, which come without a self-emptying base station. There have also been rumors of a new Dyson 360 Heurist that may be getting away from its tall cylindrical design, but there’s been nothing firm on that yet.

Here are the most interesting robot vacuum launches from CES 2022.

Dreame Bot W10

Roughly the size of a small end table, the Dreame Bot W10 is a dual vacuum and mop combo offering a full vacuum, wash, rinse, and refill station that looks chic and sleek and kind of like a tiny home garage. It’s easily the best-looking botvac package of CES 2022, even despite its size. The vacuum parks inside its little condo, takes care of daily maintenance and then can head out on its daily chores.

The mopping portion uses two spinning brushes underneath the unit, which is a first as far as I’ve seen in my robot vacuum reviewing career. These dual scrubbing pads apply way more friction and do a lot more to power dirt off the floor than a typical robot mop does, since most others only drag a damp microfiber cloth over surfaces.

With lidar and SLAM navigation, plus carpet detection that increases suction on rugs and fibers, the Dreame Bot W10 has some pretty intriguing possibilities.

Ecovacs’ Deebot X1 lineup

Ecovacs has already been playing in the dual vacuum and mopping sandbox for a while and it was also one of the first to use an automatic dustbin to clear out the bot’s onboard debris. The company’s new bot lineup, called Deebot X1, actually consists of three bots with a similar array of features: the Deebot X1 Omni, Turbo, and Plus. Only the Omni and Turbo will also clean and refill the mopping tanks, plus dry the mopping pads, ensuring the whole system stays clean and odor free and isn’t simply dragging a moldering mopping pad around your floors.

These new bots also use natural language processing so that means you can skip Google Assistant and speak directly to your robot.

Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra

While Roborock’s base station looks a little more utilitarian than the Deebot’s, it has many of the same functions. It can empty the vacuum dustbin, refill the mopping tank with clean water, and even run a scrubbing device over the pad to ensure it’s clean, dry, fluffed, and ready to rock.

New brains inside the S7 MaxV Ultra also make it clean 70% faster and up to 22% more accurately, meaning fewer hidden dust bunnies.

TCL Sweeva 6000-1 in action. — TCL Sweeva

TCL Sweeva 6000 and 6500

TCL’s two latest bots are what you could call the new average as far as robot vacuum technology goes. These units are simply a vacuum, no mopping built in, and the 6000 version has no auto-emptying station, while the 5600 version does. They come with that now-standard array of botvac features including smart mapping, scheduling, and voice control using Google or Alexa.

There’s also adjustable suction (Standard, Turbo and Max modes) so you can power your floors clean, or keep things to a dull roar if it’s nap time.

Tineco Carpet One smart carpet cleaner

I got really excited (it’s a tech writer thing) when I saw news about this device land in my inbox. I was picturing a roving smart bot, dispensing cleaner on my shabby rugs, then powering it out and leaving me with clean, bright carpets, all at the press of a button — and all autonomously. Not so.

Tineco’s new Carpet One Carpet and Upholstery cleaner is an upright carpet cleaner that must be manipulated by hand, whether across your rugs or using the attachments to power out stains from furniture and upholstery. Where the smart tech comes in is with Tineco’s iLoop Smart Sensor that is purported to “see” particularly dirty or stained areas, and flag them with a rainbow of LED lights.

There’s also a built in Power Dry feature that aims to more fully extract water from carpet and fabrics after cleaning. A Dryness Meter detects humidity and displays a readout on the LED screen so you know if you can sit down without ending up with a wet bottom.

These new vacuum, mopping, and carpet cleaning devices may help you take home floor cleaning to the next level.

The best robot vacuums of CES 2022