All guides
Twenty-five guides on buying, using and living with home robots.
Twenty-five guides, written for people deciding what to buy and people living with what they bought. Each one connects back to a calculator where there is a number worth working out.
Before you buy
Robot vacuum buying guide 2026The eight specs that matter and the four you can ignore.The most expensive one is not the bestA £1,400 flagship cleaned no better than a £250 model in the same house.Pa and the suction mythThe number has tripled in three years. Your carpets have not changed.LiDAR vs camera navigationThe spec that decides whether it cleans your home or bumps around it.Robot or stick — or both?They solve different halves of the same problem.Buying on sale without regretLast year's flagship is often the best value in the market.
Your home, specifically
Carpet homes need a different machineTwo neighbours, same vacuum, opposite verdicts.The sofa problemThe most common regret has nothing to do with cleaning power.Robot vacuums in small flatsBelow a certain size, premium features stop mattering.Robot vacuums in large housesWhere optional features become requirements.Living with pets and a robotThe spec that solves pet hair is not the one on the box.Vacuums and allergiesA HEPA filter in a leaky housing does very little.
The human side
Your height changes which vacuum suits youSame machine, same reviews, opposite experiences.Noise, timing and neighboursThe spec that decides when you can actually run it.What your vacuum knowsIt builds a floor plan of your home. That data goes somewhere.
Living with it
The first weekMost long-term problems are created in the first seven days.Why yours keeps getting stuckMost end up in cupboards because the owner tired of rescuing them.It stopped cleaning wellSuction loss is almost never the motor.What robot mopping actually doesExcellent at maintenance. Poor at anything dried on.
Cost and durability
Why vacuum necks breakA commercial machine snapped at the neck within months.How long they actually lastSome fail at ten months. Some run a decade.What they cost to runThe purchase price is the part you plan for.Reading the warranty properlyThe exclusions matter more than the length.