What Robot Vacuum to Pick Up If You Have a Small House and Limited Budget?
Robot vacuums have long stopped being a kind of luxury. Nowadays, they are looked at as an everyday necessity for busy house owners. The variety of brands and models allows us to pick up a perfect device regardless of the requirements and money available. Price and characteristics are especially important for customers on a budget and people living in small dwellings.
On the one hand, no one wants to spend a fortune on a robotic flagship and uses its functionality at half of its capacity. On the other hand, too cheap models provoke doubts regarding their quality. Today, we’ll discuss how to find this golden mean between efficiency and cost as well as scrutinize our top 5 budget robot vacuums for small houses. Let’s get started!
Tips on How to Choose a Perfect Robot Vacuum Cleaner for a Small House
The choice of the cleaner should always be based on the conditions where it’ll work and the tasks it’ll fulfill. As long as we’re speaking about small apartments or one-story houses, we recommend you consider the following moments:
Navigation: The majority of modern robots are equipped with smart navigation systems such as lasers, visual object recognition, and even mapping. Small dwellings don’t provide such spacious rooms for robots to get lost.
Their greatest problem is common domestic obstacles like furniture and thresholds. That’s why we recommend you save money and consider random navigating devices or simple navigation like sensors. Sensors will prevent dangerous hits and drops, while random moving will still cover every corner of your cozy apartment.
Battery: On average, cleaning small dwellings takes about 1.5 hours. It is excellent if your vac battery runs longer. Still, in our opinion, 100 minutes and the function of automatic returning to the dock is enough.
Floor Type: The answer to this question will directly show you what power you need. If you have hard floors, the suction up to 1000-1200 Pa will be more than enough for you. So, this is another nice opportunity to save. The presence of carpets, especially the medium and thick-piled, point to the necessity of higher power over 1500 Pa.
Mopping: Let us mention at once that 2-in-1 cleaners, i.e., those that can vacuum and mop, are the perfect option for houses with hard floors. Though you may suspect such models of costliness, there are several decent budget devices. Everybot 3 spin robot mop is made up of three mops that work together and each has its motor to propel them, resulting in more powerful spinning.
Pets: Pet owners will make much more complicated demands on their robot cleaners. If you live with a fluffy friend, please pay special attention to the dustbin size, brush design, and filtration. The bigger the bin, the rarer you’ll have to empty it.
Choose rubber or silicone rollers that feature tangle-free easy-clean construction. And though you’ll hardly get a budget robot with anti-allergen filters, some models offer excellent dust retention up to 90%.
Smart control: Nowadays, even the cheapest robotic cleaning assistants support Wi-Fi and are compatible with mobile apps or smart speakers. So, we highly recommend you purchasing such models. Later, we’ll be able to run them remotely as well as program cleaning schedules and modes.
So, after the main issues discussed, let’s come to our favorite robot vacuum cleaners under $250 that will perfectly cope with dirt in a small dwelling. Price ranges and short descriptions are included, but those who’ll get interested in one or another device can look through a more detailed review.
Eufy RoboVac 15C MAX – The Best Budget Option for Carpets
The 15C MAX costs $249 and offers the highest suction up to 2000 Pa. The power is equal to the one seen in the most expensive Roomba i7 and S9 flagships. Completed with BoostIQ technology, the vacuum is capable of lifting the deepest dirt from the low and medium pile. All these features make it the best budget vacuum for carpets, the performance of which is comparable with the leading high price niche devices.
At the same time, the model produces 55 dB only, which makes it literally silent. A 2.85″ body will go under any furniture and a 600 ml bin with HEPA filter trap particles up to 0.3 microns. The Eufy 15C MAX runs for 100 minutes, navigates through the sensors, and supports Alexa and Google Assistant, as well as the EufyHome app.
ILIFE V8s – The Best Budget 2-in-1 Mopping Option
The Chinese iLIFE brand is well-known for its cheap 2-in-1 cleaners. Here, you get two quite decent cleaning devices in one case for $250 only. And sometimes prices drop to $220. Firstly, the robot provides a very nice dry cleaning. Its power is 1000 Pa (more than enough for hard floors and low carpets), and a 750 ml dustbin is the biggest in our review.
By the way, the so-called enhanced suction inlet prevents hair tangling. So, if you have a pet, the vac will be a worthy purchase. Please only mind that it won’t work on carpets. However, we’d like to separately note excellent mopping with a 350 ml water tank, a pad, and smart Zigzag Cleaning Path technology.
The robot runs for the same 100 minutes and can automatically charge itself. The only minus is the lack of Wi-Fi support. All control is conducted through the LCD display.
Deebot N79S – The Best Budget Pet Option
The Deebot N79S is one of the most popular products by the ECOVACS company. The model offers an excellent balance between price, performance, and smart features. For $249, you get nice power up to 1000 Pa for dry cleaning only. In combination with a 3-stage brush system, Max mode, and central roller, the suction makes it possible to apply cleaner on the pile.
But most of all, we like its hair collection on various surfaces. The model is recommended to pet owners and people with small or medium-sized apartments with mainly hard floors. While control functions such as app and voice control are supported, engineers preferred to keep budget navigation via sensors. Still, despite its simplicity, the vacuum doesn’t bump here thanks to additional logic Smart Motion paths.
iRobot Roomba 675 Robot – Excellent Budget Option for Spot Dirt
Roomba products are considered to be the most expensive, though there are several affordable devices such as Roomba 675. It is a worthy representative of the early iRobot 600 series. The vac is equipped with basic 600 Pa suction, AeroVac filtration, and sensor navigation. But the quality of the product is so impressive that it’s still in high demand.
Among the cleaner’s best features, we highlight the dual Multi-Surface Auto-Adjustable rollers for all surfaces and iRobot patented Dirt Detection. Your device will automatically adjust to the floor height for better contact and increase the effort in extra polluted areas. At the moment, Amazon offers the robot for $249.
Coredy R500+ Robot Vacuum Cleaner – The Most Affordable Price
Enjoy thorough vacuuming and mopping of all floor types for $190 only. The Coredy R500+ is the cheapest option that will cover all surfaces in your small dwelling, from hard floors to low carpets. The suction reaches 1400 Pa. The model adopts five selective cleaning modes and is accompanied by a 500 ml dustbin and a central roller brush.
Unfortunately, you cannot use Wi-Fi here – all clean, schedule, and customize cleaning preferences are set through remote control. The budget price also means that if you need some accessories, you’ll have to buy them separately. Thus, a water tank and cleaning mop cloth for wet cleaning is not included in the kit. Coredy R500+ is the only vacuum of our review that supports Boundary Strip though it is also sold separately.
What robot vacuum to pick up: conclusion
As you see, the robotic market is full of affordable products. We tried to describe our favorite models to you, though there are lots of other reliable vacuums under $250-$300. Just follow our simple steps, and you’ll certainly find an excellent cleaning assistant for your house.
