Everyone in this category says they tested twenty vacuums. We have not tested any, and we say so. What we do instead is read the manuals, compile the published specifications, and work out what each machine costs to run for three years — the method is written out in full.
We earn a commission if you buy through the links on this page, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what we recommend or the order we recommend it in. Full disclosure.
The dock bags are the cost. Everything else is small. At the manufacturers' own stated intervals a bagged self-emptying robot uses roughly 15 to 21 bags over three years. A dockless robot uses none. The Shark AV2501AE's bagless dock removes the line entirely. Electricity is negligible and no manufacturer here publishes charger draw, so we do not put a number on it.
Counting it properly
A robot vacuum has four consumable categories, and the manufacturers publish intervals for some of them and not others. We have listed what is published and marked what is not, rather than filling gaps with estimates.
Three-year consumable count, from each manufacturer's own stated interval where one exists.
Consumable
Published interval
Count over 3 years
Applies to
Dock bags (iRobot, Lefant)
75 days
About 15
Roomba 105 + AE, Lefant M2 Plus
Dock bags (Roborock)
7-9 weeks
About 18-21
Q7 M5+
Dock bags (ILIFE)
Up to 280 days across 5 bags
About 5-6
A30 Pro
Dock bags (Shark)
None — the dock is bagless
Zero
AV2501AE
Filters
Not published by any manufacturer here
Unknown
All
Side and main brushes
Not published by any manufacturer here
Unknown
All
Mop pads
Not published
Unknown
Combo models
Electricity
Charger draw not published
Not computable
All
The ILIFE figure is the outlier and worth reading carefully: it is a claim about the FIVE bags supplied in the box, so it describes what is included rather than a longer interval per bag.
The cost nobody prices: the app
Every mapped robot on this site depends on its manufacturer's cloud service. The map lives there, the zones live there, the schedule lives there. If that service is retired — and cheap connected appliances are retired regularly — a mapped robot does not become a dumb robot with the same hardware. It becomes a bump-and-run machine that has lost the feature you paid most for.
There is no published figure for this risk and there never will be. What can be observed is that iRobot has supported its app across many years and many product generations, and that the very cheap brands have the shortest track records. The machine that avoided the question entirely — the eufy 11S MAX, which published no Wi-Fi and no app at all — is no longer buyable, and nothing in stock replaces it.
Electricity, and why we are not going to guess
None of these manufacturers publish charger consumption or battery capacity in watt-hours, so a robot's annual electricity cost cannot be computed from published data. What we can say for scale: at the U.S. average residential price of 18.34 cents per kWh, even a device drawing a continuous 10 watts all year would cost about $16. A robot that charges for a couple of hours a day is far below that. Electricity is not where the money goes.
#
Product
Best for
Score
Price
01
Shark AI Robot with XL HEPA Self-Empty Base (AV2501AE)The only self-empty dock here with no bags to buy — bagless, HEPA-filtered and rated at 60 days, which changes the three-year arithmetic completely.
Roborock Q7 M5+ Robot Vacuum and Mop10,000 Pa published and a 2.7-liter sealed dock bag rated at seven to nine weeks: the pet-hair answer, at a real price.
Scores are ours, from the published rubric on the How We Pick page. They are editorial judgments about published specifications — not test results. We have not handled these machines.
01 · Best bagless self-empty
Shark AI Robot with XL HEPA Self-Empty Base (AV2501AE)
The only self-empty dock here with no bags to buy — bagless, HEPA-filtered and rated at 60 days, which changes the three-year arithmetic completely.
True HEPA, rated to capture 99.97% of dust and allergens down to 0.3 microns
Rated runtime
120 minutes with recharge and resume
Navigation
360-degree LiDAR with Matrix Clean grid coverage
Brushroll
Self-cleaning
Weight
15.3 lb
Suction in Pa
Not published
Every figure above is the manufacturer's own published number. Where a manufacturer publishes nothing, the row says "Not published" rather than an estimate.
What the numbers say
+Bagless dock — no consumable at all, which no other self-empty robot on this site can say
+True HEPA on the dock, so emptying does not re-release what it collected
+Matrix Clean makes multiple passes over dirty areas rather than one
+Self-cleaning brushroll
Where it stops
−Emptying a bagless dock does put you back in contact with the dust, HEPA or not
−No published suction figure in any unit
−15.3 lb with the base is the heaviest robot package here
Who it is for
Anyone who has done the maths on dock bags over five years and did not like the answer.
Skip it if
Allergies are the reason you are buying a self-empty robot at all. A bagged dock is the better answer for that specific problem, even though it costs more to run.
Our score: 8.1 out of 10
Published suction6.0
Navigation8.5
Runtime8.0
Bin and dock9.0
Running cost9.0
Scored against the published rubric on How We Pick. These are judgments about spec sheets, not measurements.
02 · Best mapping under $300
iRobot Roomba 105 Vac
LiDAR mapping, keep-out zones and a 200-minute rating from the brand that will still be supporting the app in five years.
70x more power-lifting suction, compared by the manufacturer against the Roomba 600 series
Control
Roomba Home app, on-device buttons, voice assistants
Wi-Fi
2.4 GHz required for setup and operation
Suction in Pa
Not published
Every figure above is the manufacturer's own published number. Where a manufacturer publishes nothing, the row says "Not published" rather than an estimate.
What the numbers say
+200 minutes rated, the longest published runtime of any robot on this site
+Real LiDAR mapping, keep-out zones and room targeting at a budget price
+Recharge-and-resume, so a large floor completes without you
+iRobot's app and parts supply are the most durable bet in the category
Where it stops
−The 70x suction claim is measured against iRobot's own decade-old 600 series, not against a competitor
−No self-empty dock in this configuration — you empty the on-board bin
−No published bin volume
Who it is for
Multi-room homes that want scheduled, mapped cleaning without a self-empty dock's price.
Skip it if
Nobody in the house will install an app. Half of what you are paying for is mapping, zones and scheduling, and none of that exists without the phone.
Our score: 8.0 out of 10
Published suction6.5
Navigation9.0
Runtime10.0
Bin and dock6.0
Running cost7.5
Scored against the published rubric on How We Pick. These are judgments about spec sheets, not measurements.
03 · Best self-empty for pet hair
Roborock Q7 M5+ Robot Vacuum and Mop
10,000 Pa published and a 2.7-liter sealed dock bag rated at seven to nine weeks: the pet-hair answer, at a real price.
JawScrapers main brush plus zero-tangle side brush
Mopping
Three adjustable water levels, simultaneous with vacuuming
Rated noise
65 dB
Every figure above is the manufacturer's own published number. Where a manufacturer publishes nothing, the row says "Not published" rather than an estimate.
What the numbers say
+Highest published suction figure on the site, at 10,000 Pa
+2.7-liter dock bag is larger than the iRobot's and rated for a comparable interval
+Anti-tangle on both brushes, which is the pet-hair spec that matters
+150 minutes plus recharge-and-resume covers a large floor
Where it stops
−Dock bags are a permanent consumable
−The dock is large and 65 dB when emptying is genuinely startling the first time
−Pa figures remain incomparable between brands, however impressive 10,000 sounds
Who it is for
Pet households with real square footage, where the on-board bin is the daily annoyance.
Skip it if
You live in a studio. This is a whole-floor machine with a dock the size of a wastebasket and you will resent the footprint.
Our score: 8.5 out of 10
Published suction9.5
Navigation9.0
Runtime8.5
Bin and dock9.5
Running cost6.0
Scored against the published rubric on How We Pick. These are judgments about spec sheets, not measurements.
04 · Quietest robot here
Lefant M210 Robot Vacuum
52 dB and 2.99 inches tall, with a brushless suction port that sidesteps hair tangle by not having a brushroll at all.
Up to 120 minutes in low suction mode, manufacturer-stated
Height
2.99 inches
Diameter
11 inches
Dustbin
500 ml
Rated noise
52 dB
Suction port
Brushless — no roller brush
Navigation
FreeMove 3.0, 6D infrared anti-collision — no LiDAR mapping
Battery
Lithium iron phosphate
Suction in Pa
Not published
Every figure above is the manufacturer's own published number. Where a manufacturer publishes nothing, the row says "Not published" rather than an estimate.
What the numbers say
+Brushless port cannot tangle, because there is nothing to tangle on — the only true fix for long hair
+52 dB is the quietest published figure on this site
+11-inch diameter gets between chair legs a 13-inch robot cannot
+Lithium iron phosphate chemistry is more cycle-durable than standard lithium-ion
Where it stops
−No brushroll also means no agitation, so carpet pickup is weak by design
−The 120-minute figure is explicitly the low-suction number
−No LiDAR mapping
Who it is for
Hard-floor homes with long-haired occupants or pets, and anyone who has cut hair off a robot brushroll once too often.
Skip it if
You have carpet you actually want cleaned. Without a brushroll it lifts surface debris and leaves embedded grit; this is a hard-floor machine.
Our score: 6.6 out of 10
Published suction4.0
Navigation4.0
Runtime9.0
Bin and dock6.5
Running cost9.5
Scored against the published rubric on How We Pick. These are judgments about spec sheets, not measurements.
How to keep the running cost low
Buy dockless if your bin lasts a week. In a small hard-floor home the Lefant M210's 500 ml bin gets close, and the entire bag line disappears.
Or buy the bagless dock. The Shark AV2501AE's base has true HEPA filtration and no consumable at all — the only machine here that offers both convenience and zero ongoing cost.
Check whether the filter is washable before you buy. Not one robot currently on this site publishes a washable filter, which is a real gap in what this category discloses.
Buy the brand most likely to keep the app running. This is the largest unpriced risk in the category and it is worth weighting heavily.
What we cannot tell you
How long filters and brushes actually last, because no manufacturer on this site publishes a replacement interval for either. How long the app will be supported. Or how fast a bag fills in your particular home, since the 75-day figure assumes a dirt load nobody documents. Those gaps are stated here rather than papered over, which is the same standard our method page applies everywhere else.
Common questions
How much does a robot vacuum cost to run per year?+−
The dominant cost is dock bags on a self-emptying model — roughly five to seven a year at the manufacturers' stated intervals. Filters and brushes are additional but no manufacturer here publishes a replacement interval for them, so we do not estimate one. Electricity is negligible.
Do robot vacuums use a lot of electricity?+−
No. None of these manufacturers publish charger draw, so a precise figure is not available, but for scale: at 18.34 cents per kWh even a continuous 10-watt draw all year costs about $16, and a robot charging a couple of hours a day is far below that.
How often do robot vacuum filters need replacing?+−
Not one manufacturer on this site publishes an interval, which is a genuine gap in the category's disclosure. Nor does any robot currently in stock here publish a washable filter, so the replacement cost cannot be ruled out either.
Is there a robot vacuum with no ongoing costs?+−
The Shark AV2501AE comes closest: a bagless self-empty dock with true HEPA, so there is no bag to buy. A dockless robot is the other route to a small consumable bill, though no robot currently in stock here publishes a washable filter.
What happens if the manufacturer shuts down the app?+−
A mapped robot loses its map, its zones and its scheduling, and degrades into a bump-and-run machine. This is the largest unpriced risk in the category, and iRobot has the longest app support record. The one machine that avoided the risk entirely by having no app, the eufy 11S MAX, is no longer buyable.
Sources
Manufacturer-published specifications — Every runtime, wattage, capacity, weight, filtration and warranty figure quoted on this page is the manufacturer's own published number for that model, retrieved September 1, 2026. Where a manufacturer publishes no figure, the page says 'Not published' rather than estimating one.
Sweep & Suction — How We Pick — Our published method, including the scoring rubric, the three-year running-cost formula and an explicit statement of what published specifications cannot tell you.
