Robot vacuum and mop combos: our top three for Australian homes

Best overallEcovacs Deebot T80 Omni

Most people who want a mopping robot want one thing above all, which is to never pick up a dirty mop again. The T80 Omni is our pick for that, and it does it for $500 to $1,000. It mops with a roller that presses on the floor at 3,700 Pa and slides out to reach edges and corners. When the run is over, the dock washes that roller in water heated up to 75°C and then dries it with hot air, which takes two hours on the default setting. The same dock empties the robot’s bin into a 3-litre bag and tops up its water from a 4-litre tank.

The vacuum has 18,000 Pa of suction, and when the robot reaches a rug the roller lifts by 1 cm, so it can vacuum the carpet and mop the tiles on the same run. A front camera helps it steer around whatever’s been left on the floor, and the side brush is an anti-tangle design. The battery is 6,400 mAh, as big as any in our list, and in its quietest vacuum-only mode it runs for up to 297 minutes.

Check that it fits before you fall for it. The robot is 9.8 cm tall and climbs a 2 cm sill with the mop on. The dock is 34 cm wide, 50 cm high and 46 cm deep with its ramp, so it needs a proper spot against a wall.

The catch is detergent. The dock has no dispenser for it, and adding detergent is the one dock job the Roborock does that this one doesn’t. We don’t think that job is worth two price bands, which is the jump to the Roborock. Go down to the Narwal only if mopping is an extra for you, because its flat pad wipes where this roller scrubs.

Best premiumRoborock Qrevo Edge 3 Pro

36,000 Pa is far more than the toast crumbs on a timber floor will ever ask for. It’s the strongest suction in our list, and deep carpet is where a figure like that has something to do. So this is a robot for a particular kind of house: one with a lot of carpet, a tall sill or two, and furniture that sits low.

At just under 8 cm it’s the second-lowest robot we list, and it climbs a single step of 4.5 cm, which only one other robot here beats. Low robots and climbing robots are mostly different machines in our list, so getting under the couch and over the sliding-door track with the same one is rare. A front camera helps it steer around clutter on the way.

It mops with spinning pads that press down with up to 14 N, and it has an edge-mopping system for walls and corners. The side brush extends to reach under kickboards, and the main brush lifts out of the way on mop-only runs. On carpet it lifts the mop, or in Vacuum Carpet First mode it leaves the pads behind at the dock. Back at base the dock empties the bin, washes the pads in water of up to 100°C and dries them with air warmed to 55°C. It then refills the robot and adds the detergent, which the Ecovacs dock doesn’t do.

The catch is the price band. It’s our highest, two above the Ecovacs, and the dock that comes with it measures 40 by 49 by 45 cm, so pick out a spot for it before you order. If your home is mostly hard floor with ordinary 2 cm sills, the Ecovacs washes and dries its own mop from two bands down, and we’d stop there. The Narwal belongs in a different house again, one where vacuuming is the real job and the tiles only need a light wipe.

Best budgetNarwal Freo S

Plenty of households want a robot for the daily dust and crumbs, with a wipe over the tiles as a bonus. Paying for a dock that washes mops makes little sense there, and the Freo S is our pick from the under-$500 band.

Its mop is a flat pad, the simplest kind, though it’s pressed onto the floor with 8 N of force and you can set the water to one of three levels from a 300 ml tank. Treat it as a damp wipe for footprints and light marks. Suction is 8,000 Pa, and the roller brush and side brush are both tangle-free designs, which helps in a house with long hair or a dog.

The dock handles the vacuuming half. It empties the robot’s 250 ml bin into a 3.5-litre bag, the second-biggest dust bag in our list, and it measures 33 by 23 by 16 cm.

The robot finds its way with a laser and has a front light sensor for furniture and low obstacles. It’s 10 cm tall, climbs a 2 cm sill and stores maps for more than one floor, so it can do the upstairs rooms as well if you carry it there. The battery is 3,200 mAh and a full charge takes about five hours. You run it from the Narwal app, and it works with Alexa and Google Assistant.

The catch is the mop itself. A flat pad wipes and doesn’t scrub. If the dried spill on the kitchen floor is your real enemy, spend one band more on the Ecovacs, which scrubs with a roller and cleans up after itself. The Roborock is three bands up and would be wasted on a house this robot suits.