Generally, robot vacuums don’t have the power to replace your traditional vacuum when it comes to deeper cleans. But for keeping on top of spillages and daily grime, they’re a great help and will mean you have to vacuum a lot less – and who doesn’t want that?

The only thing you need to do is change the water in the base station every seven days and swap out the dust bag every couple of months. Other than that, it cleans and mops for you.

She is an active member of the ASTM Committee on vacuum cleaners and chairman of the consumer information sub-committee.

Most uprights feature onboard hoses, wands and tools for vacuuming crevices and upholstery and cleaning above-the-floor spaces like door frames and crown moldings.

When we first get the robot set up, we'll see how long it takes to create a map of the home, and how accurate that map is. For subsequent runs, we'll keep an eye on how the robot navigates the space; if takes a logical route through the house, if it repeats already-clean areas, and so on.

In our Lab tests: The Dreame H12 Pro is an updated version of a previously tested pick with many of the same capabilities and features. We sent it out to consumer testers who confirmed it was easy and effective to use.

Some models come with docking stations that double as a disposal unit too, automatically emptying their Top 3 Automatic Vacuum Cleaners canisters when they return to the station.

Looking after all this is our homes editor, Hannah Mendelsohn, who finds the must-try products and writes up our product reviews – including all our vacuum content.

We use industry-standard rayon fibers to simulate pet hair that we evenly spread on a carpet’s surface to see how well each machine cleans it up.

For homes with both carpets and hard flooring, we recommend the Eufy X10 pro omni robot vacuum cleaner. It’s remarkably good value for a self-emptying and self-refilling model, and its mopping action applies pressure to a pair of rotating brush heads to actually scrub the floor, rather than dragging a wet pad across it. The results are fantastic.

As well as testing their hoovering skills, we rated each robot’s app and how easy they were to set up and maintain. We also considered the costs of any replacement parts – all robot vacuums wear out over time and require fresh filters, brushes, dust bags and rollers.

Blossom is passionate about finding the best home products and appliances for GH readers. As head of the homes testing team, she has led reviews across multiple categories, from pizza ovens, and smart plugs to portable fans and hobs. She enjoys delving into the intricacies of products and refining testing protocols to ensure we’re testing them against their claims.

The specs stood up on testing too; this robovac's vacuuming powers are some of the very best we've come across. Our tester also found it could tackle the edges of rooms remarkably well, and its mopping is excellent too.

While the Roomba was once synonymous with robot vacuum cleaners, today the brand faces stiff competition from the likes of Eufy, Tapo and Samsung, which, like Roomba, offer vacuums to suit every budget and every living situation.