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Robot vacuum vs stick vacuum
Updated
They do different jobs. A robot keeps open floors tidy with almost no effort from you. A stick vacuum does what a robot cannot: stairs, sofas, the car, a spill right now, and thick rugs. If you own neither, we'd buy the stick first. If you already own any working vacuum, the robot is the one that changes your week.
What each one does
| Job | Robot vacuum | Stick vacuum |
|---|---|---|
| Daily crumbs and pet hair on open floor | Yes, on a schedule | Yes, if you do it |
| Under beds and sofas | Yes, if it fits. Our picks run from 2.85 to 4.1 inches tall | Awkward |
| Stairs | No | Yes |
| Sofas, car seats, shelves | No | Yes, with tools |
| A spill you want gone now | Some have spot cleaning, but you still fetch it and start it | Yes |
| Thick carpet and shag | Poor fit. See thick carpet | Depends on the model |
| Floors cluttered with cords and toys | Gets stuck | You steer around them |
What the robot listings admit
- Owners of the iRobot Roomba 105 Vac say it does not deep clean. That fits what a robot is: a small brush and a small motor doing a little every day.
- The eufy 11S MAX is listed for hard floors to medium-pile carpet only.
- Reports of robots getting stuck show up in the owner summary for even our top pick.
The effort is what differs
A stick takes your time every time you use it. A robot takes your time in small pieces: emptying, cutting hair off the brush, and rescuing it. With a dock the emptying mostly goes away. By our estimate a 2.7 liter dock bag lasts about 18 days of daily runs in a 1,500 sq ft home with one pet and mixed floors. With no dock, a 0.6 liter bin in the same home fills in about 4 runs. The emptying calculator gives you your own number.
Who should buy which
- Small place, mostly hard floors, no stairs: a robot can do most of the work. Keep a hand vac or a broom for corners and spills.
- Stairs, thick rugs or a car to clean: you need a stick or an upright no matter what. Add a robot for the open floors if daily hair or crumbs bother you.
- Shedding pets: both. The robot handles the daily hair and the other vacuum handles the sofa and the stairs.
If you add a robot
- roborock Q10 S5+ is our pick for most homes. It maps with lidar and empties itself. The caveat: mixed owner reports on getting stuck and on reliability.
- eufy 11S MAX is the simple one, with no app. The caveat: no map, and you empty it yourself.
We do not cover stick vacuums on this site, so we have no stick to point you to. The robots are compared in the roundup.