I've tested dozens of robot vacuums. These are the three I recommend most to family and friends

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Robot vacuums are one of the best ways to automate your home cleaning tasks and free up time in your week. These devices can autonomously navigate your home and vacuum hair, dust, and debris from your floors, whether you have carpet or hard floors. Plus, many robot vacuums have an extra mopping function to mop your hard floors, taking even more cleaning tasks off your plate.

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As a robot vacuum reviewer, I receive multiple of these devices each month. I've become very familiar with the technology behind robot vacuums, how it's evolved over recent years, and how different brands approach innovations in the field. While robot vacuum tech has greatly transformed over recent years, not every device is created equal, and not every robot vacuum is good for every home. These are the three robot vacuums I recommend to anyone.

After testing the Matic Robot for the past few weeks, it's become my favorite robot vacuum in the house. I currently have seven robot vacuums from different brands at home, including Roborock, Ecovacs, iRobot, and Eufy, but the Matic Robot outperforms them all.

My Matic runs overnight. It's quiet enough not to wake my three kids, and I wake up to a clean home. It thoroughly covers my floors and leaves no crumbs or pet hair behind. When it's done vacuuming an area, it mops it with the self-cleaning roller mop and leaves streak-free, clean floors in its wake. The only mop it rivals is me mopping my floors with my O-Cedar mop.

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The best thing about the Matic Robot is that the company behind it is committed to improving it over time instead of releasing a new robot vacuum every six months. This ensures your investment is protected and gives your existing robot new features and abilities through firmware updates.

The Roborock Saros 10R is truly one of the best robot vacuums I've ever used -- it won our Editors' Choice award, after all. It has 22,000Pa of suction power, dual rotating mop pads, and a self-emptying dustbin. This robot is also smart enough to navigate your home without swallowing your socks or charging cords.

Any time I run the Saros 10R, I can count on my floors getting clean without me having to lug around a mop and bucket or even intervene to rescue the robot after it's gotten stuck.

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Robot vacuums often have mixed reviews, yet the Roborock Saros 10R has 4.4 out of 5 on Amazon, which is impressive for such a device.

The Eureka E20 Plus is a self-emptying robot vacuum from one of the best traditional vacuum brands. Its true genius lies in the charging station: instead of the robot emptying its dustbin into a replaceable dust bag at the dock, it empties it into a reusable dust cup.

Not having dust bags at the dock significantly reduces maintenance costs, as you won't have to purchase new bags that you throw out every six to eight weeks.

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The only shortcoming I found is that its small obstacle avoidance isn't as reliable as most high-end models, but the Eureka E20 Plus is only $400. If you don't mind tidying up before running your robot vacuum, and only need a robot to mop lightly for maintenance between deep cleanings, this Eureka is a sound investment.

As a robot vacuum reviewer with a penchant for data, I run these devices through real-world scenarios and controlled testing. I have a dog that sheds a lot and three kids that constantly leave pencils, charging cables, and small toys all over the house, so my floors are my testing lab. I'll tell you when a $200 robot outperforms a $1,000 one and when it doesn't, regardless of the brand name.

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I'm in the business of testing robot vacuums, not selling them. So you can always trust me to tell you when an app is confusing or a robot vacuum chokes on pet hair -- these are all things I'd like to know before spending hundreds of dollars on a product.

There is a suction power war in the robot vacuum market, but the leaders are all Roborock vacuums, including the Saros 10, Saros 10R, and Saros Z70. Each of them boasts 22,000Pa of suction power.

However, Pascals, a derived unit of pressure, aren't always the sole indicator of great performance. Advertised Pascals on a robot vacuum are always at the highest setting, which isn't how you'd typically run your robot vacuum. Too much suction could also damage your rugs or carpets, so it's not a good idea to go on that metric alone when you have mostly medium or high-pile carpet.

Instead, it's important to look into the robot vacuum's overall performance to get an idea of how effective it is at picking up crumbs and hair, rather than only its suction power.

Robot vacuums are a fantastic way to automate floor cleaning, but they do require intervention and maintenance. You should always maintain your robot vacuum by promptly emptying the dustbin or replacing the dust bag, cleaning and inspecting its brushes and sensors, cleaning and replacing its filters when needed, and updating the firmware as instructed by the manufacturer.

Proper maintenance can extend the life of your robot vacuum, so be sure to follow the manufacturer's instructions to maintain your device.