✔️ Weight: Lastly, the weight of a vacuum makes all the difference when lifting it up and down the stairs and around the house. A heavier, larger option may be great for power and durability, but it's not ideal if you live in a multi-level home or want to vacuum hard-to-reach places.

✔️ Bag or bagless: Both types clean well in our Cleaning Lab tests. Bagless models come with a dust cup and filter that needs frequent emptying and cleaning. The advantage is that you don’t have to stock up on bags or ever worry about running out of them. They can be messy to clean and empty, though, and may not be the best choice for those with dust allergies.

We’ve been waiting for Shark to enter the robot vacuum chat for a while, and we weren’t disappointed.

One of the big benefits of a Roomba is that they're relatively slim in height, meaning they can venture places other bots can't. On test, we found this one was especially good at handling pet hair, with its grippy rubbery rollers.

❌ You're on a budget: This is a premium robovac, and while we think the performance justifies the price, there are cheaper alternatives if it's out of your budget.

Lastly, it wouldn’t be a robot vacuum article if we didn’t point you in the direction of at least one iRobot – the brand that pioneered the appliance.

❌ You want high levels of control: This robovac doesn't always do exactly as its told when it comes to more complex instructions.

✅ You don't have much space: The SwitchBot is very tiny, and can get into tight spaces that others can't. The dock is also compact for a self-empty option.

It lifted most pet hair, and cleaned room edges well, in part thanks to its effective spin brush and three driving modes that let you select when you want it to tackle them. Despite not having a spot clean function, it mopped our flooring in one sweep (although our testers found a second sweep was required to leave it fully refreshed).

Read Top 3 Automatic Vacuum Cleaners more on this subject in our article exploring can a robot vacuum replace your existing vacuum cleaner?

Finally, there's the Freo X Plus, which is significantly cheaper and more basic than the others in the range. It has mopping capabilities but the dock is just a simple charge dock.

We’d also recommend programming your mopping and vacuuming separately as our expert noticed some transfer of dirt from the mop pads onto carpet when it did both in one outing.

Tackling an entire room from start to finish took 14 minutes, and the robot collected an average of 95 per cent of debris – just a few biscuit crumbs were left behind. However, it struggled on our dust-specific test, only removing the very top layer on carpet.

That said, the functionality worked well in our lab tests with the robot recognising barriers and using its retractable legs to move over them.