Wyze Robot Vacuum Review 2024

Oct 30, 2024

I tested the Wyze Robot Vacuum and was surprised by its performance.

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Maintaining a clean floor is a chore that never ends. While robot vacuums aren't a full replacement for manual vacuuming or sweeping altogether, owning one can help you go much longer between manual cleanings. They are especially useful for people who are busy or those who need to clean their floors more often, like people with young kids or pets.

But robot vacuums can be expensive, and some may not want to spend a lot on one if they will still need to vacuum manually anyway. So when I saw the Wyze Robot Vacuum, priced around $200, I was excited about how affordable it was.

We've evaluated dozens of robot vacuums in the Good Housekeeping Institute Home Care and Cleaning Lab, and some of them are seriously impressive. These days, many of our favorites have high-tech features like self-emptying bases or built-in mops. But all of these extra perks come at a cost. Not only can they be very expensive, but units with mopping abilities and self-emptying bases require a lot of space. Simpler models like this robot from Wyze can be a great option for people who don't have the space or budget for the bulkier, full-featured models.

With this robot vacuum's extremely low price point, I wasn't really sure what to expect. I have tested units much more expensive than this one which missed spots while cleaning and failed to make accurate maps of the space. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised when this machine made a perfect map of my apartment in just a few minutes. Even more impressive was the way it navigated the tangle of furniture legs that makes up the center of my living room, passing under an armchair to access the rest of my home.

In open areas, the vacuum cleaned in long, tight strips, turning sharply to double back at the end of each row. I also put this unit through our usual bare floor test in our Lab to see how well it could pick up a mixture of dry orzo pasta, oats, sand and baking soda. It nabbed an average of 94% of debris, on par with some of the best robot vacuums we've ever tested.

It also did well in our edge cleaning tests. Along the walls of our testing enclosure, it picked up debris all the way to the edges. In corners, anything further than one inch from the walls was easily swept up by the robot's spinning side brush. It was pretty good at removing pet hair from carpet as well, removing a minimum of 75% of fluff in every trial.

Using this robot vac can be as simple as plugging in the charging base, docking the robot, and pressing the power button to begin cleaning. But to access the robot's other features, you will need to use an app. Fortunately, installing and pairing the Wyze app with the robot was very simple, and I found that using it was intuitive as well. In the settings, you can easily switch between the three different suction levels: Quiet, Standard and Strong. If you want, you can even adjust the suction in the middle of a cleaning session. Compared to other robot vacuums we've tested, it wasn't particularly noisy at any suction level.

You can also use the app settings to set up scheduled cleaning. It allows you to create multiple schedules which can be toggled on and off. Within each schedule, you can select days of the week, the time and which rooms you would like cleaned. Rooms can be named using the main map screen (pictured), and their boundaries can be changed too if you don't like the divisions the app generates automatically. Here, you can also highlight areas of the map for spot-cleaning or create no-go zones that the vacuum will avoid when cleaning.

I found the brush roll easy to remove and clean, and emptying the dust bin was easy too. The app actually makes maintenance easier by tracking how much longer the main brush roll, edge brush and HEPA filter can be used before needing replacements. When they are worn out, you can order new ones directly through the app.

This machine's suction power, 2,100 Pascals, is on the low side for robot vacuums. While it was sufficient for this vacuum to do a fantastic job when cleaning bare floors or even when removing pet hair from carpet, its low power caused it to fall short in other tests.

When I tested this robot against sand on carpet, our hardest test which is meant to mimic embedded dirt, it only removed an average of 19% of debris, which is about a third of what some of the fancier robot vacs have removed in our tests. Given a second chance at cleaning up the same mess, it was able to pick up an additional 8%, but sand buried deeper in the carpet was still out of reach.

This robot vac mapped my home with ease, navigating under, between and around chairs and tables. It didn't bump into furniture, and its cliff detection feature keeps it safe from falling down any stairs. Like many robot vacuums, this unit uses LIDAR technology for mapping and navigation. While it is a great system most of the time, it can be easily confused by mirrors and furniture made of glass or acrylic.

While some higher-end units also have the ability to spot smaller obstacles and go around them, this model just isn't equipped to detect or avoid smaller hazards in its path. Larger obstacles like shoes, slippers and pet toys might get pushed around, while smaller items like socks and wires could get sucked up, causing tangles or clogs.

The most straightforward solution to this problem is to remove all clutter from your floors before using the robot vacuum. But if that's not possible, you can also instruct the vacuum to stay out of certain areas by setting no-go zones in the app. In my case, I used a no-go zone in the area where I keep my shoes to prevent the robot from pushing them around.

This vacuum had no trouble moving from hardwood floor to high-pile carpet, but it isn't meant to climb thresholds greater than 20 millimeters. My kitchen sits about an inch higher than my living room. The climb proved too tough for this little robot, and the 2-inch step needed to access the bathroom was totally out of the question.

In our Lab, we have been testing robot vacuums since they were introduced in 2002. Our methods are based on testing procedures developed by the International Electrotechnical Commission and ASTM International. We evaluate several performance factors like cleaning ability on bare floors, removal of embedded dirt from carpet, fur removal and more. We also assess how easy they are to use and rate additional features like cliff detection, scheduled cleaning and no-go zones.

To test cleaning performance on bare floors, a predetermined amount of debris is spread across a marked area in our testing enclosure. The dust bin is weighed before cleaning, and the robot is allowed 10 minutes to vacuum up the mess. Afterwards, the dust bin is removed and weighed to determine the percentage of debris picked up by the vacuum. A similar test is performed for assessing performance on carpet too.

We also test mapping abilities, navigation and obstacle detection and avoidance by placing the robots in a two-room obstacle course. In addition to our usual tests, I brought this unit home with me to see how effectively it could map my apartment, maneuver around my living room and whether it could climb the small step into my kitchen or bathroom.

In short, yes. At under $200, it's not a hard purchase to justify. But exactly how useful it is will depend on your home. Robot vacuums aren't a replacement for vacuuming altogether, but they can be used to extend the length of time between manual cleanings. They are especially useful for busy people who can't clean often or in homes with shedding pets.

Although it isn't very powerful on carpeting, it will still keep floors cleaner than they otherwise would be in between manual cleanings, and if your floors are mostly bare, this robot vac could seriously minimize your usual sweeping or vacuuming routine.

Buy the Wyze Robot Vacuum

Noah works as a product reviews analyst in the Home Care & Cleaning Lab where he helps design and perform tests on various product categories. He draws on scientific expertise garnered during his time as an environmental researcher, where he managed environmental monitoring equipment, analyzed water samples in a lab and developed protocols for restoration projects. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in environmental science from the University of Wisconsin-Superior.

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