Editorial Policy

How I Test

Every product I write about has run through the bungalow for a minimum of 30 days of daily use, usually longer. Robot vacs face the actual fur output of two shedding dogs, on hardwood and on the living-room runner. Dustbin weight is logged on a kitchen scale before and after each timed run; the gram delta is the measure, not the bot's own full-bin indicator. Noise readings come from the iPhone NIOSH SLM app at standing ear height on the main hardwood hallway, with runner-rug readings logged separately as a secondary figure.

Notes go in the day something happens, not reconstructed later. If a bot handled the hallway runner fine in week two and started bunching the fringe in week five, both entries stay in the log. If a companion app pushed a firmware update that broke scheduled cleaning maps, that gets dated and logged. Before a conclusion goes in a review, I run the failure modes against r/robotvacuums and r/homeautomation threads to see whether a problem is specific to this floor plan or shows up across different home types.

Manufacturer battery runtime claims reflect best-case conditions. The measured figure from this specific bungalow almost always falls short of the rated number; the review cites the measured figure.

What I Cover

Robot vacuums, air purifiers, and smart-home detectors for households with pets or young kids. Out of scope: corded stick vacuums, carpet shampooers, central vacuum systems, and smart-home hub setup guides. When a review is likely to read differently on all-carpet floors than it does on hardwood, the piece says so explicitly.

Affiliate Relationships

Some links here are affiliate links. Click one, buy the product, and a small commission comes to me at no extra cost to you. The commission structure doesn't determine which products get covered or how. A unit that failed in testing gets a review that says so, whether or not its link pays out.

Brand-Sent Units

If a brand sends a unit for testing, that's disclosed at the top of the piece. The testing log otherwise runs on my own money: purchased units, some returned, some picked up as refurbs. Exact prices aren't included in reviews.

Updates and Corrections

Models get discontinued. Firmware updates change how bots behave. If something here is out of date or contains an error, the contact page is the right way to flag it. Substantive corrections are noted in the piece with a date.