The 7 Best Robot Vacuums For Pet Hair, Based On Your Home

Sharing your home with pets brings joy and comfort to your life. However, these animals also come with more tedious cleaning duties. Many pets leave hair, dander, dirt, and other debris in their wake, making it necessary to keep a rigorous cleaning regimen. Robot vacuums can ease this chore, automatically sweeping (and sometimes mopping) your floors without any direct action on your part. However, over the past few decades, many companies have released their own versions of these devices with unique and innovative capabilities, making it tricky to decide which one to invest in. 

Listed below are seven robot vacuums with features that make them especially useful for pet owners. There are many things you should look for before buying a robot vacuum. For our methodology, we determined which vacuum would be best for which need. For instance, a busy household that doesn't have time to clean is looking for different features than a work-from-home household that needs a silent appliance. When assessing which model is best for each category, we prioritized options with strong suction capabilities, efficient filtering, intelligent mapping, and other features that help clean up after cats, dogs, and other animals. We also took into account their ratings and reviews, selecting models that received 3 stars and above. We have a more detailed methodology at the end of the article. Learn more below about what makes each of these robot vacuums ideal for certain households, helping you narrow down which one may be the best fit for you and your beloved pets.

The iRobot Roombas have dominated the robot vacuum industry since their original model was released in 2002. Times haven't changed in the past few decades, and the Roomba J9 is the superior vacuum for collecting pet hair and dander. While all of their robot vacuums are effective for cleaning, this model is explicitly designed for pet owners. It comes with an offer — cleverly named P.O.O.P — which stands for "Pet Owner Official Promise." The iRobot company promises to replace your robot vacuum for free if it accidentally sweeps over solid pet waste. The device is designed to avoid these messes, keeping your vacuum safe and pet feces from being accidentally dragged through your home — a unique but not uncommon problem with robot vacuums.

In addition to this distinctive feature, the Roomba learns from its cleaning history. The longer you own and use it, the better it gets at prioritizing certain rooms, adjusting its suction, and repetitively running over high-traffic areas in your home. It also uses PrecisionVision navigation to avoid small objects like pet beds, bowls, toys, and litter boxes.

Purchase iRobot's Roomba J9 on Amazon for $899.99.

Purchase iRobot's Roomba J9 on iRobot for $899.99.

Bigger isn't always better — a smaller robot vacuum is far more effective for narrow and compact living spaces. If you live in a small house or apartment and your pet's fur fills up the space faster than you can keep up, the Eufy 11S Max Robot Vacuum is the perfect solution. The fully assembled vacuum is only 2.85 inches tall, and its sleek design sweeps close to the wall and underneath short furniture. 

While running, the Eufy robot vacuum lets out a low whirring sound reaching about 55 decibels, making it as noisy as a dishwasher. While that might seem loud, most traditional vacuums and other robot vacuums are 10 to 20 decibels higher, which can startle skittish pets. The muffled sound is also good for smaller homes and apartments since it's quieter for other household members and neighbors living on the other side of your walls. This vacuum also sweeps the hard-to-reach spaces with a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter, making it ideal for homes with furry dogs and cats since it will sweep up dander and other small particles that traditional vacuums can miss.

Purchase Eufy's 11S Max Robot Vacuum on Amazon for $249.89.

Purchase Eufy's 11S Max Robot Vacuum on Eufy for $249.99.

Open floor plans with carpet, hardwood, and other flooring can be tricky for robot vacuums to maneuver. Shark's AI Ultra Robot Vacuum isn't like other vacuums. This device uses advanced LiDar Clean Navigation, which is a program that fully maps your home. With the help of AI, it learns not only where furniture is placed but also when the flooring changes material, allowing it to clean it efficiently and never get stuck on a high pile rug or a bunched runner. The program ensures it sweeps every inch of your carpet and hard flooring, removing as much pet dander and hair as possible.

In addition to its top-tier navigation and seamless transitions from soft to hard floors, it uses HEPA filtration to capture over 99% of dust and allergens. This vacuum is great for people who are sensitive to dust and pet allergies since it detects and suctions particles as small as 0.3 microns. Since this device is so effective at picking up debris, it also self-empties at its dock. This enables it to make multiple cleaning sessions over large spaces without getting clogged, which is perfect for open floor plans. This way, it can pick up after pets for longer periods.

Purchase Shark's AI Ultra Robot Vacuum (AV2501S) on Amazon for $549.99.

Purchase Shark's AI Ultra Robot Vacuum (AV2501S) at Walmart for $489.99.

If your robot vacuum has a lot of ground to cover and multiple pets to pick up after, the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra may be the robot vacuum for you. It's a big step for robot cleaning technology. This vacuum sports an impressive 10,000 pascals (Pa), which is a measurement that refers to how much force the vacuum exerts to suction debris from floors. To provide better context, most vacuums operate between 2,000 to 6,000 Pa. The Roborock's impressive suction power is guaranteed to remove pet hair from surfaces throughout your home, including carpet, marble, tile, wood, and other synthetic floors. On top of its vacuuming capabilities, it's also a mop. Its water tank reaches up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, making it perfect for lifting any stubborn stains left behind by animal paws or accidents.

In addition to its powerful suction and hot mopping, this robot vacuum is outfitted with a FlexiArm side brush and dual-roller brush to ensure it sweeps all dust and debris from the floor. The FlexiArm pops out to sweep a corner or under a tight piece of furniture it can't squeeze under, allowing the machine to grab all debris. However, you have to activate the arm on the app, so the downside is that you have to track the vacuum to use the feature. Aside from this minor downside, the artificial intelligence-powered vacuum maps out rooms as it moves, dodging pets and their toys while effectively cleaning up any messes they leave behind.

Purchase Roborock's S8 MaxV Ultra on Amazon for $1,779.99.

Purchase Roborock's S8 MaxV Ultra at Best Buy for $1,779.99.

The primary purpose of a robot vacuum is to eliminate your daily mopping, sweeping, and vacuuming responsibilities. Cleaning up after yourself, your family, and your pets is much simpler with the Dreame X30 Ultra Robot Vacuum. It will ease back your weekly cleaning. This device's best selling point is its auto and self-maintenance capabilities. It not only self-empties its dust bin, but also self-cleans the washboard and mop pads and refills the mop water tank from a storage piece attached to the docking station. Set up this device and run it from an app, allowing it to recharge, refill, and clean itself as needed. The system even prompts you when it's finally time to change the dirty water tanks.

In addition to an almost entirely hands-off experience, this device has an 8,300 Pa level, making it incredibly powerful for sucking up allergens and debris around your home. You can also set up pet zones in the app. This is a unique feature for mapping out food bowls, litter boxes, and pet beds, so the vacuum avoids your animals' belongings. 

Purchase the Dreame X30 Ultra Robot Vacuum on Amazon for $1,699.99.

Purchase the Dreame X30 Ultra Robot Vacuum on Dreame for $1,699.99.

When you're working from home, the last thing you want is a loud robot vacuum buzzing in the background. It can be distracting background noise during your calls, and it can break your concentration as you wonder what thing it keeps bumping into. To avoid that, invest in Dyson's robot vacuum. The 360 VIs Nav has twice the suction power of most robot vacuums and has multiple modes and features that make it highly efficient at picking up dirt and debris from pets. It transitions between four modes: auto, boost, quick, and quiet. When in quiet mode, it reduces its noise output, which also extends the battery life. This will allow it to pick up your pet hair without too much ruckus. 

What sets Dyson's vacuum apart is not just its technological features, but also its unique design. The full-width brush bar that spans the entire bottom of the device, along with its square-shaped front, is uncommon for robot vacuums. However, they help the device suck up dirt as close to furniture and the walls as possible, ensuring a thorough cleaning. The use of piezo sensors is an additional stand-out feature, which detect microscopic dust levels and enable a boost in suction to remove them. These sensors are particularly useful in detecting residual pet dander and debris that may not be visible to the naked eye, helping you eliminate allergens in your home.

Purchase Dyson's 360 Vis Nav Robot Vacuum on Amazon for $1,199.99.

Purchase Dyson's 360 Vis Nav Robot Vacuum at Best Buy for $1,199.99.

Purchase Dyson's 360 Vis Nav Robot Vacuum on QVC for $1,199.99.

Robot vacuums aren't known for being budget-friendly. Most cost from a few hundred to over a thousand dollars, especially if they're from a reputable and reliable brand. AIRROBO has a robot vacuum that pet owners on a budget can appreciate, as it's only a fraction of the typical vacuum cost. Despite the low price point, this device has features similar to many high-end robot vacuums, including advanced navigation and configurable features through a mobile app.

AIRROBO's robot vacuum has a main brush, side brush, and floating scraper design that deep cleans hard floors and low-pile carpets. The scraper pulls dust and debris from the grout between tiles, ensuring no tiny pet hairs or dander are left behind. While it doesn't have auto dust emptying in its charging station like more expensive brands, it has a 600 ml dust bin, which is one of the biggest when compared to like-models. This allows plenty of pet hair to be stored while cleaning. The device also travels in a zigzag path, which helps to dislodge pet hair and suction efficiently. The suction is around 2,800 Pa, which is lower than upscale vacuum options but still commendable for being one of the cheapest robot vacuums on the market.

Purchase the AIRROBO Robot Vacuum (P20) on Amazon for $129.99.

Purchase the AIRROBO Robot Vacuum (P20) on AIRROBO for $199.99.

With millions of robot vacuums sold annually, the market is flooded with a variety of brands and models, each with its own set of advantages, disadvantages, and special features. Because of this, narrowing down which option is the best can be tricky. In order to choose the right vacuum, you need to take your pets into account. They naturally make your home messier, making it important that you invest in the right cleaning appliance.

Depending on the size of your home, whether you commute or work from home, and how many pets or other house members you have, certain robot vacuums will be better suited for your lifestyle. We considered their suction power, filter type, mobile app features, and overall design to determine which robot vacuum models are best for certain situations. We've also taken into account ratings and reviews, selecting only those that are 3 stars and above. This thorough process should help you find a device that's within your budget and is right for you and your furry friends.