Best Robot Vacuum for Carpets in the UK (2024)

Sometimes, a robot vacuum may avoid a black or very dark carpet.

What happens here is that the sensors classify the black carpet as a precipice. Then they ensure that the robot vacuum won’t drive over it.

We don’t want that, because this way it won’t clean the carpet.

But there’s a simple remedy for this problem.

You can cover up these sensors.

These are on the bottom side of the robot vacuum. Just cover the sensors with a strip of adhesive tape.

This should solve the problem with the dark/black carpets.

High pile carpets are quite a challenge for robot vacuums.

It has to face the following three difficulties:

Overcoming height

A long pile carpet can be relatively high.

Therefore, your robot vacuum should be able to climb certain heights so it can drive on the high pile carpet.

Strong suction power

A robot vacuum for high pile carpets must have strong suction so it can remove the dirt that’s stuck deep in the carpet.

Extremely high pile carpets

Extremely high pile carpets are even more challenging for robot vacuums (or any other vacuum).

Hardly any vacuum achieves a satisfactory cleaning result if the carpet fibres are very long.

Furthermore, the long carpet fibres may wrap themselves around the robot vacuum’s main brush. Then the brush blocks and the cleaning trip is over.

You would have to rush to free your household helper so it can continue cleaning.

Therefore, we recommend setting up a no-go zone (virtual barriers) for the very high pile carpet.

Then the robot vacuum will drive around the carpet, but it’ll still clean the rest of your flat without any problems.

If you have many carpets in your home, you have to consider a few things when buying.

To avoid making a wrong purchase decision, you should take these criteria into account when buying a robot vacuum for carpets:

• Requirement: The robot vacuum needs to have an overall good performance on all floor types, not just on carpets.

• Good cleaning performance on carpets

• It should have an automatic carpet detection function.

• The robot vacuum should be able to overcome obstacles well so it can drive on high carpets, too.

• You should be able to "Define no-go zones" in the mobile phone app.

• Good price-performance ratio

We’ll talk more about each criterion below.

Your robot vacuum for carpets should be an allrounder

The robot vacuum should perform well in all relevant areas, not just on carpets.

The following categories are essential: good cleaning performance on hard floors, user-friendly mobile app, quiet operation, good battery performance and efficient navigation.

All our "top robot vacuums for carpets" are allrounders that came out with flying colours in our extensive tests.

Our top choices had an excellent performance on carpets, too.

Good performance on carpets (powerful suction)

Most modern robot vacuums hardly reach their limits when cleaning laminate, thanks to their excellent cleaning performance and suction power.

It’s a different story with carpets.

The dirt quickly sinks deep into the carpet and gets stuck in the carpet fibres, so it’s difficult for the robot vacuum to remove it again.

The robot vacuum cleaner must have powerful suction to achieve good cleaning results on carpets.

But suction power alone won’t do the job.

A well-designed and high-quality cleaning brush is also a must.

Then it won’t have problems removing the dirt from the carpet fibres.

Automatic carpet detection function (carpet boost)

The modern robot vacuum cleaners usually have several power settings.

The robot vacuum usually cleans in the medium cleaning mode. This works great on hard floors.

Carpets, on the other hand, should be cleaned in turbo mode.

The automatic carpet detection ("carpet boost") ensures that the robot vacuum automatically switches to maximum suction power when driving on the carpet. As soon as the robot vacuum leaves the carpet again, it automatically changes it to the previously set power mode.

The Dreame L10s Ultra, for example, features this function. You can check out our review here.

Your robot vacuum for carpets should be good at overcoming obstacles

Carpets have - sometimes more, sometimes less - a certain height that the robot vacuum has to overcome.

Depending on how high your carpet is, the robot vacuum for carpets should be a good climber.

Our "best robot vacuums for carpets" can overcome heights of 1.9 - 2 cm (~0.7 - 0.8 inches) without any problems.

A conventional carpet is, therefore, no biggie for the little household helper.

An easy set-up of no-go zones in the app

If your robot vacuum can't cope with the long pile carpet and gets stuck all the time, you don't necessarily have to do without the household helper.

The solution lays at hand.

You should create a no-go zone (virtual barrier) for the carpet.

Then the robot vacuum avoids the carpet during daily cleaning and won’t get stuck.

But it still cleans the rest of your flat.

So the robot vacuum can still be of excellent service and take a massive burden off your shoulders.

The Dustbin - the bigger, the better

Carpets magically attract dirt. There’s no way around that.

Therefore, your little household helper must clean the carpet almost daily. But that also means that the mobile dustbin is quickly full.

You should make sure that the dust container is as large as possible when buying one. Then you won’t have to empty the container all the time.

Price-Performance Ratio

Last but not least, the price - or rather the price-performance ratio - plays an important role.

Good robot vacuums are pretty much unaffordable, right? No! That’s a thing of the past.

You can get high quality for much less money these days.

You’ll get your money’s worth with our test winner (Deebot OZMO 950). It’s got a top performance at a great price.