Robotic Vacuum Models

There are lots of vacuuming robots on the market, and all of them cover certain tasks -- most notably, they vacuum. Most models also feature some sort of obstacle-avoidance system and come equipped with a remote control. Beyond that, there are differences between products that account for the great range in price. Here, we'll discuss several robotic vacuums and their distinguishing characteristics.

Photo courtesy Amazon.com Lentek RV01 IntelliVac Priced at $70, the RV01 is probably most notable for its affordability. It features a sweeper attachment for hardwoods and has four built-in cleaning patterns (random, spiral, perimeter and "z") that it uses for each room. Lentek claims this ensures complete floor coverage. This model is only meant for hardwoods and low-pile carpet.

Photo courtesy HowStuffWorks Shopper iRobot Discovery 4210 More expensive and more helpful than the Roomba Red ($150 MSRP), the 4210 model costs about $280 and comes standard with the self-charging base station that calls the robot home. It takes less than three hours to charge, has a larger dust bin than previous models and will clean a single area for as long as you want it to.

Photo courtesy Amazon.com iRobot Roomba Scheduler At $320, the Scheduler is iRobot's current top-end robotic vacuum, although everything that makes the Scheduler the Scheduler is available for purchase as add-ons for some of the other Roomba models. This model lets you set cleaning cycles in advance. You can tell it to clean for 40 minutes every Tuesday and 80 minutes every Saturday and adjust the schedule at will using the remote control.

Photo courtesy HowStuffWorks Shopper Kärcher RC3000 The RC3000 costs about $1,500 and features some pretty cool capabilities. For one thing, not only does it find its way back to the charging station, but it also empties its own dust bin while it's there. It only takes about 15 minutes to fully charge, and a full charge gets you about 60 minutes of continuous cleaning. Once it recharges, it heads back out again to pick up its cleaning where it left off. The RC3000 also has a quiet mode.

Photo courtesy HowStuffWorks Shopper Electrolux Trilobite EL520A At $1,800, the Tribolite is at the top end of the robotic cleaning spectrum. It uses sonar to navigate and can easily avoid almost any type of obstacle. You can program it to clean at specific times and choose between three cleaning modes. The Tribolite creates a map of the room it's cleaning and calculates a cleaning path that will maximize coverage. It recognizes doorways by way of little magnetic strips that you apply, and it uses them to keep itself in the room you want it to clean. When it runs out of power, it returns itself to the charging station and resumes cleaning once it's rejuiced.

As you can see from the pricier models, the trend in robotic vacuums is toward a more complete home robot that will do more than just clean your floor. Products sold as vacuuming robots are starting to offer additional features like Internet connectivity, home surveillance and air-purification. The future is likely to see home robots that download music, answer your phone and preheat your oven while they vacuum your house.

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