Best robot vacuums for carpet in 2025, tested in a home with pets

Read my full review of the Roborock Saros 10R.

The Roborock Saros 10R would make the most sense for people who are serious about deep cleaning and the hands off cleaning experience as a whole — serious enough to invest in one of the priciest vacuums on the market.

With way-above-average suction power, self-sustaining mopping pads, highly perceptive small obstacle avoidance, and a livestream pet camera, the Saros 10R is an exhaustive floor suite that would flourish in lived-in homes with complex room layouts, heavy foot traffic (or paw traffic), and a high possibility of stuff on the floor at any given time.

The smartest, yet thinnest Roborock robot vacuum actually isn’t the one with a grabby arm that popped off at CES 2025. Rather, that superlative goes to the Roborock Saros 10R. After several weeks of testing, it also won the title of being the most reliable robot vacuum I’ve ever tested.

The Saros 10R’s 20,000 Pa of suction power schools most other robot vacs out there, even doubling the suction power of my previous top pick, the Roborock Qrevo Master. Strong suction obviously plays a huge part in carpet cleaning, especially when it comes to reaching into plush carpeting to unearth mushed-down pet hair. The split DuoDivide brush underneath mitigates the tangling that often happens when a robot vac just has one large roller brush.

Though not a direct facet of carpet cleaning, a thorough mopping system will still play a big part in keeping homes with pets feeling barefoot ready. The 10R’s spinning, swiveling pads do a better job than what one big, flat pad can do, especially when it comes to corner scrubbing.

But just as importantly, the Saros 10R’s navigational brainpower supplements the hell out of its actual suction power. It trades the traditional LiDAR turret for Roborock’s StarSight 2.0 tech with next-level 3D scanning for more precise small obstacle detection and maneuvering in homes with tricky turns or furniture arrangements. The Saros 10R has aced pretty much every obstacle course my apartment has thrown at it, including successfully dodging shoes, pet bowls, and random junk on the floor; weaving through the danger zone that is my under-bed storage; and vacuuming my bath mats without scrambling them up.