Robot Vacuum Problems by Brand: What the Public Record Shows

Which robot vacuum brand has the most problems is a fair question with a thinner public answer than most buying guides admit. One large owner survey rates some brands and not others. The one government security advisory we found names a single brand. And a search of US recall notices turns up no recall of a household robot vacuum at all. This page sets out, brand by brand, what is on the public record and where the record is silent, so that a gap is not mistaken for a clean bill of health. We did not test any vacuum.

The problems every brand shares

Before comparing brands, it helps to know what goes wrong with robot vacuums in general. Consumer Reports asks its members about vacuums they bought new, and its robot figures show what owners report most often.

Two things follow. Most of these are maintenance matters, which no brand removes. And the differences between brands, set out below, are differences of degree. Our report on robot vacuum problems covers the everyday complaints in detail.

Brand by brand

Consumer Reports gives a brand two ratings. Predicted reliability estimates how likely a brand’s robots are to develop a problem by the end of the fourth year. Owner satisfaction reflects how many owners say they are extremely likely to recommend theirs. Both apply to all of a brand’s robots together, so they cannot tell you about one model.

We read Consumer Reports’ findings as search excerpts, because its pages would not open for us, and its pages are updated at different times. Check the current ratings before relying on any line of this table.

iRobot (Roomba)

iRobot is the brand with the most on the record, good and bad. In the survey it earns a middling rating for predicted reliability and a below-par one for owner satisfaction, and its robots are more likely to have Wi-Fi connection problems than those of most other brands. Older Consumer Reports pages rated it more kindly, which suggests its standing has slipped over the last few years. In the laboratory it still does well.

The company itself changed hands. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2025 and has been owned since January 2026 by Picea, the firm that manufactured its robots. iRobot says support continues. What that means for warranty service in practice is not yet clear from anything published. Our guide to Roomba alternatives goes through the options for owners who want to switch.

Eufy

Eufy, Anker’s home brand, comes out best in the survey: a near-top rating for predicted reliability, and robots that are less prone to clogs and to app or online problems than most. The weak point is the battery, which had died in 14 percent of Eufy robots in the survey. Its satisfaction rating is described as decent on one Consumer Reports page and middling on another. We found no regulator’s notice about Eufy robot vacuums.

Shark

Shark is rated highly for robot reliability on a Consumer Reports page that is several years old. We could not read a current robot rating for the brand, and accounts of its owner satisfaction differ between pages of different dates. Shark’s strong ratings for its upright vacuums are for a different kind of machine and should not be carried over.

Dyson

Dyson’s robots earn a very good rating for predicted reliability and an unfavorable one for owner satisfaction, an unusual pairing. It suggests machines that keep working but do not please their owners, though the survey does not say why. Dyson sells very few robot models, so the rating rests on a narrow range.

Roborock

Roborock is the clearest case of missing data. Consumer Reports says it has not gathered enough owner responses to rate the brand for reliability or satisfaction. Its lab results are mixed between models: one Roborock robot did well across surfaces in an older roundup, and a Roborock vacuum-and-mop combo placed last among the combos Consumer Reports tested, mainly for failing to shift dried stains. Neither result says anything about how the robots hold up over years.

Ecovacs

We found no survey rating for Ecovacs. What the public record does hold is a security advisory from the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), first published on May 15, 2025, and updated on July 10, 2025.

• Models named: the Deebot X1S PRO, X1 PRO OMNI, X1 OMNI and X1 TURBO, and the T10, T20 and T30 series, on software older than the versions listed in the advisory.
• The flaws: the wireless link between the robot and its base station was protected by keys that could be worked out from the device’s serial number, and the base stations did not check that a software update was genuine.
• The risk, in CISA’s words: an attacker could “send malicious updates to the devices or execute code”.
• The fix: CISA says Ecovacs has released software updates for all affected devices and pushed them to users.
• In use: CISA said it had received no report of these flaws being exploited.

If you own one of these models, run the system update in the app. A caution on reading this the other way: an advisory with a fix shows that outside researchers examined a product and the maker responded. A brand with no advisory may simply not have been examined in public, so the absence of one is not evidence of better security.

Recalls: none for household robots that we could find

We searched the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s recall notices for robot vacuums on October 9, 2026, through search-engine copies because the CPSC’s site would not load for us. The robotic products that came back were pool cleaners, recalled over batteries and chargers that can overheat, along with cordless stick and handheld vacuums. We found no recall of a household floor robot from any of the brands above. That is a search result, not a guarantee, so check the recall list for your own model.

Robots that also mop

Many current robots are vacuum-and-mop combos. Consumer Reports says it does not yet have dependable reliability or satisfaction ratings for them, and suggests that their lower problem rates may only reflect how new they are. If you are buying a combo, the brand ratings above are a weaker guide than they look.

How to use this when choosing

These points are our own suggestions, drawn from the pattern of problems above.

• Ask about the battery first. It is the second most common problem in the survey. Check whether the battery can be replaced by the owner and what the warranty says about it.
• Find out what works without the app. App or online faults and Wi-Fi trouble are each reported for more than one robot in ten. A robot that can start from a button is less exposed to them.
• Look for a stated update policy. The Ecovacs advisory shows why software support matters for a machine on your home network.
• Buy where returns are easy. A robot that cannot cope with your floors shows it within days.

If the list of chores a robot brings puts you off, robot vacuum vs cordless stick vacuum compares the two, and cordless vacuum problems covers what goes wrong with sticks.

How we researched this

We used Consumer Reports’ published findings from its member survey, read as search excerpts; CISA’s advisory ICSA-25-135-19; a search of CPSC recall notices; and iRobot’s announcement of its change of ownership. We did not test any vacuum and did not contact the manufacturers. Survey ratings are brand-level and change with each year’s data. Where we found nothing about a brand, we have said so and drawn no conclusion from it. If a manufacturer wishes to respond, we will publish its response.