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The best robot vacuums for pet hair

Michael Bizzaco
Erika Rawes
By and

Pet hair can be a royal pain to contend with. It gets everywhere and there’s no end to the constant dust-bunnies you’ll find scattered throughout the home. That’s why we have handy devices like robot vacuums designed for pet hair pickup. While many of the vacs in our roundup aren’t exclusively for pet hair, they’re the best at dealing with the fuzz/dust. Plus, robotic, in most cases, means web-connected, so you can expect app controls and customization for several of these devices.

The hardest part is always picking the new hardware, so we’ve done a majority of the work for you. Here’s our roundup of the best pet hair vacs you can buy today. Be sure to read to the end to see our answers to some of your most-asked pet hair vac questions.

Looking for a different type of vacuum? Check out our picks for the best vacuums, best robot vacuums, and best cordless vacuums. Also, look for the best robot vacuum deals available now.

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At a glance

iRobot Roomba s9+

The best overall

iRoomba S9 Plus
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When it comes to tackling pet hair, there’s simply no better vacuum than the Roomba s9+. From hardwood to carpet, there’s no stopping this little titan. Whatever the surface, the s9’s three-stage cleaning system digs deep into the toughest carpet fibers to free up pet dander. Combine that with PerfectEdge Technology for getting deep into baseboards and your home’s nooks and crannies, and there’s simply no escape for those pesky dust-clumps.

Whatever detritus is lifted from your floors is sifted through the s9’s tough filtration system, one that eliminates up to 99% of airborne allergens. In terms of capacity, you’re looking at up to 60 days of storage for your dirt. This is one of the smartest vacuums in our roundup, too. The s9’s onboard vSLAM navigation and Smart Home mapping work together to educate your bot on your home’s geography, including what rooms to keep out of. Plus, you can control and customize through the iRobot app. If you’re running an Alexa household, the s9 can also be awoken and put to sleep with Echo voice commands. At over $1,000, this is one of the more expensive vacs for sure, but the features and performance are well worth the investment.

iRobot Roomba 675

The second best

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The Roomba 675 brings a few features that work well when pets make a mess. It comes with dual multi-surface brushes to help get deeper dirt and hair and comes with dirt detection sensors that can tell when an area is particularly dirty, so the Roomba can turn up the power. You also get the other smart Roomba features, like intelligent navigation, cleaning schedules, automatic recharging, and so on. This heavy-duty model may be especially useful in homes with multiple pets. Plus, it’s one of the more affordable Roomba robovacs available.

Roborock S5 Max

The best for mopping

Image of Roborock S5 vac
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The Roborock S5 Max is an excellent machine featuring 2000 pa suction, automatic carpet boost, and a 290ml electric water tank. It houses a water tank because not only does this device vacuum your floor, but it can also mop your hardwood surfaces. The powerful suction does a superb job cleaning debris and hair from pets, while the mopping capabilities handle mud, paw prints, and dander. 

With advanced navigation and the ability to only clean select spaces, the Roborock S5 Max is one of the smarter vacuums in its price range. You can set up no-go zones and no-mop zones, so the robot will only vacuum and mop where you want it to. It can stay away from pet crates or food bowls, while quietly cleaning up after your pet. You can even use the S5 with Alexa, activating it with voice commands.

Yeedi K650

The best for the price

Image of Yeedi K650
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Move over for the Yeedi K650. Actually, no need, it’ll move around you. The K650 is the middle child of Yeedi’s robot vac lineup, and it’s quite an impressive vacuum. Capable of 2000Pa of suction, the K650 has four different vac presets, including Standard, Max, Max+, and the very convenient Quiet mode that keeps the decibels to a minimum during your next Zoom call. The vac is packaged with a number of brush add-ons, including two side brushes for getting under base trim and corners, a tangle-free pet-hair brush, a multi-surface cleaning tool, and an 800ml dust bin for weeks’ worth of pet-hair grabbing.

The K650 runs for about two hours on a single charge and will notify you when the battery is getting low. In the Yeedi app (for iOS and Android), you can choose from three cleaning presets (Random, Edge, and Spot cleaning), view your vac’s cleaning log, check battery level, set up magnetic boundaries for your vac, and more. If you’re concerned about the vac bumping into certain valuables or furniture, you’ll want to invest in Yeedi’s boundary strips (sold separately). Alexa integration is pretty great, too. You can start and stop cleanings by saying “Alexa, start/stop the vacuum,” which is great for those of us who prefer to keep our phones away when working from home.

The only bit of trouble we ran into was the in-app “return to charger” command, which is supposed to automatically send the Yeedi K650 back to its charge pad. Because there’s no camera mapping, if the vac was cleaning in one room and the charger was located in another, the K650 was found ramming itself into walls to try and get to its home base. Once we placed it in the same room as the charger, it found the pad without any issues.

EyeVac Stationary Vacuum for Pet Hair

The best stationary vacuum

Image of EyeVac touchless vac
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The EyeVac touchless pet-hair vac is the perfect vacuum for homes with hardwood, tile, and laminate floors (along with a ton of pets). Once you plug it in, the 1,400-watt EyeVac is always turned on. Once you sweep pet hair, dirt, and other crud to the front of the vac, the infrared sensors will detect the debris and suck it in. With a 6.5-quart canister, the EyeVac can go for weeks without being emptied. When the dirt bin is full, a red status light turns on, letting you know to empty the canister.

One of our favorite features of the EyeVac is its dual-level filtration. The air that gets sucked in, along with your pet hair and dirt, is pushed back out as clean and filtered O2 for you and your pets to breathe. Your air quality monitor will sure love having the EyeVac around.

There’s no handle to quickly move the vacuum around the house, so this slightly dings its rating. It’s not a heavy appliance to carry around, but a handle would make it less awkward to carry. Smart feature lovers will wish it had an app to play with, something simple like activity monitoring (how often you use the EyeVac). That said, that’s more a matter of preference rather than a fault. If cats and dogs outnumber humans in your home, we highly recommend grabbing an EyeVac Stationary Vacuum — you won’t regret it.  

Bissell Pet Hair Eraser

The best handheld vac

Image of Bissell pet hair vac
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The Bissell Pet Hair Eraser isn’t a typical robot, but this hand vac is a lean, mean pet-hair machine. While this vac doesn’t come with app controls or Alexa pairing, the Bissell’s 14V lithium-ion battery and 0.7-liter dirt cup are all you need for quick vacuum jobs. It’s a vacuum you can easily grab to clean up after your furry friends. 

The Pet Hair Eraser has so many extra attachments your upright vacuum will never leave the closet. It has a handy crevice tool, and the motorized brush and triple-level filtration make this appliance a pet hair monster. The battery life is impressive, too, with many Bissell owners reporting their hand vac operating at full performance even after days of not being charged. If you have plenty of pet hair to get rid of and tend to be forgetful about recharging your gear, the Bissell Pet Hair Eraser might be the one for you. 

Research and Buying Tips

What makes a robot vacuum good for pet hair?

When picking the best robot vacuum for your pet’s hair, you’ll need to pay close attention to specs such as suction power, brush functionality, and waste volume. The better and more powerful the suction, the greater your vac will be at picking up pet dander that gets stuck deep within carpet fibers. When it comes to brushing performance, you’ll want to look out for features like adaptive edge cleaning. Attacking the nooks and crannies of your home is critical for removing pet hair. Waste capacity essentially means how much dander your vacuum can handle in one use. If you have more than one pet, you’ll want a vac that can manage one or two month’s worth of dander — if not, you’ll be stuck unloading the vac frequently.

Are Shark vacuums good for picking up pet hair?

Several Shark vacuums are suitable for pet hair. For upright vacs, we’d suggest using the Shark Navigator Pet Plus. For handheld options, we’d recommend buying the Shark WV201 Handheld Vacuum.

Are Dyson vacuums good for picking up pet hair?

The answer is absolutely. In fact, Dyson manufactures an entire line of cordless stick vacuums intended for sucking up the most challenging pet-hair situations.

Are robot vacuums worth it?

We certainly believe so. Although some may fancy the conventional upright vacuum, a robot vac takes all the manual labor out of home cleaning. Most robot vacuums are smart enough to observe and learn your home’s geography while providing the same suction power and brush features as a classic vac. Additionally, many can be managed with an app or through voice commands using a supported voice assistant. Even though first-gen robot vacs come at a high price, you can now find robot vacs at more affordable prices, similar to their upright (and handheld) counterparts.

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Topics
Michael Bizzaco
Michael Bizzaco
Michael Bizzaco has been writing about and working with consumer tech for well over a decade, writing about everything from…
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