After going through an intensive research process to narrow down our short list of top products in this space, we tested most of our top five to be sure that these products are worth your time. Guided by experts, we spend hours looking into the factors that matter and test to verify manufacturer claims.
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Robot vacuums make life much easier when cleaning your floors, but they often have trouble when confronted with long hair. The best robot vacuums for long hair have excellent suction power and tangle-free brush rolls — or, in some cases, no brush roll at all — that prevent strands from clogging the robot and affecting its ability to pick up hair, dirt and other debris.
The BestReviews Testing Lab put many robot vacuums through their paces to find the best models for dealing with long hair. We tested standard robot features, such as battery life, charging time and dustbin capacity, as well as specific factors that affect a robot’s performance with long hair, such as the suction power on carpeting and hard surfaces and their ability to pick up various types of debris, including pet hair and kitty litter.
Our top choice is the ECOVACS DEEBOT X9 PRO Omni Robot Vacuum and Mop, which self-washes while it mops to avoid dirty streaks on the floor.
Editors’ Favorite
Dimensions: 13.78" L x 20.98" W x 15.94" H | Battery life: 200 min | Dustbin capacity: 3 L (base) | Weight: 27.5 lb | Mapping: Yes | Self-emptying: Yes
Long hair is no match for the ECOVACS DEEBOT X9 Pro Omni Robot Vacuum and Mop. It provides 16,600 Pascals of suction power, so it can effectively pull embedded hair, dirt and debris from carpeting and other surfaces. It also features a unique V-shaped roller brush and anti-tangle side brushes that prevent long hair from wrapping around the brushes and getting stuck.
It can even handle hair that’s stuck to hard flooring because it has a mopping function, too. Best of all, the robot adapts to the surface that it’s on, so it automatically lifts the mopping head on carpeting to avoid getting the fibers wet.
The X9 Pro Omni is also ideal for large homes because its battery can run for over three hours. It maps your home’s layout to learn the most efficient cleaning paths, and even uses AI to respond to changes in your home’s environment in real time.
We also love the X9 Pro Omni’s 10-in-1 base, which not only washes and dries the mopping head but also auto-empties the vacuum’s internal dustbin. The dust bag in the base has a 3-liter capacity, so it can hold plenty of hair, saving you from having to empty it after each use.
Great Value
Dimensions: 20.72" L x 13.89" W x 10.18" H | Battery life: 180 min | Dustbin capacity: 2.7 L (base) | Weight: 14.7 lb | Mapping: Yes | Self-emptying: Yes
With a dual anti-tangle system, the Roborock Q10 S5+ Robot Vacuum and Mop is designed to tackle long hair without getting stuck. It features a scraping-comb main brush and a special anti-tangle side brush, which work together to prevent hair from tangling around the brushes.
This system ensures that the robot keeps cleaning efficiently and minimizes the amount of maintenance it requires. With 10,000 Pa of suction, it’s powerful enough to pull embedded hair and other debris from carpeting and hard floors, so it’s ideal for homes with pets or those with long hair.
The Q10 S5+ can clean even larger homes so efficiently because it uses PreciSense LiDAR navigation to develop detailed maps of your floor plan. It can store maps for multiple levels, too, so every inch of your home is cleaned thoroughly. Its connected app allows you to not only schedule cleaning sessions but also adjust the suction based on the mess and surface you’re cleaning and set up no-go zones where you don’t want it to clean.
Easy to Maintain
Dimensions: 17.2" L x 17" W x 25.5" H | Battery life: 180 min | Dustbin capacity: 3.2 L (base)| Weight: 40.5 lb | Mapping: Yes | Self-emptying: Yes
The DREAME X50 Ultra Robot Vacuum and Mop offers up to 20,000 Pa of suction, so it can handle long hair and large debris like cat litter with ease. When it picks up those long hairs, it also resists tangling with a two-brush system.
Paired with an air duct design that effectively captures the hair, these brushes can manage strands up to 11.8 inches long without getting stuck. It can even remove hair from corners because it extends the brush to clean those hard-to-reach areas, as well as under furniture.
Maintenance is minimal with the X50 Ultra, too. Its base automatically empties the internal dustbin into a bag that can hold up to 2.7 liters, allowing you to go 100 days without emptying it.
It also automatically refills the robot for mopping, washes the mopping head and dries the mopping head with hot air. The robot can also be controlled via voice commands through smart home apps, such as Google Home, Siri or Alexa.
We started our testing by setting up the robot vacuums to see how long and involved the process was for each model. For Wi-Fi-connected robots, we downloaded the connected app to see how easy it was to navigate and how it aided in using all the robot’s features.
Next, we moved on to stats that we could easily quantify. We ran each robot to see how long its battery lasted before it needed to recharge — and then we timed how long it took for the battery to recharge fully. We also noted how long the robots took to clean an entire room and what the square footage was. For vacuums with mapping capabilities, we also considered how long that process took and how accurately the models captured the testing area’s floor plan.
We wanted to see how well each robot performed on hard flooring and carpeting, so we placed different types of debris in their path to evaluate the suction power. While we were primarily interested in the robots’ performance with hair, we also observed how they picked up coarse kosher salt, coffee grounds, sugar, kitty litter, cereal and other items on hard floors and carpet. We noted whether they could handle the mess in a single pass or needed multiple passes to fully remove the particles.
When the robots were finished vacuuming, we cleaned the brush rolls to see how much hair we found around them. We also cleaned other components, like the side brushes and wheels, to see if hair had collected elsewhere. For self-emptying models, we examined how well the emptying process went and how loud it was. We also considered how easy it was to empty models manually.
Finally, we observed how well the robots navigated the testing area and responded to obstacles by placing small objects in their path, such as a handbag, shoes and pet toys. We also tested voice commands to determine how responsive those that supported voice prompts were.
The main problem that all vacuums encounter when picking up long hair is the strands tend to get caught around the rolling brushes and clog them. Robot vacuums run into this issue just like standard vacuums, so many models feature specially designed brush rolls to prevent tangles. Rather than traditional bristles, these brushes are made of rubber, so they’re flexible enough to keep the hair from tangling around them.
However, an anti-tangle brush roll isn’t your only option when shopping for a robot vacuum for long hair. Some models feature no rolling brushes, so they don’t get tangled, which can reduce airflow through the machine and cause it to get stuck. Instead, these robots use stronger suction and side brushes to pull long hair directly into their dustbin.
Keep in mind that a brush roll helps a robot vacuum agitate carpet fibers to pull out dirt, debris and hair, so if your home is heavily carpeted, you may prefer a model with an anti-tangle rubber brush roll to a brushless design to get your floors as clean as possible.
Suction power is crucial when shopping for a robot vacuum for long hair. It has to be strong enough to draw the long strands into its dustbin without getting caught around its brushes.
A robot vacuum that provides a solid cleaning typically offers about 10,000 pascals (Pa), so a model like the ECOVACS DEEBOT X9 Pro Omni Robot Vacuum and Mop, which provides 16,600 Pa, is more than capable of picking up long hair. Not only that, but during testing, we saw that the vacs with the best suction power could pick up a wide variety of debris, including spilled cereal and kitty litter, from both carpeting and hard flooring effortlessly.
A robot vacuum’s battery life determines how long it can clean and how large an area it can cover before recharging. To deal with long hair, a robot may need to use its highest suction power setting, which can drain its battery more quickly. For example, many robots have sensors that detect what type of flooring it’s on, so they can automatically increase suction to pull hair and other debris out of carpet fibers. In those cases, the battery will drain more quickly.
If you want a robot to effectively clean long hair around your home, choose a model with at least 100 minutes of battery life. For large homes or those with a lot of carpeting, though, you’ll likely want a robot that can provide 150 minutes or more of cleaning time. The ECOVACS DEEBOT X9 Pro Omni Robot Vacuum and Mop can last for 200 minutes and the DREAME X50 Ultra Robot Vacuum and Mop can last for 180 minutes before needing to be recharged.
Robot vacuums can effectively remove both pet hair and human hair. Some pets have long hair that’s more likely to get caught around the vacuum’s brushes, so there isn’t much difference between the two types.
Regular cleaning is key if you don’t want long hair from your pets or your own head to damage your robot vacuum. Most robot manufacturers recommend cleaning the robot’s brushes weekly. However, if you have pets, they typically suggest cleaning the brushes twice weekly. If you have long hair yourself, the same guidelines apply.
Generally, robot vacuums don’t provide the same suction power as traditional vacuums. That can make a standard vacuum more effective at dealing with long hair than a robot model. However, the brushes on a traditional vacuum are just as likely to get tangled with hair, so you’ll still need to clean them regularly.
But there’s another key feature to consider when choosing between a robot and a traditional vacuum for long hair. Because of its slim, low profile, a robot vacuum can easily get under furniture that your regular vacuum may not. Hair tends to collect in those areas, too, so a robot vacuum can ensure there aren’t clumps of hair under your bed or sofa you’re unaware of.
For many homeowners, pairing a standard vacuum with a robot model is the most effective way to deal with long hair.
Robot vacuums for long hair typically range from $200 to over $1,000, but the price determines its suction power, navigation abilities and features.
If you’re looking for an entry-level robot vacuum for long hair, expect to pay between $200 and $400. These models typically have weaker suction power, offer fairly basic navigation abilities and don’t provide many special features.
If you want a more powerful robot vacuum that provides advanced mapping and special features like no-go zones, a self-emptying base and greater suction power around 10,000 Pa, you’ll usually pay between $400 and $800.
If you want the most powerful robot vacuum to deal with long hair with plenty of advanced features like advanced mapping and navigation, a self-emptying base, zone cleaning, mopping and more, you’ll usually spend $800 or more.
![Person pressing "Clean" button on robot vacuum](http://cdn10.bestreviews.com/images/v4desktop/image-full-page-cb/8-best-how-we-test-reviews-long-hair.jpg?p=w1228 "Person pressing "Clean" button on robot vacuum")
