If you're a dog or cat owner, one of the best robot vacuums for pet hair could be a game-changer. It'll efficiently pull hair out of carpets and whisk it off hard floors, and direct that hair into the dustbin rather than letting it tangle around the mechanisms.
Generally, robot vacuums are meant for light cleaning, but the models included here all proved they could handle tougher tasks, like pulling a cardigan's worth of hair from your living room rug. They've all been tested thoroughly by experienced reviewers with pets, and earned a stamp of approval. Beyond powerful pickup, all the models here come with self-empty docks – a must for pet-owners who don't want to spend their days constantly emptying their bot's small onboard bin.
Of course, that's on top of the features we look for in the best robot vacuums in general. Namely, accurate mapping and navigation, good object avoidance, and a usable app that offers a decent amount of control. If you're willing to consider manual models too, we have a separate guide to the best vacuums for pet hair. Otherwise, let's take a look at the top automated options...
Best robot vacuum for pet hair 2024, tried and tested
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Best robot vacuum for pet hair: quick list
Best overall
This robot vacuum handled our tester's abundance of pet hair better than any other model we've tested. In fact, it's an outstanding performer all-round, and well worth the slightly higher asking price.
Read more below
Best mid-range
On a slightly tighter budget? You won't get advanced features like a self-cleaning dock, but this mid-range model excels at pet hair pickup, gets right into the edges of rooms, and is quiet too.
Read more below
Best premium
If you want the best of the best, the Qrevo Curv is an absolutely outstanding robot vacuum. The stupidly powerful suction will make light work of any amount of pet fur, and it packs tons of advanced features, too.
Best budget
This mid-range model is often discounted into the budget bracket, and delivers a lot for that price – including impressive handling of pet hair. The object avoidance is unreliable, though.
Best mop-vac
As well as handling pet hair with ease, this robovac's efficient mop function and hot water pad cleaning makes it a top choice for those who want to be able to scrub muddy paw prints from their hard floors.
The best robot vacuum for pet hair overall
The best robot vacuum for pet hair right now is the Dreame L40 Ultra. This premium robot vacuum boasts impressive suction power, and on test it handled the large volumes of dog hair in our reviewer's home better than anything else we've tried so far, on both hard floor and carpet. The dock dust capacity is also slightly larger than usual, which means you won't have to replace the dust bags quite so often.
It's not especially cheap (although at this point you can usually avoid paying the full asking price) but it is incredibly capable, and worth the asking price if you have pets and are sick of the constant vacuuming. And frankly, most robovacs are built for light maintenance cleaning: if you want something that can tackle tricker tasks like handling lots of pet hair, you'll need to shell out a little more.
Aside from the powerful pickup, the L40 Ultra is just a generally great all-rounder. The rotating mop pads are exceptionally effective, and will clear muddy pawprints with no trouble at all. The dock will take care of most maintenance tasks for you, including emptying the dust, refilling the bot's water tank, and washing and drying the mop pads. Not all these features will be essential for everyone, but if you're going to be running this bot regularly then they will be a big effort-saver. Its navigation is accurate, mapping efficient, and obstacle avoidance strong, too. Well worth the investment.
Read our full Dreame L40 Ultra review
The best mid-range robot vacuum for pet hair
It's not as fully-featured as our #1 pick, but if you're on a tighter budget, the Shark Matrix Plus combination robot vacuum and mop handles pet hair well, and comes in at a much more affordable price. There's a version with just a charge dock, but if you're dealing with pet hair, it's worth upgrading to the model with the self-empty base – or you'll end up manually emptying the small on-bot bin every two minutes.
While we couldn't find suction specs online, on test it proved more than capable at handling pet hair. It effortlessly picked up the stubborn, fine hair of our reviewer's two sprocker spaniels, and directed it into the bin without letting it tangle around the roller. It also has a novel (and effective) way of tackling the edges of rooms: it blasts air to blow the dust and dirt there into the bot's path.
Elsewhere, you're getting an effective HEPA filtration system, the option to add no-go zones in the app (so the bot knows to avoid food bowls and crates, if your pet is nervous around things that move but don't have a face).
It's not as smart or feature rich-as our #1 pick, and the mopping is fine but not great. While the dock will empty the dust bin, it doesn't really do anything else, so be prepared to deal with tasks like refilling water and regularly cleaning mop pads yourself. However, for its budget-to-mid-range price this is a solid pick for pet-owners.
Read our full Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 review
The best premium robot vacuum for pet hair
If you've got a bigger budget, the Roborock Qrevo Curv is an outstanding choice for pet owners. This is one of the brand's newest, priciest models, and it packs some seriously cutting-edge tech. Firstly, and most importantly for this guide, it's great at picking up pet hair. That's unsurprising given that it packs a ridiculously high maximum 18,500Pa of suction (the highest here, by a considerable margin). It's also efficient at suctioning clumps of hair from the onboard bin and into the larger dock bin, so you won't have to deal with blockages.
The mopping is equally good, so you won't have to worry about mucky pawprints, and the do-it-all dock requires minimal maintenance from you (it'll empty dust, refill water, and wash and dry mop pads too). Further to that, this premium robovac has advanced features like a pet patrol mode, where you can use it to seek out and even talk to your furry friends while you're out.
And of course, because it's a high-end model from an excellent brand, you can expect reliable mapping, accurate navigation, smart cleaning and plenty of precise control options via the app.
While the Curv is, as our reviewer says, the crème de la crème of robot vacuums, the good news is that pretty much all of the Roborock bots we've tested handle pet hair extremely well. So if you can't manage that sky-high price tag, or live outside of the US (the only place it's currently available), something like the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra is worth checking out too.
Read our full Roborock Qrevo Curv review
The best budget robot vacuum for pet hair
The Yeedi C12 Pro Plus is officially a mid-range robovac, but it's fairly easy to find it discounted into the budget bracket these days. For that price, you're getting suction power in line with far more expensive models.
We tested this one out in a household that includes multiple long-haired humans, a couple of dogs and a cat, and it proved capable of picking up plenty of dander and pet hair from floors that, to the eye, looked clean already. The brushrolls remained mostly tangle-free during testing, too.
Of course, there are some compromises you'll need to make. Perhaps the main one to be aware of if you have pets is that the obstacle avoidance isn't entirely reliable. It's also not great at cleaning right up to the edges of rooms, meaning you'll probably need to intervene with a manual vacuum on occasion for a more complete clean. It also lacks advanced features like voice assistant support, and while the dock will empty the onboard bin, it won't clean the mop pads or refill the water tanks.
Read our full Yeedi C12 Pro Plus review
Best robot vacuum and mop for pet hair
The Ecovacs Deebot T20 Omni is another excellent mid-range robot vacuum for pet owners. During our tests, we found it excelled at picking up lots of pet hair, as well as other general dirt and debris. The mapping is excellent, which means it'll vacuum in an orderly pattern and won't miss a spot, and the app is intuitive and provides lots of adjustment options.
The dock is the comprehensive type – not only does it charge the bot and empty its onboard bin, but it'll also refill the water tank and wash and dry the mop pads. It actually does that using hot water, for a more thorough and hygienic clean – it'll be a bonus if your pets often track mud into the home.
It's not perfect – the object avoidance is above-average but not amazing, and, like most robovacs, it struggles with corners – but it's pretty close. It's sometimes difficult to find these days, but if you do, it's common to find it discounted into the mid-range, and it's great value for that price.
Read our full Ecovacs DEEBOT T20 Omni review
If you have long-haired pets, check out the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra. Rather than bristles, this robovac uses a dual rubber roller to agitate and pick up the debris for your floor (the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra at #3 also uses a rubber roller, but there's only one rather than the two in the S8 Pro). In our review, our tester found this was especially good at preventing long hair from getting tangled up, and made maintenance easier too.
We were impressed with the pickup from this model, although like almost all robovacs, it's better at light cleaning than deep cleans of large bits of debris. The mop function is also very effective, although our tester felt there was minimal difference when switching scrubbing intensity levels.
Auto-emptying and a self-cleaning dock mean you'll barely need to lift a finger, and we also found the app intuitive and well-designed. Note: there's no camera or ability to talk to your pets through this robovac, as you can with the other Roborock model in our list (#3).
Read our full Roborock S8 Pro Ultra review
How we test robot vacuums for pet hair
Every robot vacuum for pet hair listed in this guide has been tested by one of our editors or contributors. We called upon robot vacuums from big brands such as iRobot, Bissell and Samsung, plus some smaller names such as Neato and Roborock, to test in our homes.
Not only did we put the robot vacuums through their paces on regular dirt, dust and fluff, but we also set them to task on some more challenging debris such as sweeping up oats or mopping up sauce from hard flooring.
Some of the key factors we evaluate include design, performance and battery life. We also compare how these models sit in a crowded market place on the basis of price, although note that robot vacuums better suited to tackling pet hair do command a higher ticket price.
We assess the performance of each robot vacuum for at least a few weeks, to give it enough time to map a home and become familiar with objects and obstacles in the space. At the end of the testing process, we rate each model for the key factors before awarding an overall score.
Where we're in a position to hang onto the robot vacuum, we do so to test performance over a longer period. In this case, we'll update relevant reviews after six months to one year.
Read more on how we test robot vacuum cleaners.
How to choose the best robot vacuum for pet hair
There are a few things that are worth considering when choosing the best robot vacuum for pet hair.
Suction power
If you have any kind of carpets or rugs, you need a robovac with decent suction to be able to effectively pull up hair and dander. Generally, robot vacuums aren't as sucky as manual vacuums, but modern machines are increasingly powerful. The spec you're looking for here is Pascals (Pa).
Although outright suction is an important factor, design also plays a key role here. For example, some of the models here also have rubber rollers rather than a brushroll, which helps with gripping and pulling up hair.
Anti-hair wrap features
If you have a long-haired pet, you'll want a robot vacuum that's designed to filter the hair directly into the bin rather than letting it clog the rollers. Hair wrapping can be a particular issue if you have a robovac with a spinning side brush for edges – some manufacturers have added hair cutting tools to remove hair from these, with varying degrees of success.
Dust bin size / self-empty function
As you might imagine, the dust bins housed on robot vacuums tend to be fairly small. If you have a shedding pet, it's probably worth opting for one that comes with a self-empty function. The down-side is that you'll need to make room for a bigger dock, but it means you won't be constantly emptying the bin yourself.
Object avoidance
Not related to pet hair, but it's definitely worth finding a robot vacuum with decent obstacle avoidance. You want something that's not going to try and vacuum up your pet, for one (some have a special pet mode that mean it's ultra-careful around objects). If you have a pet that sometimes makes a mess on the floor, your robot vacuum is also going to need to identify that reliably, in order to avoid said mess being painted around your entire house. Roomba has a dedicated P.O.O.P promise geared specifically towards this.
Mop function
Many robot vacuums also have a mop function. While it's not so much geared towards tackling pet hair, this can be very useful for general pet messes – muddy pawprints and so on – if you have hard floors in your home.
In-vac camera
Again, not geared towards pet hair, but some robovacs can now double up as a pet spycam. On-board cameras enable you to check on your pet when you're not home, and some have two-way microphones to allow you to speak to them.
Can robot vacuums cope with dog hair?
Some robot vacuums are powerful enough to effectively clear dog or cat hair. In general, robovacs don't have the same suction power as manual vacuums, which means they won't be as effective if you want to do a deep clean of ingrained hair. However, because they work autonomously, you can set them to run regularly (and perhaps more often than you'd want to vacuum manually!), preventing the hair from building up in the first place.
Is an auto-empty robot vacuum worth it?
For many people, yes. The onboard dustbins on robot vacs tends to be small, which means you might end up doing a lot of manual emptying if you don't go for an auto-empty option. This is especially true if it's going to be sucking up a lot of pet hair. However, if you're short on space, be aware that if you go for an auto-empty robovac, you'll need to make room for a much bigger dock. Auto-empty models will often be more expensive, too.
