Dyson's new robot vacuum isn't a disaster... but it's hardly a roaring success, either

Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai: two-minute review

The Spot+Scrub Ai is a shot at robot vacuum redemption for Dyson, since it follows in the wake of two uninspiring attempts to take the fight to rivals like Eufy, Roborock and Dreame. During two months of testing, I found the Spot+Scrub Ai works well when tasked with a little-and-often approach to cleaning. It vacuums well, mostly avoids all manner of obstacles, mops to an acceptable level, and does a great job of cleaning itself – so much so, that after two months' use the mop still looked brand new.

This is all good news, and while the app is a little unintuitive at first – especially with regard to map creation and editing – it eventually makes sense, and its lack of adjustability is a welcome change compared to many rivals obsessed with pages of settings menus.

Up to 18,000 Pa of suction power is very acceptable if not market-leading, and the Dyson performed very well in my hard floor tests, smartly slowing its side brushes to avoid flicking food debris all over the kitchen.

But it wasn't perfect. It seemed to get lost during the setup process, frequently struggled to drive up the ramp into its dock, and once failed to properly empty its bin, causing an overflow and spillage. I also encountered an issue where the target cleaning function was repeatedly ignored, and I'd rather the dust bin of the docking station wasn't transparent, since it gives a constant view of dust, hair and crumbs to everyone in sight.

I anticipate that some of these issues can be fixed with software updates – and, if you create a daily or even twice-weekly schedule, I have no doubt the Dyson will diligently keep your house clean. But it falls short when tasked with deeper, targeted cleans, and while decent for a robot, the mop will always be beaten by a wet wipe and a bit of elbow grease.

That's the short version; read on for my full Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai review.

Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai review: price & availability

• List price: £1,049.99 / US and AU TBC
• Available: UK now, US and AU to follow
• Launched: February 2026

Dyson's latest attempt to crack the robotic vacuum market was announced in 2025 and went on sale at the end of January 2026. The UK price at launch is £1,049.99, but the US price hadn't been revealed at the time of writing. Given the way our currencies work these days, it'd be safe to assume a very similar figure, around the $1,100 mark. It also has yet to launch in Australia, but that's equivalent to around AU$2,060.

For that you get the robot itself, plus a docking station that houses a bagless dust bin, tanks for clean and dirty water, and a charger. A bottle of detergent is not included, which feels a bit mean given the instructions mention it during the setup process. You'll need to spend £19.99 on 500ml of Dyson's own, or source an alternative.

Four-figure price tags have quickly become the norm among high-end robotic vacuums and mops. So, while it might seem expensive if you're new to these products, the Spot+Scrub Ai doesn't punch your credit card with as much Dyson tax as the company's stick vacuums do.

Rival robots like the Narwal Flow and Eufy Omni S1 Pro cost more, at least at launch. Given the Dyson name, bagless design – meaning no spending on replacement bags – mopping features and AI smarts, it seems fairly priced. No word yet on how much replacement parts will cost.

• Value for money score: 4 out of 5

Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai specs

Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai review: design

• Bagless docking station, but bin is transparent
• Rotating roller mop with hot water mopping
• Both robot and dock on the larger side

Dyson products are as much about design as they are performance. The iconic clear plastic dustbins, bright colors, red highlights and a hint of the extraterrestrial give Dyson products a design language all of their own. Take the logo off, and its products are still instantly recognizable.

This is still broadly true of the Spot+Scrub Ai, but I can't help thinking Dyson's design team has phoned it in. The handy bagless design is here, which is genuinely useful since it means you'll never have to buy replacement bags for the docking station. There's also a nice bit of sci-fi going on with the bin lid, plus splashes of blue and red on the mopping unit and side brushes.

But that's it. The rest of the product is all rather generic, with little of the wow-factor Dyson loads into its other products with unbridled confidence. Aesthetics shouldn't matter too much, but Dyson products are supposed to be visually exciting and this just isn't.

There are practical issues here too. Clear plastic works well with a handheld stick vacuum, making it easy to see when the bin is full. The same logic applies here, but whereas stick vacuums tend to live in closets, under stairs and generally out of the way, the Spot+Scrub Ai will likely be on full display in your kitchen. I don't want to see the inside of a bin while eating breakfast, and would much rather other parts of the docking station were transparent instead.

It also isn't obvious at a glance which tank is the clean water and which is dirty. Does a filled-in purple circle on top mean clean, or is it the empty circle?

My last concern is its size. Many modern robotic vacuums are rather cumbersome, especially when paired with a dock with water tanks, but the Dyson is especially bulky. The dock measures 45.5cm high, 44cm wide and 50.8cm deep, while the robot is 11cm tall, 37cm long and 37.3cm wide. It's a little taller than some rivals, so you'll want to check the height against any furniture you want it to clean under before buying.

Thankfully, the rest of the Dyson's design is good. It feels well-made and is easy to set up and use. The robot itself has the usual pair of spinning side brushes for reaching into corners, and a roller brush underneath, plus a large mop that rotates and slides outwards by 1.57 in / 4cm to the side, helping it clean right up against the wall.

The roller mop uses water warmed to 140F / 60C and self-cleans as it goes, then gets cleaned again (and dried) when back at the base station. It's a comprehensive approach to mopping that promises to perform well.

The robot's own bin has a generous 3-liter capacity, and although Dyson doesn't say, the onboard water tank looks to be around 1.5 liters, and gets replenished from the base station during longer mopping tasks.

• Design score: 4 out of 5

Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai review: performance

• Clever automatic vacuuming adjustment but self-emptying can fail
• Thorough (if noisy) mop self-cleaning
• Good obstacle avoidance but some navigation problems

I used the Spot+Scrub Ai for a couple of months before writing this review, including over a busy holiday period with frequent cleans of the kitchen and lounge after hosting family, and vacuuming up Christmas tree needles. I wrote more about my initial impressions here, and while the Dyson failed to impress on day one, I grew to like it over the weeks to come.

It only once got stuck, having become caught on the power cable of some Christmas lights. This was an oversight on my behalf, and although the Dyson spent all day – literally hours while I was out, until its battery died – trying to break free, no damage was done to the lighting or the robot. Every other cleaning mission was completed successfully, and it also created a second map and cleaned the upstairs without any problem.

As ever with these robots, there's a concern that it'll get confused and start mopping the carpet, but thankfully it's smart enough not to do this. You can manually put restrictions in with the app, telling it not to mop or vacuum certain areas – although, unlike many premium bots with flat mop pads, the Spot+Scrub Ai can't lift its roller when traversing carpet after mopping, nor can it drop it off in the dock when it's not required.

Moving to TechRadar's specific robovac tests, and the Dyson didn't start well. Tasked with vacuuming a flour and crumb mix from a section of carpet, it drove to the target area and cleaned, but somehow entirely missed the debris. The path it drove covered barely half of the target area, for no apparent reason.

I tried twice more, and again it completely failed to clean up the crumb mix. Bafflingly, it appeared to actively avoid the dirt, driving around it as if it were an obstacle.

Exasperated, I tasked the Dyson with vacuuming the entire room instead. This worked fine, suggesting a fault with the target cleaning mode. The Quick and Quiet modes (recorded by a microphone at 61 dB and 63 dB, respectively) both did an okay job, but you're best either using Boost (71 dB) or Auto, where the robot works it all out for itself. This Dyson is among the loudest robovacs I've tested, with its drive motors noisier than others and even the Quiet mode being audible from a room or two away. Self-emptying into the dock is especially loud, at 81 dB.

The Spot+Scrub Ai's obstacle avoidance skills are decent, with it successfully avoiding items like sockets, slippers and USB cables placed in its way. It nudged my slipper a couple of times, and once got very close to the cable, but managed to avoid everything, clean around them, and return safely to base.

Performance was similar when I swapped the crumb mix for a scattering of dry oats, and on carpet the Dyson performed best when asked to clean the whole room in Auto mode. It mostly did a good job of picking up the oats from where I'd scattered them, but spilled some when turning around and driving over a door threshold. I don't mind a few dropped oats, but the Dyson performed poorly here, spreading the debris around far more than I'd hoped it would.

I later realized its internal bin was overflowing, and had failed to empty into the bagless bin of the dock, despite it being programmed to do so every 15 minutes. That 81 dB of suction sound after each clean didn't seem to have done much at all. I emptied the bin myself and found no cause for the blockage – just dust, oats and Christmas tree needles.

The robot also had a sizable amount of hair wrapped around its central roller brush, which needed removing with scissors. Other robovacs have anti-tangle designs to better prevent this, and it's worth mentioning this is a two-person household with no pets. Once cleaned up and properly emptied, it was back to top performance, using Auto mode to vacuum up almost all of the oats from my carpet.

I next switched to a hard kitchen floor. Here, the Spot+Scrub Ai seemed to spot where debris was and ramp up the suction over that area, clearing a section of the crumb mix with ease (with one pass of Auto mode). A few crumbs were flicked across the room, but the quality of clean was otherwise very impressive, and it adhered to the target cleaning zone this time. If only it had performed so well during the carpet cleaning earlier.

The oat test on hard floor was similarly successful, with the Dyson slowing down, diving carefully over the debris, upping its suction power and even slowing its rotating brushes right down to prevent oats being flicked all over the room – something many rivals are frequently guilty of.

It wasn't quite a perfect clean, since a few oats were still pushed outside of the target zone. But it did relatively well on what is often a tough test. As ever, setting the robot to vacuum a whole room delivers the best results.

Mopping

Finally, mopping. For this I smeared some ketchup on a wooden floor and let it dry for a couple of hours. The Dyson spends a few minutes preparing to mop – filling its water tank, washing the roller mop, warming up the water – and it's a pretty loud process, at about 71 dB.

The actual mopping process is quieter, between about 62 dB and 67 dB. The Dyson's mop reaches outwards to scrub right up against the walls, and it drives methodically over the target area. As per the 'Spot+Scrub' part of the name, one of this bot's USPs is that it's meant to detect spills on hard flooring and go back-and-forth over them until they're clear. I didn't notice it doing anything like this in my tests.

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After my zone clean, some ketchup remained, so I cranked the settings up to maximum: water level three and two passes of the target zone. This removed more, but not all, of the ketchup. Ultimately, for a stain like this you're best off tackling it yourself with a damp cloth or wet wipe.

Afterwards, the robot drains its water tank and cleans the mop, which is also rather loud at 70 dB and lasts around five minutes before the mop is dried (44 dB). It's worth shouting out the effectiveness of this setup – even after two months of regular use, the mop still looked brand new.

As with all robotic vacuums and mops, the Dyson is best used for a little-and-often cleaning strategy. For weeks, it did a good job of keeping my house visibly clean. But when tasked with specific chores, it didn't perform as well as I'd hoped from the Dyson brand.

Lastly for performance, the Spot+Scrub Ai frequently struggled to drive back into its dock. I've no idea why, but it would sometimes try for a while, fail, then turn around a few times, try again, and eventually succeed. It's as if it can't quite manage the slope up to the dock, despite being on a perfectly flat floor.

• Performance score: 3.5 out of 5

Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai review: app

• Refreshing lack of adjustability
• Dyson product ads
• Could be more intuitive for map creation and edition

The app was one of my primary concerns during my initial test of the Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai, but once I'd spent a few days with it I found it works well. It's still not the most intuitive menu system I've seen, especially with regard to map creation and editing, but I like that there aren't pages and pages of adjustable settings, as with some other robovacs.

There's a sense that Dyson trusts its robot to just get on with the job, and therefore doesn't ask if you'd like to adjust every parameter of how it functions. That said, I'd like more detail about spotted obstacles; these only appear as an orange cone on the map, but I'd prefer a better description of what the object is, or even a photograph. Dyson says the robot can identify 200 objects, so this could surely be possible.

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Multiple maps can be created (one for each floor of your home), and you can tell the robot to avoid certain areas, or tell it to never mop or vacuum certain areas. Mostly, you'll want to leave it in Auto and have it clean entire rooms, or even floors, at a time.

I got into the habit of using the robot to clean our kitchen every evening, and vacuum the lounge and hallway at the weekend. This is where robovacs work at their best. Or, better yet, create a schedule and have the Dyson clean every day while you're out.

The app is also full of helpful videos to explain how everything works and how to clean, service and replace consumable parts. I like how the app shows the approximate life remaining of each part as a percentage, and how Dyson is transparent with the costs of every component. It'll let you buy replacements for just about everything, even including the docking station. Slightly annoying is how the app serves as an ad to show off unrelated Dyson products, like headphones and hair dryers.

• App score: 4 out of 5

Should you buy the Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How I tested the Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai

I set up the Dyson and used it as my only vacuum and mop for a couple of months. The test began by setting up the robot and having it create maps of both floors of my house, then using it to keep all carpets and hard floors clean.

I used the robot every couple of days across the Christmas period, then set about conducting TechRadar's standardized robovac tests to assess the performance of its vacuuming, mopping, navigation and self-cleaning abilities.

Read more about how we test robot vacuum cleaners

• First reviewed December 2025