Shark's Ion R85 has the top spot on our best robot vacuums page, mainly because it was one of the best at cleaning our floors. But, like most other robot vacuums, you have to clean it after it's done with your floors.
Shark's newest robot vacuum, the Shark IQ R101, has a dustbin built into its base, which sucks out all the debris from the vacuum after each run. That way, you only have to periodically empty the dustbin—once every 30 cleanings, according to Shark. In addition, the Shark IQ has floor mapping, and works with Alexa and Google Assistant.
And, at $530, it's about half the price of the iRobot Roomba i7+ ($999), one of the only other robot vacuums with a self-emptying mechanism.
We also like the fact that the R101's dustbin is bagless; the bin for the Roomba i7+ requires a proprietary bag, which is both wasteful and will cost you extra money over time.
All that would seem to make the Shark IQ R101 worth the investment. However, we should note a few things. Reviewers from Wired and Digital Trends noted that the R101 had trouble mapping its surroundings, to the point where Shark sent Wired a second unit.
Still, both reviewers gave the R101 a positive rating. Its price of $530 makes it more than twice as expensive as the Ion R85 ($199), but the convenience of not having to empty the robot vacuum after every run could be worth it. It's also worth checking our Shark promo codes to see if you can save on buying the model directly from the manufacturer.
