Quietest Robot Vacuum Cleaners: I Reviewed Them at Home!

Interested in buying the quietest robot vacuum to keep your floors clean at all times? I tested the quietest ones at home and compared them. I will also provide you useful tips for making the right choice based on your cleaning requirements.

We should first acknowledge that robot vacuum cleaners are already quieter than regular vacuums. The main reason is less motor power. They’re designed to keep the floors clean by working longer hours instead of violating the floor in a few minutes and letting things slide until your next power trip.

They’re sort of like having a maid hired to keep the place tidy at all times. Except she only requires one paycheck. However, not all robot vacuums are equally quiet. Some produce louder humming noise, and require some maintenance.

This is the case with poorer models. If not maintained, they can start to squeak and rattle when moving across the floor. In that case you have to open them up, screw tight any loose parts and do some lubrication because they don’t have a self-lubricating system. I weeded the ones that are prone to this happening first.

As I was writing this article, I suspected you’re not ONLY looking for quiet performance, but also great cleaning abilities for hard floors and carpets, and perhaps a few extra features that can come in handy such as Wi-Fi connectivity and Alexa compatibility.

With this in mind, I did a fair bit of research to find the best quiet robot vacuum on the market. These 5 candidates popped up from a long list of contenders. All of them have slight differences that make them unique, so I’m reluctant to place just one on the throne and call him the Chosen One. Each of them brings something to the table (ehem.. the floor), sort of like Power Rangers. You’ll have to decide which one you like the most, based on their other features as well.

Quietest Robot Vacuum Cleaners

• eufy Boost IQ RoboVac 11S (click to check current price on Amazon) – This is the most popular robot vacuum of 2022, mainly because of its quiet performance and affordable price. It can self-charge, and is designed to clean hard floors and medium-pile carpets.  It’s hard to go wrong with this one if you plan on using it in a regular home or office setting.
• iRobot Roomba 981 (click to check current price on Amazon) – This is the robot vacuum I bought to my girlfriend as a home welcoming present. “Yes, I know I’m the best, thank you darling.” iRobot is a brand name, and they hit the sweet spot with this quiet model. It’s widely praised for sucking out pet hair from carpets, making it a great choice for pet owners (unless you have some kind of a reptile..). It also has Wi-Fi connectivity and can work with Alexa. We’ve only used Wi-Fi so far because we don’t like shouting voice commands. Are we just old school or shy around robots? I’m still not entirely sure.  It also uses navigation technology to map out its surroundings. This allows it to more easily navigate around the home instead of bumping into walls. 
• Ecovacs Deebot N8 Pro+ (click to check current price on Amazon) – If you really want to outsource your cleaning chores, this will be your new best friend. It’s got a mop cleaner and a self emptying station. It mops the floors like a champ while avoiding carpets thanks to it’s excellent laser mapping tech. However, you’ll still need to wash the mopping pad on your own. If you want a robot vacuum that does this automatically, it’s available on its more powerful brother, Ecovacs Deebot X1. It washes the mop heads and dries them with hot air! Both feel like having a homebound R2D2. They obediently move inside the self-emptying station when they’re done. The power suction of 2600Pa on N8 Pro+ ensures that it gets all the nasties off of hard floors and the carpets. Although if you have thicker carpets and a lot of space to cover, the Deebot X1 with its 5000Pa is unmatched. There is also the obligatory Wi-Fi connectivity and the use of voice control so you can really feel like a Jedi. Or a Sith. Both are on a big discount at the moment of writing, so hopefully you can catch it in time.
• Pure Clean Robot Vacuum (click to check current price on Amazon) – This is the best lower budget robot vacuum (under $100 at the moment of writign), with some unique features as well. First of all it’s got a cool, slim design. But more importantly it has a HEPA filter, which is a great addition if you’re dealing with allergies. It also has a cliff detection system, making it safe to use around stairs. People with furry pets will like knowing that the brushes won’t clog with hair, due to the no-brush design. There are two brushes on the sides, but there’s no rotating brush on it’s belly, just pure suction power.
• Neato D6 Laser Guided Robot Vacuum (click to check current price on Amazon) – The Neato D6 is a very good “premium” robot vacuum and an affordable one at that. I’m mentioning it especially because it has many customization options, and it’s fairly unnoticeable in terms of noise. It does make a little noise when vacuuming carpets on a higher setting. But the way it’s belly is designed isolates the target area of suction and limits the noise to the area so it doesn’t spread across the room. But the REALLY cool part about this vacuum is that it has efficient laser mapping despite it being more affordable than most Ecovacs and other big brand robot vacuums. First it analyzes the map of your home. Then you can pre-program no-go lines for it, and you can set up exactly how and where it should clean. It’s also compatible with multi-story homes and you can program it for every floor separately. The suction power is not the best in the game, but it gets the job done. It removes pet hair, dirt and allergens quite well. You’ll see that many previous customers in the review section are really impressed with its cleaning power as well. So while there are better (and more expensive options), you can’t go wrong by getting Neato D6.

What to look for when buying a quiet robot vacuum?

The first feature is the noise level. I’ve done this part of selection for you by going through the available information, including the stats made available from the manufacturer’s, user reviews and available videos for over 30 robot vacuums that are considered to be the best in 2022. These really are quietest ones that I’ve seen, while they still provide sufficient vacuuming power for regular users.

You don’t want to get a silent robot vacuum that doesn’t have enough power to clean your floors after all. However, the more expensive models also have better motor insulation and localizing design. This is exactly what I was looking for when choosing these 5 robot vacuums. All of them localize the suction, which improves their vacuuming power in the given area, while drastically reducing the spread of the noise. That’s the secret to the sauce!

The second feature is Wi-Fi, and Alexa compatibility. Bending over to adjust a small robot vacuum manually would be a pain in the… back. Like literally, bending over is like hiring the Terminator and then having to save John Connor by yourself. It would be easier to use a regular vacuum is all I’m saying. So having the ability to adjust the settings through a mobile app or by giving voice commands through Alexa are features that every robot vacuum should have. And also, having a regular remote controller is also important in case that these two options are not available.

The third feature is the ability to suck out dirt, hair and allergens from carpets. If a robot vacuum can’t do that very well, it has to do with poor suction power, which basically means a weak motor. In that case a vacuum might be super quiet, but that’s just because it does its job poorly. Like a student who doesn’t want to attract attention because he didn’t do his homework. The vacuum has to have enough power so that you don’t have to do any more cleaning of the area after it, except in special circumstances.

The final feature is the price. The more expensive vacuums are usually better. That’s just the way the way the world works. They have more power, more customization options and are made from stronger plastic and metal components that last longer. However, some of them are not instantly quieter just because of a larger price tag. Because in many cases, the manufacturer didn’t put enough effort into noise reduction, focusing on pure power instead. My list above includes a wide price range because of this fact. Otherwise the quiet and the expensive would be synonymous.

Why did I buy the iRobot Roomba 360?

I was really debating between buying eufy or iRobot. I really liked the eufy’s design, but iRobot has overall better stats and better navigation technology. However, eufy is 100 bucks cheaper. My mind was paralyzed (sorta).

What finally made me decide between them was a 20% discount on iRobot that was running in April, which put it under $300. That was the price range that I was willing to afford. I’m satisfied with its ability to clean my hardwood floors, the bathroom tiles and the thin carpet in my living room. While it produces some noise, it’s only noticeable when you’re in the same room. So looking back at the purchase, I’m happy with my decision.

However, I don’t have any emotional attachments to my robots (even though my gf named it Peter Junior in the command app). If I was buying one today, I’d probably get the Ecovacs Deebot, for the same reason I bought iRobot – it’s on a large discount at the moment of writing and the two have very similar features and design.

Final Thoughts: Quietest Robot Vacuums

For a small home or an office, I’d probably go with the Pure Clean vacuum which is just under 100 bucks. It’s a great automatic for smaller and medium-sized homes and the HEPA filter is a nice addition to it as well, especially if you suffer from allergies.

For a standard home with 4-5 rooms (including living room, kitchen and bathroom), I would buy one of the remaining four: the eufy, iRobot, Ecovacs or Neato vacuum. Long lasting battery, a lot of power and quiet performance are all part of these vacuums. They also have a minimum 1 year warranty and are the go-to robot vacuums for most people, as you can see from the large number of customer reviews on their product pages.

Either way, getting one of these bad boys will keep your floors squeaky clean. While you can kick back and read your favorite novel in peace and quiet. Or better yet, browse through other useful content on Soundproof Advice. Hope this helps!

Read more: Quietest robot vacuum cleaners for pet hair