Independent buying guides
For Australian households replacing a vacuum and unsure whether a robot earns its place. Each guide settles one buying question, quotes manufacturer and regulator figures with check dates, and shows the running-cost formula on screen.
The decisions that actually change what you end up with.
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Photo: Jacek Halicki · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Like-for-like comparisons on the specifications that matter.
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Photo: Jacek Halicki · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
What the total comes to once everything is counted.
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Photo: Ryan McBride · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Getting it working properly the first time.
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Photo: 池田正樹 - Masaki Ikeda · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
What the numbers mean in day-to-day use.
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Photo: ajay_suresh · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The expensive errors that are easy to avoid.
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Photo: TiHa · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Each guide answers one buying question and shows the figures behind the answer.
How to choose
Floor mix and furniture clearance decide this, not suction claims. Here is the time each machine really costs you over a year, and what the law guarantees.
Photo: Jirka Matousek from Brussels Taipei Hong Kong Singapore Prague Shenzhen · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Budget and prices
Consumables are 47% of a robot vacuum's annual cost on the example here. The machine is the other half, and electricity is under $15 a year.
Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Performance
Pickup falls because the filter and brush load up, not because the motor weakens. The full maintenance routine costs 354 minutes a year on these figures.
Photo: Dennis van Zuijlekom from Ermelo, The Netherlands · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Every figure in a guide is taken from a named source, with the date it was checked. Where a number is an assumption or an example, it says so in the same sentence.
We do not run paid product tests, we do not publish reader reviews, and we do not claim to have handled every product mentioned. Where a claim needs a lab or a long-term test we do not have, the guide says that plainly.
Photographs are free-licence images from Wikimedia Commons or Openverse, credited to the photographer with the licence named. Charts are drawn from the figures printed in the same guide.
This site earns money from advertising and, where disclosed, from affiliate links. That does not change the order of a comparison or the conclusion of a guide.
Some links on this site can earn us a commission. That does not change which product a guide recommends, and it adds nothing to your price. Advertising is not enabled on this site yet. When it is, ads will be labelled and kept visually separate from the guides.
Each calculator shows its formula, units and assumptions. Nothing is estimated for you in secret.
What a cross-border order really costs once shipping, duty and tax are added.
landed cost = (item price + shipping) + duty + tax, where duty = item price x duty rate, and tax = (item price + shipping + duty) x tax rate
Spreads purchase price, consumables and repairs over the years you expect to keep it.
cost per year = (purchase price - expected resale value + consumables per year x years + expected repairs) / years
Annual electricity cost from rated power, hours of use and your own tariff.
annual cost = power (W) / 1000 x hours per day x days per year x price per kWh, plus standby power (W) / 1000 x standby hours x days x price per kWh