Can Robot Vacuums Clean Multiple Rooms and Floors?

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Think about it: wouldn’t it be lovely if your robot vacuum is smart enough to navigate every room in your house and clean them altogether? Unless you live in a studio apartment, all houses have multiple rooms. Because of this, many homeowners ask the question: can a robot vacuum clean multiple rooms?

Can robot vacuums clean multiple rooms? Robot vacuums can navigate and clean multiple rooms, as long as you keep the doors open between rooms. In fact, we use a Roomba on a floor which has a kitchen, bathroom, dining room, living room, and bedroom, and it can clean them all in one session.

However, it all depends on the complexity and size of your floor plan. In this post, we will explore everything you need to know about: can robot vacuums clean multiple rooms and floors? By the end of this post, you should be able to maximize any robot vacuum and tap its full potential to clean many rooms. 

Can Robot Vacuums Clean Multiple Rooms?

Most robot vacuums can clean multiple rooms. However, you need a robot vacuum equipped with a smart mapping feature. As long as this type of robot vacuum has had the time to thoroughly clean an entire area, it will save the floor plan, so it can roam from one room to another with ease.

Another highlight from smart mapping robot vacuums is how well they clean your house. Not only does this type of robot vacuum navigate multiple rooms very well, but they do so in neat and organized rows, instead of cleaning in random, zig-zag patterns. This promotes the most optimal cleaning efficiency.

However, how well a robot vacuum performs on multiple rooms depend largely on two factors:

1. You Need a Simple Open Floor Plan

Firstly, you need an open floor plan. If your house has a simple floor plan, then any robot vacuum can navigate it easily, as long as it has access to each room (the door is not closed). However, if your house forms a “loop”, where there is more than one way to get into a room, a robot vacuum may become confused.

If a robot vacuum enters through one door and exits through another, it may consider it a new room, even if it’s the same room. It may bump around to find its way to the base. While most robot vacuums are smart, they are not smart enough to understand that a room can have multiple entrances and exits.

2. Be Careful of Obstacles

While a simple open floor plan can be helpful, it’s the obstacles that you need to worry about. Often, robot vacuums can get stuck in chair legs, cords, even shoe strings. Fortunately, as robot vacuums become more and more advanced, they get better at navigating obstacles. Newer versions should work just fine.

When it comes to avoiding obstacles, we found that the Roborock S6 MaxV (link to Amazon) is simply phenomenal. Equipped with front-mounted cameras, not only can it avoid obstacles expertly, but it can even take pictures of any obstacles that lie around your house. How’s that for a smart robot vacuum?

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Can Robot Vacuums Clean Multiple Floors?

So, a robot vacuum can clean multiple rooms. But what about multiple floors?

Some robot vacuums can clean multiple floors. If you have a multi-story home to clean, however, you need a robot vacuum with a multi-level or multi-floor mapping feature. This allows you to create a floor plan for each story. Even when moved to a different location or floor, the robot vacuum can still clean effectively.

Let’s Talk About Roombas…

Without a doubt, Roombas are one of the most popular robot vacuum models in the market today. So much so that robot vacuums are often called “Roombas”. Because they are so popular, let’s talk about their ability in cleaning multiple rooms and answer some of the most frequently asked questions.

1. Can a Roomba clean multiple rooms?

Thanks to the Smart Mapping technology, a Roomba can clean multiple rooms. It learns any floor plan as it cleans and remembers each room’s layout for future cleaning jobs. Best of all, Smart Map allows you to clean a room, multiple rooms, or an entire level of your home all from the iRobot smartphone app.

However, only a robot vacuum equipped with smart mapping technology can effectively clean multiple rooms. If you have multiple rooms in your house, and you need a robot vacuum smart enough to get the job done, then be sure to invest in the best robot vacuum with mapping technology. It is definitely worth it.

2. Can I pick up a Roomba and move to another room?

You can pick up a Roomba and move it to another room. In fact, a Roomba can remember up to 10 unique floor plans, so you can carry the Roomba to a different floor or a different room. As long as the Roomba has mapped the location, it will be able to navigate the floor plan and clean any room as directed.

Take the iRobot Roomba i7 Series for example. It builds a map of an area each time it starts a new cleaning job. After cleaning the same space several times, it will create a Smart Map classified into different rooms. Using the smartphone application, you can merge, split, and label the rooms based on your preference.

Bottom Line

And there you go, the complete answer to the question: can robot vacuums clean multiple rooms? Thankfully, most robot vacuums nowadays are smart enough to navigate multiple rooms, even multiple floors. By taking the time to choose the right robot vacuum, each room in your house should be sparkling clean. 🙂

If you want the best at navigating multiple rooms, either the Roborock S6 MaxV or the S5 Max are amazing options. Based on our research, both are excellent at navigating multiple floors and avoiding obstacles. Best of all, both are equipped with an electronic water tank to vacuum and mop simultaneously.

You may also want to read our comparison reviews: