The Robot Vacuum Reality Index
The Robot Vacuum Reality Index puts navigation type, rated suction in Pa, mop lift, dock automation, capacity, noise, and battery for every reviewed robot vacuum into one comparable table. The Robot Vacuum Reality Index is a normalized, versioned dataset covering navigation type, rated suction (Pa), mop-lift mechanism, dock automation tier, bin/dock capacity, noise, and battery for every robot vacuum model CleanSweepPicks currently reviews. It exists because manufacturer spec sheets are not written to be compared against each other — they're written to look good in isolation. This page puts the same categories side by side, in the same units, with an explicit "not disclosed" marker anywhere we don't have a verified figure, instead of guessing. A machine-readable CSV of the same table is available at /reality-index.csv.
Why marketing specs mislead
Robot vacuum spec sheets share a few structural problems. First, Pa (pascal) suction ratings are not standardized — brands test under different conditions (peak vs. sustained, at the motor vs. at the brush head), so a 25,000 Pa rating from one brand is not "2.5x more suction" than a 10,000 Pa rating from another; it may reflect a different test methodology entirely, not a comparable real-world difference. Second, feature names are brand-specific marketing terms that describe similar or identical underlying hardware — "TruEdge," "mop-extend," and "MopExtend" all describe some version of a side-mounted mop or brush reaching toward edges, but the wording varies by brand. Third, dock automation is marketed as a single "smart dock" bundle even though it is really four separable features (empty, wash, dry, refill) that a given model may have some, all, or none of. The Reality Index normalizes across all three of these problems by using the same column definitions for every model, and by naming the actual sub-features present rather than repeating brand marketing terms uncritically. For more on how to read suction numbers specifically, see how much suction power do you need and Robot Vacuum Key Facts.
The normalized table
All suction figures below are the manufacturer's own rated Pa number — they are not independently verified and are not comparable across brands due to differing test conditions (see caveat above). Use this table to compare a given model against its own marketing claims and feature set, not to rank brands purely by the largest Pa number.
| Model | Tier | Navigation | Rated suction (Pa) | Mop / mop-lift mechanism | Dock automation | Bin / dock capacity | Noise | Battery |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roborock Qrevo CurvX | Premium / flagship | LiDAR + camera (Reactive AI obstacle recognition obstacle recognition) | 22,000 Pa (manufacturer rated) | extendable side brush with dual spinning mopsping (4,000 vibrations/min) | Self-empty + hot-water wash + hot-air dry + water refill | Dock bin rated for up to 7 weeks between manual emptying | 53 dB (quiet mode) | 6,400 mAh |
| Dreame L40 Ultra Gen 2 | Premium / flagship | RGB AI + 3D structured-light navigation | 25,000 Pa (manufacturer rated, 6th-gen motor) | Extendable side mop pad reaches baseboards/corners; auto-lifts on carpet | Self-empty + hot-water wash + hot-air dry | Not disclosed in our coverage | Not disclosed in our coverage | Not disclosed in our coverage |
| Ecovacs Deebot X5 Pro Omni | Upper-mid | AINA 2.0 AI + LiDAR | 12,800 Pa (manufacturer rated) | TruEdge self-rinsing roller mop (continuous scrub, not a lift mechanism) | Self-empty + hot-water wash + hot-air dry + water refill | Not disclosed in our coverage | Not disclosed in our coverage | Not disclosed in our coverage; body height 95mm (lowest profile on this list) |
| iRobot Roomba j9+ | Upper-mid | PrecisionVision camera (no LiDAR) | ~2,200 Pa (manufacturer rated) | No mopping capability | Self-empty only — no wash, no dry, no refill | Dock bin rated for roughly 60 days between manual emptying | Not disclosed in our coverage | Not disclosed in our coverage |
| Roborock Q7 M5+ | Budget | LiDAR mapping (basic — no camera-based obstacle AI) | 10,000 Pa (manufacturer rated) | No mop-lift mechanism; dual anti-tangle brush (JawScrapers) | Self-empty only — no wash, no dry, no refill | Not disclosed in our coverage | Not disclosed in our coverage | Not disclosed in our coverage |
Full table also available as CSV: /reality-index.csv (machine-readable, same columns and values). A permanent version-pinned snapshot of this release is at /reality-index-v1.0.csv — versioned snapshots are never modified after publication; the unversioned /reality-index.csv link always points to the current release and remains the canonical URL to cite.
License: CC BY 4.0 — free to use with attribution. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
How to cite:
CleanSweepPicks Editorial Team. (2026). Robot Vacuum Reality Index (Version 1.0) [Data set]. CleanSweepPicks. https://cleansweeppicks.com/reality-index/
What "normalized" means here
- Navigation is classified into one of three types (LiDAR, camera/vSLAM, or gyro-only) regardless of the brand's marketing name for its navigation stack.
- Suction is reported as the manufacturer's own rated Pa figure, explicitly flagged as non-comparable across brands rather than presented as an apples-to-apples ranking.
- Dock automation is broken into its four constituent capabilities — empty, wash, dry, refill — instead of a single marketing bundle name, so you can see exactly which sub-features a given dock has.
- Missing data is marked "Not disclosed in our coverage" rather than estimated or omitted silently. If we haven't verified a figure from a manufacturer source, we say so instead of guessing.
Methodology & versioning
Robot Vacuum Reality Index v1.0, published 2026-07-30. Figures are drawn from manufacturer-published specifications and current retail listings, cross-checked against CleanSweepPicks' own comparison coverage (Roborock vs Dreame, Roborock vs Ecovacs, Roborock vs Roomba, Roomba vs Ecovacs, and budget vs flagship) — not independent lab testing. We do not include exact retail prices in this dataset, since prices change too frequently to normalize meaningfully; see the linked product pages for live pricing.
Correction policy: if a manufacturer updates a spec, discontinues a model, or we find a figure we reported incorrectly, we update the table, bump the version number (v1.1, v2.0, etc. depending on scope), update the CSV, and note the change here with a dated entry. This page and its CSV are treated as living data, not a one-time snapshot.
Version history:
v1.0 — 2026-07-30 — Initial publication. Five models: Roborock Qrevo CurvX, Dreame L40 Ultra Gen 2, Ecovacs Deebot X5 Pro Omni, iRobot Roomba j9+, Roborock Q7 M5+.
Last updated: July 30, 2026.