The 5 best self-emptying robot vacuums for hands-off cleaning in 2025
The best self-emptying robot vacuums have one huge perk past the obvious act of vacuuming the floor for you. (Spoiler alert: It's in the name.)
When you outsource vacuuming to a robot, your floors get cleaned way more often, right? There's just one little downside to that extra attention: More debris off the floor means a dust bin that fills up faster, and emptying a vacuum's dust bin by hand is arguably the worst part of the chore.
Hence, auto-empty robot vacuums were born. These vacs do your vacuuming and bin emptying for you, storing the debris collected on each trip in a larger compartment that's located in the charging dock. While you'd typically have to empty a standalone robot vacuum as often as every day or two, self-emptying robot vacuum cleaners are self-sufficient for several weeks. Most brands claim to have capacities averaging between six to eight weeks, but almost every self-emptying dock I've tested in my 1,300 square foot apartment lasted much longer than that.
It's the obvious supplementary step for the full hands-off cleaning experience, and it's rare to see a robot vacuum from 2024 or 2025 that doesn't have automatic emptying. (Unless you're the Dyson robot vacuum, in which case you cost more than $1,000 despite offering neither automatic emptying nor mopping.)
Are self-emptying robot vacuums worth it?
A robot vacuum that can empty its own dust bin is for sure worth it in just about every home. If vacuuming every day is something you don't feel like doing manually, you probably also don't feel like manually dumping a vac's dustbin into the trash every day. Such is the natural pipeline of being spoiled with technology.
Automatic emptying is particularly valuable in homes with pets. Daily pet hair pickup could easily fill up a vacuum's tiny onboard dustbin after just a few rooms, but that capacity is significantly expanded when there's a large alternate dustbin on the dock. If they get full mid-cleaning session, self-emptying vacuums know to head back to the dock to unload, then finish the rest of the session with a clean slate.
Not for nothing, even the most ergonomic upright vacuums are a pain to wrestle out of the closet sometimes. In a pinch, it's inarguably worthwhile to have the option to start sweeping with a click on an app.
For people with allergies, auto-emptying also spares you from inhaling the inevitable puff of dust that emerges when dumping a dustbin into the trash. Speaking of avoiding the grosser parts of the job, if you're specifically seeking a robot vacuum that mops, many self-emptying docks also take it upon themselves to wash and dry the dirty mopping pads after the job is done.
I've been testing the latest and greatest self-emptying robot vacuums released in 2024 and 2025 against my old favorites from years prior. These are my top picks for the best robot vacuum that empties itself.
Testing updates
I'm currently testing the Roborock Saros 10 and Saros Z70 announced at CES in January, as well as a slew of new Roombas announced in March. If I find any solid new contenders, this guide will be updated accordingly.
