Best robot vacuum for thick carpets and high pile carpets

Last updated on Jul 26, 2021 Robot Vacuum Cleaners
Note: This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, we only earn from qualifying purchases!

All robot vacuums should accomplish the same task i.e. aid in house cleaning and make your life easier. They are specially made to clean multiple types of floors but not excluding carpeted floors. Carpets are tricky floor type and bring about challenges when the robot vacuum purchased is not up to the task.  However, certain robot vacuums do bring their A-game to the carpet cleaning business. If it can clean high pile and thick carpets seamlessly, it can clean a whole lot of other spaces. This article has been compiled with much emphasis on robot vacuums that are tailor-made to clean medium pile, high pile, or thick carpets. We then determine the best robot vacuum for thick carpets and high pile carpets.

But first, let's talk about the different types of carpets. We shall look at "how thick is thick" before we discuss the best robot vacuum for thick carpets and the best robot vacuum for high pile carpets.

What are the different type of carpets?

High pile carpets

Simply speaking, the high pile is synonymous with luxury. These carpets are very fluffy and have a plush feel under your foot. The high pile carpets can go up to a height of ½ to ¾ inches. They are very soft and the loops within the carpet are very loose thus a foot that steps in such a carpet will leave an impression in the fiber or fabric. You should reserve such carpets for areas with the least foot traffic in the house. They are mostly for comfort and warmth in addition to a luxurious look. The downside to high pile carpets is that they trap a lot more dust and debris than any other carpets. And thus will therefore require regular maintenance and vacuuming.

Medium pile carpets

These carpets are luxurious and just like high pile carpets, are not used in areas with too much foot traffic. They can go up to a height of ½ inches and are mostly used in living rooms and bedrooms. This is because they provide comfort and warmth to your feet. These kinds of carpets also trap a lot of dust and pet hair but they are much easier to clean.

Thick carpets

Thick carpets are not much different from high pile carpets as they share most similarities like the length of the fiber. But, you can easily differentiate them by the thickness of the fibers used to make these carpets. However, in thick carpets, fibers are much more tightly packed and woven closely together to give the carpet a denser feel.

Simply put, the robot vacuums on this list will work extremely well for thick carpets, high pile carpets or even for carpets that are both thick and high pile.

Our quick round up;

1. Neato Botvac D7 Laser Guided Robot Vacuum

Neato d7 Robot Vacuum
Neato d7 Robot Vacuum

Most vacuums have a circular shape that requires them to work at certain angles to be able to get all the dirt in the corners. This is why the Neato Botvac D7 is special. Its D-shape gives it an upper hand over all the other vacuums. This because it is can get into tight spaces and corners without any trouble at all.

The Neato Botvac has laser technology which it uses to create a customized map of your home including the high traffic areas and the no-zone homes that you have cordoned off its cleaning path. This robot vacuum has a methodical pattern where it cleans in neat rows in a straight line so that it won't miss out on any spots. The Botvac has a larger brush that cleans up more pet hair and agitates the carpet fibers such that it can easily suck up debris from the base of the carpet.

The Lithium-ion battery allows the robot vacuum to run for up to 120 minutes. It can automatically return to base to recharge and continue from the last known location to ensure a thorough clean.

The Neato Botvac has several cleaning modes that include;

- Firstly, the corner clean for corners and along walls.

- Secondly, the smart clean where it makes sure to avoid bumping into furniture and any other obstacles on the floor.

- Thirdly, a zone clean where you can schedule the Botvac to focus on specific spots on the floor (or carpet) for a satisfactory clean.

You can also access all these modes locally with a remote control. Or through the Neato App and also through voice controls with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.

If you don't want the Botvac to access certain rooms, you can define no-go zones using the Neato App. Additionally, you can use the Neato Botvac for a multi-story home using the Neato multi-floor plans feature. You can also define no-go lines for each floor. You should also fully charge the Neato at the charging base before manually moving it to the next floor. The Neato Botvac can store a maximum number of up to three-floor plans.

Furthermore, the Neato Botvac is not only limited to cleaning during the day. The laser technology also helps it to see at night. This means that with the Neato, it is always the right time to clean!

With the additional HEPA filter to take care of all the allergens present in your living space and a bin capacity of 700 ml, the Neato is a must-have. We encourage you to get yourself the Neato D7, the best robot vacuum for thick carpets and high pile carpets.

2. Roborock E4 Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Roborock E4
Roborock E4

Our first runner up for the best robot vacuum for thick carpets and high pile carpets is the Roborock e4 Robot vacuum. This vacuum cleaner has a 5200mAh Li-ion battery that stores enough energy to clean up to 2,152 sq. ft of living space. Before I divulge the other features, I would like to point out that this robot vacuum comes with a suction power of 2000Pa. This suction power, coupled with the cleaning modes and strong brushes will out-match any debris or grime on the floor. The suction power makes it a formidable robot vacuum for thick carpets because it is powerful.

Meanwhile, this vacuum's most celebrated feature is the Carpet boost feature that provides an 11% boost in suction power. This power boost enables the Roborock E4 to clean and pull all the debris out of the very base of the carpet.

The people at roborock also designed it to be able to climb swiftly and easily over heights of up to 0.8 inches. This is a special advantage because it can go over even the longest carpet fibers and will clean them effectively. Because it can climb such heights, the roborock e4 is a very good robot vacuum for high pile carpets.

The Roborock E4 has an efficient cleaning system that follows an intelligent cleaning schedule in a Z pattern. It works 10% faster than an average robot vacuum cleaner while maintaining a run time of up to 200 minutes. The important thing to note is that this robot vacuum can remember state. This means that if it is cleaning large spaces and runs out of battery, it will return to the base to charge, and when it is fully charged, it will go back to the last place it was cleaning and resume.

It has a set of cleaning modes which include balanced, silent, turbo, carpet, max, and gentle. Because of this, the user has a variety of options to choose from. You can make change modes depending on the type of floors and the amount of dirt to be cleaned. This vacuum also has a spot clean mode which when set, the vacuum will draw a diameter of up to 1.2 m from its current spot and focus on cleaning this spot until it is perfectly clean.

This vacuum also has a large capacity bin of 600mls and this is large enough to carry enough debris from at least two cleaning cycles before it needs to be emptied. In addition, it is compatible with a mop so it can take care of spills, grime and other kinds of dirt.

Finally, the vacuum uses Inertial navigation which is a combination of the electric eye and dual gyroscope and a set of thirteen different sensors. Some of these sensors include; cliff detection, trap avoidance, dirt detection, charge and resumption of cleaning state. On the other hand, for extra features that are not included on the control panel, one can download the Mi Home APP and control the robot vacuum remotely through the app. You can also control it using voice control with Alexa over your home WIFI connection of at least 2.5GHz frequency.

The Roborock E4 has a limited manufacturer's warranty of 12 months.

3. iRobot Roomba 980 Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Roomba 980
Roomba 980

The Roomba 980 comes with a powerful Gen 3 motor with a great suction power of 1700 Pa. This robot is equipped with a special Auto-adjust cleaning feature which adjusts its head automatically depending on the type of floor. For example; when making the transition from a hardwood floor to a carpeted surface.

Additionally, the roomba 980 has a three-stage cleaning system that uses tangle-free multi-surface brushes and powerful lifting suction. The combination of the two helps to pull in debris and dirt from all areas and deep within the carpets in which it is stuck. It can do all this while automatically adjusting its suction power depending on the floor type. 

This vacuum has a lithium-ion battery that has enough charge to provide an uninterrupted cleaning time of up to 120 minutes. When this cleaning time is paired with other special features, one is bound to enjoy a dust-free home. Firstly, the roomba 980 also comes with Dirt detection technology that keeps track of the high traffic spots that require extra cleaning. Secondly, it has an edge cleaning feature for corners and hard to reach sharp turns. And thirdly, a special Patent iAdapt Navigation system with vSLAM technology that allows for mapping of your home, .

If the Roomba 980 runs low on battery while in the middle of a cleaning cycle, it will abandon cleaning and return to its base to charge. It can for up to three hours and will return to the last known cleaning location and resume cleaning. This is because it has to ensure that it does not leave any area uncleaned.

In addition to the above, it has a bin capacity of 600mls and a HEPA filter that helps to eliminate 99% of micro-pollutants. Even those as small as 0.3 microns. In short, your home is guaranteed to remain fresh and allergy-free. Also, a large bin guarantees that you are saved a lot of time in emptying the bin repeatedly (which can get annoying).

This robot vacuum learns your cleaning habits and integrates this knowledge in its cleaning cycles to give you a satisfactory clean cycle. Even when the homeowner is away, you can still control the iRobot HOME App. The app keeps a history of the cleaning and even marks the high traffic areas with an X. You can also schedule cleaning cycles. It is also compatible with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa over a home WIFI connection.

The Roomba robot vacuum is small enough to get under tight areas to clean without getting stuck. It also has a set of anti-drop and cliff-detect sensors to keep it from falling down the stairs. This robot vacuum navigates in neat rows which guarantee a more thorough and methodical cleaning instead of the random cleaning that is bound to miss certain spots. On top of all this goodness, the Roomba 980 is compatible with a one Braava jet M6 robot mop. You can be automatically set it to start mopping your home once the Roomba is done vacuuming.

One downside of the Roomba 980 is that it is pretty loud. It has a noise level of 70 dB when in eco mode and this is supposed to be the lowest noise level. The max cleaning mode is at about 84dB which is super loud.

4. Shark IQ RV101AE Auto Empty Robot Vacuum Cleaner

The Shark IQ has a powerful suction to dislodge debris on all floors and also within the fiber on your thick carpets. It has a self-cleaning tangle-free brush roll that removes pet hair on floors and won't get tangled up in the carpet fiber as it cleans.

It has the SharkClean app and the added voice control feature which can be used over the home's WIFI network. The Shark vacuum cleaner can also be set to do a whole home clean or to just clean specific rooms in the home. Additionally, the Shark IQ creates a map of the entire home and this helps the owner to manually select and schedule cleaning cycles of different areas on the map.

The robot vacuum cleans your home using a row by row pattern. This is guaranteed to be a more efficient cleaning mode. The shark robot can navigate freely within one room before moving on to the next. On the high suction setting of max mode, the Shark IQ can go for up to 100 minutes. While running the eco mode, it might improve run time and go up to 160 minutes. This robot vacuum has an automatic charging feature and will always automatically return to the charging dock when running low on battery. It will later resume cleaning once fully charged (estimated to charge for 5 hours).

The vacuum's bin has some standard filters plus the HEPA filter for added efficiency. The unique feature here is that after each cleaning cycle, the robot vacuum will return to the charging base which also doubles as a dirt tower where it will automatically empty its trash into the bagless base. Using this automatic bin empty feature, the owner can go up to a month without the need to empty the bin or the bag as it is large enough to hold that much debris.

5. Goovi D380 Smart Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Goovi D380
Goovi D380

The Goovi D380 Smart robot vacuum has a 2600Mah LI-ion battery. The battery is strong enough to hold enough charge to last the Goovi D30 a maximum of 120 minutes of dedicated cleaning of your home. This time is enough to allow the vacuum to run through large spaces or multiple rooms on one charge before automatically returning to its dock to recharge for five hours.

Most notable about the Goovi 380 is its set of carpet sensors that enable it to adjust cleaning modes to better clean your carpet and leave it completely dirt-free. The Goovi D380 has a suction power of 1600Pa that is strong enough to lift all debris and dust in the carpet fiber and all the other floor types.

The vacuum can climb up surfaces of 0.6 inches in height and this gives it an added capability to easily clean carpets within this height range. The goovi automatically turns on the carpet pressurization feature when it is moving to carpeted floors so it can clean them better. These features and more are the reason the Goovi d30 appears on this list of the best robot vacuum for thick carpets and high pile carpets. It is also a very good robot vacuum for high pile carpets especially because of its climbing ability.

This robot vacuum uses infrared sensors for object detection to avoid colliding into objects and walls but this technology is what helps the robot vacuum to map an optimal cleaning route such that all areas or carpets receive the attention they deserve.

Here’s a comparison table to break down all the information listed above. The table is a compilation for the best robot vacuum for thick carpets and high pile carpets including what features each of the contenders above possess.

The 5 best robot vacuums for thick carpets and high pile carpets

Vacuum Name:  Neato Botvac D7
*best robot vacuum for thick carpets and high pile carpets
Roborock E4 Robot VacuumiRobot Roomba 980Shark IQGoovi D380 Smart Robot
Model no.945-0292E4980RV1001D380
Run time120 mins200 mins120 mins160 mins120 mins
Charge time150 mins4 hrs3 hrs5 hrs 
Battery type (Li-ion)YesYes
Navigation and mappingLaser technologyGyroscope + optical eyeCameraIQ navigationInfrared sensors
Auto-charge?YesYes
Recommendation of useHard floor, CarpetCarpetHard floor, carpetHard floor, carpetCarpet, Hard floor
Filter type (HEPA)YesYes
Voice promptsYesYes
Carpet Boost or similar featureyesAutomatic carpet boostAuto adjust headAutomatic suction increaseCarpet pressurization
Warranty12 monthsTwelve months12 monthsTwelve months12 months

Our Verdict on the best robot vacuum for thick carpets and high pile carpets

As you can see because of its sturdy D-shape design, short charging time and superior laser technology, the best robot vacuum for thick carpets and high pile carpets is the Neato botvac d7. So, whether you need the best robot vacuum for thick carpets or the best robot vacuum for high pile carpets, the robot vacuums listed above will not disappoint you. Our top choice for either thick carpets or high pile carpets is the Neato botvac d7.

Summary of best list;

All the vacuum cleaners listed above are specially fit to clean high pile carpets and thick carpets but will also perfectly clean your medium and low pile carpets without breaking a sweat. However, if you are only interested in the best robot vacuum for medium and low pile carpets, do not fret. Here is a list of some great robot vacuums that will get the job done.

The Best robot vacuum for medium and low pile carpets

1. Roborock S5 Robot Vacuum

The Roborock s5
The Roborock s5

This vacuum offers a set of features such as the ability to set no-mop zones, selective cleaning of rooms on the map, and uses lidar navigation to create a smart map of your home.

The roborock s5 can run for up to 180minutes because of its large Lithium-battery. Similarly, its powerful suction of 2000Pa also gives you assurance that your home will always be dirt free. The Roborock S5 cleans in a zig-zag Z-shape to make sure that it picks up as much debris as possible.

Additionally, it has a mop function with a water tank of 290 ml with automatic water disposal so that it can clean up spills and mud alongside the dry dirt. For your carpets, an automatic carpet boost feature will automatically be turned on when the vacuum comes in contact with carpets.

The roborock s5 will do a phenomenal job on your low pile carpets or medium pile carpets.

2. Eufy Robovac 11S Boost IQ Robot Vacuum

eufy 11s
eufy 11s

The Eufy Robovac vacuums for a maximum of 100 minutes and uses a suction power of 1300 Pa to pick up dirt and other particles. The HEPA filter is especially useful to get rid of allergens as small as 0.3 microns and 99% of all particles.

The robot vacuum has an anti-scratch tempered glass cover because offers its top added protection. Furthermore, the eufy 11s has a set of infrared sensors for object detection and drop sensors to keep it safe from falling off edges.

This Robovac is always ready to clean since it automatically charges after every cleaning cycle.  This robot vacuum has a limited set of controls but to make up for this, a user-intuitive remote control was made available. A definite contender for best robot vacuum for medium pile carpets and a worthy first runner up.

3. Coredy R300 Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Coredy R300
Coredy R300

Lastly on our list of the best robot vacuum for medium pile carpets, we have the coredy r300 robot vacuum. Keep in mind that this list also applies to the best robot vacuum for low pile carpets. This means that the robot vacuums on this list will work on both medium pile carpets and low pile carpets as well.

The Coredy R300 robot vacuum is very handy and reliable for a clean home because it has both a dry clean and mop feature that are used simultaneously to keep your home clean at all times. However, the water tank that is compatible with this robot vacuum is sold separately.

With a suction power of 1700 Pa and an auto-adjust feature when transitioning between floors of different types, you can rest easy that no spots will be left uncleaned. This robot vacuum is slim enough to fit under hard-to-reach areas and pull-out dirt. It will also give you a maximum of 110 minutes of cleaning which is usually enough to get a good clean in one or two rooms at a time.

This robot vacuum also has an advanced set of anti-collision and anti-drop sensors in addition to pressure-sensitive bumpers that help it to navigate around your home without any accidents or getting blocked by obstacles.

Featured Posts

Related Posts