How We Verify

One score, four dimensions

Every machine that appears in a VacuumWiz guide gets one score from 0 to 10, built from four equal dimensions. The same four apply in every category we cover, from robot vacuums to carpet cleaners. What changes is the scenario list the machine meets.

The four dimensions

• Cleaning performance — what independent testers and owners report a machine picks up on real floors, and what it leaves behind: hair at the edges, fine dust along grout lines, kibble under the table.
• Ease of use — weight in hand, steering, bin and tank access, setup out of the box, and whether storing it takes a shelf or a whole corner of the closet.
• Everyday upkeep — the routine the machine asks of an owner: washing filters, detangling the brush roll, emptying the dock, buying bags or solution.
• Long-haul reliability — whether it holds up under real use, not just out of the box. We judge this dimension conservatively: where wear shows early we say so, and where nothing shows we say that too, rather than promise a lifespan.

Each dimension is a quarter of the total. We do not have a reason to weight one higher, so we do not.

How we verify

We do not run our own test bench. What we do is track what independent testers and everyday owners report about a machine on the floors a real home has — hardwood, tile, area rugs, medium-pile carpet — and the messes those floors actually see: pet hair worked into carpet, scattered kibble, muddy paw prints at the door. Within a category we hold every machine to the same scenario list, so results from different sources can sit side by side.

Before anything goes in a guide as settled, we check it against more than one independent source. When two or more line up, it goes in as a fact. When only one source mentions a detail, we say so and it carries less weight — it will not carry a whole section on its own. When sources disagree outright, we say that too, rather than pick a side or paper over it.

Numbers in our guides are either the manufacturer's published figures, marked as such, or counts that independent testers and owners actually reported. We do not invent a number to fill a gap.

What you will not find here

Prices move and retailer figures are not ours to vouch for, so neither appears on this site. A machine enters a guide only when the material we have verified supports every one of the four dimensions; thin material means no guide, not a padded one.

Questions about this method: contact us.