Life's busy enough for many of us without having to get bogged down in day-to-day home maintenance. So, if you have some cash to spare, why not make things easier for yourself by splurging on a robot vacuum? Several iRobot Roomba models are up to 50 percent off in a sale on Amazon. Some have dropped to record low prices, including the iRobot Roomba 694. At 160, that model is 42 percent off its usual price of 275. Although it's not the first time the 694 has dropped to this price, it's always worth calling out since this is our top pick for the best budget robot vacuum.

We've seen this deal pop up periodically over the past several months, but it's still $71 below the vacuum's typical street price. Outside of a very brief drop to $175 last November, it matches the lowest price we've tracked. This discount comes within $5 of the all-time low for what we consider the best budget robot vacuum for most people. The Roomba 694 itself is the top pick in our guide to the best budget robot vacuums. It's an entry-level model that navigates around a room semi-randomly instead of mapping and following set paths, so it's not the most efficient cleaner, and it'll bonk into furniture around your house.

We all could use a little help keeping our homes clean, and now we live in an age where robots are actually capable of lending a (mechanical) hand. Robot vacuums are some of the most ubiquitous smart home gadgets available today with their circular shapes and propensity for bumping into walls. While they provide an undeniable convenience, they can also be expensive. It's not unheard of to drop close to $1,000 on a high-end robo-vac. But in a change from just a few years ago, today there are now plenty of budget robot vacuum options to choose from.

I bought my first Roomba more than a decade ago. Unfortunately, cheap robovacs back then didn't have much in the way of intelligence or suction power, so it was mostly a curiosity that would bump around my apartment for a while before I followed up with a real vacuum. Whether you're like me, or you've never had one, then you're probably wondering if current models can do any better, and according to Valentina Palladino, the answer is yes. As she explains, "If you're someone who wants to spend as little time as possible cleaning your home -- or just someone who detests vacuuming -- then a semi-autonomous robot is a great investment." She reviewed several options that are available for under $300 and picked out a few that are worthy of slinking under your couch or into dusty corners.

We all could use a little help keeping our homes clean, and now we live in an age where robots are actually capable of lending a (mechanical) hand. Robot vacuums are some of the most recognizable smart home gadgets available today with their circular shapes and propensity for bumping into walls. While they provide an undeniable convenience, they can also have high price tags. It's not unheard of to drop close to $1,000 on a high-end robo-vac. But unlike just a few years ago, today there are plenty of budget robot vacuum options to choose from.

Our overall favorite affordable robot vacuum is the Anker RoboVac 10. This model retails for only 199, it gets positive user reviews, and it did exceptionally well in our tests. In fact, it outperformed the popular iRobot Roomba 770 and 880, and was only barely beat by models from Dyson and Samsung that cost up to five times as much. We estimate it will clean over 80 grams of dirt a week--about as much as a traditional vacuum can hold. A full clean of our test track took two hours, but you can schedule the vacuum to clean when you're not home.