The best way to tell if someone owns a dog is to look at what they wear every day. If the answer is "anything that matches my pet's hair," then they probably have a dog or cat at home. One question we get asked a lot is: Can a robot vacuum help? The short answer is yes--but there are things you should know before purchasing an automated cleaner to help turn the tide in your battle against pet hair. We've been testing robot vacuums for years--and have done specific research on the best robot vacuums for pet hair--so we've got answers to the most common issues.

The Deebot Ozmo 601 (left) next to the iRobot Braava (right). It's funny how the path of ascendance for Chinese tech upstarts seem to always involve competing with an American product with a lower-cased "I" in its name. In the smartphone world, Huawei, Xiaomi and Vivo are ultimately competing with the iPhone more than they are against each other; and in the world of robot cleaners, Suzhou-based Ecovacs Robotics' rapid rise means its products are constantly being compared with those from Massachusetts-based iRobot. In fact, the tech website Wirecutter (a Forbes partner) last year picked from a selection of top entry-level robot cleaners and Ecovacs' Deebot N79 came out on top, with iRobot's Roomba 690 as runner-up. Ecovacs loaned me a unit to review, but since my friend has raved about her Braava 380T for months, I opted for a comparison of both models.