Two things matter, and neither is the suction number: a genuine anti-tangle roller, and a self-emptying dock with a sealed bag. My current pick for pet households is the MOVA V50.

The brush roll decides everything

You want a rubber or bristle-free roller with a comb built into it, designed so hair migrates off the ends instead of winding into a rope around the middle. That’s what “anti-tangle” should mean. Some brands use the phrase for a bristle brush with slightly wider spacing, which is not the same thing at all.

Get this wrong and you’ll be cutting hair off the roller with scissors every week, and eventually the bearing at the end of the roller gives out from the strain. Get it right and it’s a small wrap off the ends about once a month.

The dock is the second half

With pets, the bin inside the robot fills fast — sometimes mid-run. A self-emptying dock with a sealed bag means you’re touching it every month or two instead of daily, and the sealed part matters if anybody in the house has allergies. A bagless dock saves you the bag cost and hands you a cloud of dander every time you empty it.

I test this with a shedding dog, a doggie door, and a rural driveway that drags dirt in year round. That’s the environment these scores come from, not fibers sprinkled on a lab mat.

Dad’s Take

With pets, the brush and the dock decide it. Suction is the third thing on the list, not the first.