Clever cleaning

Run a tight ship with tech, putting it to good use doing the chores you loathe

Kitting your home out with smart tech is a great idea for added security, saving energy and making your house feel, well, more homely. But we’re glad to see a rise in the range of connected cleaning products designed to take the stress out of housework, as this gives you time to put your feet up.

Robot vacuum cleaners have been around for a while now, but they’ve come on in leaps and bounds in recent years. Many of the major robot vac brands have upgraded their robots with great cleaning skills and suction, plus the navigational smarts to make them effective, hard-working household companions that don’t kill furniture.

The Neato D7 Botvac D7 Connected (£799,

neatorobotics.com) is one of our favourite robot vacuums, thanks to its superb laser technology system used to scan, map and clean your whole home. Controlled via an app on your phone, you can also tell the Botvac D7 to give certain areas a more thorough clean, or to avoid areas entirely.

iRobot creates a great range of smart cleaning robots too, including the Roomba 980 (£899.99, irobot.co.uk), which has an easy-to-use app for scheduling cleans. It’s also a great vacuum for giving carpets a deep clean, for sucking up pet hair, and for cleaning hard floors.

Speaking of which, iRobot also has the Braava 390t (£329.99), a floor-mopping robot that’s specially designed to clean hard floors, both dry or damp. It’s capable of tracking where it’s been and where it needs to go. and once cleaning is finished it returns to where it started and powers down automatically. A reservoir refreshes the cloth as it goes.

Smart cleaning tech isn’t just found in vacuums, either. There are a number of devices that provide top notch automated cleans, such as the Emperor of Gadgets Toilet Sanitizer (£39.99, amazon.co.uk), which starts a six-minute cleaning cycle every time you close your toilet lid.