Q5+

I concur. I bought it as a 5AE (same model) for only 450 bucks.

Pay attention that this is an older model of the Q5 max+, it doesn’t have the duoroller. You absolutely need at least the duorollers for dog hair. Attached a picture of mine (with the duoroller) for reference. Ask the seller to send u a picture of the bottom before u commit. If it’s the single roller, don’t bother or negotiate the price down. https://preview.redd.it/s561ju9xwmmf1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bd1f16f8d75206bbea36bfca231221477e916591

Yes that’s what I thought. This roller is an old one and you’ll find urself having to clean hair off of it after each run. Not worth the money imo.

For that budget, vacuum only. And honestly even they might not handle the shaggy rug. Most robots can't. If you're okay with vacuuming the rug by hand, and basically creating a no-go zone around it in the robot app to stop them getting stuck, a roborock q series vacuum-only model might be decent.

Unfortunately it's all in the market pressures, certain sets of requirements or categories of robots have been totally eliminated. For example it's really hard to find much choice of robot mops, everybody has switched to making combination all-in-one robots which are much more expensive. It can be really frustrating. What I will say, avoid models with AI obstacle avoidance camera systems mounted on the front bumper. This should help limit privacy concerns. A lidar sensor can give a basic layout of your house and furniture placement but it can't really see details, it's basically a 2-D image. Edit: obviously all images are 2-D lol. What I meant is, it's only seeing your house through a really thin laser beam shining out from the top "turret". This means it can see shapes on that line of sight and nothing else, basically it doesn't steer that laser up or down. It can't see details of people, pets, objects not at floor level etc. It'll see four furniture legs, with no way to tell if it's a sofa or a dining table. Obviously having a literal camera is a totally different story there. And luckily a lot of the more basic options lack cameras (for now anyway). Models like the eufy L60 or Roborock Q5 might be ones to look at.

Join the r/RobotVacuums subreddit for great info! It’s generally agreed that Roomba and Shark are pretty low quality, while brands like Roborock, Dreame, and Eufy are very well liked. There is such a wide range of features and price points. We got an older, more basic model to start out with (a Roborock- only vacuum, no mopping- was on sale for less than $150 last year) and I love it. The reservoir has to be emptied every day or two since it doesn’t have the self emptying feature, but it still saves me a ton of time with 2 big dogs and kids in the house. We definitely plan to upgrade in the future to one that has self emptying and mopping features!

I actually have two now!! My older Q5+ And my new Saros 10..both are excellent!! I have had the Q5 for many years and just decided to upgrade…so I use the Q5 upstairs and the Saros 10 downstairs!! Can’t go wrong with a Roborock