Pros & Cons
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- Thorough large particle pickup
- Good mopping performance
- Efficient navigation
- Short stature to fit under furniture
- Supports scheduling, virtual walls, and voice control
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- Struggles with stubborn debris
- No self-emptying base station
- Occasionally gets stuck
TP-Link Tapo RV20 Max Specs
| Battery Life (Tested) | 90 minutes |
| Dimensions | 13 by 13 by 3.27 inches |
| Mop/Vacuum Hybrid | |
| Phone Control | |
| Scheduling | |
| Virtual Walls |
For $199.99, the TP-Link Tapo RV20 Max vacuums and mops with systematic navigation, good battery life, and helpful smart features. It supports app control, scheduling, and virtual walls, as well as voice control through Alexa and Google Assistant. It’s short enough to fit under furniture and powerful enough to pick up large particles wherever it treads. It doesn't tackle stubborn debris or set-in grime as effectively as our favorite premium models, but it offers excellent cleaning performance for the price. If you're willing to spend more, TP-Link's Tapo MV30 Max Plus ($299.99) offers more effective navigation and a self-emptying dustbin, making it our Editors’ Choice winner for budget-friendly robot vacuums.
Design and Features: Lots for the Price
The Tapo RV20 Max sits alongside the Tapo RV30 Max in TP-Link’s lineup. Both models have the same 5,300Pa of vacuum suction power and an attachable mop pad. They mostly differ in terms of navigation: The RV20 has a Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensor embedded in the front of its body while the RV30 puts the LiDAR inside a raised compartment on top of the body, giving it a clearer view at the cost of some additional height.
By the numbers, the RV20 stands 3.2 inches tall, compared with 3.9 inches for the RV30. Both models measure 13 inches in diameter. For comparison, iRobot’s budget-friendly Roomba Combo Essential ($274.99) lacks a LiDAR sensor and is slightly smaller than the RV20 at 12.9 by 3.1 inches.
The RV20 Max and the RV30 Max both come with a standard charging dock and sell for $199.99 and $219.99, respectively. TP-Link also offers both models with a self-emptying base station, as denoted with a Plus at the end of the name. The RV20 Max Plus sells for $249.99 and the RV30 Max Plus for $299.99. Self-emptying functionality means you'll spend less time maintaining your robot vacuum and significantly reduces your exposure to dust and other allergens.
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)The RV20's base is a small black rectangle with charging contacts that align with the receptors on the back of its disc-shaped body.
On top of the robot are three buttons for physical controls. The power button starts and pauses cleaning, and you can hold it for three seconds to toggle power. The square button starts a spot clean in the area immediately around the robot, or you can hold it for five seconds to turn on the child lock. The home button sends it back to the dock.
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)On the bottom, the robot’s main wheels flank the center brush roll, which features both rubber fins and bristles. Cliff sensors circle the perimeter, and an omnidirectional caster wheel and a side brush sit on the front edge.
The removable mop mount snaps into notches on the bottom of the robot's dustbin/water tank. The mopping cloth easily and securely attaches to the mount and is also removable for washing.
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)In addition to the physical controls, TP-Link's robot vacuums support app control and work with Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands.
Setup and App Controls: Simple and Intuitive
The RV20 Max box includes the robot, the charging base, a mopping pad and mounting plate, instructions and a quick start manual, a power cord, and a small cleaning brush.
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)To start the setup process, find a home for the base somewhere on a hard floor with a strong Wi-Fi signal near an outlet. The base needs 1.6 feet of clearance on each side, 4.9 feet in front, and 4.0 feet of distance from any staircase so the robot can safely come and go. TP-Link also recommends avoiding a spot regularly in direct sunlight. Next, hold the power button on the robot for three seconds to power it on, then place it on the dock so it can start charging.
At this point, you’ll need to download the Tapo app for Android or iOS and create an account if you don’t have one. In the Tapo app, hit the plus button to add the RV20 Max to your account. The app will prompt you to hold the dock and spot clean buttons simultaneously for a few seconds to put the robot in Wi-Fi setup mode so you can connect it to your home network.
Once it connects, the app will ask you to name the robot and assign it to a room. After an update, the app will suggest that you send the robot on a mapping run. It prompts you to put away high-pile carpets before the mapping run if possible, which is an unusual request. The RV20 sits low to the ground but can supposedly clear thresholds as tall as 0.87 inches.
The RV20 mapped my 1,500-square-foot two-bedroom apartment in 13 minutes and 3 seconds. The RV30 completed this task faster, in 8 minutes 19 seconds, likely thanks to its raised LiDAR sensor. That said, both robots circled the perimeter just once and produced similar, mostly accurate maps.
It took me roughly five minutes to adjust the map using the app's intuitive editing controls. The overall shape matched my apartment, but the app didn’t automatically add any room labels, and some boundaries were in the wrong spot. Minor map adjustments are usually necessary, even with much more expensive models.
Once the map is set, you can edit it further with a button in the upper-right corner of the main device page. The map also lets you add furniture and carpet labels, virtual walls, and even dictate the robot's cleaning direction individually for each room.
(Credit: TP-Link/PCMag)Otherwise, the main device page offers a play button at the bottom to start a run traversing your entire home, or specific rooms or zones. For any run, you can toggle the number of passes from one to three, set the suction power from four different levels, and if the mop is installed, you can set the water flow from three different levels. In the upper-right corner of the main device page is a detailed settings menu from which you can set up schedules and more.
The RV20 and RV30 have identical app controls, voice controls, and other smart features. For more details on any of the above, check out my review of the RV30 Max Plus.
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Navigation: Well-Traveled
After getting the app and map set up, I turned the RV20 Max loose on my place for whole-home runs with default settings. It navigated room by room as it worked, going along the border of each before vacuuming in rows up and down the middle. Despite the lower vantage point of its navigation system, it finished its first run in a snappy 67 minutes, just edging out the RV30's 68-minute initial run. On its second run, it took 70 minutes, whereas the RV30 took 69.
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)Both models are far superior to similarly priced competition on this front, as any sort of systematic navigation is miles better than the random bump navigation that you normally find in this price range. For example, the Roomba Combo Essential uses bump navigation and never successfully covered my entire floor plan in a single run, always getting lost at some point in the process. The Shark Ion Robot Vacuum ($279.99) took 97 minutes to cover my place, and wasn’t as thorough as the RV20 Max.
For the most part, the RV20 navigates just as efficiently as the RV30, but it gets stuck more often than its sibling. It completed its first run flawlessly, but thereafter, the RV20 regularly tried to wedge itself under furniture and would get jammed under my recliner. The RV30 only struggled with one particular corner in my home, and I solved the problem by adding a keep-out zone in the area.
Battery Life: 90 Minutes
Strangely, the RV20 didn’t last quite as long as the RV30 in my battery test despite having the same 2,600mAh capacity.
For this test, I ran the robot repeatedly until it called it quits to return to its base and charge. The RV20 lasted 90 minutes, which just meets the threshold we consider sufficient for most homes. The RV30 lasted 98 minutes, the Roomba Combo Essential 127 minutes, and the Shark Ion 144 minutes.
Cleaning Performance: Large Particle Excellence
During whole-home test runs, the RV20 cleaned my floor of dust bunnies and didn’t drop any dirt when crossing over thresholds. The RV20 fared admirably when picking up after my two cats as well. Its brush roll didn’t get tangled over time, despite its dustbin bursting with fur after each run.
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)My hard floors looked clean after mopping runs, with food stains from my furry roommates adequately wiped up. Putting it into mop mode is as easy as filling up the reservoir in the dustbin with clean water and attaching the mop pad. The RV20 can’t lift its mop pad clear of carpets like many pricier models, but in the app, I selected the option to have it avoid carpets but cross quickly when necessary while in mop mode. Alternatively, you can tell it to vacuum and mop your carpets if you don’t mind getting them wet.
My preferred setting worked well, as the RV20 recognized the rooms I’d labeled as carpeted and stayed away while in mopping mode.
To measure a robot vacuum’s cleaning prowess, I lock it in a 100-square-foot carpeted room with a clean floor. I spread a specific amount of rice on the floor, then turn the vacuum loose, weighing the dustbin before and after the run to see how much it picks up. I repeat the test with sand (which is much harder to pick up than rice), then again with both types of debris in a 100-square-foot room with a hardwood floor.
Note that for these tests, I’m using the results of the RV30 Max Plus, as it has the same suction power, design, and brush roll shape.
The Tapo RV series excels at picking up large particles (rice) on both flooring types. It collected 100% of the rice while on carpet, matching the Shark Ion Robot and beating the 90.68% of the Roomba Combo Essential.
Even on hardwood, the Tapo RV series collected an impressive 95.85% of the rice. This test can be trickier for some vacuums, as side brushes tend to fling rice particles on the slick surface. To gauge debris spread and edge cleaning, I distribute the grains along a wall for this test.
The RV series beat the Roomba Combo Essential for rice pickup on hardwood (91.45%), but fell just short of the Shark Ion Robot (97.55%). Nonetheless, it’s an excellent result as the RV series didn’t fling the debris and succeeded in gathering most of the grains from along the wall.
While the RV20’s 5,300Pa of suction power is plenty given the price, it’s well short of high-end models. For example, the $1,599.99 Roborock Saros 10 leads the pack with 22,000Pa. As I’ve found throughout my testing, listed suction power doesn’t always tell the whole story, as models with less have occasionally done better than more powerful robots. That said, deep cleaning, represented by our sand pickup testing, is one area where the budget-friendly Tapo RV series can’t quite keep up with more premium models.
Sand on carpet is a suction power stress test, and the RV series only managed to collect 26.98% of it, narrowly beating the Roomba Combo Essential’s 23.78% pickup. However, the Roomba worked much better for sand on hardwood, collecting 91.70% compared with the RV series' 53.95%.
The RV series further proved its efficiency, finishing the carpet tests in an average of 14 minutes and 49 seconds (14:49) and hardwood tests in 22:01. Those times mostly match those of the Roomba Combo Essential (14:20 and 23:57) and significantly outpace the Shark Ion (74:30 and 75:46). The Shark Ion bumped its way around a room over and over again while the RV series efficiently covered the space once.
I also put the RV series through my mopping stress test, in which I spread 0.25 ounces of jelly in one spot on my kitchen floor to evaluate its performance. It ended up going over the stained area twice while in mop mode. The first time, it picked up some of the jelly but also smeared it a bit. On the second pass, it cleaned up most of the remaining jelly. It left some sticky residue, but didn't spread seeds or stickiness to other parts of the floor, as some other robot mops tend to do.
The Roomba Combo Essential performed similarly on this test, spreading the jelly after one pass but wiping up most of the stain by the time it was done. Neither model has spinning mop pads that apply downward pressure like higher-end machines, but given the simple tech, both did impressively well.