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Glossary

The terms we use across the scores and guides, and where to read more.

Fair Score: Our score out of 100 for how fair a robot is to own, across repair and parts, software support and warranty, ownership and independence, cost of ownership, and privacy and security. It doesn’t measure cleaning or mowing performance. More
Fair Pick, Fair, Listed: The ratings that follow from the score and red flags: Fair Pick, Fair, Listed, Doesn't meet the Fair Standard. More
Red flag: A problem serious enough that a robot can’t be a Fair Pick whatever its score: it needs the maker’s cloud to work, has no replacement battery available, blocks third-party consumables, or has a critical, publicly disclosed security flaw left unfixed after 90 days. A red flag needs evidence; a brand that simply doesn’t say loses points but gets no flag. More
Not disclosed: The brand doesn’t publish what a criterion needs, so the robot scores 0 on it until it does. More
Research pending: Information we haven’t finished reading. It scores 0 for now, and is our gap, not the brand’s. More
In review (draft): An assessment that hasn’t yet been checked by a second person. Every score on the site is currently in review. More
Key modules: The parts we check for in each category, from the battery and wheels to motors and the mainboard. Our spare-parts criteria count how many are sold. More
Consumables and wear parts: Parts that wear out with normal use and are replaced on a schedule: brushes, filters, dust bags and mop pads on robot vacuums, blades on lawn mowers, filters and brushes on pool robots, cleaning pads on window robots. More
Parts in practice: Our criterion R3: can you still order parts, for delivery to Spain, for the brand’s model in the same category launched at least five years ago? More
Legal guarantee (garantía legal): In Spain, the seller is responsible for faults that existed at delivery and show up within three years of it. It applies whatever the brand’s own warranty says. More
Commercial warranty (garantía comercial): A warranty a brand or seller offers on top of the legal guarantee. It is binding on its stated terms and never replaces the legal guarantee. More
Ten-year parts obligation: Spanish law requires the producer to keep a technical service and spare parts for at least ten years after a product stops being made. More
EU right to repair: Directive (EU) 2024/1799, which member states had to apply from 31 July 2026. Its duty to repair after the guarantee covers listed product types, which don’t include the robots we score. More
Parts pairing: When a replacement part only works once the maker links it to the device. One example in our batch: a Husqvarna replacement battery must be synchronised at an authorised workshop. More
RTK positioning: How most wire-free lawn mowers know where they are: satellite positioning corrected with data from a reference station. Most makers stream that correction data over Wi-Fi or mobile data; some also offer a reference station you install at home. More
Boundary wire: A wire laid around the lawn that a mower follows to know where it may cut. The wire-guided mower in our batch works fully offline. More
Matter: A smart-home standard. Robots certified by the Connectivity Standards Alliance can be controlled by compatible smart-home systems, and score full points for local control. More
Local API: An official, documented way to control a robot directly on your home network, without the maker’s servers. More
Community integration: Software maintained by users rather than the brand, such as Home Assistant integrations. It only counts for local control if it works without the maker’s cloud. More
End-of-life commitment: A published promise that a robot keeps working, locally or through released firmware, if the maker shuts its cloud service down. None of the robots in our first batch has one. More
Security support period: The minimum time a brand commits to shipping firmware or security updates for a model. More
Vulnerability disclosure policy: A published way for security researchers to report flaws to a brand. Our criterion P1 also checks whether fixes ship within 90 days of a flaw becoming public. More
Reference price: The robot’s launch price in Spain or the EU where we could source it, otherwise its current list price. Running costs are shown as a share of it. More