Guide
What a threshold claim actually means
A published clearance figure tells you the tallest step a robot climbed in a lab. It does not tell you the step it will climb in your hallway, on a carpet, with a half-flat battery. That gap is where most disappointing robot purchases come from.
Measure the step, do not guess at it
Take a ruler to the tallest internal threshold between rooms — the strip between tiled kitchen and carpeted hallway, the aluminium track, the raised bath edge if it is on the cleaning route. Write the number in centimetres. If you cannot get to it within a millimetre, your measurement uncertainty is already larger than the difference between most published figures.
What the published figures in this catalogue say
| Model | Rated clearance | What the manufacturer writes |
|---|---|---|
| ECOVACS DEEBOT N20 PLUS | 2 cm | Scales 20mm thresholds (2 cm). |
| ECOVACS DEEBOT T30S PRO PLUS | 2 cm | Climbs thresholds up to 20mm (2 cm) in both dry and wet conditions. |
| Dreame X50 Ultra | 6 cm | Vendor states obstacle overcoming up to 6 cm. |
| Dreame Matrix10 Ultra | 8 cm | Vendor states ProLeap 8cm obstacle overcoming; clears 4.2cm single-layer steps and chair legs under 30mm. |
Why the matcher insists on headroom
Every figure above is a maximum. A maximum is reached on ideal conditions: a clean, dry, unworn step; a full battery; the manufacturer's own test mat. Your step is a worn aluminium track with a rug edge. This site therefore treats the published figure as an upper bound and requires a margin below it before calling a fit comfortable.
A model rated at exactly your step height still appears in your results — it is not hidden — but it is labelled as clearing it with nothing to spare, because that is the honest description of it.
The figure to distrust most
Be careful with a large headline number like “8 cm”. Very large claims generally describe specific named manoeuvres — a single defined step type, sometimes with the robot retracting its lidar mast — rather than an 8 cm ledge anywhere in your house. The wording next to the number is where the manufacturer states the conditions. This site reproduces that wording rather than reducing it to a single figure, so you can see which kind of claim you are being offered.
One manufacturer in this catalogue states both a headline figure and the underlying test detail: the larger model publishes 8 cm as its headline and separately describes clearing 4.2 cm single-layer steps and chair legs under 30 mm. The second sentence is the more useful one, and it is why both appear on the model page.
What to do when nothing fits
If the matcher rules out every model on thresholds, the honest options are: raise the budget to the next tier that clears it, ramp the step if you own the property, or accept that you will lift the robot over that one spot. What the site will not do is suggest a model that clears 2 cm for a 2.5 cm step because it is otherwise a good machine.
Figures read from manufacturer Australian pages on 2026-10-04; prices in this catalogue start at A$423. This site has not tested these machines.