The existing expectation maximization (EM) and space-alternating generalized EM (SAGE) algorithms are only applied to direction of arrival (DOA) estimation in known noise. In this paper, the two algorithms are designed for DOA estimation in unknown uniform noise. Both the deterministic and random signal models are considered. In addition, a new modified EM (MEM) algorithm applicable to the noise assumption is also proposed. Next, these EM-type algorithms are improved to ensure the stability when the powers of sources are not equal. After being improved, simulation results illustrate that the EM algorithm has similar convergence with the MEM algorithm, the SAGE algorithm outperforms the EM and MEM algorithms for the deterministic signal model, and the SAGE algorithm cannot always outperform the EM and MEM algorithms for the random signal model. Furthermore, simulation results show that processing the same snapshots from the random signal model, the SAGE algorithm for the deterministic signal model can require the fewest computations.