(NEW!) ECOVACS Deebot N8 Pro Robot Vacuum & Mop
$269.99
$549.99
51% off
Reference Price
Condition: New
Style: N8 Pro
Top positive review
66 people found this helpful
Better than most reviewers have indicated, a great value considering the total package.
By A. Pena on Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2021
I have owned a few robot vacuums, most of them from Ecovacs and have been mostly happy with those purchases. Before this unit, my main floor Deebot was the 900, which has been retired to upstairs area. The main thing that drew me to the 900 was one of the first lidar based robots which did a pretty good job over the last few years avoiding obstacles, but it was never perfect even after years of updates. I was very reluctant to trust that the new models have come much further, but I can say I was happily wrong. Initial unboxing and setup was straight forward, especially if you have ever used any robot vacuums. It was interesting to see the auto empty unit was already loaded with a vacuum bag, but others have noted the same thing. It is very possible they quality test the unit in the factory and load the first bag for this test. Not an issue. I placed the auto empty station next to the older 900 unit and its dock, and docked the N8 Pro+ robot after attaching the 2 side sweeping brushes and removing the protection sleeves with the pull tabs. Powered on the toggle switch and the unit indicated it was charging. I used the QR code found under the top cover to download the app (different from the old Ecovacs Deebot app, the Ecovacs Deebot 2017 app, and now called Ecovacs Home). The newer UI on the most recent app is more intuitive and better tools for map managing than the older 2 apps were. This was a welcome finding that they have updated this. The app setup is a bit annoying it that it wants to map the house before any other options are available, so just note setting up no go "walls", rooms, new names, etc are not shown on the UI until the completion of the first cleaning run. Also to note, make sure you have the auto empty station dock flat against a wall that is somehow perpendicular to your house design. This was a major headache if you don't do this. What I mean is if your house is mostly a rectangle or square layout, make sure the wall you start with is 90 degrees to your home layout and not against a wall that is diagonal or circular to your house layout, otherwise, your home map will be weirdly placed on the map it generates forever and all time. You cannot (under the latest version as of 5-28-21) rotate the map once it is generated and the robot/app situates the map of the home based off the angles it detects on first undocking. So if the wall behind the dock isnt flat and perpendicular to the other walls, it may layout your map diagonally. This may not seem like any particular issue until you go to edit your map, generate zones, place no go walls, etc, because the map only uses rectangles to set zones and no mop areas and if you map is off on a diagonal direction, you will have no way to easily set these areas other than virtual no go "walls" which can be diagonal. This seems like a very big oversight and something that could easily be fixed, but there is no current provision for this and will force you to reset the entire map and start all over again. Not the end of the world, but quite an annoyance if you are not aware of what is going on. Hopefully this saves someone that pain. Now for my first cleaning. That main reason I wanted to get this unit is the improved obstacle detection. I hate having to prepare the house for a run so that it doesnt get stuck anywhere only to come find it got stuck and a large reason my last vac didnt just run on a constant schedule. In a large home (4000 sqft) with 2 kids and a dog, it was really awful to assume it would run nonstop without issue. The old unit had horrible times with anything dangling from any possible reach. It was also bad about getting hung up on low pass areas under coffee tables, end tables, etc. This unit happily is not having those issues. The front sensors seem a lot more capable of sensing things it cant fit under perfectly and the map allowed to easily prevent any future (investigations) of those areas where it would only find it couldnt fit. Be very aware, it is known that the first mapping pass takes MUCH longer for the unit to finish and will almost always not happen in the first go and require a recharge and resume. This is as designed as the unit takes extra time to map the area more closely. Once a map exists, the unit will traverse a lot more efficiently and take less time to investigate areas. I did notice this unit struggled slightly more than the 900 with tall rugs, at least at first, but then somehow it seemed to "learn" something and employ a turn around backup maneuver to get up on the rug in reverse since it has more clearance, turn around, and proceed to clean the rest of the rug (a tall pile rug on hard wood floor). I thought at first this would be a fluke, and it just happened to get up on the carpet this way, but multiple cleanings and it still does this to get over the lip of the tall pile rug. I really like the new mapping feature that detects carpet versus hardwood/tile and puts this on the map, even door mats that are carpet. This causes the vacuum to increase suction while over these areas which is a very welcomed feature. My family has already noted, this one if much quieter than the 900 and any other vacuum we have ever used while running. Slight increase over carpet, but being that it is now over carpet, not that audible since it is dampened by the carpet itself. Battery life, many indicate how this has less battery capacity then the last unit, and this is true, but I feel this is a cost cutting measure and not something that is a real issue with the unit. In my opinion, this unit is used differently from before as you can let it run more constant scheduling since it is more capable and can auto empty. When you free your mind to this concept and use it that way, battery life is much less an issue. On the initial run, it needed another charge to finish the entire 1st floor, but subsequent runs can finish on 1 run as it takes 84 minutes to complete the whole floor with some room to spare. If you schedule rooms alternating, etc, you should never run into an issue. The do not disturb times allow you to set this and sort of forget it. Just check the vac bag in the unit from time to time for fullness. One thing I want to mention from the old unit, the old unit was HORRIBLE at returning to the dock to charge, the N8 Pro+ is a lot better at finding the way back to the dock. The old unit would sometimes go in the opposite direction to get home first and sometimes run out of power while trying to find its way back. This unit generally drives right to it. Much better.
Top critical review
111 people found this helpful
So many better options for the $$
By The Exacting Consumer on Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2021
***October 2021 update - Dropping to 1 star*** So I tried a free replacement N8 Pro+ but this time in my mom's house, who has no pets and wow, the experience was abysmal. Embarrassing even! Every step is an absolute pain starting with connecting the bot to the app. 30 minutes of pressing buttons, entering wifi passwords, scanning QR codes, over and over and over, finally it took for no reason. Then the initial mapping... a complete nightmare. The bot keeps going over the same areas, again and again leaving other areas untouched. Black rugs or rugs with any black at all will cause the bot to think its drop sensors failed. If you move the bot too far after getting stuck it will lose tracking to base and guess what? That partial map you just spent hours building... GONE! Unbelievably bad and support is non existent. I reached out to the company and got zero response, nothing. Do you yourself a favor and RUN away from Ecovacs! ***Original review*** If you've done your homework, watched Vacuum Wars videos on YouTube and compared all available options right now, you may have landed on the N8 Pro+ and Roomba i7 as your top contenders. The Roomba S9 looks nice but it's way too expensive and the reviews just aren't good enough. Roborock looks promising but their top end model is relatively expensive and doesn't have an auto-empty bin as of the date of this review. There is no "perfect" robot in existence right now, in my view. I'm a 5 year owner of a Roomba 960 that had to be returned 3 times initially and repaired once out of warranty before it reached a stable state for me. I figured it was time for an upgrade. I was not optimistic about the i7 at all due to previous 960 issues and for that reason purchased the Deebot first as an extremely impressive option full of advanced tech. I'll give you my experience with both and why, much to my surprise, I landed on the i7 as the robot I will keep. First up, the N8 Pro+ which boasts variable suction levels that auto-switch depending on the floor type, low noise levels, laser 3D LiDAR tech for navigation, object avoidance camera, dual rotating brushes, built in mopping capability and a physically thinner footprint so it can get under my kitchen cabinets where my 960 gets stuck, daily. The functionality of the Ecovacs app is all there but my gripes are mainly around the layout, button naming and settings menus. I didn't find it very intuitive at all but all the key features are there: house mapping and virtual keep out zones being my top priorities. I did have some trouble with the initial configuration of the keep-out zones but got there eventually. The robot functions very well in general and is a very good vacuum, all told. The downsides that I experienced, however, were enough for me to return it. The key cons here are battery life, recharge time, the auto-empty base and getting stuck. Your first step with the N8 is the initial mapping of your floorplan which must be completed fully before you can do anything, I mean anything. It runs the vacuum during this mapping so battery consumption will be high. The i7 by comparison can do mapping runs with the vacuum turned off making it a much more streamlined process. I found the battery life to be much lower than the advertised 110 minutes netting a maximum of 75 minutes. The bigger problem is that it takes HOURS to recharge, so depending on when you start your cleaning run, this thing could quite literally run all day. For example in my situation, 635 square feet cleaned took 110 minutes of total run time with a required charge in the middle. This netted a total of nearly 6 hours to complete! Unacceptable. Also important to note is that the N8 will want to recharge at 15% battery, so the most you ever really get out of this thing is 85%. The next big problem for me was the design of the auto-empty base. They opted to use a dual port discharge method that sucks from 2 doors in the dust bin simultaneously. If you have pet hair to deal with, like I do, it was unable to suck out any of it, just leaving stranded clumps hanging from each port in the dust bin, see the attached photo. The final nail in the coffin was that despite all the advanced tech in the N8, cameras, lasers, etc, it STILL got stuck under the dining room table/ chairs just like my 960 does. Too many concessions so I sent it back and tried my luck with the i7+. N8 Pros: -Competitive price (usually on sale) -Premium look and feel -Advanced tech (cameras, lasers...) -Powerful variable suction -Systematic cleaning pattern -Free in-box extras (bags, mop pads) -Awesome low noise levels -Lower physical profile so glides under kitchen cabinets N8 Cons: -Initial mapping will take a VERY long time and must be fully completed -Even with Lidar, mapping, sensing etc it still gets stuck -Battery life is terrible (more like 75 minutes at best) vs 110, charging time is worse (1 cleaning + charge cycle = 5 hours!) -85% max usable battery is abysmal, Roomba will drain itself to nothing -Dual port self-empty in the base creates problems, especially for pet hair With the N8 returned I found the i7 on sale for the same price and pulled the trigger to give iRobot yet another chance. Much less advanced overall tech here, the same "crash into everything" sensor mode as the old Roomba models, no fancy lasers here but the camera does use iAdapt to map out objects. This camera needs light, mind you. Out of the box is a very simple setup just plug in the base, set the robot in it, add the robot to the app. I was prompted with a firmware update right away so let that run and waited until the next day to do the initial mapping run. Being able to just wander around without the vacuum running is such a simple but meaningful feature here. One battery charge and you should have a map of your floorplan, vs 2 runs + 1 charge on my N8. The completed map was excellent and they even attempt to add room dividers so you can partition areas of your house for more granularity. This is really cool and allows you to choose certain areas to clean on certain days or times if you want. No-go zones and room labels are also easily applied here. VERY intuitive app layout, button naming scheme, settings menus. You can tell iRobot put a lot of effort into this. So I did the mapping run then followed with a "vacuum everywhere" run, no virtual barriers yet. Not only was the robot able to navigate my entire floor cleaning everything, it didn't get stuck once, even under the kitchen cabinets or dining room chairs, truly impressive. It did need a charge in the middle but at an hour or so to top up, the cleaning process completes in a much more reasonable time period. The rubber brush rolls are great for hair of all kinds and manage to pass it to the dust bin without tangles. i7 triggers the auto-empty base which is LOUD like a jet taking off but wow is it effective, nothing left in the dust bin after, not a strand of long cat hair. iRobot used a single port suction method for the base which works much better than the dual port design the N8 uses, so no problem with stuck pet hair. For comparison, the i7 cleaned 658 sq ft in 133 mins of cleaning plus a 75 minute charge. Half the total time of the N8. Cool! As for the downsides, there are a few but minor considering the system actually works well. First is the bump sensor design. I know the i7 first came out 3 years ago and once the robot learns your house it should be more gentle, as they claim, but this just feels like ancient tech at this point. Not only that, the RCON sensor, which is the protruding eye in the middle above the bumper, takes plenty of direct hits as it activates the bumper it sits on. This is the part I needed repaired on my 960 as one day it actually broke off due to years of repeated impact. iRobot should do like the others in this space and move it somewhere else safer! The unit itself is thicker than the N8 so doesn't glide under my cabinets but so far has managed to avoid getting stuck. The single rotating brush isn't as effective as the dual brushes on the N8 and you would need to buy a separate mopping robot, if you care about that. The other thing to keep in mind is that the Roomba can't see well in the dark, it needs light to do its thing. Overall I'm very pleased with the i7 and intend to keep it. All the areas the N8 falls short work as intended or better on the i7, despite being lower tech. And this is after I was almost positive I wouldn't buy another Roomba! i7 Pros: -Competitive price -Premium look and feel -Systematic cleaning pattern -Free in-box extras (1 bag, filter, rotating brush) -Excellent battery and charging performance -Excellent auto-empty base -ZERO issue with long pet hair -Intuitive and granular control via the app (clean zones, no go zones, defined rooms that can be scheduled) -Smart Maps works really well i7 Cons: -Old school vSLAM bump sensor tech that will mar the more stuff it bumps into -RCON sensor sits in harms way atop the bumper -Single rotating brush could be improved -Room lighting is required, this thing doesn't do well in the dark
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Better than most reviewers have indicated, a great value considering the total package.
By A. Pena - Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2021
Verified Amazon Purchase
I have owned a few robot vacuums, most of them from Ecovacs and have been mostly happy with those purchases. Before this unit, my main floor Deebot was the 900, which has been retired to upstairs area. The main thing that drew me to the 900 was one of the first lidar based robots which did a pretty good job over the last few years avoiding obstacles, but it was never perfect even after years of updates. I was very reluctant to trust that the new models have come much further, but I can say I was happily wrong. Initial unboxing and setup was straight forward, especially if you have ever used any robot vacuums. It was interesting to see the auto empty unit was already loaded with a vacuum bag, but others have noted the same thing. It is very possible they quality test the unit in the factory and load the first bag for this test. Not an issue. I placed the auto empty station next to the older 900 unit and its dock, and docked the N8 Pro+ robot after attaching the 2 side sweeping brushes and removing the protection sleeves with the pull tabs. Powered on the toggle switch and the unit indicated it was charging. I used the QR code found under the top cover to download the app (different from the old Ecovacs Deebot app, the Ecovacs Deebot 2017 app, and now called Ecovacs Home). The newer UI on the most recent app is more intuitive and better tools for map managing than the older 2 apps were. This was a welcome finding that they have updated this. The app setup is a bit annoying it that it wants to map the house before any other options are available, so just note setting up no go "walls", rooms, new names, etc are not shown on the UI until the completion of the first cleaning run. Also to note, make sure you have the auto empty station dock flat against a wall that is somehow perpendicular to your house design. This was a major headache if you don't do this. What I mean is if your house is mostly a rectangle or square layout, make sure the wall you start with is 90 degrees to your home layout and not against a wall that is diagonal or circular to your house layout, otherwise, your home map will be weirdly placed on the map it generates forever and all time. You cannot (under the latest version as of 5-28-21) rotate the map once it is generated and the robot/app situates the map of the home based off the angles it detects on first undocking. So if the wall behind the dock isnt flat and perpendicular to the other walls, it may layout your map diagonally. This may not seem like any particular issue until you go to edit your map, generate zones, place no go walls, etc, because the map only uses rectangles to set zones and no mop areas and if you map is off on a diagonal direction, you will have no way to easily set these areas other than virtual no go "walls" which can be diagonal. This seems like a very big oversight and something that could easily be fixed, but there is no current provision for this and will force you to reset the entire map and start all over again. Not the end of the world, but quite an annoyance if you are not aware of what is going on. Hopefully this saves someone that pain. Now for my first cleaning. That main reason I wanted to get this unit is the improved obstacle detection. I hate having to prepare the house for a run so that it doesnt get stuck anywhere only to come find it got stuck and a large reason my last vac didnt just run on a constant schedule. In a large home (4000 sqft) with 2 kids and a dog, it was really awful to assume it would run nonstop without issue. The old unit had horrible times with anything dangling from any possible reach. It was also bad about getting hung up on low pass areas under coffee tables, end tables, etc. This unit happily is not having those issues. The front sensors seem a lot more capable of sensing things it cant fit under perfectly and the map allowed to easily prevent any future (investigations) of those areas where it would only find it couldnt fit. Be very aware, it is known that the first mapping pass takes MUCH longer for the unit to finish and will almost always not happen in the first go and require a recharge and resume. This is as designed as the unit takes extra time to map the area more closely. Once a map exists, the unit will traverse a lot more efficiently and take less time to investigate areas. I did notice this unit struggled slightly more than the 900 with tall rugs, at least at first, but then somehow it seemed to "learn" something and employ a turn around backup maneuver to get up on the rug in reverse since it has more clearance, turn around, and proceed to clean the rest of the rug (a tall pile rug on hard wood floor). I thought at first this would be a fluke, and it just happened to get up on the carpet this way, but multiple cleanings and it still does this to get over the lip of the tall pile rug. I really like the new mapping feature that detects carpet versus hardwood/tile and puts this on the map, even door mats that are carpet. This causes the vacuum to increase suction while over these areas which is a very welcomed feature. My family has already noted, this one if much quieter than the 900 and any other vacuum we have ever used while running. Slight increase over carpet, but being that it is now over carpet, not that audible since it is dampened by the carpet itself. Battery life, many indicate how this has less battery capacity then the last unit, and this is true, but I feel this is a cost cutting measure and not something that is a real issue with the unit. In my opinion, this unit is used differently from before as you can let it run more constant scheduling since it is more capable and can auto empty. When you free your mind to this concept and use it that way, battery life is much less an issue. On the initial run, it needed another charge to finish the entire 1st floor, but subsequent runs can finish on 1 run as it takes 84 minutes to complete the whole floor with some room to spare. If you schedule rooms alternating, etc, you should never run into an issue. The do not disturb times allow you to set this and sort of forget it. Just check the vac bag in the unit from time to time for fullness. One thing I want to mention from the old unit, the old unit was HORRIBLE at returning to the dock to charge, the N8 Pro+ is a lot better at finding the way back to the dock. The old unit would sometimes go in the opposite direction to get home first and sometimes run out of power while trying to find its way back. This unit generally drives right to it. Much better.
My favorite vaccum/mop combo
By Phillip - Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2022
Verified Amazon Purchase
This thing is great. (The Deebot Ecovacs X1 omni). First of all, in response to another review, you can absolutely schedule tasks in the app [to an absurdly high degree]. I have my ecobot omni wake up every morning at 745 AM to clean three rooms, and each room has a customizable level of intensity for the mopping and the vacuuming. [Kitchen is on max everything, hallway on standard vacuum but heavy mop, etc]. You choose the order the rooms are cleaned in, and how thoroughly. It's great. The app is not always the easiest to navigate, but the option to schedule tasks is there. Just go to AUTO mode in the app [as opposed to custom and area] and scroll down. Additionally, in response to another review, this robot is capable of resuming a task if it needs to stop and re-charge. However, you do have to go into settings to enable this feature. It's not on by default. Third, if you have any issues with this thing -- like it can't find the base station -- be sure to reset both the robot [flip the switch on the top, under the cover] and the base station [by unplugging it and plugging back in]. Fixes it for me. Anyway, here's my review. Coming from a Roomba j7 and Braava Jet M3, there's many massive positives: -Incredibly good at avoiding obstacles/wires and understanding its place in the house for routing. It doesn't have to bump into everything like my roomba! It also navigates back to the base station very intelligently. -Didn't take long to map the whole house fairly accurately with LIDAR. There were some inaccurate rooms but it was easy to fix with the map editor in the app. -Because it uses LIDAR to avoid obstacles and navigate, it works fine without the lights on. It also does not need a light on the robot. -App is very functional. Love that I can customize the intensity of mopping/vacuuming by room, select specific areas to clean [not just rooms, but areas within rooms using the app], adjust duration of heat-drying the mop pads, etc. I can also clearly specify keep-out zones, keep-out boundary lines, and set custom areas for cleaning if needed [ie, more specific zones than an individual room]. BUT -- Keep out zones were not really needed. I was worried it would get stuck on the jumble of wires behind my sofa, but every time it just sees them and avoids them. -It alerts you when the clean water/dirty water is low, using spoken voice. -You can see the exact path your robot took when cleaning is done, and while it's cleaning, traced in the app. Check out my attached screenshot. It shows a white trace of the robot's exact path in cleaning three rooms. Note the kitchen got extra treatment, and the hallway and living room got one pass, as I instructed. -Ability to see video feed from robot, and speak through it like a radio, is a neat security feature. Videos can even be saved. -Aesthetically, the base station and the ecovacs itself look very slick. It's like an apple product. -Magnetic design makes removing pieces/brushes super easy for replacement when needed. -It hot air drys the wet mops after cleaning! Can customize this to take 2 to 4 hours. -Great suction power, especially on the Max+ mode (although it's quite loud).. -Good drop sensors to prevent falling off a cliff in your house. -easy to order replacement parts, both official and cheaper unofficial versions. i actually prefer some of the cheaper, unofficial mop pads more.. -Love the voice assist. Don't need to pair it to a phone or anything. Just say, OK YIKO and tell it what to do. You can even say 'clean near me' and it will find you and start cleaning there. It occassionally thinks I said OK YIKO when I did not, but no big deal. Some downsides, which I view as minor: -Battery takes a long time to charge. I'd say I can have it running on max power for around 2 hours before it needs around 5-7 hours to charge. Fortunately it can clean most of my house in 2 hours, although it's a small house. -You have to occasionally clean the base station. Not often, maybe once a month. On the bright side, there is a great maintenance video on YouTube that explains exactly how to do this (as well as how to maintain every other part on the robot) and it's very straightforward and easy. The video is called "06 Deebot X1 OMNI Clean & Maintenance." I'd estimate it takes about 10 minutes to do all the required maintenance every month. You basically just scrub everything down and swap the pads/brushes/bag/filter if needed. The app reminds you of all this and keeps track. -Although the clean and dirty water tanks are each quite big, like 4L, I still find I have to empty /refill them once every couple of days (If I'm cleaning the house each day). -Every couple months or so, it bugs out in some way. Maybe it can't find the base station or gets lost etc. Not a big deal. A quick reset fixes it. -The language translations to English, and the related issues, are a bit confusing. For example, I can label a room a "Tatami" on my map, but not a "foyer." Additionally, emails I receive from Ecovacs, and the instruction manuals, have some obvious grammar errors. This is a pretty minor downside because it never really interferes with the usage of the product, but they should update this for clarity. It's also very out of place on an expensive product like this. Overall, love this thing. LIDAR robots are the future.
So many better options for the $$
By The Exacting Consumer - Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2021
Verified Amazon Purchase
***October 2021 update - Dropping to 1 star*** So I tried a free replacement N8 Pro+ but this time in my mom's house, who has no pets and wow, the experience was abysmal. Embarrassing even! Every step is an absolute pain starting with connecting the bot to the app. 30 minutes of pressing buttons, entering wifi passwords, scanning QR codes, over and over and over, finally it took for no reason. Then the initial mapping... a complete nightmare. The bot keeps going over the same areas, again and again leaving other areas untouched. Black rugs or rugs with any black at all will cause the bot to think its drop sensors failed. If you move the bot too far after getting stuck it will lose tracking to base and guess what? That partial map you just spent hours building... GONE! Unbelievably bad and support is non existent. I reached out to the company and got zero response, nothing. Do you yourself a favor and RUN away from Ecovacs! ***Original review*** If you've done your homework, watched Vacuum Wars videos on YouTube and compared all available options right now, you may have landed on the N8 Pro+ and Roomba i7 as your top contenders. The Roomba S9 looks nice but it's way too expensive and the reviews just aren't good enough. Roborock looks promising but their top end model is relatively expensive and doesn't have an auto-empty bin as of the date of this review. There is no "perfect" robot in existence right now, in my view. I'm a 5 year owner of a Roomba 960 that had to be returned 3 times initially and repaired once out of warranty before it reached a stable state for me. I figured it was time for an upgrade. I was not optimistic about the i7 at all due to previous 960 issues and for that reason purchased the Deebot first as an extremely impressive option full of advanced tech. I'll give you my experience with both and why, much to my surprise, I landed on the i7 as the robot I will keep. First up, the N8 Pro+ which boasts variable suction levels that auto-switch depending on the floor type, low noise levels, laser 3D LiDAR tech for navigation, object avoidance camera, dual rotating brushes, built in mopping capability and a physically thinner footprint so it can get under my kitchen cabinets where my 960 gets stuck, daily. The functionality of the Ecovacs app is all there but my gripes are mainly around the layout, button naming and settings menus. I didn't find it very intuitive at all but all the key features are there: house mapping and virtual keep out zones being my top priorities. I did have some trouble with the initial configuration of the keep-out zones but got there eventually. The robot functions very well in general and is a very good vacuum, all told. The downsides that I experienced, however, were enough for me to return it. The key cons here are battery life, recharge time, the auto-empty base and getting stuck. Your first step with the N8 is the initial mapping of your floorplan which must be completed fully before you can do anything, I mean anything. It runs the vacuum during this mapping so battery consumption will be high. The i7 by comparison can do mapping runs with the vacuum turned off making it a much more streamlined process. I found the battery life to be much lower than the advertised 110 minutes netting a maximum of 75 minutes. The bigger problem is that it takes HOURS to recharge, so depending on when you start your cleaning run, this thing could quite literally run all day. For example in my situation, 635 square feet cleaned took 110 minutes of total run time with a required charge in the middle. This netted a total of nearly 6 hours to complete! Unacceptable. Also important to note is that the N8 will want to recharge at 15% battery, so the most you ever really get out of this thing is 85%. The next big problem for me was the design of the auto-empty base. They opted to use a dual port discharge method that sucks from 2 doors in the dust bin simultaneously. If you have pet hair to deal with, like I do, it was unable to suck out any of it, just leaving stranded clumps hanging from each port in the dust bin, see the attached photo. The final nail in the coffin was that despite all the advanced tech in the N8, cameras, lasers, etc, it STILL got stuck under the dining room table/ chairs just like my 960 does. Too many concessions so I sent it back and tried my luck with the i7+. N8 Pros: -Competitive price (usually on sale) -Premium look and feel -Advanced tech (cameras, lasers...) -Powerful variable suction -Systematic cleaning pattern -Free in-box extras (bags, mop pads) -Awesome low noise levels -Lower physical profile so glides under kitchen cabinets N8 Cons: -Initial mapping will take a VERY long time and must be fully completed -Even with Lidar, mapping, sensing etc it still gets stuck -Battery life is terrible (more like 75 minutes at best) vs 110, charging time is worse (1 cleaning + charge cycle = 5 hours!) -85% max usable battery is abysmal, Roomba will drain itself to nothing -Dual port self-empty in the base creates problems, especially for pet hair With the N8 returned I found the i7 on sale for the same price and pulled the trigger to give iRobot yet another chance. Much less advanced overall tech here, the same "crash into everything" sensor mode as the old Roomba models, no fancy lasers here but the camera does use iAdapt to map out objects. This camera needs light, mind you. Out of the box is a very simple setup just plug in the base, set the robot in it, add the robot to the app. I was prompted with a firmware update right away so let that run and waited until the next day to do the initial mapping run. Being able to just wander around without the vacuum running is such a simple but meaningful feature here. One battery charge and you should have a map of your floorplan, vs 2 runs + 1 charge on my N8. The completed map was excellent and they even attempt to add room dividers so you can partition areas of your house for more granularity. This is really cool and allows you to choose certain areas to clean on certain days or times if you want. No-go zones and room labels are also easily applied here. VERY intuitive app layout, button naming scheme, settings menus. You can tell iRobot put a lot of effort into this. So I did the mapping run then followed with a "vacuum everywhere" run, no virtual barriers yet. Not only was the robot able to navigate my entire floor cleaning everything, it didn't get stuck once, even under the kitchen cabinets or dining room chairs, truly impressive. It did need a charge in the middle but at an hour or so to top up, the cleaning process completes in a much more reasonable time period. The rubber brush rolls are great for hair of all kinds and manage to pass it to the dust bin without tangles. i7 triggers the auto-empty base which is LOUD like a jet taking off but wow is it effective, nothing left in the dust bin after, not a strand of long cat hair. iRobot used a single port suction method for the base which works much better than the dual port design the N8 uses, so no problem with stuck pet hair. For comparison, the i7 cleaned 658 sq ft in 133 mins of cleaning plus a 75 minute charge. Half the total time of the N8. Cool! As for the downsides, there are a few but minor considering the system actually works well. First is the bump sensor design. I know the i7 first came out 3 years ago and once the robot learns your house it should be more gentle, as they claim, but this just feels like ancient tech at this point. Not only that, the RCON sensor, which is the protruding eye in the middle above the bumper, takes plenty of direct hits as it activates the bumper it sits on. This is the part I needed repaired on my 960 as one day it actually broke off due to years of repeated impact. iRobot should do like the others in this space and move it somewhere else safer! The unit itself is thicker than the N8 so doesn't glide under my cabinets but so far has managed to avoid getting stuck. The single rotating brush isn't as effective as the dual brushes on the N8 and you would need to buy a separate mopping robot, if you care about that. The other thing to keep in mind is that the Roomba can't see well in the dark, it needs light to do its thing. Overall I'm very pleased with the i7 and intend to keep it. All the areas the N8 falls short work as intended or better on the i7, despite being lower tech. And this is after I was almost positive I wouldn't buy another Roomba! i7 Pros: -Competitive price -Premium look and feel -Systematic cleaning pattern -Free in-box extras (1 bag, filter, rotating brush) -Excellent battery and charging performance -Excellent auto-empty base -ZERO issue with long pet hair -Intuitive and granular control via the app (clean zones, no go zones, defined rooms that can be scheduled) -Smart Maps works really well i7 Cons: -Old school vSLAM bump sensor tech that will mar the more stuff it bumps into -RCON sensor sits in harms way atop the bumper -Single rotating brush could be improved -Room lighting is required, this thing doesn't do well in the dark
Excellent but don't buy just for TrueDetect
By Svěxr Pnĺəğ - Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2021
Verified Amazon Purchase
One month ownership update: Dropped a star because of bad navigation and half baked TrueDetect. More on Navigation/TrueDetect: It is simply not worth the extra cost over the N8 Plus. It will not work if the object is not directly in front of the sensor. For example, the N8 Pro was trying to navigate in between my couch and the coffee table in a space with a width of about 3 feet. About 8 inches from the couch my cat had thrown up, providing the perfect test for TrueDetect. Unfortunately, it never detected it and if I wasn't monitoring it, it would have rolled right over it making an even bigger mess. I tried other more systematic tests near the couch using cat toys. Whenever the cat toy was directly in the front of the sensor (about 5 inches from the edge of the couch), the N8 plus would avoid it, however, it never worked if it was closer or further away from the couch during the N8 Pro's approach. It had to be in that 5 inch sweet spot for the sensor to trigger and work as expected. Issues with navigation also persist. It seems to get confused often. For example, I noticed that it got sort of trapped between a potted plant and a cat scratching toy. There was just enough room for the bot to squeeze between the two where is spent 80 minutes spinning in a circle until the battery was low, at which point, oddly, it backed out and went right to the charging dock all by itself. After recharging for five hours, it came out, and finished the run without issue. So, clearly something is wrong with the navigation algorithm. Also, Ecovacs still has not fixed the recharge and resume issue. Since the N8 knows how much it has left to clean, it should only charge enough to complete that run, instead of spending 5 hours to fully charge. There have also been other times, where it has gotten confused. A couple of times, it kept vacuuming one of my area rugs until the battery was low. Another time, it just randomly got confused right in the middle of my kitchen and alerted me to help it get unstuck. I simply restarted it and it went back to behaving normally. ************************************************************************************************** Summary: Overall, it's great, it mapped the house in the first run and it has all the features one expects for the price. However, the battery life is abysmal, it had to go back and recharge twice before building the full map for my 2000 square foot home. Also, TrueDetect is half baked and not worth the extra $100 over the N8. I have a long hair cat that sheds her body weight per day and even with a full bin the auto empty works perfectly for me. Unlike others, I did not have issues with clogging. If I had to do it all again, I would have gotten the cheaper N8 Plus, which for $600 is an almost unbeatable value. Support: This is my second Deebot. My first one was the OZMO 930, which was the Ecovacs flagship three years ago (released 2018). It has been faithfully cleaning daily and only recently began falling apart. First, Ecovacs, suspiciously screwed up the app so that my OZMO always showed up as disconnected. I was able to install an older version of the APK to get around that. Then one of the wheels started to jam, then the brush motor broke (so suction only), then finally it ran into a suspicious wifi problem, where it would only connect after a hard reset for about fifteen minutes (perhaps a firmware issue). I was only able to fix the first problem. I am on this tangent to highlight that Ecovacs does not have the best support. Even if the app was accidentally made buggy, Ecovacs does not appear to have any drive to fix it for an older bot. Next, new parts for the OZMO 930 are nonexistent. Your best bet is to find used ones from auction sites. Companies like iRobot and Neato support their bots for life, with Ecovacs you're on your own after warranty. iRobot will basically sell you every part to rebuild your S9 or i7+. The i7+ is still receiving updates and support even though it was released just a bit after my OZMO 930. I paid $600 for the OZMO when it came out and it is basically a brick now. I really hope they don't continue that same trend with the N8 pro but you should factor bad support into your decision. AutoEmpty bin: Works great. I haven't had any clogs yet and it seems to get 100% of the dust bin empty. I'm not sure if one bag will last me a month though. After the first two runs, it already looks more than half full. However, I think it is possible to just use a second vacuum to clean out and reuse the bag. I wish it had a reusable system instead of disposable bags. Navigation: It is quite good, however the TrueDetect sensor is just alright. It did avoid slippers and a small cup that I deliberately left on the floor, but it's not perfect . Sometimes, for no reason, it will do a little backwards shuffle as if it is about to hit something. Other times, the TrueDetect does nothing. I have a chair with a metal ring base and the N8 Pro repeatedly tried to climb over it--it's a little too persistent. It also failed to avoid cords at several occasions but it never got stuck. Overall, Lidar bots haven't really progressed much. Navigation is about the same as my old Deebot OZMO 930. If anything the N8 pro takes a bit longer to do the same run, probably because of TrueDetect. TrueDetect really isn't a game changer and not worth the extra $100. Hopefully, they can fix it with software updates to justify the premium. I mainly got it because sometimes my cat throws up and I thought this would help with that but after seeing it in action, I don't trust it enough, which means I will continue to only run it when I'm home. Battery life: Horrific battery life. Even left on standard power it is barely able to complete the same 800 square foot run my OZMO could do with over 40% life to spare, even though both are advertised with about 100 minute runtime. As the N8 pro gets older and the battery degrades, I doubt it will be able to even do the 800 square foot run without recharging. Ecovacs still hasn't fixed recharge and resume. If the bot runs out of battery, it will wait to fully recharge, which can take four or five hours. Instead, it needs to know how much cleaning it has left remaining and only charge enough to finish the run. App: It has all the features you'd expect, scheduling, multiple floor maps, no go zones, custom power/mop level per room, room split/merge, voice assistant, etc. It's an average app with a lot of room for improvement. It is very slow to load and update. I wish there were options to adjust more features, such as TrueDetect sensitivity, route optimization (it will go around the edge of a room first before moving in a grid, which I would like to skip and go straight to a grid to speed up runs), side brush speed and aggressiveness when it gets stuck. They also really need to add widgets that will quickly show percent of run completed, let me start a run for pre-selected rooms, let me know maintenance status and such without launching the app. I also don't think the N8 Pro can be integrated with smart automation like IFTTT or SmartThings. Ideally, I want the N8 pro to start a run when the house is empty rather than having a fixed schedule. But, even in 2021, I cannot do that. Suction: I have mostly hardwood floors so I never switched it off standard power but it did as expected. The auto boost also appears to work well on picking up most cat hair from carpets. On the same topic, the brush roll is about the same with hair tangles as my old OZMO. In three years, they've made zero progress on that front. Mopping: Useless. Nothing more to say.
Pros/Cons Features List for T20
By johnmc - Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2023
Verified Amazon Purchase
* This has auto empty and I consider it a game changer. * Mopping - I have a dog so we bring in a lot of grime. Reviews show that there isn’t much difference between an agitating/vibrating mop head and rotating ones. However to me it just makes sense that a rotating mop is more effective, so that’s what I went with. It should also lift itself up so it’s not dragging around wet/dirty pads. * Onboard water tank (for mopping) - the T20 doesn’t have this. My primary thought on this is that this is one less thing that breaks or gets clogged. The T20 returns to its base for cleaning the mops and a soak. So this is probably not necessary. You can set the T20 to clean/soak the mop heads every 6, 10, or 15 mins. I set it to 6 minutes and when it returns to base the floors are still damp, so this is fine. * Auto drying - I’ve read about stinky mop heads because they were left wet. These mop heads are small and thin so I don’t see why they don’t dry overnight. OK fine I have this feature so no biggie. * Warm water washing - I haven’t tested this yet but supposedly the water heats to 55C and this is hot enough to kill things. At a minimum it helps clean the pads better than cold water. * Removable bay for cleaning- The T20 bay is fixed. You can pull out the filter to wash it but that’s it. It comes with an extendable brush for cleaning and you can manually fill it up with water brush it and suck it back to the dirty water container. Some of the other companies have a removable tray for rinsing off, this is nice. * Security cam - privacy issues aside, I really wanted a roaming security camera. Sadly the T20 doesn’t have this. * Noise - I don’t want it too noisy. Quiet and Standard are at a decent level. Strong and Max are approaching hand vac levels. I probably would not fall asleep with it in quiet mode in the adjacent room. Also I have not tested the effectiveness of quiet mode. That said, I’ll get in the habit of starting it when I leave for a dog walk making the noise it makes moot. The auto empty feature is plug in vacuum loud, fortunately it is only a few seconds. The mop washing is somewhat noisy, but not terrible. * Suction power - I need to do more testing between quiet and max. In my research I do know that I wanted in the range of 5000Pa. I’m guessing over this is negligible differences. In 2023 the T20 takes the lead with 6000Pa level of suction. * Pre-filter - in the dust bin there is the primary dust filter. In front of this is another layer of mesh helping keep the main filter clean. I like this idea and not many robots have it. The T20 has it. I believe Dreame also has this. From what I’ve read, roborock does not have a pre-filter. * Pop off brushes - The T20 side brushes are nylon push on type. The mop heads also push on. The floating main brush snaps in with two slider tabs. Very easy. I heard roborock uses screws for the side brushes. As an example my gf’s hair wrapped around the side brush and all I had to do was pop it off to remove the hair. Simple! My understanding is that silicone side brushes are more effective than the plastic/nylon type. I’ll note this as an upgrade option for later. * The T20 has a full rubber V shaped brush head. This is supposedly more resistant to hair tangling and good for hard floors. * Floor cleaner additive - I like the idea of having a canister of antibacterial cleanser. The Dreame and Narwal have this. The Omni bay has the space for it, but it’s blanked out. The T20 uses this section as storage. * Object avoidance - it seems that the rgb camera systems are best but pretty much everything in the > $500 point are about the same. “Generally ok.” * Customer Service - please note this is a single data point!! I emailed ecovacs and got a response next day. I sent Roborock two separate emails one 6/29 days ago and the other 7/3 days ago. No response. * The Omni bay is huge! Make sure you have the space for it and good luck hiding it. I prefer the narrower Dreame Ultra bay or the RR Revo bay. * The build quality is great. Despite the top not being on a hinge it is magnetic with a satisfying click in place. Ultimately this is a $1k luxury item. If you want all the bells and whistles then you can expect to be in this range. This is not the most expensive bot, but it's certainly not cheap either!
Great potential with some disappointing issues
By C - Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2022
Verified Amazon Purchase
DISCLAIMER - I had to request a replacement for this product as the first one was dead on arrival, but my overall rating is not affected by that directly. Pros - Vacuum performance. Assuming you purchase this for its intended use, keeping a CLEAN house clean and run it on a consistent schedule, it does an amazing job. If you're expecting this to clean a floor that has been neglected, you'll be disappointed on multiple levels (same for every robot vacuum). My floor consists of carpet, hardwood, tile, and linoleum and works well on them all. - Mapping. I did have to re-map due to human error as I left some objects such as boxes on the floor that made the initial map sub-par, but once the floor was clear of temporary items, it created a very accurate map can is able to get everywhere the robot can fit. - Battery life. I've seen several complaints about the smaller battery on this, but the size of the battery makes sense with the size of the dustbin. Running this every other day with pets, my dustbin is pretty full at the end of its run, so a bigger battery would be useless since the bin would be filled regardless. Cons - Auto empty station. Overall if this runs often it's not an issue, but with pets or someone with long hair, the two exit ports on the dustbin will make emptying it counter productive as the hair will try to be sucked out both holes, playing a game of tug-a-war. I've seen some people block one hole to solve this, but it hasn't been a huge issue to start altering the hardware. - Software. It's terrible and they really need to invest some time and energy into it as there's definitely going to be some people who would prefer a slightly less effective robot with better software. The app is slow (on a modern smart phone), it seems like it needs to connect to their servers to do anything as I'm usually stuck on a loading screen just to display the robot status. While the robot mapping works well, doing anything to the map makes you want to pull your hair out. I have an open layout so the mapping didn't split all the rooms, but they have room splitting so thought it wouldn't be a problem... it was. For some reason the developers thought it would be a good idea to only allow rooms to be split from OUTSIDE wall to OUTSIDE wall, because apparently homes don't have rooms with interior walls. This needs to be updated to make 1/2 the scheduling and "smart" features useful since you can't schedule a specific room if it doesn't auto-detect it or connect to an outside wall, nor can you sequence rooms, or have different settings for different rooms. - Customer support. Like a mentioned before, my rating isn't affected by getting a DOA product as that's bound to happen occasionally. I did however factor in their customer support. I sent them a ticket with my issue and a bullet point list of things I tried while troubleshooting; literally a ticket that would take 15 seconds to read. First response was them ignoring my actual issue, regurgitating the manual, and ironically a bullet list of things to try to troubleshoot... all of which were included in my original email. Took THREE attempts to get them to do something other than copy pasted responses before I just threw in the towel and asked Amazon for a replacement as clearly Ecovacs would rather you just RMA for everything instead of possibly finding an easy solution. - Updating map. While the robot WILL update the map if you had a close door or an area it couldn't previously see during it's initial run, it will not allow you to merge or even identify new rooms without starting a new map. - Lack of full dustbin sensor. I have seen so many complaints about this, I had to include it. While it's a shame this one doesn't have one, personally it's never been an issue for me. BUT since I've also seen people saying they're returning it and getting something like a Roborock (which to be clear also doesn't have this feature), I thought I'd help future people out who can search; iRobot has a patent on this feature and must be generic enough because Roomba's are the ONLY robot I've seen that has this feature. But again, if you run it on a regular basis, it shouldn't be an issue, or if it is, schedule rooms at different times. Overall I think this robot has a lot of potential and can easily compete against the more expensive competitors like the Roborocks and Roombas, but I think the software at the bare minimum really needs some time and effort invested into it as it's frustrating when you want to do any sort of customization to how the robot vacuums. Also, please train your customer support and improve that experience; I shouldn't have to send multiple emails to get past generic copy paste responses when I took the time to provide all the information up front then be forced to give up and get an entirely new replacement.
Glitchy but when it works
By Nick Alfrey - Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2024
Verified Amazon Purchase
This robot vacuum is really cool but honestly a mess. It has a lot of issues with glitching and getting caught on itself requiring a full reboot to fix. I use this robot as a daily cleaner for a 770 sqft apartment. It glitches at least once a week so leaving it alone to clean while you’re not home is rarely an option as you can typically come home to it destroying a rug somewhere or stuck spinning in circles. Obstacle avoidance is just okay you’ll find yourself moving a lot of floor items quite regularly just so it doesn’t get caught on anything or swallow a whole cord. Cable avoidance is definitely a joke with this product. It does well with cleaning but regularly clogs its emptying door open so suction is not great and it will not warn you of this you’ll just notice it didn’t clean anything and have to fix it to run it again. I got this product to reduce my interaction with cleaning the floors but I find myself spending about the same time babysitting it trying to make sure everything is perfect so it doesn’t glitch or damage itself. Mop mode is extremely bad on this I can’t believe they would sell a lower end product at half the price of this that has lifting mop pads. It will also wet edges of rugs regularly when in mop mode and will fling off a mop pad when it hits a corner of a rug in just the wrong way. The “accessories” or parts that you WILL have to purchase regularly are heavily overpriced and will run you about $200 a year. Bags do not last anywhere near as long as they say. You get about 45 to 50 days of running daily not 90. The cleaning chemical that is proprietary and overpriced does a really bad job, kind of like running a baby wipe across the floor. You will spend more time on maintenance of the bot far more than any regular vacuum out there. The yiiko assistant is probably the worst one I’ve ever heard genuinely annoying as it will randomly wake in the middle of the night at max volume even when set to low, I have been told this is yet another common glitch. The assistant will not understand you most of the time I don’t know if it’s designed for another language than English which would make sense why it has no idea what I am asking it to do. Commands are far too specific for anyone who just wants to use Alexa to use it. Alexa integration is terrible don’t use it. The app is even worse it’s slow and crashes often. Maps are just strange on this device the tech is really cool and quick mapping does a fantastic job but it regularly changes its map without permission often causing it to create illusionary rooms and it will run into walls trying to reach that “room.” It will also cause cut offs where it just won’t do a section because of its weird mapping habits. Maid mode really doesn’t do anything and will cause more glitches than regular smart cleaning, I’m not sure why they promote it so much. It needs onboard memory because if the internet has any drop at all it will become self destructive and never reconnect back to the internet until you turn it off and turn it on again which will end the current task and require you to start all over. Updates are likely an issue here as well because now that they have the x2 Omni out they will likely never fix the problems with the software on this bot and I expect updates to stop very soon if they haven’t already. I don’t hate this device it’s sleek and when it works it really works. The headaches and really bad customer service will likely drive many to return this product as soon as you run it for a week but good luck doing that. If your questioning buying this over the x2 Omni or any other bot go with that because at least you’ll have updates to fix software on newer models. It’s unlikely but if ecovacs ever sees this review fix your software on this bot customers don’t appreciate abandonware for software on a robot that costs this much. If they drop support for this product I will likely never be buying an ecovac again so let that be a warning to anyone reading this.
*Review updated* Made my cleaning experience more time consuming, not less
By F.A.S. - Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2022
Verified Amazon Purchase
Nov 2nd updated review: After posting how disappointed I was by it, and how I would have liked to exchange it in case I just got a faulty unit but was unable to, Deebot's customer service reached out to me and sent a replacement unit which I'm relieved to say HAS performed the way I hoped the first unit would, and I have been using it daily without issue since the end of September now. One thing I did differently this time, just as a precaution, was to use water that has been through a softener to fill the clean water tank. My city has extremely hard water and it does cause a buildup on faucets and shower walls etc. No clue if this was a factor with the first unit malfunctioning the way it did, or just a coincidence, but the new one has remained trouble free, so I'll stick with the softened water! I do still use a little handheld vac to get stray kitty litter from areas that are right next to the box, as it doesn't vacuum very effectively right next to things, and although I have enabled 'strategic particle removal' it does still tend to fling larger debris, like dry pet food, instead of picking it up. But these are pretty minor annoyances overall, and nothing I haven't encountered with any other automatic floor cleaner. So overall, a great product with outstanding customer service and support. I'm grateful I was able to give it another try and confirm that the first unit probably just had a faulty sensor or something along those lines. Original review: I wanted to love this, but it just didn't perform. I have a one bedroom apartment, all wood floors, no rugs or carpets. It's not a large or difficult area. I have two cats and was tired of having litter stuck to my feet, I was excited to spend less time sweeping and mopping to avoid this. I have long hair myself, so I'm pretty used to having to clear it off the rollers and wheels of vacuums of all kinds, so I wasn't that surprised to find that the same was true of this vacuum. Every couple of days it would shut down and not say why. The app would just say it was 'paused'. So I would turn it over, clear off any long hairs I could see that were wrapped around the roller or on the side brushes and it would run again. Not a dealbreaker for me. However, the last few times it happened it was obvious that one of the wheels was malfunctioning. I would clear off the roller and side brushes and when I fired it back up again it would get stuck trying to rotate in one direction, and immediately 'pause' again. I would go through every stage of the recommended cleaning & maintenance processes outlined in the manual, wipe any dust off the sensors and use a can of compressed air to blast any possible debris out from under or inside of the wheels. The first two times that worked. It was time consuming, annoying, and hardly the 'hands off' cleaning experience advertised, but returning it seemed a hassle. (It's extremely heavy, even without water in it and I live in a walk-up) Unfortunately the third time this happened I went through the entire cleaning and maintenance process as I did the other times and it did not resolve the obviously defective wheel situation. I had only a couple of weeks of trouble free use out of it, and while the floors felt very nice when it was functioning, this is far too soon for a product with this price tag to be developing issues that required so much maintenance. It's faster and easier to sweep my apartment myself, as I was before. In addition to that, the fabric of the mop heads snags on anything and everything, I was cutting pulled threads off of them daily. It is also quite high profile for a robot vac with the little nub on top, so I had to put my couch and nightstand on furniture risers to get it to clean underneath them. In terms of suction, It did not always manage to clear my floor of the cat litter crystals. They are pretty small, so I was ok with the few that it missed, but it also had a problem picking up stray kibbles and usually just flung them across the room to another location instead. I actually wanted to exchange it, thinking perhaps I got a faulty unit, but there is no option to do that. Only return it and buy a new one, which I wont be doing since it is now $200 more expensive than when I purchased it. TL/DR Hefty price tag for an extremely finicky product that quickly developed non-resolvable problems. If you like babysitting machines that are supposed to decrease the burden of cleaning, this is the one for you though.
Really good robot, just need to know how to work within it's parameters
By Blair Roberts Lynn - Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2024
Verified Amazon Purchase
I would have given this product 5 stars (and I may come back to revise my review.) b/c initially I thought it was just a matter of learning how to work with it's capabilities. But ours ended up having a malfunction and we had to send it for repairs. We had great experience with customer service, but they informed us that it's not repairable and they're sending us a "factory renewed replacement." I'm always a little wary of these but I will reserve judgement until I know if it works properly. I will come back to edit this review once we've had it back for a while. For now, here's a review of the initial product, which I actually think is pretty amazing! Buckle in! When we first got this product, we bought it b/c we got a dog, and wanted to switch from our old robot that only vacuumed. We figured we needed something that mopped too. This is actually a really great little vacuum. It runs via an app on your phone. It vacuums AND mops, via two separate attachments and you can adjust the level of vacuum suctioning and mopping so that you can get different levels of clean for your house. Since we have a dog, we obviously just went for the highest levels of each. You cannot go back and forth between these two interchangeably. You either have the vacuum attachment in, or the mop attachment in, and when you're mopping, you need to make sure you've only told it to mop in a place that is uncarpeted. If you send it to a carpeted place, it WILL still try to mop. So that's where the map comes in. MAP: When setting up your map, you can divide the floor by room and also make "no go" areas. My suggestion with this is to divide it by carpeted and noncarpeted areas b/c of the mopping and vacuuming. I would also divide by room, or if you have an open floor plan, try to make smaller areas (more on that below). I also like that it has an option to manually draw an area on the map to clean. So if there's a spill or something, you can just draw a box around that area on the map and clean only that area. VACUUM: The biggest (non)issue with the vacuum function is that it's not a good idea to just send the vacuum to do the whole floor at one time. The vacuum cannot go auto-dump into the home station when it's full and then keep doing its job. As I've said, this doesn't need to be a deal breaker, you just need to know how to work around it. Know your house and how much dirt/debris there is, and give it a job that won't fill up the robot. So maybe you need to just do two rooms at a time. You'll know the robot is full if you notice the suction becoming less. If you were wanting to schedule cleanings, for the purposes of having a weekly schedule, you could still do that, even with the job broken up into smaller bits. MOPPING: There's nothing really complicated to know about the mopping. We did end up buying supplemental mopping pads, which was helpful, so we didn't have to wash them as often. The one thing we found was that the mop works MUCH better if you saturate the pad with water before starting the job. If you don't, you're starting off with a dry cloth and waiting for the robot to saturate the cloth with its own sprayer, which is less effective. OTHER NOTES: We only had one other issue with this robot. The vacuum doesn't have a sensor or way to tell you that it's clogged. So there was one point where it was trying to empty itself into the home bin, and was making all the noises and motions like it was, but the suction was suffering. Finally, I just turned the robot over and realized the whole inner cavity was full of debris. I was able to just manually unclog it and everything went back to normal. I just wish it had some kind of sensor that could have told me something was wrong. If this was the end of what I had to say, i think I'd give it 5 stars. These are small design flaws that can be worked around. Below, I'll start documenting on the issues that made us send ours back for maintenance and I'll add updates. Why I'm at 4 stars for now: After about 5 months of owning our robot, the map started showing up in the app as our regular map and than a second version of our map, blurry and superimposed in a different orientation over top of the first one. When I would send the robot on a job, it would get confused and go to the wrong room, and would not be able to find the home unit to come home. I tried restoring the map to a earlier version. I tried remaking the map, both per customer service instructions, but that did not work. The superimposed second map kept coming back. Customer service finally sent me a prepaid packing slip and asked me to mail both the robot and the home unit to them for repairs. They've now informed me it's not repairable and they'll be sending me a factory renewed replacement. I have to say that I've been really impressed with their responses. Each time I wrote to them, they responded within 24 hours and they've kept me informed at each step. If the new unit arrives and works the way it's supposed to, I'd be willing to give this 5 stars again. I will update again.
Mostly good
By K. Lomeli - Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2023
Verified Amazon Purchase
Now that I have owned this over a year, I am updating my review. I continue to enjoy the Omni T20, but there are days it is incredibly frustrating. Pros: It does a great job of cleaning. -Easy to maintain with the app prompting you when it needs attention and how to clean it. -The app is 75% user friendly. This score because it often takes a half hour to fix a glitch see cons. -The clean and dirty water tanks hold a lot. -Through the app, you have a lot of control over how it cleans, such as, vac only, mop and vac, vac twice, mop only, standard, heavy, quiet, and so on. -The dust bag holds a lot, but wow is that thing loud when the vacuum empties into it. -The battery holds a long charge. I have a 1200 sq ft home. If I have it mop and vac the whole house, it takes several hours and will return to the station, once or twice to recharge. You have control over the frequency of returning to station to charge. -I like that it cleans and dries the mopping pads. That definitely keeps them smelling clean. They are removable and can be tossed in the laundry. That is nice too. -The app will save up to 3 maps. You can label rooms and set up boundaries. You can also draw a custom area if you want only one area cleaned. Cons: these are repetitive and annoying -The map randomly disappears. Even if you back it up, it seems to be lost. I have found that if you give up and wait a few hours, it might reappear. I think it’s a website glitch -I have had to have it remap the whole house 3 times in the past year. -There are times, the vacuum moves a foot away from the station and then signals that it can’t find the area it is to clean. It even does this in the room it is to clean. Again, I think this is a connectivity glitch. -Switching to a different map is supposedly as easy as selecting the map. I have yet to have it go that easy. You have to make sure the machine and app are convinced that it has finished a previous job. I have yet to figure out an easy way to do this. -THE MOPPING PAD FALLS OFF, STOPPING THE VACUUM IN IT’S TRACKS. This is the most irritating thing ever and it happens often. - The vacuum does a poor job transitioning from hard surface to low pile area rugs. It either grabs the rug and traps itself or the mopping pad falls off. It falls off backing into and coming out of the station. Popping that thing back on takes several tries. Which makes me question if it is so difficult to put on, why is it so easy to fall off? -It will struggle over floor changes such as hardwood to tile if there is a slight height difference. It eventually makes it as long as the mopping pad will doesn’t fall off. The mopping pads leave the edges of rugs pretty wet. They do lift, but snot well enough to transition from hard floor to rug. -Cleaning the station requires you to be floor level. I mean almost on your belly. That would be a no go for someone who can’t get up/down from the floor. The station gets gross and does need cleaned. -the vacuum is starting to emit a high pitched ringing noise. It isn’t signaling that something needs attention, so I don’t know why it’s making this sound, but it hurts my ears. I’ve cleaned it and made sure the filters are new and sealed well. The filters are enclosed in a plastic case. That definitely is a stupid design and contributes to landfill waste. To summarize: it does a fantastic job cleaning. The app and connectivity have some issues that can leave you frustrated. The mopping pad falling off is the most irritating thing ever. It has continued to run well. I bought it at a much much higher price than it is currently being sold. For the current price, it is probably worth putting up with the annoyances. For the price I paid, it isn’t gyro be replaced anytime soon, but I would not pay that price again for the same model. Initial review: I just received this today; therefore, I cannot comment on long term use, but so far, it has been fantastic. I have a Deebot that is several years old and it still works, but eventually started smashing into furniture. I have 2 dogs and they are both messy eaters. I am constantly mopping my floors. I was excited for this Deebot to be released. It was very easy to set up and get running. The instructions were easy to follow. I had to download an app, but everything has an app these days. After charging the system, I sent the robot out to map my house. Once it was mapped, I named the rooms and was able to divide areas to allow more specific cleaning. The mapping is fairly accurate. I then started the cleaning. It transitioned from wood to rug well. I noticed that some edges of the rug are damp, but it makes sense. When you see it in action, it is doing well to adjust to half on and half off the carpet. The app is easy to use. I was able to set parameters for cleaning and it gives a few options. The voice commands worked well. I was able to tell it to mop the kitchen and entry and it did just those areas. You can have more than one map. You can tell it to only clean a specific area. You are able to tell it to pause or return to base. The video might make it sound loud, but it isn’t. I haven’t tried, but I believe I could watch TV while it is running. People could definitely have a conversation. . I wish I could upload more videos, but Amazon only allows one. Based on today’s experience, I would recommend the device. It’s a new product and I can’t speak about longevity, but my old less sophisticated Deebot is still working.
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