Smart vacuum robots are easy to find their way around the home these days, rarely get stuck under the sofa and independently find their way home to the charging station. Nevertheless, their owners often have to intervene after the cleaning tour so that the dust box doesn’t burst at the seams, the cleaning cloth stays clean and there is enough cleaning water on board. A new docking station takes care of this tiresome work on the Ecovacs Deebot X1 Omni. In this test, COMPUTER BILD reveals how persistent and independent the premium cleaner is when vacuuming and wiping and what else it offers.
A real designer piece
The Ecovacs vacuum and dock towers over them all! The lush station wagon is 57 centimeters high, 44 centimeters wide and 39 centimeters deep. To ensure that the Klopper fits into the living environment as discreetly as possible, Ecovacs relies on a simple and chic look that was designed by the Danish design studio Jacob Jensen. A lot of plastic is used, but the suction cup also has a magnetically held metal cover plate. Succeded! No other vacuum cleaner with a dock looks so elegant.
The dock has many functions: charging the vacuum robot, cleaning mops, emptying the dust box, storing dirty water, refilling fresh mopping water.
The water never runs out when mopping
The station regularly empties the small dust box in which the cleaner brings crumbs and dust bunnies home. The prey ends up in an extra-large container – more precisely: in the dust bag hanging inside. The dock also comes with a water tank. The owner fills it under the tap with around four liters of fresh water. The station regularly pumps refills into the robot’s small 80-milliliter tank so that it never runs out of water when wiping. Ecovacs has the tank permanently installed – only the dock can put water in there.
Open the flap to reveal the two water tanks, each with a capacity of 4 liters.
Lots of hot air
The dock also cleans the mops independently after cleaning. The robot returns to the dock every 10, 15, or 25 minutes, where it rotates its wipers over knurled bumps and rinses the shags with copious amounts of water. This took almost two minutes in the test – including a lot of scratching and bubbling. The dock houses a second water tank of the same size. The dirty water that accumulates during mop cleaning collects in it. Clever: So that the pads don’t smelly or get moldy after the cleaning tour, a blower is installed in the dock: it blow-drys the damp wipers dry. Thanks to hot air, this worked well. The process takes two to four hours, but is only noticeable through a quiet, hardly disturbing whirring.
There are many features in the Ecovacs mobile app. The map shows rooms, cleaning routes and discovered obstacles.
Deebot X1 Omni finds its way around at home
Even the best dock is of little use if the robot is not clever. Mandatory in this price range: smart navigation. That’s why Ecovacs has a small “observation tower” with a laser on top of the device, which looks far into the rooms and helps with orientation. The cleaning work can be checked in the Ecovacs app on the cell phone. The virtual map created in it shows rooms and even furniture. In the floor plan, rooms can be named with great attention to detail, additional furniture placed and floor coverings, restricted areas and cleaning plans defined.
Shoes, cables, socks, dog poop – no matter what the Ecovacs gets in front of the camera lens, it usually skilfully circumnavigates even small obstacles.
Camera? What’s that for?
The Ecovacs accepts clutter and chaos in the home with stoic calm. The camera and sensors observe the cleaning run “in advance”. In the test, this protected the sleeping cat, the expensive floor vase or objects lying around, which the device usually skilfully avoided. The software marks every disturbing object on the map so that a friendly person can put things in order before the next cleaning tour.
Always approachable thanks to Yiko
Without a mobile phone, the cleaning attack works via voice control. With Amazon Alexa and the Google Assistant, the vacuum cleaner can be sent on demand. If you don’t have a smart speaker at home, you can also speak to the Ecovacs directly: there are three microphones in the laser beam of the vacuum cleaner. The own language assistant goes by the name “Yiko”. In the first tests, the lady seemed a bit slow-witted and needed a loud speech to react in the cleaning operation. That hardly teaches Alexa to fear.
The Ecovacs Deebot X1 Omni swallows a lot of dirt. On a fluffy carpet, it automatically increases its suction power.
Sucking is so good
When vacuuming, the X1 Omni was extremely hungry. The test involved collecting cat litter, muesli and wood shavings repeatedly from the carpet and laminate floor. The result: he rocked almost everything home from the 100 gram mixture, only an average of just under 4 grams remained. He also conscientiously took care of edges, corners and table legs. Practical: Depending on the surface, the Ecovacs automatically adjusts the suction power – more powerful on deep carpeted floors, more restrained on smooth floors.
Instead of a cleaning rag, two rotating mops scrub the floor. Not always enough water is used – that can leave streaks.
The pads are attached to the wipers with Velcro, so they can be removed for a rinse in the washing machine. Ecovacs includes a spare pair.