Gone are the days when you had to clean your house manually using hand-held vacuums or mops. Now, we’ve got a whole range of robovacs to choose from, with Ecovacs leading the charge with their recently released DEEBOT X1 OMNI. The next level of robotic cleaning is upon us and we got to try it out.
To be completely honest, I never really bought into the hype of robotic vacuums because I thought they were a little too expensive to justify
Now I know what you’re thinking, yes, the price is steep ($2,500), but you get what you pay for with the DEEBOT X1 OMNI. Plus, vacuums are not cheap these days so it’s best to get one that actually works for you.
Anyways, enough rambling, let’s get into the review.
Real life reviews: Ecovacs DEEBOT x1 OMNI
The DEEBOT X1 OMNI is a multi-function robotic cleaner from Ecovacs.
Specs:
- Vacuum and mopping features
- Docking station with automated management of the robot
- Self-cleaning mopping pads and vacuum chamber
- Fills the fresh water chamber and pumps dirty water out
- 3D mapping on the app
- Voice automated
- Camera features
Obstacle avoidance
The first thing I question when I hear about robotic vacuums is how well they actually avoid things in your house.
It would be tedious to watch the robovac bumping its way around clumsily in your home while it’s trying to clean. At that point, it would be more efficient if you did it yourself.
So when I tried out the X1 OMNI; I let it clean the upstairs level of my family home. With that comes the risk of a staircase and a balustrade that drops down to the first level, which if it fell off, would be life-ending for the robovac.
Oh, my house is also tiled so there’s no safe carpet or timber landing should the vacuum fall off.
I was pleasantly surprised that the X1 OMNI avoided falling down the stairs or throwing itself from the second-story balustrade. I was absolutely terrified when it would go near the edge but every time the OMNI would realise the risk and move away from it quickly.
For those like me who have two-story living arrangements and want the robotic vacuum to just clean upstairs while you’re gone, you can be assured that the X1 OMNI will be just fine. You can come home to a clean house and a fully functioning robot.
One thing that I did notice that I liked with the X1 OMNI and obstacle avoidance is that while it would drive towards certain things, it would never actually bump into them. It would stop maybe a millimetre away from the walls or objects to save it from hitting them.
A word of warning if you have slightly elevated entrances to your rooms: while the X1 OMNI likes to think it can easily go up the small incline, it cannot. My experience with the OMNI was that it could actually get itself up the ledge but then recognised leaving the room as a risk so it just loitered near the doorway.
I would say if you schedule a clean for when you’re out of the house, I would opt to avoid any rooms with that ledge so it won’t get stuck.
3D mapping of the home
As I mentioned, my house has a lot of stairs. I live in a two-story split house with three different staircases just at the main entrance. This is why I never really thought my family would benefit from a robotic vacuum as it wouldn’t be able to clean the entire house.
But after using the Ecovac DEEBOT X1 OMNI, I quickly realised how wrong I was.
Not only was I wrong to think that a robotic vacuum would be useless if it couldn’t clean the entire house, but I was also wrong for thinking that it wouldn’t save time from your usual cleaning schedule.
Having the capability to 3D map your house is an incredible feature on the X1 OMNI that made things so much more efficient.
When you first set up your robovac, it will do an initial mapping of every room. This process took about 30 minutes to just do the upstairs level.
The X1 OMNI uses TrueMapping 2.0 which helps create and save maps of your home so that it can navigate it quicker and more efficiently when it’s cleaning. This means finding the most precise path with the least amount of obstacles and repeat areas.
Mapping also helps you pick and choose what areas you want to be cleaned and what ones you want to omit.
I will say, however, the mapping did miss an entire room but that’s okay. We win some, we lose some, I guess.
You can also customise the 3D map but putting real furniture in the space so that the OMNI can understand whether to stay clear of lounges or underneath beds.
The app
The 3D map is customisable and viewable within the ECOVACSHOME app which you can download from the App Store or Google Play store.
Initially setting up the mapping within the app was a bit confusing as it was a little glitchy, especially if you’re new to the world of robovacs.
My main issue with it was that trying to add another room or extend how big a room is was essentially impossible to do.
I will say, however, the app is very useful when you want to see the battery level of the robocvac, stop or start cleaning, use the camera feature and look at the cleaning progress of the X1 OMNI.
Voice automated
If you really want to have a hands-free cleaning experience you can with the voice automation feature on the X1 OMNI.
Much like Alexa, Google Assistant or Suri, all you have to say is ‘OK Yiko, start cleaning’ and it will, supposedly.
At first, it was a little hard to set up as I wasn’t pronouncing Yiko correctly and it took a while for the robovac to register my voice.
After that, there weren’t too many issues with it but I rarely use it because it’s easier to just use the app.
Robovac with a sleek design
When I first unboxed the DEEBOT X1 OMNI I realised one of two things.
First was how big it was and second, how heavy it was.
The actual robovac itself is reasonably sized and not too heavy at all but the all-in-one OMNI station was huge. This is where the robovac calls home and where it takes care of its drying and self-emptying responsibilities. Under its lid, there are two 4L water tanks. One is for clean water and the other for dirty water.
Because of its size and weight, I was worried it was going to stick out like a sore thumb in my house. However, something that I think Ecovacs’ has nailed with the DEEBOT X1 OMNI is its design. Not only is it sleek, it’s also super stylish. Half the time I forget it’s even there because it blends into my living room.
One thing that my mother personally loved the most was that it wasn’t clunky and doesn’t just sit there awkwardly. It also doesn’t even look like a vacuum port so it’s rather unassuming.
A true cleaning magician
Vacuuming
The X1 OMNI does a pretty great job of vacuuming with high suction power. I tested it out on both tiled and carpeted floors and was pretty impressed with the results.
I was originally sceptical about the small vacuum brushes the robovac had but was quickly proven wrong when the X1 OMNI got to work.
Vacuuming the tiles was pretty seamless and it did a great job of making sure all areas it could cover were sufficiently cleaned. It hardly missed any of the crumbs my dog had created after eating her biscuits.
It did need to go over a few times to suck everything up. If you’re someone who is rather particular about vacuuming, I would go over the floors quickly with a handheld vac just for peace of mind. The X1 OMNI did the bulk of the cleaning, however.
When the X1 OMNI was going over the carpets, you could see the suction path it created which showed me how powerful it actually is. I would say it cleaned the carpets better than it cleaned the tiles.
The robovac does not like shoelaces at all so make sure you check the floors before you leave the incase the DEEBOT gets caught up.
Mopping
While I was impressed with the mopping capabilities of the X1 OMNI, there is still room for improvement. It definitely wasn’t as strong as the vacuuming function.
Although I could see visible watermarks on the medium setting, it wasn’t really cleaning the floors.
It did do a great job at wiping up spills and messes, it struggled to completely get rid of a harsher stain. Which is fair enough, I think things like that probably need manual cleaning.
What did impress me with the X1 OMNI was that it would auto-dry the mopping pads once it had returned to the self-emptying station. You won’t have to worry about drying them before your next use because it has done it for you.
While my house has tiled floors, the bedrooms are carpeted so I got to test out the carpet detection feature on the robovac.
When the OMNI is in mopping mode (when it has the pads on), it will not enter rooms it detects has carpets. If it is in vacuum mode (when pads are taken off), it will roam freely around all rooms.
Mopping is a pretty laborious chore so it’s good that the X1 OMNI takes care of the hassle for you. As with the vacuuming, you’ll probably have to go over some spots it didn’t completely clean but that’s better than having to do everything yourself.
Self-cleaning
The self-cleaning feature on the X1 OMNI blew me away if I’m honest.
I know it seems trivial that I could be blown away by a robovac but I was thoroughly impressed that the X1 OMNI emptied itself after each cleaning cycle into the station.
The only thing you have to do yourself is throw out the internal dust bag, which it will remind you to do via the app.
Even when you do that, there is hardly any mess at all so all of us allergy sufferers don’t have to deal with breathing in dust.
Dog approved
I’m sure we’ve all seen the videos of the cats sitting on robotic vacuums being whisked around while it cleans the floor.
Well, I don’t have a cat to do that but I do have a dog that doesn’t really like to share her space with other moving objects.
She’s not a vicious dog by any means, but she is jealous. For that reason, I was curious to see how she would react to a small robot thing moving around on the floor.
My dog also has taken a particular dislike to our handheld vacuum, which she smacks while anyone is trying to clean the floor. It’s very productive and helpful of her.
Originally, I was worried that she would think it was a toy and try to play with it, especially if she was alone in the house while it was cleaning the floor.
But, to my surprise, she didn’t really care for the X1 OMNI all that much. She was apprehensive about the moving object gliding across the floor. Her apprehension only led her to sniff the X1 OMNI and then walk away from it. I’d call that a success.
One fun feature of the X1 OMNI is that you can access its cameras while it’s moving around to see what’s going on in your home. I had fun with this, spying on my dog and seeing what she was up to while no one was home. The answer, most of the time, was sleeping.
Final verdict on the DEEBOT X1 OMNI
I was very impressed with the DEEBOT X1 OMNI overall and found that it exceeded a lot of my original expectations.
The DEEBOT X1 OMNI retails for $2,500 which is very steep for a vacuum but you get more than your money’s worth.
Since some high-end hand-held vacuums retail for upwards of $1,500, I think the X1 OMNI is good value.
If you can afford it, I think it’s a great investment and saves both your time and energy.
You can check out more specs of the X1 OMNI and grab one for yourself on their website.
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