I hadn’t heard of Ecovacs nor the Deebot product line before writing this review, but according to their blog, the first commercially released model they released was in 2009, which they describe as “a robotic vacuum cleaner which could sing and dance”. I reviewed their current mid-tier model, the Deebot T50 Max Pro Omni. Sadly it neither sings nor dances, but in spite of those glaring omissions it’s definitely worth checking out.
First impressions
The Deebot T50 Max Pro Omni and the home station have a modern aesthetic that will fit inoffensively into the furniture of most houses.
The app and the initial setup are also quite straight-forward – my phone found the Deebot over Bluetooth with little fuss.
Set up
I tested two different Deebots of the same model (more on that below). In one instance it took a weirdly long time for the Deebot to update its firmware, failing around 5 times before it finally succeeded and was ready for normal use. For my second Deebot, the initial firmware install was seamless and pain-free.
The first time you use the Deebot, it will scoot around your house pretty quickly, mapping everything without vacuuming, identifying any carpets and rugs, and doing a pretty passable job of puzzling out how many rooms you have. This shouldn’t matter, but the maps it draws are also just visually prettier than some of its competitors. Overall setting up the map and labelling the rooms is a really quick process, and feels quite satisfying.
The Deebot did fail to map an entire bedroom on its first scan (even though the door was wide open), but when it came through again to do a proper vacuum it correctly identified the room and updated its map accordingly.
I should also mention that the Deebot can handle multiple different maps, and has an effective cliff scanner that helps it identify and stay away from sharp drops like stairs.
In Use
In the Deebot’s very first experience of my house, I gave it a baptism of fire by leaving a massive spill of (clean) kitty litter crystals for it to clean up. The Deebot didn’t quite clean 100% of the mess up, but given the volume I was pretty impressed by how much it got through.
In addition to decent vacuum performance, the Deebot T50 also mops as it goes (if it’s not on carpet), and has a useful feature where the mops can move independently left and right as it moves. This allows it to reach its mops further into corners, and is just generally fun to watch.
The Deebot comes with a voice-activated AI called “Yiko”, and comes with a host of quite complex suggested prompts, including some that are designed to change its performance as it vacuums. If you add your furniture to the map, you can use some quite specific instructions, such as “Ok Yiko, clean between the TV cabinet and the sofa”. The voice recognition is quite decent, and works effectively if you don’t feel like using the app.
Yiko is very cheery and quite descriptive. At one point the sensors were dusty, which Yiko verbally said I needed to “wipe with a dry tissue”. This was then further included in a notification on the app, which came with a very clear illustration of exactly what was required to fix the issue. At points like this, the app and the AI feel well rounded.
Other features
There are a couple of clever hardware designs in the Deebot that impressed me, which have been missing in other robot vacuums I’ve reviewed. One such feature is the “anti tangle main brush”. It actually does get hair tangled in it, but the brush has rubber fins that direct the hair to the centre of the brush, where it forms a tight loop and is very easily snipped with some scissors and removed. In the case of a competing robot vacuum I am currently running at home, I’ve seen the same basic brush type funnel hair to the outer ends of the brush, where they gradually got permanently stuck under the rubber seals, and end up looking quite gross, as well as shortening the effective life of the brush.
In another example, I have a long-haired grey cat, whose grey fur bamboozles the Deebot’s attempts to empty itself into the home station – instead it gets stubbornly stuck in the robot vacuum’s dustbin. I experienced the exact same problem with the my other brand unit, which has been quite annoying to try and pull out of the unit. However, the Deebot T50’s internal dustbin is very easily clipped out and emptied manually, making a situation that has been drives me nuts is a real non-issue for the Deebot.
Little design choices like this may seem very small, but they point to Evovacs’ deep, multi-decade experience in designing autonomous vacuum robots, and show an appreciation for the kinds of real-world challenges these units will have after prolonged periods of use.
Issues
While I can’t say enough good things about the Deebot T50 Max, I do have to mention that the first unit I received to review was faulty (it failed to empty the water from the mop washing tray after self-cleaning) and had to be replaced. This in itself isn’t uncommon, but trying to navigate around the AI support agent, Yiko, was incredibly frustrating.
Firstly, Yiko self-identified that the mop washing tray was malfunctioning. So far, so good. Secondly, it kicked me into a chatbot screen, where I had a few unpleasant experiences, including:
- Loading for long periods of time, then finally just ghosting me without a further word.
- Providing me with contextual options to choose from, then claiming they were not relevant for this model.
- Suddenly breaking into Chinese.
Eventually I gave up and spoke to a human support agent, who was more interested in helping me. At this point I would have to say the Yiko AI does okay when dealing with simple issues it’s ready for, but if you encounter anything serious it’s more annoying than useful.
Conclusion
When the courier came by to pick up my first faulty Deebot model, he was extremely excited to know more about it. When I explained this particular unit was faulty, he continued to say how great they look and how much he wants one. When people are getting excited about a faulty product, you know there’s a compelling value proposition. If, like everyone else, you hate vacuuming and mopping your home, the Deebot T50 Max Pro Omni does a good enough job to justify its existence. Though the app feels a little under-cooked in some respects, in others the usability is excellent, and the robot itself does a better job of vacuuming and mopping than some similarly priced competitors.
The issues I encountered with the Deebot are really just teething problems that are likely to be resolved with app and firmware updates. The actual hardware of the T50 Max Pro Omni feels well designed, sturdy, and performs well.
The Ecovacs Deebot T50 Max Pro Omni is available from Bing Lee, Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, Retravision, The Good Guys, Amazon and ECOVACS Online with a RRP of A$1,799.
DRN would like to thanks Ecovacs for providing the review unit.
Specs
- Vacuum Suction Power: 18500Pa
- Dust Bin Capacity: 300ml
- Obstacle Detection: Yes
- Robot weight: 12.4kg
- Noise (dBA): ≈65
- Battery Specifications (Type, mAh): Li-ion, 6400
- Time to charge: 3.5 hours
- Rated Power of Robot: 80w
