I didn’t realise how much I relied on my robot vacuum(s) until I recently moved to an apartment with entirely hard floors. I thought no longer having carpet would mean I needed to vacuum less. I was very, very wrong. Luckily, the Ecovacs DEEBOT X2 Omni came to my rescue… most of the time.
The DEEBOT X2 Omni is Ecovacs’ flagship model. This gorgeous unit does both the vacuuming and mopping, and also has the ability to empty itself, and clean its own mopping pads with hot water. But this only scratches the surface of what the DEEBOT X2 Omni can do.
It retails for $2,499, which is a steep ask when Ecovacs has other models for $999. But let’s take a deep dive and see if it’s worth the price tag.
Ecovacs DEEBOT X2 Omni Review
- Run time: Up to 210 minutes
- Weight: DEEBOT – 5Kg; Station – 11Kg
- Navigation: TrueMapping 3.0 with Semi Solid State LiDAR and Artificial Intelligence Navigation (AINA)
- Suction: 8,000Pa
- Bin volume: 3L
The first thing you’ll notice about the Ecovacs DEEBOT X2 Omni is its shape. The front of the robovac is square-shaped, allowing it to get further into corners than a traditional round robot vacuum. The unit also features a side brush with longer arms to reach into smaller corners and nooks.
Not only that, but it’s slimmer and narrower than other Ecovacs robot vacuums. It’s 9.5cm tall and 32cm wide, so it can get under and between furniture a lot easier. Not only is the DEEBOT X2 Omni a great-looking unit, but the Omni station that houses the unit, the dust bag and the water tanks also fits nicely into a corner and looks sleek and stylish.
What’s good about the Ecovacs DEEBOT X2 Omni?
The Ecovacs DEEBOT X2 Omni is the most advanced robovac I’ve ever used in my home. I was really quickly impressed by everything it did. Setup is really easy, just plug in the Omni station, fill it up with clean water, turn on the robot and download the ECOVACSHOME app. Once the robovac is connected to your Wi-Fi via the app, you’ll need to get it to map your house. This step took around 30 minutes in my two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment.
But as soon as the DEEBOT X2 Omni was done mapping, it was ready to start cleaning.
I will note that my apartment has no carpet, and we haven’t ordered our new rug yet, so my impressions of the robovac are based entirely on a hard-floor environment.
When you first open the app, you’re presented with a pretty accurate 2D map of your own home, which can also be viewed in 3D. From here, you can find a range of cleaning options, including vacuum-only, mopping, vacuum and mop at the same time, and mop after vacuuming. There are also options for vacuum power and mopping water flow levels. On all settings, the DEEBOT X2 Omni was able to fully clean my apartment on one charge and do a fantastic job.
I tended to keep the vacuum power on low because I use the robovac every day and the water flow level on medium for a general clean. The DEEBOT X2 Omni is quiet enough on its lowest settings that I couldn’t hear it at all while I was wearing headphones, but I usually put it on before I went out to the gym, shops or work anyway.
While I was out, I could check the app at any time to see the progress of the robovac, including its current location and where it had or hadn’t cleaned. I also got notifications if the robovac got caught on anything, stuck anywhere, and when it had finished cleaning.
The app allows you to make multiple maps — ideal if your home has multiple stories and also allows you to select specific areas to be cleaned, convenient if you don’t want a full-house clean.
This was also my first time using a robovac with a cleaning station rather than just a charging dock, and it was really convenient to be able to leave the robot alone for days at a time until it needed water. The dust bag needs replacing every two months, which is definitely better than robovacs with built-in bins that need to be emptied after every clean. I found the water needed replacing after every three mopping sessions, which was easy enough. All you need to do is empty the dirty water tank and fill up the clean water tank with tap water.
The DEEBOT X2 Omni also has a camera that shows footage that can be viewed via the app. While this was interesting to use, I found I never really needed it. I only tried it out a few times, but my apartment is small enough that it would be quicker to walk and find the little guy rather than open up the camera to find out where the robovac was located.
Overall, the DEEBOT X2 Omni is easy to use and the app has a clean and user-friendly interface. But despite this, the robovac wasn’t without its issues.
What’s not so good about the Ecovacs DEEBOT X2 Omni?
When the Ecovacs DEEBOT X2 Omni worked, it worked amazingly. When it had issues, which was at a rate of around every three days, I often spent an hour at a time trying to fix them.
The biggest issue I had with the DEEBOT X2 Omni was that every three days or so, it would just decide that it didn’t want to use the map it had created. As a result, it would only clean two or three areas of the apartment, leaving random rooms un-vacuumed and mopped for no obvious reason.
When this happened, I found the only solution was to delete the old map and get it to re-map my apartment, because no matter how many times I would ask it to do another full-house clean, it would continue to ignore random areas. The first time it did this, I figured it might have been that the apartment wasn’t bright enough. After all, this robovac uses its own camera to navigate around the map. So I turned on all the lights, got it to re-map my apartment, and sent it on its merry way. It worked beautifully the next time around. So each time I went to use it, I made sure to turn on every single light in my apartment. Despite this, though, it would still start misbehaving after every three uses.
I decided to do some research and see if other people were having this problem, and I was right. This is a seemingly common issue for the DEEBOT X2 Omni, one that isn’t a problem with its predecessors.
There are some other minor issues with this robovac. Firstly, despite having a camera for object detection, it still has issues with smaller items on the floor like cables and clothes. I figured it would clean around my bath mats and my cat’s food and water bowls, but it rammed straight into them, causing a commotion and notifying me on the app that it was “stuck”. So as well as making sure all the lights were on, I needed to remove all cables, bath mats and Mochi’s food from the floor before I turned on the robovac. From this experience, I discovered that the object detection only works for objects over a certain height — robovac eye level.
The other minor issue with the DEEBOT X2 Omni actually stems from its ‘modern’ and chic square design. Round robovacs, when they get stuck, are able to, more often than not, free themselves because they’re able to spin on the spot to find a way out. The DEEBOT X2 Omni, on the other hand, can’t really do this. The round back and square front make it awkward for the robot to get itself out of tight spaces, for example, underneath dining tables and chairs. It’s able to get itself in easily, but when it comes to leaving the area, it can’t turn on the spot, and instead needs to move backwards and forwards until it’s lined up with the exit. But if the area it’s entered is too small, it won’t be able to adjust its body correctly to leave.
In the end, while the DEEBOT X2 Omni was definitely high-tech and didn’t spend its time pin-balling around my apartment, it was hands-on in a way where it was too smart for its own good.
Should you buy the Ecovacs DEEBOT X2 Omni?
Despite all its flaws, I love this robovac. It tries its best to do a good job, but is sometimes forgetful and gets lost. While this is annoying, it is strangely endearing. Especially because it’s a part of my household now. We named it ‘Jii-chan’, which means ‘grandfather’ in Japanese. It’s a fitting name, especially knowing what I know now about this particular model.
My biggest issue with this robovac, really, is the price. For $2,500, I want something that can handle itself a bit better. The DEEBOT X2 Omni is too hands-on for a high-end robovac. If it were $500 to $1,000 cheaper, I would go out and buy one in a heartbeat. At that point, the pros outweigh the cons, but the price point in itself is a con of this product.
If you’re able to get it on sale, I highly recommend the DEEBOT X2 Omni. If not, there are cheaper products in the Ecovacs range that we’ve reviewed.
You can buy the Ecovacs DEEBOT X2 Omni here:
Image credit: Courtney Borrett/Gizmodo Australia