Robovacs are all the rage these days, who wouldn’t want a little round piece of technology cleaning up your mess for you? Better yet, wouldn’t you want a piece of technology that would deep clean your house for you?
I had the pleasure of testing out the Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro Omni, a robovac that does a great job at a deep clean, but like any tech, there is definitely room for improvement.
I have spent the good part of this month getting to know this Ecovacs robot, who I named Delilah FYI. This is what I loved, what I didn’t like and what surprised me about the Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro Omni.
What I loved about the Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro Omni
Deep clean controls
You can get a very thorough deep clean with this robovac, which surprises me. I’ve had some robovacs in my time that have done an average job at cleaning up all their messes. Even when they’ve had a deep cleaning mode, it seemed to be very average.
But with the Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro Omni, it does a very good job at a deep clean, for a robovac, that is.
When you’re on the Ecovacs app (I’ll get to more on that in a bit) you can adjust the cleaning settings, like most high-end robovacs. My housemate and I are clean freaks, for lack of a better term, so I made sure the Ecovacs Deebot was on the highest settings.
So I put it on a turbo suction mode, a high water flow rate and a deep clean cleaning speed, oh and two passes so it doesn’t miss a spec of dust.
This setting was heaven, the Ecovacas Deebot T30 Pro Omni got the majority of food, dust and crap off the floor.
This is handy for someone who has previously used robovacs to clean up her messes.
I will note, that there was some food and debris unsucked up which was a bit disappointing but that was only 5 per cent of the time, which for a robovac is good odds.
IMO, I see robovacs as the daily cleaner for you to pop on when you can’t be arsed, and you still have to do a clean yourself to get the big messes out.
Scenarios
On the Ecovacs robovac, it has a scenarios function, which isn’t new by any means but I loved this customisable feature.
What you can do is select a cleaning mode for each room. For instance, you might have a big deep clean for the kitchen and a quick vacuum for your room.
It made life a bit easier when the rooms were at different cleaning levels or if I wanted just a vacuum in my room but a deep clean for the lounge.
No hair tangles
If you have long hair and have used a robovac you know the perils that come with cleaning the brush of a robovac. With the Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro Omni, there is minimal hair tangling on the brush which is a godsend. There is something so icky about cutting hair off a robovac brush.
My housemate and I both have long hair that gets everywhere, IYKYK. The way Ecovcas has designed the brush, there is little to no hair tangled in it. The sweeping arm on the right hand side of the Deebot had some hair tangled on it but that was after several rounds of the house.
What I didn’t like about the Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro Omni
It sucks (inflammatory)
This robovac does a deep clean, but it isn’t smart, which sucks (sorry). There were countless times during its clean that it would get caught on cables, on tassels from our floor pillows, or my favourite, a peg. Yes, it could stuck on a peg, so embarrassing.
I really wish that for the price of $1,799 it was smarter and could sense things on the floor. Once it mapped something out, that was it, you couldn’t change it, unless you remapped an area. So if you get this robovac, make sure all your stuff is off the floor.
The ads on the app
Using a robovac nowadays includes an app, it’s part of the deal. For the Ecovacs app, I was inundated with ads and promotions to buy myself another Ecovacs.
Sir, I already have an Ecovacs, why would I buy another? This irked me to no end, please do not try sell me or tell me about a robovac when I already have one.
I was also automatically signed up for their marketing emails and sent a whole heap of EDM slop the first week of using this robovac. Not cool.
I want to point out I know the app has a store functionality, but it seems like an odd addition, why couldn’t there have been a control section instead?
This kind of interaction that brands have with their customers leaves me feeling a bit icky, I didn’t like being spammed with promotions every time I opened the app and I’m sure other customers feel the same way.
What surprised me about the Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro Omni
The noise
If this robovac was in A Quiet Place, we both would be dead. This robovac is loud and chatty. The vacuuming is loud, even in the quieter mode, you can still hear it. The turbo mode obviously was stupidly loud and annoying but that makes sense more suction = more noise.
Delilah aka the Deebot was always letting me know what she was up to. ‘Emptying dustbin’, ‘Washing mop’ and my personal favourite, ‘Off the floor, please put me back’. So demanding, yet so polite. The app also alerted me when I picked it up, as if the polite yet threatening demands from Delilah wasn’t enough.
Verdict: Should I buy the Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro Omni?
For $1,799, you will get yourself a decent robovac that has all the bells and whistles, plus is does a heck of a deep clean for you. There are some annoying quirks that come with this robovac, but if you don’t mind moving things around before you map your home and having a robot constantly chat to you, then this is the robovac for you.
The Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro Omni is $1,799. Buy it at Ecovacs and The Good Guys.
Image: Athina Mallis/Gizmodo Australia