I've been the proud owner of a robot vacuum cleaner for three months now, and it's time for a review.
Tech reviews are among my favorites. If you've read more of them you know that a spec can be found in 1 million other places, so my reviews emphasize useful (hopefully) information.
Since the beginning of the year, I knew where I was going to move and I am already in the stable of "lazy" housewives, having added a dryer and a washing machine to the robot. As many of you have written to me - my life has completely changed and definitely saving yourself housework (which no one pays you to do) is a big bonus.
Which model do we have?
- the full name of our vacuum cleaner is Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum Mop Essential
How did we choose the model?
- something basic when choosing is your personal needs, how quickly it gets dirty, what it gets dirty with, how often you clean now. With us, the main pollution is from dust, various small garbage, one or another crumb and specifically in this apartment hairs from the carpet. Below in the post you will see a picture of the amount of garbage collected in 5 days, this was for research purposes. I usually run it twice a week or more.
My advice in this case is to make a list of the causes and types of contamination and then eliminate the possible vacuum cleaner options one by one.
And it was important for me to have a mop function, which is especially useful if you have parquet in the kitchen and there are various droplets that irritate you.
My first impressions of the design:
- I was super impressed with how big it is and how good it looks. It definitely doesn't look cheap or feel like you compromised on quality because the price was low. The way the lid closes and opens, the parts, even the box looks like a much higher priced product. The design is minimalistic, which I really like, and I immediately liked her appearance.
How is it managed?
- control is done through the Mi Home app or the Xiaomi Home app for iOS, and through it you can control all your smart Xiaomi devices, as I do, because I already have several. A plus of this app is that you can share it with your spouse and turn on the appliances and track their history at the same time.
Mapping the rooms. Mi Robot Vacuum Mop Essential uses a gyroscope for orientation. Of all the orientation methods, this one is considered the most basic and not particularly optimal. If you look at a comparison between a card of this model and one more expensive you will see the difference. The main methods of orientation in Xiaomi vacuum cleaners are 4 - gyroscope, sensor and laser targeting, and the most advanced, which is in the best model of the brand - ToF camera.
However, I don't think it's too bad with orientation. I compare it to older models of more expensive brands (such as Miele) and after exploring the room it barely crashes. It happens, but it's not uncontrollably going and you can only hear it bumping into every wall.
For our first robot vacuum, and at this price, I'm pretty impressed with how it navigates the rooms. It never happened that he didn't go somewhere around the apartment and leave something dirty.
Prohibited areas. How is the control done?
- with this model there is no access control or in other words you cannot draw restricted areas, for that you have to manually secure the perimeter. The main problems with us are cables, because it already happened to get tangled once while we were away. The upside of the app in this situation is that you can see where she is and judge that she's been sitting in one room or place for too long and tell her to stop. We had a situation where she locked herself in the bedroom, so I just turned her off.
How long does it take her to clean?
- a quick look at the application shows that it takes about 50 minutes for our apartment, which is average for Sofia (at least in my opinion) When first switching on to the new apartment, it took almost 50% more time to learn it, but after this cleans much more optimized. In the app, you have a history and can compare how much square footage the vacuum cleaner has covered, how long it took, and see a map of the route. We usually turn it on when we're gone.
How does it handle corners?
- does a great job with all the cleaning. I haven't had to clean extra after it, completely canceling me out for now. In the application, you have the option of settings such as, in addition to the power and the amount of water, you can also control whether it goes over the corners again after it has finished cleaning. We have not included this feature.
How does it do with carpets?
- if they are carpet type or about 1.5 cm, no problem. But with our carpet, it can't be done, not only is it high, but it's also too shaggy and the fins will get tangled. So it depends on what kind of carpet you have. We don't clean it.
How often do I run it?
- I let it go every day or two, because even one dirty thing on the floor annoys me, but these are personal preferences. If I run it more often, I've noticed that instead of about 50 minutes, it's ready in about 35 minutes. With us, it always works with the mop function, because we have wooden floors and specifically in the kitchen there are always drops of water.
Do I clean with a regular vacuum cleaner?
- yes, at some point it will be necessary. I don't do it as often as I used to, but the robot does not go under the sofa, behind some pots, in the shoe cabinet (yes, I clean in strange places) it definitely does not replace normal cleaning, but it allows you to do it less often.
Аз съм Роси. Това е моят блог за грим, мода, козметика.
