ECOVACS Robotics - DEEBOT T8 AIVI Vacuum & Mop Robot with Advanced Laser Mapping and AI Object Recognition & Avoidance - Black

Vacuum power is too good, It is best for my carpets and Mopping is not that great but ok..

I like the job this robot vacuum does. I have it scheduled to clean every day and it has helped keep my place clean as I want to make sure the area is open for cleaning. It does a decent job of switching between the carpet and non carpet areas. Also, it has a mopping plate that sucks up dirt on one end and mops the floor on the other end. Also, it automatically avoids any carpet if the mopping plate is installed. I did purchase an upgraded mopping plate pro and that does a super job of mopping up and removing stubborn stains. Not sure why they don't make that standard because the mopping plate that comes with the unit works best on a floor with very light stains. Overall I am glad I got this unit as I have mostly hardwood floors and a few area rugs. I am really enjoying having a cleaning servant available at all times!

I really did, I wanted to love this little robot, but it was such a headache dealing with it at times and a true letdown... Is it too much to expect a polished product with an $800 price tag? The most common issues seem to happen for no reason at all and will drive you insane with the amount of times you'll see a notification pop up on your phone that something went wrong. There are times when the mop attachment acts more like a virus to the robot and it becomes inept. It will have no idea where it is and go in circles IN REVERSE trying to find the charging dock. There are also times where the robot will just completely ignore things in its path such as charging cables or side tables to the point of almost knocking it over. "Robot is off the floor. Please put it back." "Bumper is stuck. Please check." "Operation difficulties encountered. Please check the Driving Wheel." "Unable to empty the dust bin. Please check" It was great...when it worked! To make a long story short, save yourself the trouble and buy a Roomba i7 instead.

I’ve had my Ecovac now for 2 months. I added the auto-empty station separately, and I have to say that I LOVE IT. Worth every single cent that I paid for it! Makes house cleaning SOOOO much simpler.

It doesn’t avoid objects well, doesn’t avoid animal toys at all. On top of which it’s side brush design grabs ahold of things much more than previous robots I’ve had and it’s escape/untangle maneuvers aren’t as thought out as they should be. When it does recognize something it should avoid it either avoids the entire area all together or it takes it’s sweet time crawling around the object turning to check and see where it is every centimeter. Most irritating however is that it leaves small pockets and corners completely untouched. In my kitchen and bathroom it doesn’t get close enough to the cabinets to grab crumbs near the baseboard (by a large margin) and not because the side brush kicked it around- it wasn’t even close to touching the crumbs. I even tried using it with the AI turned off and it was still not thorough. It also loses suction quickly if you don’t empty the bin every use- you can feel the air coming out the side and when the bin was half full the air flow was significantly reduced in Max+. The bin is also too small for a premium model, if you have multiple animals you will stuff the bin full every time it runs. It is a relatively good vacuum overall. But the level of expectation especially considering price leads you to be disappointed and the object avoidance is misleading. Most of these issues are software related so it’s possible they could get fixed but there is no guarantee.

Our family has had two other brands of robot vacuums, but none with all of the features offered by the Deebot OZMO T8 AIVI. One’s first impression upon opening the box is that this robot vacuum is the nicest looking of any we have had. The matte black color and smooth, metallic finish make this vacuum blend with other finishes in one’s home as opposed to those that offer less appealing materials or colors. Ecovacs includes an easy to follow “cheat sheet” for setting up the T8. One basically has to remove the protectors, install the side brushes, set up the docking station and place the Deebot on the docking station and power on. A QR code is provided to download the Ecovacs Home app to complete set up. Simply use the in-app scanner to scan the QR code on the vacuum itself or the one provided on the instructions. Be sure to enable one’s location to complete the instructions within the app to complete set up. The Deebot vacuum will provide voice instructions when it is connected or when one needs to proceed to the app to complete further steps. The T8 can be set up with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. In the Alexa app enable the Ecovacs Deebot skill, then sign in to your Ecovacs account and finally select the robot vacuum to use voice control. This is a nice feature for those that like the quick voice command ability to ask the Deebot to start and stop cleaning and to ask the Deebot to go back to its charging dock. The Ecovacs app has some great features beyond the obvious capabilities to start, stop and pause cleaning. Once the T8 has mapped out one’s home it will show a diagram of the mapping within the Start Cleaning option. Details can be seen of the square footage, time to clean and other data such as a cleaning log of all vacuum sessions. The T8 will send messages when cleaning is complete (with the option to move obstacles and re-clean those areas), tips on improving cleaning efficiency and if it gets stuck a request to free it. In our use thus far it has rarely gotten stuck. The performance of the T8 is improved by its use of AIVI or artificial intelligence and visual interpretation technology. It does an excellent job of identifying obstacles such as shoes, cables and other household obstacles. We have one room with a step down and the robot vacuum easily senses the drop off and adjusts its direction accordingly. In vacuum only mode the T8 will increase the suction power automatically when it is operating on carpeted floors. We had excellent performance by the T8 on bare floors, carpeting and area rugs. The T8 operates with a fairly low noise level compared to other vacuums we have had, but one will notice the increase in sound when in use in carpeted areas. There is also an interesting Video Butler feature that utilizes the front camera to allow one via the app to see live video, use remote photo capture, use voice message or remote control. A password is set up to control access to this feature and no data is uploaded to the cloud. An optional lens cover comes with the OZMO T8 should you not want to use this feature. Some of the customization features available in the Ecovacs Home app that really make the T8 an exceptional vacuum to use are the ability to utilize the mapping of your home to define “no go” areas for the T8. No more worrying about which doors are closed to limit a vacuums access. Also, set virtual boundaries to define specific areas and rooms for the T8 to clean. Some other additional settings available within the app are to adjust the vacuum power, water flow level and to set up cleaning schedules. To utilize the mopping feature simply remove the water reservoir and fill with purified water or softened water. Click the microfiber cleaning cloth into place on the underside of the reservoir and the T8 will now know it is ready for simultaneous vacuum and mopping mode. The mopping function is a great option for convenient cleaning for spills, dust control and everyday dirt. This doesn’t replace the need for a more thorough mopping on a less infrequent basis, but it does an excellent job of keeping floors spiffy in a quick and convenient fashion. Note that Ecovacs advises not to use any cleaners in the reservoir. Recognition of carpeted floors by the T8 enable it to avoid these areas while in mopping mode. With the modular design of the OZMO T8 it will be interesting to see some of the accessory items that are available to use with the T8. One is an Auto-Empty Station (automatically empties the Deebot’s dustbin) and the other is the OZMO Pro Electric Oscillating Mopping (up to 480 times per minute). The one feature I did not see on the Deebot was any notification via the app that the dustbin is full. It will give an alarm sound when the filters in the dustbin are dirty. There are less expensive options for robot vacuums, but the Deebot OZMO T8 AIVI stands out with the excellent performance it will provide in both vacuuming and mopping as it utilizes more accurate mapping and AIVI technology. The app is very user friendly and offers great features for customizing cleaning schedules, areas and vacuum settings.

Right off the bat, I’ll say that I’m very impressed with the Deebot Ozmo T8 AIVI vacuum and mopping robot. It does a superb job of cleaning my entire one-story house. I’ll get back to its performance in a moment. SETUP First, though, is setup. It’s fairly simple. Remove it from the box, remove packing materials, install brushes, which snap into place (the dirt trap and filters are already installed), connect power to the charging station, and place it on the charger to charge. While it's charging, connecting to the robot via the Ecovacs app can be set up. I ran into some minor issues here, but all were easily resolved. First, your phone must be connected to a 2.4 GHz wireless network to use the robot as it can only connect to this type of network. The router in my house puts out a wireless network in both the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, and the router’s instructions actually tell you to give them both the same name (“network,” say, instead of “network 2.4G" and “network 5G” as you might be inclined to do). My router manual says that this is better than giving them separate names because devices looking to connect will see only one network and will be connected to whichever of the two GHz bands is best suited for that device. But that doesn’t work so well for the robot. My phone sees the network and automatically connects to the 5G version. I cannot tell it to connect to the 2.4G version. The only way I could get this to work was to go into my router settings and give each network a different name. Then I could choose the 2.4 G network directly when connecting my phone. Overall this is not that big a deal as I always connect whatever device I want to connect to my home network to the best network available for it. Anyway, once the network thing was set up, you download the app and go through the setup process. At one point, you connect to the robot by choosing the network you want it to connect to (it sees only 2.4 G networks) and inputting the password. Then it finishes the setup process, and this is where I ran into my second problem. The setup process would not finish and would always end with a message from the robot (it has a voice) saying that “the wireless password is incorrect.” The password was correct, of course, and I could not get past this problem. But while I was fiddling around with the app, a message suddenly popped up saying that a firmware update was available. I installed that without a problem (apparently the phone was able to connect with the robot despite the robot’s voice message), and then everything started to work. The robot was already connected to my phone, and I did not need to go through the setup process again. CONTROL Control of the robot can be done from either the robot itself by pressing the power button or through the phone. Using the button on the robot gives only the most basic of features—a cleaning of your house. With the app, though, you can do much more, such as pre-set a time when cleaning should be done and clean only a section of the house. The app also maintains a record of the cleaning job just completed showing a pretty good map of your house and the paths it took to do the cleaning. If you activate this map while the robot is cleaning, you can follow its progress around the house. Another feature the app gives you is called “video butler.” The robot has a camera on its front, and this can be activated and the robot sent around the house taking video as it goes. You can also take still photos at any time. This feature can be useful as a home security feature as you can drive the robot around while you’re away from home and see what’s going on anywhere in the house (that the robot can go) through the camera. The feature also allows you to see where obstacles you weren’t aware of are impairing the robot’s ability to clean. VACUUMING Getting back to the quality of cleaning itself, which I think is the most important feature of any robotic vacuum, I was impressed with how this cleans compared to an less-expensive robot vacuum we already owned. That unit, which cost about one-fourth of what this Deebot costs, works very well. I don’t want to belittle it. But the differences in how the two operate are interesting. The Deebot takes a much more systematic approach to vacuuming the house, going back and forth in a particular room, as you might actually do yourself with a traditional hand-held floor vacuum, rather than the more random path the cheaper unit uses. The Deebot does a much better job of hugging the walls and going around obstacles. The cheaper unit would encounter an obstacle and then turn to a different, seemingly random direction and take off that way. It would eventually find its way back to finish the job it had started, but the less expensive unit did much more wandering around the house than the Deebot does. The Deebot has a larger dust receptacle, which is very nice for us because it means that I don’t have to stop the unit half-way through the house-cleaning to empty the dust bin and clean brushes and filters as I do with the smaller, less expensive unit. The Deebot cleaned my entire house in one session, covering 969 square feet in 84 minutes. (See the attached screenshot, which also shows a sort-of map of my house and the locations of the charging station—green lightning bolt—and where the unit was at the moment I took the screen shot. At the time of the screenshot, the unit was nearing completion of the job). I cleaned the unit when it was finished so it is ready to go the next time. MOPPING The other big feature of the Deebot is that, in addition to being a vacuum cleaner, it is also a mop. It has a water reservoir and both washable cloth and disposable paper mop heads. The washable head can be removed and run through your washer, and the box includes several one-use-only paper mop heads. You can, of course, buy more. I’ve used the washable cloth head. The mop head attaches to the bottom of the water reservoir at the rear of the unit. You put water in the reservoir (the manual recommends purified or softened water—the water in my house is softened, so I used it straight out of the tap), making sure to tilt the reservoir back and forth as you fill to get water into all of the compartments, put the reservoir back in the unit, and start ‘er up. The unit knows that there is water in the reservoir, and the app displays “mopping” as the status of the unit. It then proceeds around the house the way it would if it were vacuuming. So how well does it actually mop? It’s certainly not the kind of true, swish-swish back-and-forth with a real mop. Rather, it’s more like dragging a wet rag around the floor. So it’s good for a light wiping with a damp rag, but if you have some serious dried spills or whatever, you’ll want to go at them first with real mop or wet rag or whatever you normally use to clean spills. The mop on the Deebot is more, as I said, a light wiping with a damp rag. But this kind of cleaning does have its place as the floor (our house is all tile floors) does look and feel cleaner overall when the unit finishes, and I certainly don' t mind not having to push a mop around. Another thing about having a robot to do the mopping for you is that you are more likely to mop (or have the floor mopped) more often, so a light mopping more often can be about as effective as a more serious, manual mopping done less often. One thing to note. As I mentioned, my house has all-tile floors. The Deebot can be used in vacuuming mode in houses with carpeted floors, but I was not able to test this. If in mopping mode, the unit will stay off of any carpeted surfaces. IMPRESSION You can certainly clean your house with a less expensive robot if you don’t mind giving it a little more care and feeding as it goes and if you can accept a little less efficiency in cleaning in tight spaces. The Deebot Ozmo T8, on the other hand, definitely does give you more than a less-expensive robot vacuum. These include a larger dust collection bin, a better ability to hug the walls, go around furniture, and so forth, a camera with home security features, mopping capability, and an app for your phone that gives access to a variety of interesting and useful features. I recommend it.

Positives: -Better cleaning than my other robots (picked up a significant amount of dirt left by 2 other robots earlier that day) -Requires very little "Babysitting": Avoids obstacles and people very well, doesn't get stuck often -Mapping shows you where it is and gives you an idea how much is left -Great battery life, Easily vacuumed a whole floor with >50% battery left. -Clear speaker which has voice announcements, App also has notifications of messages -Can function either as vacuum alone or vacuum with mopping depending on need Negatives: -Could not get the Video Feature to work at all (Specific to Android?) -It stopped dead in center of a dark-blue bathroom rug, with a voice error about an 'anti-drop sensor', I can simply lift this away before cleaning though -No support for cleaning chemicals, only water This Deebot OZMO T8 AIVI seems significantly smarter than our other five cleaning robots (i.e. cleaning paths are logical for the most part, it avoids hard hits on furniture but does get up close). It seems to make a border around each cleaning area and focus on covering that area entirely before moving to next. It adjusts suction power and speed as needed and seemed to pick up a good amount of dirt on its first run (around 3/4" pile of dirt in the dust bin). A second and third run of same area 2+3 days later showed that it picked up less dirt but still a decent amount (about a 1/4" layer in the dust bin). With the default water settings (which we adjusted), the floor didn’t seem to get wet at all while mopping. Mopping does do a good job of cleaning the floor, though, and the mopping pad was discolored indicating what it picked up. After washing the mopping pad, it was a tight fit to get it back on but it was like new. It may not be safe to use the mop feature on laminate floors, for example, but that is an optional feature (you can empty the water, and remove the mopping pad, it will still vacuum). Overall, I feel this Ecovacs Deebot OZMO T8 AIVI cleaned very well, and required minimal intervention. It is a lot easier to use than our other robots which reliably got jammed under certain pieces of furniture, for example.