Contents of delivery

• Robot Vacuum Cleaner
• Spare filter E11
• Charging station
• Station stand (for wet cleaning)
• Instructions

TECH SPECS

• Dimensions – 353х350х96.5 mm, weight – 3.7 kg
• 802.11 Wi-Fi b / g / n
• Mi Home mobile application, working with Alice
• Wet cleaning, 0.29 liter tank
• Built-in 5200 mAh Li-Ion battery, battery life up to 2.5 hours
• Cleaning area up to 240 sq. meters from one charge
• ReactiveUI machine vision system, dual 5 megapixel cameras
• LiDAR
• Building a room map
• Ability to avoid objects on the floor (the minimum size of an object is 5×3 centimeters)
• E11 filter, washable
• Noise level at 67 dB
• Power 66 W or 2500 Pa

Many of us from old memory refer to Chinese devices as something copied. Cheap and cheerful, but not at all an original device with its cost and quality. The stereotype is tenacious and has even awakened a number of misconceptions, for example, many Americans sincerely believe that the drone company DJI is from the United States. It is absolutely impossible to believe that in a new area, where there are no own developments, a manufacturer from China is a pioneer. The situation is similar with robotic vacuum cleaners, the category of these household devices appeared more than ten years ago, evolved rapidly and then hit the ceiling, the largest manufacturers of household appliances considered that they had reached a peak. At the same time, in China, a number of companies thought quite differently and created a new direction in which the robot vacuum cleaner turned not just into a home assistant, but a high-tech device equipped with the latest technology. The difference is visible to the naked eye, Chinese manufacturers have entered a race in which they create autonomous control systems akin to an autopilot in a car, adjusted for the fact that the floor of your apartment is the road. And there are no road rules, but there are many traps for the robot vacuum cleaner: scattered things, thresholds, small objects. And the same Roborock equipped their flagship with machine vision, the robot can see rooms, recognize objects, and its AI algorithms are sharpened for the most comfortable cleaning of premises.

My last acquaintance with a robot vacuum cleaner happened about ten years ago, the idea was cool, the implementation was lame in all aspects – short operating time, low power of the vacuum cleaner, poor navigation around the apartment. As they say, for the idea five with a plus, for the implementation of two. That robot quickly went to the closet, until one of his friends took him, and fate repeated itself to the nearest comma, a couple of weeks of use – and then again the pantry, where he ended his days.

The second coming of the robot vacuum cleaner took place with fanfare, my friend shared his enthusiasm and, usually stingy with epithets, poured them non-stop – space, fantastic, powerful, quiet. An usually calm person so excited about a vacuum cleaner? Seriously? And he is not a stranger to technology, he understands what is and what quality. I decided to try exactly the same model – Roborock S6 MaxV, since it was about it that was discussed. Space? Not that word.

In a small box there is a robot vacuum cleaner, it looks like a familiar washer. The delivery set is as simple as possible, and the instructions are short.

It is necessary to install the Mi Home application, since all smart devices from Xiaomi (under the company’s umbrella, it will be more correct) are controlled from one place. The application does not always quickly recognize the devices, I did not have big problems, they offered a list of devices, added a vacuum cleaner, there are more than a dozen of them here.

Pay attention to the paired 5-megapixel cameras, machine vision technology is implemented here, the robot recognizes surfaces, remembers routes and can also recognize objects lying on the floor (the size of an object is at least 5 centimeters wide and 3 centimeters high). For example, he will not be able to recognize your socks, of course, if they are not worth a stake. But it recognizes wires and chargers, as well as scales, shoes and other familiar objects, on the map they are indicated by icons.

At the first start, you need to give the robot the opportunity to explore your home, open all the doors and start it to clean the room. In the settings, you can set the zones to which the robot will not go, and if you have a country house with several floors, you can build maps for each of them. There is only one problem, you will have to move the robot with your hands, it cannot ride up the stairs. The paths for the robot are not a problem, he knows how to get over them, although in one place I have a nut of half a centimeter or a little less, then the robot slips, a friendly push gives him the opportunity to go on a further journey.

A new toy is always emotions and impressions, as well as tests. On the first run, the robot built a map of my home. I turned on lights everywhere, opened the doors so that the robot could visit all places. There is no need to turn on the light, rather it was important for me. From the charging station, the robot rustled and hit the road.

During the first cleaning, the robot builds a map of the room, it studies the space. Data is not transmitted outside, it is stored locally (at least, as they promise us, to believe or not to believe – it’s up to you). In theory, it would be necessary to remove things that can interfere with the robot, but why? I decided to set up an obstacle course, it’s interesting to see how the robot will cope. Socks, a sweatshirt, scattered newspapers under the tables in the hall, pencils, some children’s toys. I told myself that I would not spy on how the robot copes with cleaning, but I could not stand it and periodically looked in the application as a map of my apartment appears, and new objects appear on it, which the robot found on the floor.

I am sure that you have never thought about what and how is arranged in your apartment. While the robot was traveling, he found out a lot of new things about his home. For example, dust accumulates in the bedroom under the bed; no one climbed into it with a vacuum cleaner. Electronic scales are pushed in from the edge, and I don’t even know what is in the middle. The robot rolled out a toy lost by someone, it happened involuntarily, but still.

After the robot went under the bed and periodically howled there like a ghost, I decided to climb on my own and see what was happening there. I turned on the flashlight and found that about half of the space was already glistening, the other was covered with dust, albeit not a century old, but the layer was sufficient (a note in my head that when cleaning, you need to look there too).

On the map, you can mark the areas where the robot increases power or uses the possibility of wet cleaning. The set includes a rag that snaps into place in a couple of movements, the water container is located on the body. The capacity is small and it seems like it’s some kind of pampering for show. In fact, in an apartment of more than 100 square meters, wet cleaning is not needed in all places (I do not have pets, wet cleaning is more important with them). On the map, mark the places where you need wet cleaning, and you’re done. The vacuum cleaner will not replace a mop with water, since the robot is not enough for heavily soiled surfaces. But! For everyday cleaning, this is enough for the eyes. And my opinion about the modest size of the water tank, cleaning rags has fundamentally changed.

Now an important tip for the lazy. The kit includes a plastic stand, if you are planning a wet cleaning, then it is worth installing it. My experience is that I did not put the stand on, on the third or fourth day I found that after wet cleaning there was a little water left (not a puddle, but wet). Refreshes, so I put a plastic stand. After that, no problems arose.

Choosing a place for the robot is also an important thing, you need an outlet, you need to put it so that you do not bump into it all the time. It’s good that I have a place in the lobby under the table, where the robot fit in with a bang. I will return to wet cleaning, as there are nuances here.

If you do not remove the damp cloth from the robot, wash and dry it, you will quickly encounter the fact that it will exude the aromas of a wet dog. This is a common problem for such devices, and I was warned about it. I did not experiment, after each cleaning I rinse the rag, put it on the battery to dry it. For a couple of weeks, no unpleasant odors appeared.

Now about the obstacle course. What happens if water is poured, to what extent will the robot be able to detect this “obstacle”? It turned out that the robot is not yet able to identify water as a problem. He calmly enters the puddle, continues to rustle. As a result, the dust container is filled with water, the dust contained in it is also all wet. The brush is wet and so on. The situation is extremely rare, but, alas, the robot does not know how to cope with it. He doesn’t see water on the floor. Not a problem in real life.

In the application settings, you can see how long it takes to change the filter, brush, and so on, all this is expressed in hours of work.

The filter can be washed under running water; you need to do this every two weeks. It dries out overnight on a battery (it is better to remove the filter from the unit so as not to dry the gaskets, they can dry out).

Cleaning quality, how often the robot should be started. Before the first launch of the robot, I was sure that everything was clean, no dust in prominent places, a couple of days before that the apartment was completely cleaned (wet, vacuum cleaner, and so on). Literally in the first hour, the dust collector was full (on average, one square meter in one minute, when scanning a room twice as slow). He shook his head, surprised, threw out the trash.

After the robot has walked under all the beds, the dust container clogs up again. And here is the first important conclusion – there are places where we usually do not climb, the robot copes with them. You program the zones, the way it cleans each area. I have several carpets in the lobby, you can leave the automatic detection of carpets, then the power of the vacuum cleaner increases. The carpets only seem to be clean, in fact, there is a lot of dust in them (in an amicable way, they need to be knocked out once a year). However, after the carpets, the dust collector is refilled again, with the same story with other vacuum cleaners.

I have no complaints about power, I created an obstacle course to check how the robot will cope with a scattering of small pebbles, dirt and coins. I think that in reality no one will do this, but check it out. The result puzzled me, the vacuum cleaner left the coins for me, “ate” everything else. Although no, I chewed one coin and found it in a dirt container. Good result.

Arguments about the fact that nothing can be removed with such a vacuum cleaner (there were some), I consider far-fetched. But there is a curious moment that inspired the memories of the air cleaner (he died a brave death a couple of years ago, and he couldn’t get his hands on a new one). When an air purifier appeared in my house, the amount of dust in the room where it was constantly turned on dropped sharply. He absorbed this dust and did not let go back. The story is about the same with a robot vacuum cleaner, it drives around the apartment, and if you put it on daily cleaning, the amount of dust will dramatically decrease. Fact! It’s another matter if you only run the vacuum cleaner on weekends, quite another matter. The complete brush is designed for at least a year of work (100 square meters, daily cleaning), so make your own conclusions.

There is nothing special to say about the operating time, the robot charges itself at the docking station where it arrives. Charging time does not play a special role for me, since cleaning takes more than an hour (more than 100 square meters), let me remind you one square – one minute.

The Russian version of the robot can speak Russian, informs that you need to throw garbage from the tank, that the robot is charging, and so on. It does not have voice commands, but if you connect any smart speaker with Alice, then you will be able to control it by voice through the speaker, the set of commands is quite wide. The function is useful to someone, but my robot simply lives according to the schedule, which is set in the application, and therefore there is no need for separate commands.

Surprisingly, the enthusiasm of my friend is easy to explain, this is really a space unit that can do a lot and amaze the imagination. But it also has some usefulness. It is definitely not worth perceiving a robot vacuum cleaner as an ordinary household vacuum cleaner. Of course, in the application you can indicate a point on the map of your apartment that requires cleaning, and he obediently goes there to clean. But this is inconvenient and unnecessary. Such a vacuum cleaner is needed to maintain overall cleanliness, this is an addition to conventional vacuum cleaners, both wired and wireless, the latter are good for cleaning curtains, sofas and the like. On the one hand, the robot vacuum cleaner gets to where you yourself will never go. On the other hand, it plays the role of a kind of air cleaner. What’s useful.

At a cost of 55 thousand rubles, such a robot vacuum cleaner is clearly not for everyone and everyone. Firstly, this is an additional vacuum cleaner to what you probably have, and it will never be the main one, you should not convince yourself of this. There will always be corners, places he never gets to. It is pointless to write off an ordinary vacuum cleaner for scrap. Secondly, cost plays a role, although here it is justified by the absence of direct competitors, and we see that a Chinese company can not only create high technologies, but create a trend. This robot surprised me very pleasantly, something new and, most importantly, useful.

I am writing these lines in the morning, in the application the cleaning is set at 8 am. I hear a robot wake up in the corridor and go to vacuum the hall, then he will go into the nursery, from there – into the study, and only then into the kitchen, which will be vacated by that time and everyone will go about their business. Somehow, unnoticed, this robot took root in my home and turned out to be useful.

Share your home cleaning secrets, what kind of vacuum cleaners do you have, how do you remove dust and are there any robots?

Related Links

Share: 

we are in social networks:

Anything to add ?! Write … eldar@mobile-review.com