At first look, the Yeedi Vac 2 Professional has a listing of specs that doesn’t look a lot totally different to the big variety of different robotic vacuum cleaner and mops obtainable by way of Amazon. Nonetheless, it does have a little bit of a trick up its sleeve.
Most robotic vacuum cleaners with mopping features use some variation of a clip-on attachment that lets them drag a moist material behind them. This permits them to choose up free dust with their vacuum component, then give the ground a cursory wipe to take away sticky, dried-on dust – and whereas this fundamental mopping motion might be nonetheless higher than not mopping in any respect, it tends to be a really mild contact.
Yeedi has tackled this lack of elbow grease with a mopping attachment that oscillates because it mops. Though it’s in any other case much like the mopping gear you’ll discover elsewhere, it undoubtedly provides an additional component of agitation to the in any other case acquainted combine, successfully giving dust patches a fast rub because it passes, slightly than merely making use of a single wipe.
Yeedi Vac 2 Professional overview: What do you get for the cash?
The Yeedi Vac 2 Professional has a reasonably normal design for a robotic vacuum cleaner. It’s a wise matte-white gadget, measuring 346 x 342 x 74mm (WDH), and is formed like a big hockey puck. It doesn’t use LIDAR navigation, so doesn’t want a turret on the highest – as an alternative it has front- and top-mounted cameras that assist it navigate visually.
It comes with a typical charging station that’s about the identical peak because the robotic. That is positioned in opposition to a wall and powered from a wall socket, and the robotic butts up in opposition to it when charging. There’s additionally a appropriate self-emptying station that’s obtainable in Europe and the US, however Yeedi knowledgeable me that it received’t be obtainable within the UK.
Inside, the vacuum suction is rated at 3,000Pa, which isn’t probably the most highly effective suction round, however is cheap for the value, with rivals such because the Airrobo T10+ and the Proscenic M8 Professional providing related suction at an analogous worth.
The 420ml assortment bin sits in the midst of the robotic and is accessed by lifting a lid on the highest. A small deal with will be flipped up and the gathering bin is then lifted out like a bucket, emptied by opening its lengthy facet. It’s easy and straightforward to carry out and the sponge filter will be cleaned by rinsing in operating water, so long as it’s left to dry naturally for twenty-four hours.
To transform the robotic right into a mop that you must take away a blanking part on the rear and exchange it with the mop unit. This combines each the 240ml reservoir and the base-mounted mopping material. The gadget drips clear water onto the material, which is then dragged over the ground, oscillating because it goes.
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Yeedi Vac 2 Professional overview: What’s it like to make use of?
I discovered establishing the Yeedi Vac 2 Professional to be comparatively simple, although I stumbled barely whereas making an attempt to attach it to my Wi-Fi community. A QR code is generated within the app in your smartphone, which that you must maintain above the robotic for scanning by way of the top-mounted digicam. That sounds easy sufficient, however I discovered it a bit awkward and ended up utilizing the fall-back answer of merely typing within the Wi-Fi password as an alternative.
The app is obvious, simple to navigate and easy to function. The primary time you ship the robotic out it encourages you to cut back the suction whereas it explores the home and makes a map.
That is arguably the place the robotic begins to fall behind its similarly-priced rivals. Because it doesn’t have LIDAR to scan its environment, the Vac 2 Professional should construct up its map by actually exploring each nook of the area obtainable to it. This implies you need to guarantee the ground is obvious and that the robotic can get entry to all the floorplan.
This makes the method pretty sluggish: it took 1hr 18mins to map out 60m2 of my floor flooring, which is far slower than common. It doesn’t velocity up as soon as the map is created and the robotic is aware of the place it’s going, with the identical 60m2 area taking a mean of 1hr 24mins to scrub on subsequent journeys. Against this, the LIDAR-equipped Airrobo T10+ and Proscenic M8 Professional can cowl the identical space in lower than an hour.
As soon as a map was created, I discovered the model it displayed within the app to be obscure and missing element. Even fairly vital room parts – such because the breakfast bar in my kitchen – are lacking from the map, whereas two rooms seem to have entry between them the place there’s truly a strong wall.
A obscure map isn’t a disaster nevertheless it takes the shine off the person expertise with regards to selecting the place to scrub. To carry out a spot clear, for instance, you progress and resize a rectangle on the map, and the robotic strikes to the realm, circles across the edge, then covers the realm within the center by traversing the realm in parallel strains.
If the map doesn’t have sufficient element, nonetheless, it makes it tougher to particularly pinpoint the place you need the robotic to scrub. With my breakfast bar not displaying up, for instance, I needed to guess the place within the kitchen I needed the gadget to scrub, and estimate the place I’d must set it to keep away from entanglement with stool legs.
With most homes having a number of storeys, I anticipate a robotic vacuum cleaner to handle a number of flooring. The Vac 2 Professional can do that at the side of its app, nevertheless it’s a clunky enterprise that requires transferring each the robotic and the charging station to the brand new location every time you wish to clear. I attempted transferring simply the cleaner, nevertheless it received’t finalise map creation with out docking. Even as soon as the map is saved, transferring simply the robotic can provoke a clear, however it’ll endlessly hunt for the lacking docking station when it’s completed.
In the event you don’t thoughts working round this and transferring the bottom station with each clear, then that is merely annoying, and definitely a lot preferable to not with the ability to transfer the robotic between flooring in any respect. Nonetheless, I think most customers will wish to tuck the cable away and make every part as neat as doable, which is simpler for those who don’t need to hold transferring issues round.
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Yeedi Vac 2 Professional overview: Is it good at discovering its means round?
I discussed within the part above that the Yeedi Vac 2 Professional doesn’t keep a very detailed map. I think that’s the principle motive why it’s a bit slower than vacuums with LIDAR, which appear higher at sensing their environment, discovering routes round obstacles and customarily getting from one place to a different.
As with most robots that don’t have LIDAR, there’s an actual sense that this robotic bumbles about bumping into issues, slightly than intelligently choosing a course primarily based on what it understands in regards to the partitions and furnishings round it.
One factor the robotic is sweet at, nonetheless, is detecting the kind of floor it’s on. That is nice when mopping, as a result of it could detect and keep away from carpet, rugs and mats, which saves them from getting moist.
Sadly, it isn’t notably sensible at understanding the best way to get round a big impediment comparable to a rug if the trail to the opposite facet isn’t apparent. After I requested it to mop a room that will require it to take a reasonably torturous route round a rug, it as an alternative repeatedly butted as much as it, looking for a means by way of, when it actually wanted to think about its map and work out the great distance spherical.
Once more, this might be disappointing slightly than a deal breaker if the robotic may work out the place it’s when it’s picked up and moved round throughout the space lined by its map. Sadly, with out LIDAR to precisely observe its environment, you’ll be able to’t do this both. It shouldn’t actually be right down to the top person to need to work out the best way to get a tool like this to scrub a room that’s on the flawed facet of an impediment the robotic ought to have the ability to navigate, however the one means I can actually consider getting round this might be to maneuver the charging station and create one other map, which is much from superb.
One of many Yeedi’s greatest tips is that it could detect and navigate round sure dropped family objects. I examined it with a trio of difficult obstacles: a charging cable for a telephone, a discarded sock and a convincing joke canine poo. The Yeedi efficiently averted the sock solely, and principally managed with the cable, which was disturbed by the sting sweeper brush and shuffled round a bit, however by no means got here near the vacuum inlet.
The pet poo wasn’t noticed in any respect, nonetheless. It merely drove into it and would have smeared an actual doggy doo throughout the ground. It’s not pretty much as good at detecting objects because the iRobot Roomba j7, which is the king of this kind of factor, however for 2 thirds of the value it averted two thirds of the objects, so you’ll be able to’t actually complain.
Yeedi Vac 2 Professional overview: How effectively does it clear?
The Yeedi Vac 2 Professional wasn’t phased by our robotic vacuuming exams, which contain hoovering up measured portions of rice and flour on each quick pile carpet and onerous flooring.
As is the case with most robotic vacuums, it carried out barely higher on onerous flooring than on carpet. Within the rice take a look at, it picked up 84% of spillage, with the remainder getting scattered out of the robotic’s path by the sting sweeping brush.
There was much less scatter on the flour take a look at, however the Vac 2 Professional did drive by way of a few of the flour earlier than it may vacuum it up, gathering flour on the tyres and customarily spreading out the mess. A big hint of flour was additionally left behind, nevertheless it did nonetheless handle to gather 82% of the spill in its assortment bin.
On carpet, it struggled extra when making an attempt to choose up the rice, regardless of there being much less scatter, choosing up solely 78% of the spill. Flour on carpet was its biggest weak point, gathering a complete of 68% of the flour we dropped.
In comparison with equally priced rivals, the Yeedi largely follows expectations, as you’ll be able to see from the chart beneath. Nonetheless, we have now seen robots carry out significantly better just lately, with the Eufy Robovac G20 managing to gather a mean of 90% of spills.
In terms of mopping, I used to be impressed, notably as a result of my expectations are usually low for sub-£500 mops. The vibration of the Yeedi Vac 2 Professional’s mop pad provides the method a rubbing motion that you just don’t get from the mops of normal dual-function robotic vacuum cleaners, which merely drag their cleansing cloths behind. This made the Vac 2 Professional higher at engaged on sticky stains than its fundamental mopping rivals.
I additionally appreciated that it will sensibly detect and keep away from carpet and rugs whereas the mop was connected, regardless of creating a number of navigation issues. That is not at all a common function in vacuum mop combos, and may be very welcome right here, taking the effort out of making an attempt to manually block the robotic from hitting carpet throughout a mopping session.
Having mentioned all this, it’s value noting that it nonetheless isn’t fairly pretty much as good at mopping because the Ecovacs Deebot X1 Omni. With its twin rotating pads, it’s the very best we’ve mop we’ve seen to date, with the additional advantage of with the ability to clear itself. It’s value noting, nonetheless, that you need to pay for the luxurious: it prices thrice the value of the Yeedi Vac 2 Professional.
Yeedi Vac 2 Professional overview: Ought to I purchase it?
In the event you’re on the lookout for a robotic vacuum that may additionally mop, with out spending quite a lot of cash, then the Yeedi Vac 2 Professional is a severe contender. It does a greater job of mopping than most equally priced rivals, and carried out as anticipated in our vacuuming exams, too.
The place the robotic loses out is in navigation. With out LIDAR, it isn’t excellent at discovering its means round advanced areas, and whereas the app is usually simple to make use of, the map it creates is obscure. Multifloor cleansing requires you to maneuver the charging station in addition to the vacuum, and deciding on areas to scrub within the app isn’t as slick as we’d have appreciated, both.
In the event you’re on the lookout for the very best robotic vacuum and mop that cash should purchase, I’d steer you to the Ecovacs Deebot X1 Omni as an alternative, with its twin rotary mops that apply vastly extra cleansing motion to your flooring. It comes with an unlimited charging station that additionally empties the vacuum assortment bin, retains it topped up with water, and washes the mop – the one caveat is that you need to pay fairly a bit extra.
In the event you’re much less fussed in regards to the high quality of the mopping, you’ll have a greater time with a LIDAR-equipped robotic that’s higher at discovering its means round. The Airrobo T10+ is a robust different, which additionally comes with a self-emptying charging station, though it doesn’t dodge socks and charging cables.
