I’ve been the happy owner of a Dyson 360 Eye robotic vacuum for over a year. It’s been great knowing that all of the little crumbs I spill at breakfast would be magically gone by dinner time. I was eager to have a look at HouSmile’s Ecan Robotic Vacuum Cleaner to do a comparison. 

The vacuum arrived in recyclable packaging. After reading the instruction manual (yes, I actually take the time to read the instructions), I assembled the vacuum by installing the battery and attaching the brushes using a cute little screwdriver they were kind enough to include. They also include an extra brush and dustbin filter. Now plugged in, the vacuum’s red led blinked while it happily sipped electrons overnight to prepare for its maiden voyage.

The next morning, a blue LED told me that charging was complete. I unplugged the cable, put it in the middle of the room and tapped the solitary button to send the fledgling floor-sucker on its merry way. Press once for small rooms, twice for big rooms. Ok, but the manual isn’t specific about how small and big rooms are defined.  Small diagrams illustrate the different preprogrammed floor patterns, the smaller being a kind of corkscrew pattern, the larger kind of bumps around the room for a while, does a corkscrew pattern around the middle, then runs the perimeter.  I’m sure there are algorithms to guide its motion, but to me, it looks like it just goes where it wants, apparently without much rhyme or reason.

I set up a few obstacles and sprinkled a few targets around, then, not knowing how room size is defined, I tapped the button once, releasing the vacuum to devour as much floor-food as it could find. The vacuum is refreshingly quiet and happily meandered and ricocheted around the room in arcs, devouring all the debris in its path, first dancing around the middle of the room,  then scooting the perimeter. The vacuum continued down the hallway, occasionally changing its trajectory until, unfortunately, the little guy took a tumble down my stairs the second time around, but no damage done. On subsequent trips to the precipice, it got stuck three out of four times, wiggling back and forth, but not enough for it to regain the lost traction from the wheel pushed over the edge. Again, no harm was done and a quick nudge sent it lumbering along.  I sent it in motion again and it bounced and careened around for about two hours, an impressive run for such a small battery. Observations noted it seemed to go over the same places a number of times while missing others completely, but with its hit-and-miss approach to cleaning, I’m confident that it would eventually find every inch of the floor given sufficient time. It doesn’t have a lot of suction, but it’s plenty for most of the stuff that ends up on the floor. The vacuum opening isn’t very wide, only about 4 inches, but the rotating brushes do an adequate job directing debris into the vacuum’s maw.  The vacuum was quiet enough for me to watch television with a volume level that didn’t cause ear damage.

 Once exhausted, the vacuum simply stopped. No beeps, no flashing lights, nothing. It should be noted, this vacuum doesn’t know where it is. Consequently, when the battery dies, it does not return to the place it started, so you will need to send a posse out to find it. Limiting its roaming range to one room at a time might be a good way to keep it from becoming a wayward sheep.  Since it doesn’t come home on its own, plugging in the charger is a strictly manual operation – find it, pick it up and plug it in. There is also no timer, connectivity or programming functions so you’ll need to intentionally launch this beastie when you want a cleaning.

I took the opportunity to have a look in the dustbin. Mind you, my Dyson 360 Eye had made a run around the house yesterday, yet the HouSmile dustbin was packed with dust bunnies, remnants of Halloween candy wrappers and hair from my cat and the two long-haired beauties, my wife, and daughter, with whom I share my house. Emptying the dust bin was a simple process of opening the top cover, popping out the bin, opening the lid, inverting and tapping into the trash. In my case, a few hairs had stuck to the filter, but a quick wipe with a paper towel send them into the trash with the rest.

On a second cleaning, the vacuum abruptly stopped on a shag carpet. Flipping the vacuum over and taking a look at the rotating brushes, I found they were almost tied in knots with the number of hairs that had been wrapped up around them.  An easy cleaning and they were just as good as new, but I wonder how long they’ll hold up.

Overall, the vacuuming done by this machine is quite good. It’s no match for my Dyson for cleaning power and thoroughness, but it is inexpensive, but needs a bit of human interaction from time to time. I imagine this vacuum would be ideal for single-floor domiciles with open floor plans and lower pile carpets.  For smaller rooms, and under furniture, it does very well. The HouSmile Ecan robotic vacuum is well constructed and functional. Not many Bells and whistles, but it gets the job done.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by HouSmile. Please visit their site for more info and Amazon to order.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Home and Kitchen, Vacuum

HouSmile Ecan Vacuum Robotic Cleaner review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 25, 2017 at 9:00 am.

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I’m a big fan of robot vacuums for one main reason – I’m lazy and don’t want to push a vacuum around my house when I can get a robot to do my work for me at the press of a button or automatically on a schedule that I set. The newest robot vac that I’ve had the opportunity to test is the Ecovacs Deebot R95 robot vacuum. Let’s see if it sucks… but in a good way.

What is it?

The Ecovacs Deebot R95 is a robotic vacuum and mop that you can control with your smartphone.

What’s in the package?

Ecovacs Deebot R95
Charging dock
Advanced wet/dry cleaning cloths (2)
Advanced wet/dry reservoir
Measuring cup
Direct suction option
Side brushes (4)
Instruction manual

Design and features

Like most robotic vacuums, the Ecovacs Deebot R95 has a circular shaped plastic housing.

The round module on the top cover of the vacuum is the laser distance sensor which the R95 uses to map the room.

There is a button and a panel of four status LEDs on the top of the R95. The status LEDs include a WiFi indicator, a scheduled cleaning indicator, spot mode indicator, and a return to charger mode indicator LED.

The top cover of the vacuum lifts up to provide access to the dirt bin and main power switch.

The dirt bin/filter housing has a handle that allows it to easily lift out from the vacuum for emptying.

Under the lid below the power switch is the upgrade port that can be used to update the vacuum’s firmware and a small tool that can be used to cut strings, hair, or other debris that might wind itself around the brush.

If you flip over the R95, you’ll see the three wheels that propel the vacuum. There are two driving wheels and one smaller wheel at the front that is flanked on both sides by anti-drop sensors.  Two more anti-drop sensors are located above the driving wheels. These sensors prevent the R95 from falling down steps and stairs.

Included with the Deebot R95 are four side brushes that attach magnetically to the bottom of the vacuum. These small brushes help lift dirt from wall edges. Only two brushes are used at a time so two extras are included for use when the first two brushes wear out.

With the side brushes attached and the main brush in place, it’s time to charge the R95 to prepare for cleaning.

The charging dock plugs into a wall outlet and the R95 charges by sitting on two charging pins on the bottom edge of the dock.

At this point, you can install the Ecovacs app on your iOS or Android device so you can take advantage of advanced features like scheduling, do not disturb times, and more. Note that it’s not mandatory that you use an app with the vacuum. You can control the vacuum manually including a basic scheduling feature that set it to vacuum once a day at the same time each day.

Note that it’s not mandatory that you use an app with the vacuum. You can control the vacuum manually including a basic scheduling feature that set it to vacuum once a day at the same time each day just by pressing the Auto button twice.

The app will allow you to set scheduled cleaning times, do not disturb times when the vacuuming will not run even if a prior cleaning was on hold due to battery recharging, and a work log where you can check to see how many hours that the D95 has vacuumed.

I tested the D95 in a carpeted room and in a room with wood floors and found that it did a decent job picking up large pieces of cat fluff and other dirt.

Here’s the dirt bin after vacuuming the basement floor a couple of times. Ick. You can see some Cheerios in the bin. No idea where the heck they came from. Yes, we do like to eat Cheerios, but I don’t know how they got on the floor and how we didn’t see them. I guess that’s what a vacuum is for though, right?

Unlike other robot vacuums that I’ve tested before like the Neato Botvacs, I like that the Deebot doesn’t bang roughly into objects like furniture before adjusting course. The Deebot has a more gentle touch. It’s also less noisy than Botvacs. Unfortunately, that’s the only praise I can give this robot vacuum, because it has some definite issues.

One of the main reasons why I was excited to test the Ecovacs Deebot R95 is because the app is supposed to allow you to mark areas on the map to avoid. The mapping feature is pretty cool and it’s fun to watch a live view of the robot vacuuming when you’re not there. But the problem is that the app (at least the iOS version of the app) does not have the avoidance feature. The instructions say that there should be a special icon on the screen that you can press to then set areas to avoid. I’ve yet to see that icon. But I have seen the message shown in the screenshot above on the right.

I read some reviews on Amazon for the R95 and apparently, it takes MANY hours for the avoidance feature to become available. I’ve used the R95 to clean my floors at least 10 times now and still haven’t seen the feature.

Another problem is that if you toggle power on the vacuum, or move the charging base, the map gets reset and you’ll have to start the process again.

Another problem I noticed is that there’s an option to turn on voice reports. I didn’t even realize that the vacuum talked until I started writing the review and was taking screenshots and saw the option. I had the option turned no but hadn’t heard any voices. So I did a hard reset at which point the vacuum started telling me when it finished vacuuming, or if it was stuck. A voice telling me about a problem is a lot more useful than the Neato Botvacs that just beep when there is a problem. However, the voice reports stopped soon after they started. No idea why.

The R95 also started appearing offline in the Ecovacs app and I wasn’t able to get it to come back online even after doing a hard reset multiple times which has been frustrating.

The vacuum also has a weird habit of continue to run even when you try to stop it. Most robot vacs that I’ve tested will stop running when you pick them up and manually put them on their charging dock. Sometimes the R95 will sound like the brush is still spinning or the motor is still running even when it’s sitting still. I’ve had this happen when I take it to a room and press the auto button so it will just clean that room. When it stops, a voice will say “cleaning complete” or something to that effect (if the voice reports happen to be working) and the vacuum will stop moving but it will continue to make whirring noises until I flip the power switch under the lift up cover.

Final thoughts

The Ecovacs Deebot R95 robot vacuum does a decent job picking up dirt from carpet and also does a good job wet/dry mopping hard surfaces, but app and special features like voice reports, obstacle avoidance, and WiFi connections are buggy which makes using this product frustrating. For those reasons, I’d steer clear of this particular robot vacuum until these issues have been resolved by a firmware update of both the device and the app.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by Ecovacs. Please visit their site for more info and Amazon to order.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Home and Kitchen, Vacuum

Ecovacs Deebot R95 robot vacuum review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 24, 2017 at 3:39 pm.

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When you live in a nearly 100 year old house with hardwood floors and 2 dogs that are over-achievers when it comes to shedding, you learn to live with pet hair.  Seriously, Steve – our older dog – sheds enough each week to create a 1/3 size replica of himself.  There are many automated solutions out there for vacuuming up the excess pet hair, but many of those devices have interesting definitions of how much is “excess”.  How well does the Eufy RoboVac 11 stack up against the competition?  Let’s find out!

The RoboVac 11

Eufy is about 13 inches across, 4 inches tall and weighs in at around 3 and a half pounds.  Pretty average, size-wise.  As you can see from the picture below, Eufy has 2 side brushes on the underside that spin as the vacuum moves to help dislodge dirt and debris.  The vacuum sits just ever so much higher off the floor than other robo-vacuums, and there is a pretty good reason for this.  More on that shortly.  Setup is easy – snap on the 2 side brushes, peel off the plastic cover that protects the body in shipping, place the unit on the charger and you are ready to go.

The manual tells you to place the base unit/charger in a place where you can have approximately 3 feet on both the right and left sides, and 6 feet behind – assuming you place the base against a wall.  Problem is, our house is 1200 square feet split among 2 humans and dogs, so finding anywhere with that much open space is as statistically close to impossible as you can get.  I am happy to say that is merely a guideline – I was able to get this in our dining room with about 2 feet on either side and maybe 3 feet behind, and Eufy seems to like that arrangement just fine.  After an initial charge of about 6 hours (unusual to say the least, and no subsequent charge has taken that long), Eufy was ready for action.

A remote control is supplied in order to program Eufy.  You’ll need 2-AAA batteries as they are not included in the package.  Once the batteries are in, you can set the time.  A word of caution here: whenever you use the remote, you should have it pointed at Eufy.  The remote does not operate on radio frequencies but rather on infrared, so if the command from remote does not reach Eufy directly, you may end up wondering why things don’t work as expected.  My example: I did not aim the remote at Eufy when setting the time, so I can only assume that Eufy’s internal clock started ticking at midnight.  That assumption was proven when Eufy started working on its schedule – which was off by as exactly the difference between midnight and the time when I set the remote.  Lesson learned.

But does it vacuum?

Like other robotic vacuums, Eufy has a bumper guard on the front and sensors elsewhere to help guide it through what it calls “obstacles” and you call “furniture”.  The RoboVac 11 does not come with any sort of electronic fence but it does appear to have a cliff sensor because not once has Eufy ever tried to fall down the basement stairs.  There are a few operating modes: spot (moving in ever-widening circles), edge (find the edges of the space and clean along them), single room (good if you don’t have an open floor plan) and manual (you guide with the directional keys on the remote).  There are also a couple of automatic modes including a max clean which amps up the suction for carpeting but drains the battery faster.  You can also program Eufy to clean at a specific time of day and when the time comes, it will clean using a variety of the modes to cover the most space.

The front of Eufy showing off the bumper:

And the back where the collection drawer and HEPA-filter is located:

This has to be one of the quietest vacuums I have ever seen.  I mean, this guy is astonishingly silent and yet effective.  Every time I empty the container I am surprised by how much dirt has been collected.  And the house shows it – in the couple of weeks Eufy has been on the job, there is a marked reduction in the dog hair hanging around.  The house just looks good.

The quirks

And you knew there had to be some, right?

The first one really isn’t a quirk, but more of a wish for different behavior.  Eufy does not have an app to control it as some others do.  It would definitely add to the price (which is tantalizingly low), but having the option would be nice, especially if it could tell me things via the Internet – like that it is stuck somewhere, the battery is low, it missed a cleaning cycle.  Just a bunch of different “smart-home” type data that is becoming common with automated appliances.

On the getting stuck thing: I suppose Eufy does not get stuck any more or less than any other vacuum, but there are a couple of places in my living room where Eufy just doesn’t seem to learn to avoid.  One is a cold air return grate of the floor, another is under an ottoman in the living room, and another behind the TV where the dangerous octopus collection of power cords live.  Eufy will wander into these traps a couple of times a week, and when Eufy becomes trapped, he beeps a few times and shuts down.  The first obstacle is easy, but if Eufy runs while you are gone, you may play an elaborate game of hide and seek when you see he isn’t on the charge base.  And the remote does not help.

Another quirk: carpeting.  Most of our house is hardwood flooring, but we have an area rug in the living room that Eufy navigates just fine.  Weirdly, though, we have a thinner runner rug by the front door, and about half the time Eufy gets on that carpet and then can’t keep going.  It must be something to do with the way the wheels interact with the carpet, but often I have to rescue Eufy from the rug.

Finally, getting back to home base can sometimes be a challenge.  There does not appear to be any sort of system that would allow Eufy to home in on the charge base, or if there is it is somewhat ineffective.  At least once a week I have to pick Eufy up and put him back on life support because he died in the field.  One afternoon just for laughs (thanks to the cold medication I was taking) I put Eufy on auto and let him clean a while, then hit the home button.  What ensued was a weird dance around the charge base even though he was only about six feet from it when he received the recall order.  All told, from the time I told him to go home until he finally parked on the base it took nearly 10 minutes.  And he was not vacuuming during that time.

One thing that isn’t a quirk, however, is the dog reaction.  The first couple of days Eufy was in the house, the dogs ran up to him and barked, and when he turned they ran away.  Steve spit tennis balls at him those first few days, but Eufy took it like a champ and kept on going.  Now Eufy is just another thing in the house and the dogs are OK with him as long as he doesn’t run into them while they sleep on the living room carpet.

Maybe the last quirk is that after having him around long enough, you too might anthropomorphize the device and start thinking of it as a “him” with the name “Eufy”.

The verdict

The Eufy RoboVac-11 is a great automated solution.  It works as well as any of the other big names but does so at a fraction of the cost.  It is very well made and appears that it can stand a very long life running into the sofa legs.  The house regularly looks cleaner than it has for some time, and in the end that is the reason you buy something like this.  Replacement supplies like the HEPA-filter and side brushes are available on Amazon, so you should have no trouble keeping your Eufy running smoothly for a very long time to come.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by Eufy.  For more info visit their site or check Amazon for pricing.

Filed in categories: Home and Kitchen, Reviews

Tagged: Vacuum

Eufy RoboVac 11 robotic vacuum review originally appeared on on April 1, 2017 at 5:41 pm.

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