Ecovacs Deebot N8 Pro + | $ 650 | Amazon | Clip voucher
Cleaning a house that has been overrun by an 8-year-old kid, a giant dog, and two cats sucks under normal circumstances, especially when everyone is at home all the time – especially since we have so little energy to keep things like this in To bring order now.
By the weekend, dirt, crumbs, cat litter, pencil shavings, stray bits of chewed dog toys, and anything else that piles up over the course of the week will have accumulated on our floors. And so my wife and I clean because we know what it looks like when such debris accumulates (shudders) for 2 or even 3 weeks during the pandemic.
I bought us a low-level Roomba Years ago, when it still seemed like a ridiculous luxury, and while we were having our fun with it in the early days, it quickly felt like a hassle to keep up with. It was noisy and annoying to pets and had a tendency to get tangled in cords or cling to not-so-steep doorsteps. Emptying it was a pain too. It felt like Roomba was doing more work than eliminating, and so we barely used it.
However, that was years ago, and robotic vacuums did since then increased. On the lower end, they’re cheaper than ever, but on the premium end, they’re more advanced and robust. So I was excited to get my hands on the newly introduced one Ecovacs Deebot N8 Pro +which brings significantly more sophistication than my chunky old Roomba while packing in some serious tech and fresh perks.
The Deebot N8 Pro + is neither the most expensive robotic vacuum cleaner on the market nor at the high end of the Ecovacs product range. this is the Deebot T8 AIVI with a built-in camera that you can see from. Still, the Deebot N8 Pro + seems to find the sweet spot of incorporating premium functionality while scraping back some of the less important or trickier elements to bring the price down. For example: there is no camera to look at!
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Otherwise, however, the Deebot N8 Pro + checks all important boxes. It has advanced laser maps, including 360-degree scanning and a time-of-flight sensor that reflects light in your room to measure distances and track the environment. The result is incredibly precise maps that are created in real time when the Deebot N8 Pro + roams your room for the first time. My son and I were amazed when it drew the entire first floor of our house with surreal accuracy and updated the smartphone app in real time on subsequent movements as we moved things.
It’s a powerful vacuum, of course, that deftly soaks up the hair and dirt on three pets, not to mention the aftermath of my tornado-esque child. At 2,600 Pa compared to 2,300 Pa, the Deebot N8 Pro + has more power than the standard N8 +, but runs relatively quietly when it wanders through the house in search of dirt. I was happily surprised that my very scared dog could handle the Deebot N8 Pro + much more easily than our old Roomba or even ours Dyson V7 Motorhead.
But that’s not all. The Deebot N8 Pro + is also a mop. Simply snap open the mopping pad plate and either the washable fabric or the disposable paper pad, fill the 240ml water tank and let it rip. It soaks up dirt from the front, then gently wipes the floor behind it, with variable flow options so you can control how much water comes out.
Thanks to the intelligent sensors, the N8 Pro + detects when the mop head is lying on a carpet or carpeting and turns around. It won’t soak anything but the solid ground. Granted, it’s just water and the pad has a pretty light touch; It can’t rival a serious scrub from you Swiffer Wet Jet Mop. Even so, it picked up some dirt as it moved back and forth on my wooden floors, making them look better than usual.
And when that’s all said and done, whether it’s a simple vacuum run or a hybrid mop cycle, the Deebot N8 Pro + automatically pours dust and dirt into the included automatic emptying station that is part of the charging station. This eliminates one of the biggest problems with typical robotic vacuums: you have to throw away the little trash can after every use or something. The automatic emptying station sucks the dirt out of the robot with a loud, violent whirring sound and dumps it into a bag that you may only need to dispose of every few weeks (or months). It feels like magic.
However, the Deebot N8 Pro + is not perfect. The sensors are impressive and the vacuum cleaner does a good job of not ramming into your stuff, but it still managed to suck up a couple of wires around my house which forced me to step in. And even with the station automatically empty, there is still a bit of light and ongoing maintenance that you need to do to keep everything running. After a few vacuum cycles, I had to remove large tufts of animal hair as well as a large string that was wrapped around the main brush. Deebot does a lot on its own, but is not a completely autonomous roommate.
In a market where a basic brand name robot is vacuuming can be had for $ 250 or less– much less if you skip the brand name – paying near the $ 699 list price is still likely out of reach for most buyers. But the Deebot N8 Pro + works hard for your money, vacuuming up dirt, mopping up dirt, and storing its results for easy disposal. As a premium upgrade, it can be a valuable addition to your home, especially if you’re struggling to keep up with the busy cleaning routines.
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