One-minute review
If you’re considering buying one of the best robot vacuums (opens in new tab), Ultenic might not be a brand that immediately springs to mind. This is hardly surprising given that it launched only in 2021. However, it’s a brand that’s determined to innovate and respond to customer feedback, making it well placed to stamp its mark on the already crowded floorcare market.
The T10 is one of only two robot vacuums on offer from the company, and it’s the more premium model arriving with the ability to self empty. Unlike many self-emptying robots we’ve reviewed, the charging dock that’s home to the dirt bag isn’t excessively large – although keep in mind that you’ll have to commit to buying replacement vacuum bags to make use of the self-emptying feature.
Alongside regular cleaning, it offers a mopping function too; but unlike the hands-off process of the vacuuming, the latter requires more input from you. The water tank will need to be filled and the mop pad attached prior to wet-cleaning a floor, while also being removed and washed at the end. In addition, the small water tank means you’ll need to keep an eye on the water level. Note, too, that while mopping the T10’s microfiber pad can quickly become clogged with dirt, making it best suited to light cleaning duties.
On test, the robot vacuum cleaned thoroughly, navigating the floor space in a uniform pattern. Plus, we welcomed having the choice of three suction levels. The app, too, proved intuitive to use, including most of the features we’d expect. However, it doesn’t store multiple maps very well, which makes it less functional in split-level homes.
Overall, we were pretty impressed with what the T10 offers for the price. It’s best suited to light and regular cleaning duties, but if you’re looking for a robot that will allow you to ditch the mop and bucket, this isn’t the one for you.
Ultenic T10 price and availability
- List price: $599 / £599/ AU$899
The Ultenic T10 is widely available worldwide. In the US, it can be purchased directly from Ultenic or Amazon. In the UK, it’s available on Amazon UK (opens in new tab), while in Australia it’s available from robot vacuum retailers such as Robot My Life.
Vacuum bags arrive in varying pack sizes, with the pack of six costing around $16.99/ £26.99 from Amazon. In Australia, a pack of three bags will cost AU$24. Ultenic claims that the bags should each last up to 60 days; but, obviously, how quickly they become filled will depend on the size of your home, how regularly you use the cleaner, and how much dirt it collects.
Price and availability: 4.5 / 5
Ultenic T10 design
- Remote control
- Washable HEPA filter
- Laser navigation
In terms of the size, the T10 is similar to most of the round robot cleaners we’ve reviewed, with a diameter of around 13.5 inches/ 34.5cm. Crucially, the charging dock that houses the dust bags measures 14 x 11 x 7.7 inches/ 35.5 x 28 x 19.5cm (h x w x d), which although larger than if were not a self-emptying model, is compact in comparison to many other self-emptying robot cleaners.
A lid on top of the charging dock flips up to offer access to the dust bag, which slides neatly into a slot at the side and is easy to remove and replace. The robot arrives with two bags in the box, which should each last up to 60 days, depending on the amount of dirt collected. The robot automatically empties dirt into the bag every time it returns to the charger, although you can change the frequency in the app.
For mopping, there’s an attachment that’s used in combination with one of the two mop pads. To engage the mopping function, the dust bin has to be removed and filled with water, and the mop attachment fitted. Water trickles on to the mop pad during cleaning, and you can control the flow level via the app. We’d describe the process as more similar to wiping the floor than mopping it.
If you intend to use the app – and we’d highly recommend you do – then the remote control supplied in the box will be redundant. That said, it does offer an alternative way to start up the robot and adjust the levels of suction, engage spot cleaning, or send the robot back to the charger. Also in the box is a spare side brush, filter and a cleaning brush.
Under the hood, there are plenty of intelligent features, such as 360-degree laser scanning and mapping, radar navigation, and automatic suction boost on carpet. There’s HEPA filtration, plus the use of bags avoids the inevitable cloud of dust when emptying dirt into the trash, making it a great choice for allergy sufferers.
Design: 4.5 / 5
Ultenic T10 performance
- Mopping performs a light clean
- Efficient self-emptying
- Robot takes a logical path
Sprinkling oats in three different spots on the floor, the T10 picked up around 95% of one spill and around 85% of another. Of the oats spilled on a long-pile area rug, the robot vac collected about 50%, leaving some embedded in the carpet. Most remaining oats were collected on a second run, but there were still some remaining in the long-pile rug.
We also spilled flour onto the surface of different parts of a wood floor, and while the vacuum picked up over 90% of each spill, it didn’t remove the flour from the shallow grooves between the wood floor planks. But this is consistent with the level of pick-up we see from most robot vacuums.
On carpet, the T10 was effective at cleaning up surface dust and debris, leaving the carpet looking clean. We did notice hair becoming tangled around the roller brush, though, but a tool is supplied to make it easy to cut this away.
Ultenic’s robot vacuum navigates rooms in a logical pattern, starting at the edges and then vacuuming in neat lines to cover the whole floorspace. At one point, it climbed up a lamp base and became stuck for a short while, but did eventually manage to free itself.
The vacuum isn’t too noisy, registering 70dB on hard floor when on max suction, which reduces to 60dB on the lowest suction level. Automatic emptying takes 15 seconds and is the loudest function of this robot vacuum at 80dB. And although this is as loud as some blenders, it’s only for a brief moment.
For mopping, you can choose between three levels of water flow. On the highest of these, the water tank lasted for approximately 60 minutes before we had to refill it. This is long enough to mop around 431ft2/ 40m2 space, or two medium-sized rooms. Annoyingly, though, there’s no alert to tell you that the water has run out, so you have to keep an eye on it. During mopping, the robot takes a different path to when it’s vacuuming, moving in short backwards and forwards motions, for more thorough cleaning.
The T10 was able to effectively mop up a fresh ketchup spill on wood flooring, but it only partially removed a dollop of ketchup that had dried overnight. We also noticed that during mopping, the mop pad quickly becomes saturated with dirt, so if you’re mopping a particularly large or dirty area, it’s advisable to remove and rinse it. Otherwise, it will simply start smearing the dirt around. When mopping with the vacuum suction switched off the T10 is very quiet, hitting just 50dB on our noise meter, which is similar to the noise level in a quiet office.
The manual doesn’t provide details on whether the mop pads are machine washable, although we threw them into our washing machine on a synthetic wash and they came out fine. It’s important to ensure that damp mop pads aren’t left on the vacuum; otherwise, they might become smelly.
In terms of other maintenance, the self-emptying feature means the vacuum doesn’t require too much attention. But the brushes, sensors and filter will all need occasional cleaning to keep it running at the optimum performance level. Happily, the app keeps tabs on the life of the various replaceable parts and will alert when they need replacing.
Performance: 4 / 5
Ultenic T10 app
- Plenty of adjustable settings
- Doesn’t store multiple maps
- Simple setup
You’ll get the most from this vacuum through the app – it’s the best way to control it, as well as check and adjust all the settings. We found it super-easy to connect the robot to the app, which walks you through the process. Once connected, you can adjust the suction level as well as the water flow, send it to auto clean, or spot clean a specific area.
The robot will create a floor plan of your area, and the app allows you to partition this as well as create no-go areas; it’s very intuitive to use. You’ll also get a live view of the path the robot has taken during its clean, which is helpful if you want to check whether it’s cleaned a specific room.
If you move the robot to a different floor of your home, it will re-map the space, but it doesn’t save both maps so that you can easily switch between them. There’s a workaround, though: by accessing the cleaning records, you can find previous maps and tell the app to switch to one of these. This is an unnecessarily clunky way of getting to other maps, and definitely an area that can be improved upon in future updates.
As we’ve come to expect from robot vacuums, the app allows you to create cleaning schedules for automatic cleaning. You can also adjust how regularly the cleaner self empties, as well as switch this feature off altogether – which is handy if you’re out of dirt bags. Plus, it integrates with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant for voice activation, too.
App: 4 / 5
Ultenic T10 battery life
- Long battery life in mopping mode
- Automatically returns to charging dock
- Full recharge in four hours
On the highest suction level the battery lasted for approximately 100 minutes, which was long enough to clean approximately 1076ft2/ 100m2 of floor space. At the point the battery level hits 15%, the cleaner will cease to clean and will return to the charger. So this does mean the T10 doesn’t utilize the full 100% of the battery charge.
On the lowest suction level on hard floor, 40 minutes of cleaning used only 10% of the battery, meaning battery life will rarely be an issue on this lower power mode.
The vacuum returns to the charger automatically at the end of each clean. If it can’t find the charger – perhaps because you have moved it to a different floor – then it will look for it for a short time before notifying you on the app that the recharge has failed. A full recharge from 15% takes around four hours, which is relatively speedy and much faster than the 5.5 hours stated by Ultenic.
In mopping mode, when the vacuum suction is switched off, the T10 uses very little battery life. During testing, it mopped for 90 minutes and used only 10% of the battery.
Battery life: 5 / 5
Ultenic T10 score card
| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Price and availability | Widely available and competitively priced for a self-emptying robot vacuum that can also mop. | 4.5 / 5 |
| Performance | Acceptable dust and dirt pick-up, but mopping just gives a light clean. | 4 / 5 |
| App | Easy-to-use app with all the settings we’d expect, but we’d like to see improvements in multiple map storage and access. | 4 / 5 |
| Battery life | Long run-times on most settings. And, with automatic charging, battery life should never be an issue. | 5 / 5 |
