We reviewed the Ecovacs Deebot N8 Pro last month, and this time round, we have the Deebot T10 which is similar but has more features and with better performance. Let see how it fares.
Unboxing the Deebot T10
During the unboxing process, one thing I noticed is the excessive use of cartons for putting everything together. Inside the large box contains several smaller boxes containing different part of the robot cleaner. Here is what it contains after unboxing every thing.
Unlike the Deebot N8 Pro, the Auto Empty Station is not bundled together with the robot cleaner. Instead it is sold separately as an accessory. However, it was sent to us as one whole package, so I will include it for this review.
Setting Up the Deebot T10
Setting up the Deebot T10 is pretty straightforward. Attach the charging base to the power outlet, then attach the brushes to the base of the vacuum cleaner. Power it on and place it on the base. That’s it. It is now ready to roll.
Of course, to make use of its smart features, you will need to pair it with its mobile app, ECOVACS MOBILE, which I do find easy to use.
Getting Started
The Deebot T10 comes with a camera lens that allows it to quickly map out your house, avoid obstacles and navigate around your house. Thus, before you get it to clean your home, it is best to have it do a quick mapping of your place. I found the quick mapping function to be really fast. In a short while that the robot zips around your house, the 3D map is complete.
With the map, you can mark out areas you don’t want it to enter, or merge/split the floor area into different regions. You can also label the various areas for easy identification, like “living room,” “kids’ room,” etc.
Performance
I found that it is very fast and efficient when it is doing its cleaning task. What takes about 90 minutes for other robot cleaners is done within 60 minutes with the T10. The main reason for this is its two big brushes and large nimble wheels. Most of the robot cleaners I have reviewed only come with one brush at the base, which means it can only clean on one side. The two brushes on the Deebot T10 can cover both sides in one go.
The camera allows it to quickly detect obstacles and detour before it hits them. I do hate robot cleaners coming into the room and constantly hit my chair or leg, trying to roll over everything in order to complete the cleaning task, so this is a godsend to me.
In addition to its efficiency, I also noticed that it is pretty quiet when working. Even with a 300pa suction, the noise level is kept at a minimum. Often I don’t hear any noise, and there are times where I even have to search the rooms to find where it has gone to.
One interesting feature of the camera lens is that it can take video just like your phone. Using the mobile app, you can turn on the video manager and get a real-time feed of where it is going.
In the event that it is stuck, you can also turn on the video manager to see where it is stuck. One thing that I love to do is to move it around the house just to see where my dog is, with the pretense of it cleaning up the room. I am sure you can come up with plenty of things to do with it.
Note: for those who are concerned with privacy issues, the video manager feature can be locked behind a passcode, and when it is active, you will receive a notification.
The default base has a slot for placing an air freshener, which I find immensely useful. As it cleans around the house, it provides a scent to the whole house.
Auto Empty Station
The main purpose of the Auto Empty Station (AES) is to allow the robot cleaner to empty its trash from the smaller box to a bigger trash box so that you don’t have to empty the trash as often.
The AES serves as a charging base as well, so it can replace the default charging base that comes with the unit.
Every time the robot cleaner returns to the base after cleaning, it will auto empty its dirt to the bigger filter box. In the app, you can set the auto-empty frequency too, with options like every “10 min,” “15 min,” “25 min,: etc.
Mopping
The robot cleaning base is detachable and replaceable with a water tank and mopping pad.
The water tank is pretty small, and I do find that the mopping function is rather weak, even on its “Extreme” setting.
Water drips from the tank to the mopping pad, making it moist, but not wet. With an up-and-down dabbling action, I find that it doesn’t sufficiently wet the floor and mop it. It could be used as a quick and gentle wipe up, but should not be treated as a full mopping replacement.
Ok Yiko!
The Deebot T10 comes with its own voice assistant. No, we are not referring to “Ok, Google,” “Siri,” “Alexa,” or integration with Google Home or Amazon Echo. This robot has its own voice assistant named “Yiko.” Operating on a limited library of vocabulary, you can get it to start cleaning, empty the trash, check if the consumables have expired, etc. It is also available in all 13 languages, including English, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Deutsch, etc. Best of all, it doesn’t require you to own a Google Home or Alexa Echo.
However, Yiko is both a blessing and annoyance to me. It is really convenient to just say “Okay, Yiko. Start cleaning now,” to get it moving. However, it is so sensitive that it responds to any sentences containing “okay” (even without the “Yiko”). It will even respond to high-pitched noise, like when a metal part drops onto the floor. And when it doesn’t understand what you are saying, it will speak for a long time, like “I don’t understand what you are saying. Please repeat again, blah blah blah.” You can see how it can get annoying after a while.
The worst is when you disable it in the mobile app, it will still listen for the stop word. When it hears something like “Ok, Yiko”, it will respond with “I am not activated, please activate it in the app … ” In short, there is no way to turn it off for good. The only way is to mute it so that it doesn’t speak.
Overwhelming Notifications
The mobile app can be too zealous in sending you notifications, too, without providing a way to disable any of them. At the scheduled time to start a cleaning task, it sends you a notification. When it is done, there’s another notification. When it is stuck, a notification. When you are changing the base (to the water tank), it notifies.
Also, the “Do Not Disturb” mode doesn’t apply to the voice assistant. I set the DND mode to turn on at night. However, when I am changing the base at night, the voice assistant is so enthusiastic to inform me LOUDLY that its base has been replaced with the water tank. (As mentioned above, the best way to deal with this is to mute it from the app.)
Final Thoughts
Features and efficiency wise, the Deebot T10 robot vacuum is great. It is easy to set up and a joy to use. However, there are some minor annoyances on its software side, which if it can fix, will make it even better.
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