One-minute review
Floor-cleaning stalwart Miele is known for offering some of the best vacuum cleaners on the market. It launched its first robot vacuum in 2015, but has left it until now to launch a follow-up in the UK.
It’s been worth the wait, however. The Miele Scout RX3 Home Vision HD offers four different levels of suction – and according to Miele is 25% more powerful than its original robot vacuum. It also builds on its predecessor with the addition of two cameras, which as well as helping the robot vacuum accurately navigate around your home without colliding into furniture, also allow you to view what’s happening in your home when you’re not around.
The Miele Scout RX3 sports the same circular design as the brand’s other robot vacuums, and at 8.5cm tall, will happily fit under low-clearance furniture. It also ships with two side brushes – one with six arms, and another with an impressive 20 arms – which impressed for cleaning around the edges of rooms.
Miele supplies a remote with the Scout RX3 Home Vision HD, but thanks to Wi-Fi connectivity, it can also be controlled via the Miele Scout app on your smartphone. In addition, Alexa integration means you can use your voice to start the robot vacuum on a cleaning spree around your home.
At £859, this is one of the more expensive robot vacuum cleaners on the market, especially when you consider it doesn’t include a self-emptying base station of the type that accompanies the iRobot Roomba J7 Plus, for example. However, effective edge cleaning, powerful suction alongside the fact this cleaner offers the ability for you to check-in on your home, makes the Miele Scout RX3 Home Vision HD worth the investment.
Miele Scout RX3 Home Vision HD price and availability
The Miele Scout RX3 Home Vision HD costs £859 and is available direct from Miele. It’s also available in a model without the built-in cameras, known as the Scout RX3, offering a reduced run-time of 60 minutes for a more affordable £759.
Currently, the Miele Scout RX3 Home Vision HD isn’t available in the US and Australia, although Miele says the robot vacuum is set to launch in those territories in July 2022.
Design
- 0.4-litre dust box
- Four power levels
- Built-in camera
Just like the previous Miele robot vacuum, the Scout RX3 Home Vision HD is relatively circular in shape, with a plastic bumper surrounding the top half of the unit; but the front section of the robovac sports a slightly squared-off design. It measures 8.5 x 34 x 33.5cm (h x w x d), and its slim design meant it had few issues navigating under furniture with low clearance.
Its glossy black surface is complemented by a rose gold surround on its top. Here, you’ll also find a 4.5-inch screen that displays the time when the robot vacuum isn’t cleaning, along with any error messages. Below this sit five touch controls for selecting one of the four cleaning modes – auto, spot cleaning, turbo and quiet – as well as the option to send the robovac directly to its base station. A battery icon displays the remaining run-time and a Wi-Fi indicator.
Flip the robovac over and you’ll discover two large wheels on each side of the unit, plus a smaller wheel at the front, to help the robot vacuum to work its way around your home. There’s a brush bar, too, plus space for two optional side brushes that come with the vacuum for cleaning edges and any crevices in a room.
Speaking of side brushes, the Scout RX3 Home Vision HD ships with two styles. The first is a pair with six arms, similar in look to the side brushes that ship with most robot vacuums, which Miele says are ideal for use on deep-pile carpet and rugs. There’s also a bushier pair that feature 20 arms to provide thorough cleaning of corners and hard-to-reach areas on both hard floors and short-pile carpets.
The Scout RX3 Home Vision HD has twin built-in cameras that the robovac uses to navigate around your home, avoiding obstacles as it goes. However, they also offer a Live View function that lets you keep a check on your home – but unlike other robot vacuums on the market, there’s no built-in microphone or speaker, so they can’t be used to soothe pets. It also comes with a 0.4-litre dust canister.
The robot vacuum ships with a compact charging base that measures 16.6 x 15.3 x 8cm, along with a power adapter, a remote control and demarcation strip. The latter can be used to create physical no-go areas, rather than virtual ones via the app.
Performance
- Auto mode increases suction for carpets
- 20-arm side brushes effective at edge cleaning
- Attempted to climb low-profile objects
The Miele Scout RX3 Home Vision HD was simple to set-up, and once we’d connected it to our Wi-Fi network, we were able to set it cleaning from an app on our smartphone, or using the remote control supplied in the box.
It collected fine dust and larger debris from both hard floors and carpets, even in Quiet mode, which offers the lowest level of suction. We were impressed with the 20-arm side brushes; rather than flick larger debris such as cereal around the room like many robot vacuums, the brushes coaxed the debris towards the centre of the robot vacuum’s path, so it was quickly and efficiently collected. They also helped to ensure our floors were thoroughly cleaned at the edges, as well as in the centre.
When used on Auto mode, the Scout RX3 Home Vision HD automatically adjusted the suction power and whether or not the roller and brushes rotate to suit the floor type. We found this enabled the robot vacuum to suck up ground-in dirt as well as surface debris. However, unlike many robot vacuums on the market right now, we weren’t able to use the app to change the cleaning mode during a vacuum session, even though it was possible to do this from the remote control.
The remote control was responsive for controlling the robot vacuum, and is easy to store thanks to its small size.
While the Scout RX3 Home Vision HD took a logical path around our home, cleaning in neat rows, we did find that relying on only the cameras meant the unit had a tendency to crash into more furniture than robot vacuums with a LiDAR sensor, for example. On one occasion we even found the Scout RX3 attempting to climb the wheels of our office chair.
If you plan to use the robot vacuum to clean multiple levels, we suggest moving the base station with the robot vacuum, since the Scout RX3 Home Vision HD struggled to clean any more than one small section of our first floor while its base station remained on the ground floor. Despite the robot vacuum getting perilously close to the edge of a flight of stairs (far closer than other models we’ve tested), thankfully, it didn’t plunge to the bottom.
The dust canister proved extremely easy to empty. The top of the robot vacuum pops up, allowing access to a handle with which you lift out the dust canister, after which you remove the lid and empty it straight into a bin. The lid of the dust canister is also home to a small brush that can be used to dislodge any dirt stuck in the canister.
As we’ve already mentioned, the twin built-in cameras can also be used to keep an eye on your home when you’re out. We were also able to pause the robot vacuum during cleaning, and use the app to manually control the Scout RX3 Home Vision HD in order to view a live feed from the exact spot in our home we wanted.
On the whole, the Scout RX3 Home Vision HD was relatively quiet in use, measuring 61.1dB on our decibel meter in Quiet mode on hard floors, and only rising to 66.2db in Turbo mode. This is the same noise level experienced when standing 100ft from an air conditioning unit, and is acceptable for a robot vacuum.
App
- App is simple to use
- Schedule cleans
- Integration with Amazon Alexa
The Miele Scout app is simple to use, once the robot vacuum is connected to your Wi-Fi, you can easily start a full clean from the main screen. The first time the robot vacuum cleans your home, it will create a map of it too, which can be saved, allowing you to assign virtual no-go areas, or favourite sections. This means you can either start the robot vacuum on a full clean or certain areas only.
From the app, you can also change the cleaning mode, or send it back to its base. It’s also possible to set a schedule for when the robot vacuum should clean, and view a live feed from the two cameras.
The Scout RX3 Home Vision HD is also compatible with Alexa, so you can use your voice, rather than the app, to get the robot vacuum to clean your floors.
Battery life
- The battery lasts up 120 minutes between charges
- Takes under 3 hours to fully recharge
- The battery indicator isn’t clear
According to Miele, the Scout RX3 Home Vision HD has a maximum run-time of 120 minutes, and we found one full charge was sufficient to enable a full clean of a three-bedroom, two-storey house.
We were impressed that when the battery became too low for the robot vacuum to continue cleaning, it automatically made its way back to the base station to recharge. The Miele Scout RX3 Home Vision HD takes just under three hours to fully recharge.
However, it’s disappointing to see that the battery level isn’t displayed as a percentage in the app; instead, it’s a graphic that’s difficult to gauge.
Should I buy the Miele Scout RX3 Home Vision HD?
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if..
First reviewed: Ferbuary 2022
