Summary
- The Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni cleans extremely well, with a range of options to make it work for your space—once you get the hang of the app.
- As the X9 Pro Omni navigates your home, it’ll quickly learn what items are immovable furniture and which are more temporary items taking up space on your floor, and it’ll adapt to work around them.
- However, this robot vacuum comes with a high price tag, so the cost may be prohibitive to some.
When I moved into my roommate-free apartment, I realized something. Keeping everything clean with a shedding cat and everyday dust and dirt by myself was hard! But as it turns out, the Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni was just what I needed to make cleaning more manageable.
Ecovacs DEEBOT X9 PRO OMNI
The DEEBOT X9 PRO OMNI excels in floor care with the OZMO ROLLER Instant Self-Washing Mopping Technology, delivering 16 times higher mopping pressure (3,700Pa) than leading dual-plate and vibrating flat mop systems. With up to 220 rpm rolling speed, this equates to 220 high-speed scrubbing and rinsing actions per minute, effectively preventing streaks and cross-contamination.
- Cleans efficiently with a variety of settings you can use
- Intelligent Cleaning works extemely well
- Learns the layout quickly while avoiding anything on the ground that wasn’t there before
- The price tag is very high
- It’s difficult to navigate all the settings in the apps at first
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Price and Availability
The Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni is available at the company’s website for $1,600. The package includes everything you need to get started, except the mop’s cleaning solution.
Mapping, Mopping, and Vacuuming
The first thing I noticed when setting up the X9 Pro Omni (aside from how heavy it was) was the incredible number of settings and options available on the app. There are options for how you’d like the robovac to vacuum and mop, suction settings, how the vacuum should cover the area, how much water the Deebot should use to clean the floors, and so much more. The number of settings was dizzying to the point that I didn’t even know what to do with it all.
But before tinkering with the settings, I needed to map my apartment out. Mapping was a relatively simple process where I moved some of the smaller items out of the way and just let the robot vacuum roam around. It bumped into furniture a lot, but that is to be expected, and the hardy bumper on the front of the device made sure nothing was going to get damaged.
After about half an hour, the Deebot mapped out my entire apartment, including the small storage corridor, which it had a bit of trouble navigating at first due to all the cleaning tools scattered about. The app auto-assigned different zones based on what the camera picked up, and it was mostly accurate—all I had to do was set a zone for the dining room and fix an error that split the living room into two rooms.
From there, it was time to set the robovac on its first cleaning. I chose a one-time sweep around the apartment with no mopping and the vacuum’s suction in its quiet mode (which also meant a decrease in overall suction). The Deebot did bump into a lot of the furniture as it did on its first run, but that is to be expected.
The bumping became less frequent as the X9 navigated my apartment multiple times. I also hadn’t expected this vacuum to be able to tell where I usually put ‘temporary’ items, like boxes that need to go out for recycling, and work around them without ramming into them. Better still, when the area was clear, the robovac would clean the area instead of continuing to avoid it without a remapping of the apartment.
The only exception was if I had my computer chair on its mat. I’m not sure what it is about the chair that makes the robovac unable to quickly detect that it can’t get to the rug beneath my feet, but it’d ram into it multiple times for up to a minute before moving on. Given that this is the only furniture the Deebot still runs into, though, it’s not too big of a deal (and it encourages me to get up and move a bit when I move the chair out of the way).
But the most important thing of all was that the whole apartment was noticeably cleaner when it finished cleaning. Given that my cat sheds a lot, it can be hard to keep up with sweeping, so knowing that the X9 Pro Omni was getting most of it up was a huge burden off my shoulders. Mopping also made the floors feel better, and they dried so quickly that I didn’t need to worry about stepping on a wet spot.
Over the next few weeks, I tried different settings with the vacuum and mop and scheduled cleanings, and the X9 Pro Omni did it all without a hitch. Every cleaning started when I wanted it to start, and it did exactly what I asked. The intelligent cleaning setting also worked like a charm, and the robot vacuum gave extra time and cleaning attention to the spots that needed it most, like my kitchen and near the cat litter box.
The only issue (aside from the robovac flipping a thin rug up before I found the setting to accommodate it) came about with a specific item I left on the ground.
Robovac vs. Cat Toys
One thing I wondered regarding the X9 Pro Omni was how it’d handle small objects in its way. After all, I’m not going to pick up every cat toy before running the robovac—that sort of inconvenience would ruin the point of a smart home device that’s supposed to make my life easier. So, after the first trial run, I left the toys on the ground and watched as the Deebot started vacuuming for the day.
Overall, it did well in avoiding most of the toys. It initially rolled over a small cloth toy mouse once, but after that, the robovac would sweep around it and almost all other cat toys without an issue.
But there was one particular cat toy the X9 had trouble with. This toy has a motorized ball that moves under a cover, and while my cat loved it, the robovac didn’t. Since the cover was so close to the ground, it didn’t recognize it as something to avoid, and instead would try to vacuum over it. However, given how thin the cover is, it would get tangled in the brush instead, requiring me to fix it.
Unfortunately, I only learned this would be a problem while I was out of town and got a notification that the robovac got caught on something. So, it couldn’t vacuum and mop while I was away, which was far from ideal. My cat was probably happy not to be terrorized by the vacuum moving around, though.
A Thoughtful Design
Besides the vacuum’s performance, one thing that struck me about the Deebot X9 Pro Omni is how the dock was designed. Compared to its cheaper sibling, the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni, the X9 is sleek enough to blend into your home’s surroundings.
The dock hides everything needed to have the robovac do its job, such as the water tanks, making it look clean. The app will alert you if water needs to be changed or the dustbin emptied, so you don’t need to worry about double-checking them.
Despite the dock being as big as it is, it just doesn’t stand out much. I found a little nook that was perfect to put it in, and it blends in with its surroundings. Admittedly, its surroundings are a storage area for many of my gadgets, so it might stick out in a conventionally decorated home a bit more, but the dock and X9 Pro Omni are by no means unsightly.
Should You Buy the Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni?
I have no complaints about the Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni. It’s an incredible piece of tech that makes my life so much easier by keeping everything tidy between deep cleans, and aside from a couple of incidents with cat toys, it followed all my instructions and settings perfectly, provided I found said settings in the app.
However, whether you should buy the X9 Pro Omni will depend entirely on your budget. This is a premium robot vacuum and mop, and it comes with an extremely premium price tag of $1,600. Even with all the features and how well the robovac performs, this can be a hard pill to swallow. But if you’re on the fence about this robovac and the price is right, do yourself a favor and grab one. You won’t regret it.
Ecovacs DEEBOT X9 PRO OMNI
The DEEBOT X9 PRO OMNI excels in floor care with the OZMO ROLLER Instant Self-Washing Mopping Technology, delivering 16 times higher mopping pressure (3,700Pa) than leading dual-plate and vibrating flat mop systems. With up to 220 rpm rolling speed, this equates to 220 high-speed scrubbing and rinsing actions per minute, effectively preventing streaks and cross-contamination.
