By collaborating with renowned designer Jacob Jensen – who has worked with Bang and Olufsen, among others – Ecovacs wanted to renew its Ecovacs Deebot X1 Turbo. If it has a round shape that cannot be more classic, the metallic gray shell is connected to the robot by magnets; it is therefore possible to remove it completely to access the collector.
This scale is exactly the only touch button with which you can manually start or pause the robot.
Equipped with a laser rangefinder, the Ecovacs Deebot X1 Turbo can find its way and manage obstacles in its path. In addition to this laser, the robot benefits from a camera and detection sensors on the front of the device: the winning combo for good navigation.
The Ecovacs Deebot X1 Turbo is therefore a hybrid robot that vacuums and washes the floor. In fact, it is equipped with two rotating skids to clean the soil in depth, just like the Dreame Bot W10† These two rotating mops are attached to the abdomen of the robot by means of magnetic fasteners; the robot will then automatically understand that it needs to switch to washing mode.
You can’t miss the imposing charging station that, let’s face it, will be hard to find in small spaces. Unlike most automatic dump stations, this one does not collect waste from the collector. This station is only used to clean the skates, dry them and put clean water in the tank after cleaning. A very practical feature that prevents the user from having to wash the cloths after each cleaning.
There are two bins for this by lifting the lid of the charging station: one that needs to be filled with clean water to charge the tank, and the other that stores dirty water after cleaning the pads. Between these two bins, the manufacturer cleverly slid an accessory storage box that houses two extra mops and a cleaning brush.
Connectivity and App
As we’ve mentioned in previous Ecovacs robot tests, pairing between the robot and the Ecovacs Home app is seamless and only takes a few seconds.
Once the robot is connected to the application, you will be able to access the main interface that offers to start the robot directly in “automatic cleaning” to send it to its charging base. By going to the “intelligent cleaning” you can access the cartography that allows you to monitor the movements of the Deebot X1 Turbo in real time when it is bad. On this map it is also possible to define virtual zones and limits so that the robot cannot reach certain places in the house.
Under this card we find the different programming options: the suction power (Quiet, Standard, Max and Max+), the water flow (Low, Medium, High), or even intelligent cleaning. The latter option makes it possible to personalize the cleaning of the fireplace by choosing, for example, continuous cleaning, automatic suction power or even the AIVI 3D which automatically identifies and avoids obstacles during cleaning. Finally, note that it is also possible to monitor your home: by going to “video management”, the camera is activated and the robot films its environment. An option that may be comforting to some… and useless to others.
Note that the user can save multiple maps, for example for different floors.
Finally, some additional options are offered in the settings menu that also gives access to the cleaning log or the remaining life of the components (brushes, filter). This application is very rich in features and the user is spoiled for choice to customize the cleaning of his robot, which is especially valuable.
Under the hood is the collection tray of the Ecovacs Deebot X1 Turbo. Due to the small capacity of 400 ml, it must be emptied regularly. Emptying is not the most hygienic and it is possible that hands may come into contact with the dust when unclipping the bin to release the waste.
This collector is sealed by a HEPA type filter and a foam filter. Filters that are too clogged can reduce the cleaner’s suction performance. So we had the Deebot X1 Turbo swallow 20 grams of cocoa powder to see what this filter managed to recover.
At the end of this test, we found that the two filters had held 0.3g, which is still a reasonable amount and doesn’t run the risk of clogging the robot too much. It will still be necessary to remember to dust them from time to time.
By turning the Deebot X1 Turbo on its stomach, you gain access to the main brush made of rubber and nylon bristles, which can be removed very easily from the base. The two side brushes can be easily pulled out to remove tangled hair.
The self-cleaning base does its job quite well: mops appear cleaner after a cleaning cycle. It’s more complicated for the base plate, which tends to get dirty very quickly.
The Deebot X1 Turbo delivers very good suction performance, if you give it the necessary time.
On hard ground, it sucks up 92% of the waste in 6 minutes, whether it’s in standard or maximum mode.
On fine carpet, it recovers 88% of waste in 7 minutes in standard mode. This time drops to 3 min 50 s in Max+ mode.
Finally, on thick carpet, a particularly tricky test area for our robotic vacuum cleaners, the Deebot X1 Turbo showed very good suction performance through 92% of the waste in 7 min (Standard mode) and 94% in 5 min 44 sec (Max+ mode).
Washing efficiency
If the Deebot X1 Turbo is a good vacuum cleaner, it is also a good scrubber. As we indicated in a news labThis robot vacuum cleaner is particularly effective at removing stains on the floor thanks to its two rotating mops.
In one go, it removes the soda and oil stains used in our testing protocol; on the other hand, several passes are needed on the stains of lipstick and carbon black. Note that lipstick never disappears completely.