There are robot vacuum cleaners that only vacuum, others vacuum and mop, some even empty their dust canisters and dirty-water tanks themselves, and still others get their mop pads washed and dried automatically too.
So what do you do to make sure you stand apart in a crowded and very competitive robot vacuum cleaner market? You come up with features you won't find elsewhere. And that's exactly what Ecovacs Robotics has done with its latest Deebot.
The Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro Omni comes with a rather impressive list of features and what has me most excited is the kick-to-start functionality that I haven't seen on any other robovac.
Ecovacs calls its Foot Touch Control but a simple touch will not do it. As long the T30 is charging in its dock (aka idling), you can give it a good kick – literally – to get it to start up.
Of course, the startup process takes a while, with the mop pads first being cleaned and moistened, and only then does the T30 Pro Omni roll out of its dock and begin to vacuum and mop simultaneously.
Kicking the help only works in this scenario – you cannot get it to stop cleaning in the same way. And that's to ensure it doesn't confuse any bumps against furniture and trigger to stop, and make its way to the self-cleaning charging dock.
While the kick-to-start feature is my favorite, there are a plethora of other upgrades here that could make the T30 Pro Omni a good investment if you're after a full-featured robot vacuum cleaner.
It comes with advanced mapping and obstacle avoidance, plus the bar brush has been redesigned to be anti-tangle. The bristles are softer and there's a comb just inside the opening that cleans away hair and fur as the brush turns.
Ecovacs promises that the T30 Pro Omni will do a better job mopping corners than any of its competition, thanks to the new extendable mop pads. These extend out automatically when needed as there are sensors onboard the bot to detect room edges and furniture legs, then retract back when it begins to move to a more open part of a room.
The mop pads automatically raise by 9mm to avoid carpets and rugs, although the effective clearance is only about 5-7mm, which may not be enough to keep moisture off medium- or high-pile carpets. To counter that, Ecovacs has added better functionality into the companion app so you can set up no-mop zones.
Big power in a smaller package
The suction here has been increased as well, maxing out at a whopping 11,000Pa – arguably one of the highest in the robovac appliance category. In standard mode, you can barely tell it's sucking up dust and debris – the T30 Pro Omni is a quiet one, doing what it needs to do without disturbing you. It's so quiet that, during a demo, I asked the Ecovacs representative if the bot was just mopping or if it was vacuuming too – it was doing both and I couldn't tell from the sound. Even at full bore, it's not that loud – well, not 11,000Pa kinda loud and that's a good thing.
Some robot vacuums that I've previously tried and tested – Deebots included – have hated being lifted to be placed elsewhere; it would invariably mess up the bot's navigation despite a saved map. For the T30 Pro Omni, though, it's a trigger to do a spot clean. While this can be set up in the app itself, you can now also pick it up, place it where it needs to do its thing and it will clean a 1.5 sqm area around that spot, no questions asked.
Better yet, Ecovacs has managed to shrink the entire unit – the dock with its dust bag and water tank – by about 30% as compared to the Deebot X2 Omni. If you have space under a counter, it could just as easily be tucked away out of sight.
More control over an autonomous bot
If all this sounds good to you and you decide to get yourself a T30 Pro Omni, you don't necessarily need to muck around with a Wi-Fi setup as before. Ecovacs promises that its new Bluetooth Quick Pairing feature will have you up and running in no time at all.
The company's own voice assistant – Yiko – has been improved and can now understand more commands than before. The bot can also save up to three maps. And, if you happen to be an iPhone user, there is now a homescreen widget available. Apple Watch controls have also been added via the Ecovacs Home app.
You'd think this massive list of upgrades over previous Deebots would suck up your savings (pun intended), but Ecovacs has set a launch price of AU$1,799 for the white T30 Pro Omni colourway which features the Yiko voice assistant – the same price that the T20 Omni was launched for in 2023. If you don't need to speak to the bot, you can opt for the black colourway for just AU$1,749.
For now the T30 Pro Omni has only been announced for the Australian market, available directly from Ecovacs AU and some authorized third-party retailers, but it's listed as "coming soon" for the UK. Pricing, though, is still TBC.
At the time of writing, I was told that this model will not be available in the US – North American customers, instead, get another Deebot in the form of the T30S Combo, which adds a handheld unit to the robovac – making it a 3-in-1 – priced at $1,999.99 available directly from Ecovacs US and from Amazon.
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