ECOVACS DEEBOT M88 Review
After a long, tiring day, all you want to do is sit back and relax. However, when your home is a mess, you can’t do that, can you? But what if we told you that one little piece of tech could make sure you’ll never have to clean your floors again? We found that idea hard to believe, so we had to check out this little cleaning monster and see if he’s too good to be true.
Well, this chubby vacuum robot has a lot to offer. However, is it enough? Does it have hidden flaws? We tested it and found out so you don’t have to learn for yourself.
The Basics
EcoVacs Deebot M88 is small, fast, and full of useful features. Firstly, it comes with five highly effective cleaning methods — it vacuums, sweeps, lifts, mops, and dries in one pass. Secondly, its stair safety and obstacle detection are almost perfect, so it will stay safe in your home. And lastly, it doesn’t only have a remote, but also a companion mobile app that will make scheduling and setup easier than ever.
Once it starts cleaning, you can set one of its 4 cleaning modes and just let it go. It has an auto cleaning mode, a spot cleaning one, as well as an edge and single room cleaning modes.
Furthermore, if you have a pet, this might come in handy, as it has dual side brushes and wonderfully powerful suction, even on deep carpets.
According to the manufacturer, M88 is great for small and medium homes, so if you have a space larger than 1300 square feet, you should consider a different bot. It can work for about 90 minutes, which is already more than most robots, and its charging time is four hours.
The only things you need to do before letting it roam and clean around your place is that you should remove cables from floors and that M88’s charging station should be in an open, well-lit area.
The Design
Designed to be appealing to younger audiences, this slightly bulky Deebot model looks wonderful. The standard circular shape is accompanied by a modern white color scheme, and the only thing that stands out on its surface is the power button.
The material this is made of is rather sturdy, and it gives off the feel of high-quality. However, you should bear in mind that it doesn’t mean it will survive a fall down the stairs.
We’re not saying that it will fall, though, as it does have anti-drop sensors that allegedly work perfectly, we’re just saying you should be careful.
ECOVACS DEEBOT M88 Features
* Companion app * 3-stage cleaning * Alexa enabled / Google Assistant enabled * Highly efficient HEPA filter * Dry and wet mopping * Interchangeable Suction technology
* 90-minute runtime
What Comes With It?
Unlike most other robot vacuums, this one doesn’t just come with a charger and a remote. It also has a cleaning tool, a suction inlet, two mop cloths, two additional side brushes, a measuring cup, an extra filter, a water container, and a user’s guide.
ECOVACS DEEBOT M88 Performance
As modern and interesting as this robot vacuum is, we couldn’t stop at looking at it. So we decided to put it through a series of tests. We threw a bunch of dirt, chunks, and even mud in its path, just to see how it deals with it all.
Floors
It works exceptionally well on hardwood floors and tiles. Furthermore, it easily picks up dust, as well as larger pieces of dirt, like crushed cookies. It even has an edge cleaning mode, so you don’t have to worry whether this round bot will get to your corners.
However, although it cleans up the place nicely, it has the tendency to get stuck under things and on room transitions.
Carpets
Thanks to its V-shaped main brush, M88 has no trouble cleaning low pile carpets. It will pick up dust, grime, and chunks neatly. It isn’t perfect for thick carpets, but the manufacturer never said it was, so fair is fair.
Although we really liked its cleaning abilities on the carpet, we also had to empty its dustbin twice during the testing. That’s why we think its 380ml capacity may be too small for a medium sized home.
Pet Hair
According to EcoVacs, this vacuum will be the robot that puts a stop to cleaning after pets. They recommend the Deep Brush option for this purpose, so that’s what we tried out. On hard floors, it uses direct suction to pick up every hair, while on carpets, it uses the Main Brush option. In both cases, M88 performed really well. We couldn’t see any cat or human hair on the floors afterward.
Mopping
This feature is so uncommon in this price range that we were rather surprised. However, it isn’t as high-tech as you might expect. Deebot M88 basically has a water reservoir and a mop cloth that you can attach to its bottom. The water soaks the mop, which then cleans the floor.
It will clean mud prints off of hardwood floors, but it might struggle with dried mud.
What Do the Users Have to Say?
Well, apparently they aren’t thrilled with it.
In our tests, M88 did ok. However, people who bought it aren’t perfectly happy with its performance. With 3.1 on Amazon and 55 positive reviews, this robot vacuum is more of a door stopper than a show stopper.
According to people who liked it — it’s ok. It does everything it should, it’s great with long hair and pet hair, and the mopping feature makes life easier.
However, even those who loved it couldn’t get over the facts that it occasionally gets lost, that it doesn’t do well on thick carpets, and that its dustbin is just too small for a medium-sized home.
What Makes ECOVACS DEEBOT M88 Amazing?
We really liked the companion app that makes scheduling and handling rather easy. Emptying the dustbin is easy, and the same goes for the filter. Moreover, you will hardly hear M88 as it goes about doing its tasks, which is great for people who work from home.
The battery is more than decent, HEPA filtration is great, and the mopping feature means that you can cross off another chore from your list.
What Are ECOVACS DEEBOT M88’s Setbacks?
We really didn’t like having to clean the dustbin frequently, and we got slightly irritated when M88 couldn’t find its way to the charging station. Moreover, this vacuum doesn’t have a mapping feature, which means it will never “learn” to navigate perfectly through your home. And lastly, M88 comes without a virtual wall option, which means you can’t stop him from going into certain areas.
The End of the Line — ECOVACS DEEBOT M88 Is Far from Perfect
Here’s the thing. M88 isn’t the ideal robot vacuum. It costs a bit too much for the number of flaws and setbacks we have found. We’re not saying it’s a bad model, just that you can find much better ones in this price range.