iLife V5 Review
It’s in our nature to wonder what life would look like if there were androids and robots to do our housework for us. Would it be simpler? Perhaps, we can’t know for sure. What we do know, however, is that we’re slowly going in that direction. Everything started back in 2002 when they introduced the famous Roomba. From that point onward, the robotic cleaners just kept on evolving.
Before robot vacuum cleaners became a thing, people had to clean everything manually (by hand, if you will). Nowadays, it’s a completely different story. A high demand for these robot cleaners oversaturated the market to the point where it’s impossible to choose the right one.
In this review, we’ll focus on iLife V5 – a robot vacuum cleaner which is everything your home needs. Or is it? Well, if you want to find out you’ll have to read the rest of the review, right?
The Design
The first thing that you’ll see when you open the box is the unit itself. The design is quite simple and minimalistic, but that’s to be expected. Robot cleaner manufacturers almost never focus on the appearance of their products. Instead, they want to load them with numerous features and functions. That’s something that we definitely approve of.
Anyway, like most iLife products, this one features their logo on the top part as well as the ‘clean’ button. That’s basically the company’s trademark at this point. The shape of the unit is circular. It features a combination of white and greyish (with a little bit of yellow tint) color. However, there might be models with different color schemes, this is only how ours looked like.
The overall design is quite slim and allows the unit to work in narrow and hard-to-reach places. In addition, it can clean corners and under the furniture.
The bottom part of the unit has a set of wheels which, obviously, allow it to move. Two sweeping side brushes are located right next to the wheels. Finally, the rest of the bottom is an open space where you can attach the mop. As you can see, the design is pretty standard and there’s nothing out of the ordinary about it. Let’s move on to the features.
Main Features
The available features are probably where this robot vacuum cleaner shines. The design doesn’t give off the vibe of a high-end unit. However, we assure you that’s not the case. There’s so much more to this cleaner than meets the eye. Here’s what it has to offer.
Anti-Collision System
The anti-collision system does exactly what its name indicates. When the cleaner encounters some sort of obstacle, it immediately changes the direction. Its movement is often random and it keeps on cleaning the room in that manner until you shut it down. Unfortunately, there’s no option to set the timer to shut it down. So, that’s definitely one drawback of this model.
It can easily detect parts of furniture such as chair and table legs, sofas, TV stands, etc. What’s more, it does it in an effective manner. But how does it do that? Well, there are several OBS sensors on each side of the unit, of course.
In addition to that, there’s an IR sensor on the bottom part of the unit which helps it detect big gaps and drops. That way, you won’t have to monitor the cleaner constantly and worry about it tumbling down the stairs.
Charging
We are impressed with the iLife V5’s battery life. The cleaner uses 2600 mAh battery which allows the unit to operate for more than two hours. Most vacuum cleaners are barely able to last one hour. Therefore, this is definitely a considerable difference, so kudos to the company for being able to utilize it. Furthermore, the recharge time is somewhere around 6 hours, which is fairly acceptable.
The unit also comes with an independent charging station where it can charge itself. When its battery is almost depleted, the unit will start searching for the charging station. In most cases, that works flawlessly. However, we noticed that the cleaner got lost several times during that process. So, it’s definitely important to place the charging station somewhere where the cleaner can reach it easily.
Additional Features
HEPA Filters
iLife V5 sports two HEPA filters (well, technically one, but the other one comes in the package). They do their job quite well but you need to wash them occasionally. Additionally, you’ll probably have to replace them every 7 –8 months if you want to maintain the unit properly.
Remote Control
Another thing that the unit comes with is a decent remote control. You can use it to control the vacuum cleaner if you think that it’s doing something wrong. Alternatively, you can change the setting while it’s working if you’ve changed your mind. The remote control uses AAA batteries and it’s extremely easy to use. We’ll talk about the controls in the following section.
The Controls
The remote control is a handy device that allows you to control every single aspect of the vacuum cleaner. We want to be more specific, so we’ll cover the available commands down below.
There are 7 buttons in total (including the four directional ones) which you can combine to operate the cleaner. The directional buttons are pretty much self-explanatory. They allow you to manually move the unit and tell it where to go.
Clean button has the exact same function as the one on the unit itself. If you press it while the cleaner is charging itself, it starts the auto cleaning mode. On the other hand, if you press it while the unit is cleaning, you stop whatever process was running. In addition, you can hold the ‘clean’ button if you want to turn on the sleep mode. It’s quite handy.
The plan button allows you to set the time when the cleaner will start up each day. However, you have to combine the plan button with the clock button if you want to input the numbers.
If you want to turn on the additional cleaning modes (spot and edge cleaning), you’ll have to press their designated buttons. The spot button puts the robot on a designated spot, while the edge button tells it to clean, well, the edges of the room.
You can use the Home button to send the cleaner to its charging station. That’s pretty much it.
Wrap Up
All in all, iLife V5 is a unit that offers solid performance. There are some minor drawbacks such as the lack of a timer, etc. However, that doesn’t take away that much from the experience of using the cleaner. In fact, we think that it’s a worthy addition to anyone’s home.
It can definitely reduce the amount of housework that you have to deal with. Besides, it’s a great pastime for cats and dogs (if you have them, of course).