Vacuuming the house is boring for most. There are too many distractions — like leftovers in the refrigerator and a cricket match on the TV — so a little help is required, which robot vacuum cleaners offer in abundance. Recently, we had the opportunity to review Ecovacs’s Deebot N8. It’s not one of those cheap models that bump around randomly against everything in the house. This one has a Direct time-of-flight (dToF) technology and that makes a world of a difference.

The apartment being mapped on the app

dToF sensor is what you need

The robot vacuum cleaner looks sleek and has enough tech chops to allow it to traverse a varied amount of terrain. It’s capable of cleaning your house with 2300 Pa units of suction power. And it can simultaneously mop the floor for you, thanks to the inbuilt water reservoir. If you compare it with the Deebot Ozmo T8, both have a very similar aesthetic and both have a large periscope style section on the top that gives them true mapping navigation or dToF, which is integral to getting the best cleaning experience.

A look at what’s inside the robot vacuum

Since I have mentioned dToF a few times already, let’s look at the technology. It is an advanced depth mapping system that offers an accurate reading of surrounding objects. It allows a full map of the apartment to be generated that is both accurate and consistent and aids with obstacle detection.

Cheaper models can generate a map through contact sensing, that is, bumping into objects but such models are less accurate.

The top-of-the-line sensor is one of the best for a robot vacuum cleaners. An alternative technology that companies could use is LDS navigation. With DToF you get good accuracy with smaller obstacles like table legs or less permanent obstacles like shoes. To protect the sensor, it’s fully encased on top of the robot cleaner.

Time to clean up

When you start the robot up the first time, it builds a detailed map automatically. The detailed mapping allows you to set specific room cleaning requirements, meaning that you can run it through the kitchen twice or vacuum the rug in the living room twice to tackle cat hair. It allows you to increase suction in certain areas or add a mopping cycle in a particular room and even set up virtual boundaries on the map for the robot to avoid.

To check the suction power of the machine, I chose three different substances. The first is broken bits of thermocol that come with packaging boxes. Second, chips and third, a mix of salt and lentils. On the first pass, the small pieces of thermocol got blown everywhere. Hang on. When the thermocol pieces had nowhere to go in the room apart from the corners, it got sucked up. As for chips and lentils (and salt), it got cleared up immediately.

The vacuum cleaner performs well at picking up a range of items.

If your apartment is full of pet hair, some of it will get tangled below the machine but the good thing is that you can remove it easily. And you can do this once every few weeks. And Ecovacs offers a tool inside the N8 itself to allow you to cut all the tangled hair.

Let’s talk about mopping. I feel sad to get the mop on the device dirty but it does a good job. There is a tank attached to the machine and the size is perfect. There are houses where a lot of the floor area is carpeted. For them, a larger dust canister would have been helpful.

With the large amount of crumbs that my 12-year-old leaves around the house and then there is the cat, I do have to empty the bin on the machine on a daily basis. I would have preferred a bigger receptacle. There is a solution but I didn’t get a chance to try it. The machine is compatible with an auto-empty station that you can purchase. The N8 can automatically empty the dustbin on its own, and liberate your hands up to 30 days.

Another thing I loved about the machine is the fact that it can cross obstacles like doorsills up to 20mm and doorsills are in abundance in my old house. A mention needs to be made of the excellent app using which you can control the device. It hardly took me five minutes to set up the system.

Should you buy it?

Absolutely. Ecovacs even throws in a few microfiber mopping pads for Deebot in the box. Unlike other companies, all the accessories are easily available on the Ecovacs website and all of them appear affordable. There’s a line that I would draw to how cheap I would go when it comes to robot vacuum cleaners because I want a feature set that makes for a decent cleaning experience and the N8 meets that standard. Plus, this one comes with decent battery life. Ecovacs is dedicated to coming up with robot vacuum cleaners, so expect a lot of expertise. Ecovacs Deebot N8 is quiet and nimble, blending into the background like no other robot vacuum cleaner.

The charging unit for Ecovacs Deebot N8

At a glance

Device: Ecovacs Deebot N8

Price: Rs 31,900 (Amazon.in)

High notes

dToF technology makes mapping of the house easy

Good suction power

The machine is quiet

Vacuums and mops

Compatible with self-emptying dustbin

Supports virtual boundaries

Accessories easily available

Muffled note

Dust canister could have been larger