Robotic vacuum cleaner drawbacks: UWANT U300 PRO review

I received the UWANT U300 PRO robot for review, I used it for about a month, and these are my honest impressions of the experience: I'll start from the end - the experience was very positive. The house was clean, the remote control worked, and maintenance was simple. But, the performance of the regular vacuum cleaner is not without faults. This is a fourth-generation robot that combines a vacuum cleaner and a floor washer, with a scrubbing roller, a smart navigation and mapping system that integrates AI sensors that study the house. The washing system includes two large tanks of clean water and dirty water, which do not require daily maintenance - an important thing when it comes to people who want to conserve house cleaning energies to use them for fun things.

Mapping

At the beginning of working with the robot, you need to connect to its application, which is very simple to operate, and from which you can control the robot remotely. The first thing that must be done is to allow the robot to take its first walk around the house to map it. To do this, you have to pick up all the furniture possible, to give him a chance to understand where the walls are and to take in the structure of the rooms. This is important, because the more accurate his information is, the easier it will be for him to deal with various blockages in the space, without missing any corner of the house. The mapping takes something like half an hour, and when it finishes, the robot returns to the docking station by itself and signals that it is ready to start working.

The mapping was very accurate, including the pantry - which is a really small room - the toilets, and the spaces under the stairs. It is also possible to signal to the robot in the application not to go out into the garden, for example, using a virtual wall that is erected in the required location. And that's it.

Performance

When the robot starts, it works continuously until it finishes the task or the battery runs out and it needs charging. In that case, it returns by itself to the docking station, recharges itself and sets off again with a charge, to continue from the point where it left off. The robot has 5 cleaning stages: Vacuuming with extremely strong suction power, spraying water to the washing roller with an adjusted amount of water to wet it uniformly, the roller wiping the floor, more aggressive wiping to remove tough stains, and finally recycling - the dirty water is drained into a dedicated collection tank.

The water tanks are a very convenient feature. They are large enough to be enough for several washes without having to bother with them - fill, empty or see them. There is also a complete separation between clean water, the soap (a kind of solution that comes and is installed in a separate container), dry dirt from the suction that accumulates in a dry bag, and a container for collecting the dirty water, which must be emptied from time to time, mainly because of an unpleasant smell that may accumulate in it.

In addition, the vacuum detects where there is carpet, automatically switches to dry suction mode, and cleans accordingly. He also goes back down to the floor and continues to wash it. When he encounters an obstacle higher than the floor, he knows how to raise himself to go over it, walk around it, and clean around it in case it is too high. All this is possible thanks to 3D sensors and an AI system, which allow it to move freely in space and avoid collisions. No matter what you put in his way - he will "see" it and stop a few centimeters before the obstacle and look for a free way to continue working.

I only had the robot for a month, so there was no point in connecting it to the house plumbing - a most magical option that saves you from having to fill the clean water. I imagine it's a lot of fun, except for the fact that the location of the docking station will be limited to the existing connections. UWANT U300 PRO also boasts a docking station and automatic self-cleaning, but this does not eliminate the need for regular maintenance, especially in the area of the robot's entrance in the docking station, especially if it has to deal with animal hair. At the end of the work, there is no need to clean the internal parts of the robot after several uses. The docking station automatically rinses the cleaning roller with hot water, adds cleaning fluid, refills the clean water tank, and dries the brush to prevent odors.

Advantages and disadvantages

I liked the possibility to choose in each session what to do today and in what order - pumping (pumping is quite noisy), washing, pumping and then washing, or pumping and washing at the same time. In the application you can also choose which rooms to clean, even if it is an open space, because the mapping divides the space into rooms even if it has no doors. There is of course also a manual navigation option in case you want to send it to a more precise ground maneuver, say under the living room table, because someone in the house doesn't know how to prevent their tobacco crumbs from flying everywhere, no matter the names.

Regarding the level of cleanliness that the robot gives - it is not perfect. There are corners that he fails to clean adequately, and sometimes I had to take care of "completions" after or sweep before, if the situation was severe. In the first cleaning I did after it returned to its owner, I felt the difference well. In the end, in terms of results, there is nothing about pouring soap and water and raking it out, old school. But it's a cleaning that can be done with fun only once a fortnight, when the robot maintains it daily.

I can't tell you how much time I really managed to save using it, both because I had it for a limited time, and also because I had a tendency to sit and watch the robot while it was working. I have a feeling this happens to everyone the first week he is home. There's nothing to do, it's mesmerizing on a screensaver level, and if you have a cat at home - at all. I can write a separate article about the relationship of Kitty the grumpy cat with the robot. Spoiler - she didn't like him. Every time when it was activated she tried to conjure it with evil looks, as if at least a dragon had entered her house. It's live on YouTube.

Price: NIS 5,490, with a 24-month warranty. The new brand will be marketed in all the leading electrical chains in Israel: Shekem electric, KSP, Last Price, the Electric Warehouse chain, and the ALM chain.