The Deebot T50 Max Pro OMNI from Ecovacs Robotics is a robot vacuum and mopping system that uses 3D LiDAR technology to map your home. It comes with a station unit that automatically replenishes water and disposes of waste.
For nearly four years, my trusty Deebot N8 Pro has been soldiering on, haplessly vacuuming up the mess that a house with three kids, a cat and a dog leaves behind. I wouldn’t say life has been easy for the little robot vacuum cleaner. But it is the perfect environment to test the new Ecovacs Deebot T50 Max.
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In the box you’ll find the Deebot T50 Max robot, the Omni Station, a base ramp, a side brush, a power cord and a brief instruction manual. Before you start using the Deebot, you need to download the Ecovacs Home app from either the Apple Store or Google Play. I already had the app installed as my Deebot N8 Pro is already on cleaning duty. You can have more than one Ecovacs robot on the app, for instance, if you use separate vacuums for different levels in your house. It’s a great app, and very robust, giving you full control of your robot vacuum, including mapping and cleaning settings.
After you’ve got the app, there’s a little bit of setting up, mainly removing the blue tape holding the bits together during transit. Then you just need to fix the base into the OMNI station and click the side brush into the robot. You’ll also need to hook up the dust bag and fill the water tank in the Omni station. After powering up the Omni station, placing the robot in the dock will start the charging cycle.
From the Ecovacs app, selecting “add device” will pair the new robot. You need to connect your phone to a 2.5GHz Wi-Fi channel (or a mixed network), as the device only supports 2.5GHz Wi-Fi connections. You’ll need your Wi-Fi password to complete the network connection.
From now on, interaction with the actual Deebot T50 Max is kept to a minimum. The Omni Station services and maintains the robot, filling it with water and emptying it of dust and dirty water, as well as cleaning off the mopping pads. There’s also an optional tank for Ecovacs’ cleaning fluid, which is available separately. It’s a shame that a pot of cleaning fluid isn’t included in the box, as it’s probably a good idea to use it to keep things cleaner.
The Omni Station is a game changer, making the T50 Max an autonomous cleaning system that requires minimal intervention. But there are some disadvantages compared to the old Deebot dock employed by my old N8 Pro. Whereas I could tuck the old dock out of the way somewhere, the Omni Station is a rather large bit of kit. It has a footprint, including the ramp base, of 45cm x 33cm and stands about 50cm high. It also needs 50cm clearance on each side and 80cm clearance at the front. To be fair, though, it’s no bigger than a kitchen bin, but still worth noting.
Anyone who’s used a regular robot vacuum, or even one of Ecovacs’ earlier Deebots will see the value in the Omni Station. My N8 Pro will happily continue to go through the motions of vacuuming the house with the little dust compartment stuffed to overflowing with debris. You then have to pluck out the compartment and pick out the fluff and dust into your bin. There’s a similar tiresome interaction with the N8’s mopping function, which is again redundant with the T50 Max’s automated Omni Station.
The Omni Station does provide a bit of a false sense of security. It’s dreadfully easy to completely forget about the vacuum once you’ve set up a cleaning schedule. You can be at work whilst the device vacuums your carpets and mops the floors and completely forget that the thing exists. But you do need to check that there’s water (and cleaner if you are using it) in the tank(s) and that the dirty water tank and the dust bag aren’t full. The mop pad cleaner also needs the occasional rinse, as does the mop cleaning area. You will get alerts from the app when maintenance is required, but it’s best to keep on top of it, rather than have your autonomous cleaning schedule disrupted.
The robot does an exceptional job of not getting caught up in items lying around the house. Whilst the instructions state that you need to make sure your floors are clear of obstacles, in reality, that’s not always going to work. Occasionally, the kids will leave something lying around that’s too much for it, but compared to my old N8, the Deebot T50 Max avoids sucking up cables and socks without any drama.
It’s not all plain sailing, though. A few times, the robot lost a mopping pad. Whilst the app alerted me to this issue, the robot had moved on, leaving the whereabouts of the missing mopping pad a bit of a mystery. Mishaps such as this are few and far between.
The robot has no problem detecting the difference between carpet and tile, keeping the brush up to avoid smudging your carpet. You need to be mindful if you have a particularly deep pile carpet, as the mop pads may not be high enough to clear the fabric.
All the robot’s clever technology, which includes LiDAR 3D mapping, ultrasonic carpet detection, infrared ranging and a microphone and an AI camera, is filtered to the end user via the Ecovacs app. Despite the high level of technology and automation at work, the Deboot T50 Max is simple and easy to use.
You can set the vacuum off by just pressing the start button. The first time, the robot will map your home, noting where rugs and carpets are. It will also detect and map the various rooms, labelling them for reference.
As you get used to the Deeboot you can start experimenting with the settings. You can select the way the robot cleans, i.e. vacuum and mop, vacuum first and then mop or just switch on intelligent hosting and allow the robot’s AI to select the best way to proceed for you. Setting up a cleaning schedule allows you to leave the robot to clean while you are at work or at any other convenient time, without any further intervention.
The app also allows access to the T50’s onboard 960P camera, which Ecovacs suggests can be used to monitor your home remotely. Whilst that’s sort of true, it’s not that practical, as you can’t directly control the path of the robot. The robot’s patrol mode, however, converts Deebot into an autonomous security guard, well, more like a moving security camera, as it trundles around your house snapping pictures. You can also remotely watch the live-streamed video from the robot’s camera. This is a cool bonus to complement your home security setup.
As well as being compatible with the likes of Amazon’s Alexa, the T50 Max Pro comes with its own voice assistant, called YIKO. When switched on via the app, saying “OK Yiko” and a command like, say, “clean the kitchen” will start the robot and have it follow your command. You can use this to quickly have the robot clean a spill in a particular area rather than open the app or commence a full house clean.
The scalability of the T50 Max Pro is its biggest strength. It’s easy to set the device off and get a great result without having to check the manual or wade through countless options in the app. But if you want to use the more powerful commands and automation, it’s all there for you. This is exactly what you should be looking for in a piece of technology.
The Ecovacs Deeboot T50 Max Pro Onmi is an impressive bit of kit that makes a big dent in your housework chores. Easy to use, but incredibly thorough and effective, Ecovacs has produced an AI-driven autonomous vacuuming and mopping system that is virtually unflappable. The Omni station automates most of the maintenance duties, allowing the device to potentially clean for weeks without needing any human interaction. The patrol mode and streaming video feed are added bonuses that make the robot even more futuristic. It’s an incredible cleaning machine that’ll leave you wondering what you ever did without it.
