Ecovacs Deebot 900

AN AUTOMATED CLEANING SOLUTION THAT WON’T SUCK YOUR WALLET DRY.

UNLESS YOU’RE WILLING to pay top money for the iRobot Roomba – the only robot vacuum we’ve tested that comes with a carpet agitator – there aren’t very many autonomous vacuums that can deal with carpets or pet hair. That’s where the Ecovacs Deebot 900 comes in – not only does it make automated cleaning relatively affordable, it’s also catering to homes that have wall-to-wall carpets or pets.

The Deebot 900 has a setting called Max in the accompanying app, which increases the suction power of the vacuum, enabling it to pull up hair and fur that’s clinging to carpet fibres. However, that comes at the cost of battery life. The Deebot 900 can run up to 90 minutes on a standard clean – used for hard floors – but on Max it drops to half that, draining out at 45 minutes. That means a large home will require its Continuous Clean setting to switched on in the app, so the droid can automatically charge and pick up where it left off once its got some juice. Recharging, though, can take up to four hours.

While the Deebot 900 does a good job on a low- to medium-pile carpet, it struggles on high-pile rugs. The fibres impede movement and dirt is often so deep-seated that there’s not enough suction, even on the Max setting. On hard floors, however, there’s absolutely nothing you can fault the Deebot 900 for – it’s works like a charm.

Ecovacs has, once again, aced both the hardware and the software. It moves exactly as you’d expect with practically perfect mapping, and the evidence of its cleaning performance will be there for you to see every time you empty the bin. And it’s all done quietly and at a relatively affordable price, with just the lift of a single finger.