Ecovacs' new robovac speed-charges its battery while it's cleaning its mop pads, so it never runs out of juice

• Deebot X11 OmniCyclone is a new flagship robovac from Ecovacs
• Adds GaN fast-charging to top up battery whenever the bot pops to its dock
• Also boasts mechanical climbing for tall thresholds and a bagless dock

Ecovacs has a new flagship robot vacuum, the Deebot X11 OmniCyclone, and it's all about delivering uninterrupted cleaning with minimal human intervention. For that, the brand decided to create a bot that wouldn't have to return to its dock for an extended recharging period in the middle of a home clean.

However, it wanted to do so without adding a bigger battery to the robot, which would result in a physically bigger, heavier bot. The solution it settled on was to add fast-charging functionality to the dock, so that whenever the robot popped back to have its mop pads cleaned or empty its bin, it would top up the battery.

Specifically, Ecovacs has added GaN charging, which is a more efficient, cooler charging method than regular fast charging. This speed-charge function is able to restore 6% of battery during a three-minute mop cleaning cycle. Impressive.

I've tested plenty of robovacs at home and never found recharge times to be an issue, but then none of my regular testing locations are especially large. The X11 is really geared towards North American homes with palatial floor plans, where a whole-home clean is more than a single charge can handle, and where hanging around waiting for your bot to juice up before it can finish the job might be annoying.

I got some hands-on time with the Deebot X11 at IFA 2025, and while the fast-charging function was rather difficult to demo, I did get to see the bot's other features in action.

Fantastic features

One notable upgrade is to the mopping system. The X11 has a roller mop that has been improved to make it more durable. Ecovacs has added strips of nylon that act like a gentle scourer to dislodge dried-on dirt.

The roller kicks out to clean close to the edges of rooms. It extends further than the previous model – 15mm past the body of the robot – and has tiny roller wheels on the edge that mean if it makes contact with the edge of a room, it won't scratch.

Ecovacs is the latest in a number of robovac brands to address the problem of how to navigate tall room thresholds. The X11 adds a 'TruePass Adaptive 4WD Climbing System', where levers on the wheels lift the robot up, so it can make its way into otherwise off-limits rooms or onto thick rugs to continue on its cleaning journey. It can clear 2.4cm single step, or 4cm if the steps are staggered.

What sets this bot apart is that the entire process is mechanical – the levers automatically engage when the bot reaches a tall step. That makes it more reliable than tech-based approaches that require, for example, the camera to correctly identify a threshold.

Finally, the dock has been upgraded. Most notably, now it does not require bags. With manual stick vacuums largely doing away with bags, it has felt like a bit of a backward step to have to deal with them again with the otherwise oh-so-modern robovacs.

Ecovacs deals with this by adding cyclone technology to separate large debris from fine dust, preventing clogging and keeping things flowing smoothly – even without a bag to keep everything contained. This is all housed in a transparent canister in the dock. (It actually looks a lot like the system that appears on the newly announced Dyson robot vacuum.)

Price & availability

The Ecovacs Deebot X11 OmniCyclone is available to buy now in the US and Canada, September 4, with a list price of $1,499.99 (CA$1,999.99). It's on sale at ECOVACS.com and Amazon in the US and Canada, plus BestBuy.com and Target.com in the US.

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