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Intial setup
Out of the box, the Ozmo 930 will first need to be charged. This can take up to four hours, depending on how much juice the battery already has. The charging dock will need to be in an open area, with half a metre of free space on either side and about a metre in front.
While the bot is charging, you can download the Ecovacs companion app available for both Android and iOS, and the app will lead you through the step-by-step process of connecting the Ozmo 930 to your home’s Wi-Fi network and, then, to the app itself.
Connecting to a Wi-Fi network, however, isn’t quite as easy as the app makes it out to be. In testing, we had to reset the device a few times before we were able to connect. A scouting mission online has revealed that we weren’t the only ones to have this little hiccup, but solutions seem to vary. For us, the trick was to not press down on the reset button too long. It needed to be exactly a second, otherwise the Deebot’s Wi-Fi setup network wouldn’t appear on our phone’s list of wireless networks.
Once it’s connected and fully charged, the Deebot is ready to run around your home – and be prepared for a chatty little bot. You can press either the Auto button on the top of the vacuum or the Auto button on the app’s home page and let the Ozmo 930 begin mapping your home while doing its first clean, which starts as soon as the Deebot says, “I’m starting to clean.”
Where the Electrolux PUREi9 moved around a bit like a lost puppy, the Ozmo 930 was systematic to a fault. From the start, the Deebot moved as indicated in the manual, trundling along in a straight line until it encountered an obstacle, then made a small adjustments to either the left or the right and moved in the opposite direction. Over time it covered practically every inch of space available.
The first cleaning run was enough for the Deebot to almost completely map our test space – an apartment consisting of two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a study and an open-plan combined kitchen, dining and living area, most of which have wall-to-wall carpet. While it did map most of the house accurately, it was unable to enter the two bathrooms, as the threshold was too high for it climb over. That said, it recognised there were rooms in those spaces, as evident in the partial map it created for each room. The map is viewable within the app.
We did get some annoying warnings on the app, however, which asked us to change the brushes... even though we had brand-new ones attached. These warnings didn’t seem to affect the robot vacuum’s performance however, and could be handy down the track, reminding you when your accessories need changing.
Cleaning performance
While it can’t be compared to a corded vacuum, or even the Electrolux PUREi9, the Deebot Ozmo 930 has sufficient suction power to perform an efficient clean, especially on hard floors.
Carpets can be more of a challenge for the lower suction of robovacs in general, as hair and dust get caught up in fibres. Yet the Deebot did an impressive job here, too. If, however, you have pets, don’t expect the bot to get all the fluff off the rugs. We’ve still got a ways to go before robovacs have enough power to do justice to some of these tougher jobs.
Before a clean, you’ll also need to give your home a quick once-over. You can’t have socks lying around, or leave charging cables on the floor – and the Ozmo 930 does not like getting tangled. Our review unit got caught up in a laptop charger’s cable and ended up needing some help getting loose again. We instantly heard a spoken “I am suspended” message coming from under the table where it was cleaning, and received a warning on the app as well.
The sensors on the Ozmo 930 detect obstacles well enough, but the droid does travel faster than the PUREi9, which causes it to bump into things rather hard – although it was never hard enough to damage anything (or even leave a mark) in our testing.
It’s quite dexterous and able to manoeuvre around furniture and get under anything that will allow it to pass through. So, depending on your furniture, the spaces between dining table chairs should also get cleaned.
The Deebot doesn’t like being picked up and placed elsewhere – even if it’s just sitting idly in standby mode and not actively cleaning. The moment its wheels are off the ground, you will hear the “I am suspended” warning.
Moreover, if you’re trying to get a new space cleaned and properly mapped (like the two bathrooms in our test space), the Deebot is seemingly a bit too smart for its own good. When set down in either new space, the robot vacuum promptly turned around and made its way back to the space it already knew.
This Ecovacs robot has a battery life of 110 minutes and, if you have a large home, will return to its charging station unaided and resume cleaning when it has refuelled again, picking up again from pretty much from where it left off. That said, our review unit was barely half-drained after cleaning around 50 square metres.
