Ecovacs’ newest floorcare robot, the Deebot T80S Omni is designed to deliver easy, automated cleaning at an affordable price point – and it succeeds at doing so.
It addresses issues found on older robot vacuums like poor navigation, obstacle avoidance, and cleaning effectiveness. While there’s still some improvements to be made, the Deebot T80S Omni gets close enough to do the job reliably.
With a powerful drivetrain, edge-following mop roller, and strong suction, the Deebot T80S Omni provides a thorough clean every time.
Rating
Overall: 4 / 5
Pros
- Set it and forget it; autonomous cleaning
- Effective pickup and suction
- Simple maintenance
Cons
- Obstacle avoidance could be improved
- Dust retention could be better
- Textured plastic is a bit ugly
$1799 | For anyone looking to simplify floor care
Setup & First Impressions
Ecovacs’ cleaning robot setup is easy. Unbox the robot and docking station, assemble the parts and plug it in. Once you’re ready to go, you can use Ecovacs’ companion app to connect to the robot and follow the prompts to set it up.
Robot floor cleaners are notorious for having issues with cables and certain ground obstacles, so you might want to have a look around for anything the robot could accidentally pick up or bump into.
It’s also worth considering whether the robot can fit around your furniture. Consider the clearance between furniture pieces and ensure the robot can navigate through these areas.
Floor Mapping
On its first run, the Deebot T80S Omni drives around your home, stopping at points in each room and spinning around to map your space and automatically create a floorplan.
Once it’s complete, you can adjust the map by adding zones, adjusting room boundaries, and creating no-go zones. This is important to do – because like the Deebot T90 Pro Omni we reviewed last month, this model is tricked by floor-length mirrors.
Design & Aesthetics
The Deebot T80S Omni and its docking station are made from black plastic with a faux-leather texture. It’s not the finish I would have picked if I was designing it – I find the aesthetic a bit tacky.
Ironically for a cleaning robot, the plastic shows dust easily and it seems to attract fine particles.
Aesthetics aside, the design is great. The docking station is easy to maintain with accessible fresh and dirty water receptacles and a front panel that contains the dustbag.
The robot itself is short enough to fit under most of my furniture, including my bed and small enough to navigate around my sofa, dining stools, and more.
Life With The Ecovacs Deebot T80S Omni
The Ecovacs Deebot T80S Omni has been cleaning around my house for a couple of weeks and for the most part it’s been a great experience. The powerful suction and cleaning implements give it excellent pickup, and my tile flooring has been shiny since it arrived.
Positives
Ecovacs’ mop roller design is the highlight of the Deebot T80S Omni. The Ozmo Roller 2.0 generates good downward pressure and powerful rotation to give your hard flooring a thorough scrub.
The dense nylon mop bar provides excellent mess pickup and leaves minimal water streaking behind the robot.
Plus, its edge cleaning performance is excellent. An extendable bar moves out of the side of the robot, allowing the roller to reach very close to the wall and increasing its coverage.
The Deebot T80S Omni vacuum performance is excellent too. The little sweeper is great at directing debris towards the vacuum roller and I haven’t noticed many missed items.
Customisation in the app is helpful to achieve the level of cleaning you’d like. You can adjust the robot’s suction power, water flow level, and cleaning speed. You can also set it to do two passes to ensure nothing is missed.
It’s easy to set up spot cleaning zones as well. Just select the area on the map you’d like cleaned, adjust the zone to your liking, and activate the robot. It then navigates to the area and cleans with the settings you provide.
Negatives
The biggest issue I’ve had with the Deebot T80S Omni has been with its navigation and obstacle avoidance. While mapping my home, it was tricked by my floor length mirrors and believed it was an extra room.
Without a virtual boundary set for the robot, it repeatedly tries to drive through the mirror to access the “room”.
Additionally, in areas it’s already mapped, obstacle avoidance has been an issue. I had set down a water bowl for a visiting pet and the Deebot T80S Omni drove straight into it without hesitation. That doesn’t inspire confidence when something gets left on the floor.
During cleaning, I noticed that hair and debris would sometimes spill out of the dust disposal port the robot uses to empty its dustbin into the docking station. When you notice it, it’s easy to take care of but it seems likely that the robot is spilling dust back onto the floor when this happens.
Thankfully, I only noticed this issue once during my time with the robot.
The Deebot T80S Omni is unable to reliably climb up 3-centimetre thresholds that lead into my bathrooms – though not for lack of trying. The robot takes a run up to try to make it into these areas, but fails more often than not and I ended up removing these rooms from the map.
Performance & Reliability
The Deebot T80S Omni isn’t a full replacement for a dedicated floor cleaner, but it’s great at helping you keep up with regular maintenance. It’s not up to the task of a big spring clean, but for day-to-day floor care it’s a big help and saves some serious time.
What it provides is effortless cleaning at the push of a button. It’s easy to customise your cleaning options including speed, passes, mop settings, and suction power, and set it off to do its thing.
While away from the home, you can set it to perform a clean and return to a freshly vacuumed house.
As long as there’s no obstacles, the robot performs great and I wasn’t particularly worried about leaving it unattended to complete the vacuuming and mopping.
Practical Considerations
Ecovacs suggests a maintenance schedule that’s easy to keep up with. The dirty water and clean water receptacles should be emptied and replenished weekly. The companion app prompts when the dustbag should be replaced, while the roller mop requires replacement every one to two months.
Other consumable items like the vacuum roller bar, sweeper, and filter are suggested for replacement every three to six months. Ecovacs suggests the filter should be cleaned weekly. It’s easy to keep up with this – just open up the dustbin and rinse the filter and bin.
The automatic emptying and refilling process is fairly noisy, with a loud suction noise during both processes. After a mopping pass, the robot performs a hot-air drying process that’s fairly quiet – but not silent, so it could be a minor annoyance.
Value & Alternatives
The Deebot T80S Omni comes in at $1799, which is just about $500 cheaper than the premium T90 Pro Omni. To be honest, I don’t see a lot of difference in the results from the two models so it makes sense to compare the specifications.
The T90 Pro Omni features a higher maximum suction and a wider mop roller, as well as a wider intake for superior pickup.
However, both have automatic self-cleaning, auto emptying, hot water washing and good edge following.
I figure that the Deebot T80S Omni is better value than the T90 Pro Omni as long as your regular cleaning doesn’t need to be incredibly thorough.
As with all robot vacuum cleaners, you can get significantly better performance from a manual option at the cost of additional time spent cleaning.
Would I buy it with my own money?
Yes. The Deebot T80S Omni is a great help for keeping up with regular floor care, and while it does have a few drawbacks, they’re not dealbreakers. If you’re in the market for a robot vacuum cleaner, it’s an option worthy of consideration.
Comments