Hobot Legee D7 robovac/mop – powerful, well-priced cleaner (cleaning review)

The Hobot Legee D7 robovac/mop is another success story from Aussie company Robot My Life. It mops as it vacuums, saving considerable time and effort.

We have followed Hobot (global site) for some time, and every product we have reviewed has been feature and class-leading.

These are some class-leading features:

• A tangle-less design with an additional front suction vent before the standard rotating brush. Pet hair and larger detritus get sucked up before it tangles the brush.
• A D-shape design allows it to get closer to the corners
• A longer 4cm ‘tilted’ whisker brush gets under overhanging sideboards.
• Instead of wheels, it uses tractor tracks, making it more manoeuvrable in tight spots.
• It can climb 20mm sills where many wheeled robovacs cannot
• It has a floor-type sensor, and the mop plate lifts 6mm when it senses carpet and water spray stops.
• The mop plate exerts a 600g pressure against the floor, so it will remove more stains than a static ‘drag’ plate.
• Four spray nozzles with AI control means just the right amount of water
• Wi-Fi 2.4 and 5Ghz connection, or if you don’t have Wi-Fi, you can Wi-Di (direct connect) to your smartphone. Great to clean holiday homes.
• It has LEGEE (Lidar, Encoder, Gyro, E-compass, and Position Estimation) SLAM 7.0, bumpers, cliff sensors, and floor sensors.
• The App and its ‘Talent’ clean is very comprehensive yet simple.
• It is smart and will map your home on the first run, and you can store five maps.

You can read more and see why these are class/price leading in Five tips for choosing a robovac/mop (guide).

Australian review: Hobot Legee D7 robot vacuum and power mop

Website	Manufacturer product page and Robot my Life product page, and Manual
Price	RRP $675 inc Australia-wide shipping and a 30-day money-back guarantee
From	Robot my Life Shop It is distributed by an Australian company based in Victoria that provides excellent support. Australian Warranty is from authorised resellers only, so start here first.
Warranty	12-month ACL from Robot My Life
Company	Hobot (Est 2010) is a Taiwanese company focused on home robot development. It holds patents for the Hobot design and several innovations.
Inbox	Hobot Legee D7 vacuum, dustbin/filter, whisker, rotating brush 2 x spare Whisker brushes Charging station, Power cord, charger 1 x spare dustbin filter Cleaning brush 3 x mopping pads Water tank bottle filler
More	CyberShack Robo vac/mop

We use Fail (below expectations), Pass (meets expectations) and Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader) against many of the items below. We occasionally give a Pass ‘+’ rating to show it is good but does not quite make it to Exceed.

You can click on most images for an enlargement.

The first impression – It is all white – Exceed

It is all white, all right, and it looks like a premium product. It is a D-shape robovac popularised by Neato. The D-Shape gives slightly better corner cleaning. The control diamond glows different colours for charging, cleaning and more. It does not have a remote, but you can use the buttons or the App.

We need to position this product and its price.

• It uses LiDAR and lots of extra AI smarts. For the price, it punches above its weight and will map better than 2D LiDAR ‘dimbot’ mapping systems.
• It has 2700pa maximum suction power – above average
• It does not have a self-empty station – nor would you expect it at this price
• It has lots of smarts like floor-type sensors and auto-lift of the mop plate on carpet

It is what most people will buy after they have tried the cheapies.

Setup and Map – Exceed

Download the Hobot Legee App. It requires an account. We have analysed the privacy policy, which is benign, stating that it won’t share your data without your explicit consent. Data is stored in the USA and German clouds and complies with strict California and European Union data protection policies.

You can opt-in-or-out of email marketing, and I only recall receiving a couple of emails over the past few years.

The first run is to establish a map, and it simultaneously vacuums and mops (if the mop is enabled). It tends to go around the edges first to establish the floorplan and then goes back and cleans all the areas. Subsequent runs are faster.

Every time it cleans, it updates the map (if it finds more areas) and offers you the option to save or overwrite the existing map. The map is ‘reasonable’ –meaning it took a few goes to get it perfect.

Editing involves merging areas (if the room has been treated as two separate rooms) or vice-versa. You can set virtual barriers, curtain zones and more. It is not quite as simple as it could be, but you will get the hang of it.

We found it unnecessary to set any carpet or hard floor barriers as it automatically discriminates between them, lifts the mop plate, and disables spray over the carpet.

Map accuracy – Pass+

There is more going on here than standard 2D LiDAR SLAM mapping. In addition to the LiDAR (laser range finder), it has a gyroscope and e-compass to position it more accurately in relation to the base station. AI analyses speed and location to ensure it does not miss any spots.

The Legee App – Comprehensive- Pass+

Once set up and connected to Wi-Fi (2.4 or 5GHz – we recommend the former for greater Wi-Fi signal distance), you go to Talent Clean.

It is a ring style where you can select different modes. Most will use it in standard mode. If your floors are really dirty or are mainly long-pile carpet, then power suction mode (2700pa) works a treat but at the expense of battery life. If you have water-sensitive hardwood floors, you can select that mode, and it increases vacuum and uses the dry mop pad for a bit of polish.

After a few cleans, we selected Custom mode, where you can independently set spray level, vacuum level, brushroll speed and cleaning speed. We slowed the cleaning speed and increased the brush roll speed (slightly) for the best result for our floors.

Door Sill negotiation – 20mm – Pass(able)

For the most part, it negotiated 20mm (high) door sills quite well. It all depends if it comes straight on (not as effective) or at an angle to the sill. The caterpillar treads need to get traction. If you have high sills, go to your hardware and buy a length 15x10mm bevelled Tasmanian Oak (or similar) to reduce the angle of approach to the sill.

There is a setting in the App for climbing control, but it is not what you expect. If you disable it, then Legee won’t go over any sill or raised surfaces.

Cleaning and Dustbin – Pass+

It has a 500ml dustbin with a two-stage filter (one washable and the other High Efficiency). It will easily hold detritus from a 200m2 area.

We use 100g of test detritus ranging from sand to rice bubbles. All settings are at default.

• Hard floors 97%
• Sisal ridged carpet 85% – leaving  some detritus in the carpet hollows
• Short pile carpet 90% – mainly leaving static-charged lint
• Edge cleaning. At 97.5mm high, it may not fit under lower cupboard overhangs. It seems to get within 20-30mm of the overhang. The whisker gets some detritus, but you need a stick vac to do this and the stairs.

Mop and reservoir – Pass+

It has a 320ml inbuilt reservoir under the top lid that requires the supplied water bottle to fill – don’t risk water spills using a jug. You can use the Hobot Floor cleaning detergent (1:50 mix), and it makes a difference on grease and stains over just using water. We estimate that it can cover about 100m2 on a medium setting.

The mop plate is fixed, and you attach a Velcro multi-use, washable mop pad. We recommend removing and rinsing the pad every 20-30m2 to avoid dragging dirty water/detritus over the floor.

It has four nozzles (most have one or two) for even water distribution. It removes all but stubborn dried-on stains in one Pass, but we suggest that you set it for two passes anyway.

The mopping quality is above average for this price bracket as there is a 600g downward pressure. If it encounters carpet, it will lift the plate 6mm and stop the water spray until it is back on hard surfaces.

There is no waterproof plate under the base station. While the plate lifts 6mm for charging, we recommend you place a rigid plastic sheet under the base.

Noise at 1m – Pass+

• Eco mode is 55dB
• Standard mode is 60dB
• Power mode is 70dB

Battery – Pass+

The 4900mAh battery gives about four hours in eco mode, 2.5 hours in standard mode and about 1.5 hours in power mode.

Hobot claims a full charge using its 19V/1.05A/19.95W charger takes 3.5 hours, but we found it closer to 4.5  hours. But you have to remember that most recharging is merely a top-up. If it does exhaust the battery, it will return to base and resume when charged.

Maintenance – Pass+

• Whisker tilted brush is easily replaceable and should last several months of cleaning. Price TBA
• Rotating brush is alternate rows of rubber and bristles – ditto. Spare part cost $25
• High-efficiency filter is washable– Price TBA.
• First stage dustbin filter is washable, and provided it is not damaged/cut by detritus should last a lifetime.
• Washable mop pads – lifetime. $20 per pair
• Floor cleaning solution $12 fo4 220ml mixed 1:50 in water
• Extra docks for multi-level homes $55 plus power adapter $25

CyberShack’s view – Hobot Legee D7 robot vacuum and power mop is all you need if you are on a budget

Sure, you can spend well over a grand and get a self-emptying robot or even $2500 and get the Ecovacs Deebot X1 Omni self-emptying and cleaning robovac/mop. Still, the Hobot Legee D7 is all you need for reliably cleaned carpet and hard floors.

Would I buy it? Yes

The Hobot Legee D7 is excellent value and performance for this price range and is way better than 1D ‘Dumbots’ or 2D ‘Dimbots’ that charge as much.

With Robot My Life backing, it gets an unreserved buy recommendation.

Hobot Legee D7 robot vacuum and power mop summary

Item		Explanation	Grade
Shape	D-Shape	Better corner cleaning with a 40mm whisker brush	Pass
Lidar	Yes	LEGEE (Lidar, Encoder, Gyro, E-compass, and Position Estimation) SLAM 7.0, bumpers, cliff sensors, and floor sensors.	Pass+
Maps	5	Stores up to 5, but you must take the base station to each level	Pass
Map edit	Yes	All the usual, including mop and no mop zones	Pass
App	App	Google Play Store or Apple App store Meets all typical needs. Modes include vacuum, mop or both, suction (three levels), battery level and cleaning diary, area vacuum, and U-shaped navigation pattern.	Pass
Voice	Assistance	Google or Alexa
Edge		Unable to clean overhanging edges but pretty good on wall edges	Pass
Vacuum efficiency		It does a good job even on eco mode. Auto-boost would have been nice, but dee-clean (manual mode) or Custom mode does well enough.	Pass
Carpet		It depends on carpet type – use a stronger suction setting for some carpet types.	Pass
Sills	20mm	Generally good, but you may need to change approach angles	Pass
Other Sensors	Collision and cliff	Forward bumper sensor and cliff detector stop it from going down the stairs.	Pass
Suction	2700Pa	Eco/Standard/Full  1100/1800/2700	Pass+
Dustbin	500ml	Good for 100m2	Pass
Water	320ml	Adequate for 100m2 or more – depends on the setting	Pass
Mop efficiency	Pressure platen	Batter than maintenance mop. Four water sprays	Pass+

Continued

Battery life		Claimed 240 minutes on eco, but the reality is about 150 minutes on standard and 90minutes on max. Note that the cleanable area in m2 is roughly equivalent to battery life.	Pass
Battery	4900mAh	19V/1.05A/19.95W	Pass
Wi-Fi	2.4GHz and 5GHz	Has 5GHz, but we recommend 2.4Ghz for a longer distance from the router.	Pass
Size		340mm x 97.5mm high  x 3.5kg	Pass
Dock	Yes	Recharge time is about 4 to 5 hours. We recommend you cut a clear plastic waterproof sheet to place under the base.	Pass
Self-empty	No		N/A
Inbox		Robotic vacuum cleaner Charging base Power adapter Microfibre Mop Cloths Cleaning tool Two spare Side brush Two spare filter Owner’s Manual & Other Documents

Robot My Life review

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