Hobot Legee D8 and Lulu mop cleaning station (robot vacuum/mop cleaning review)

10/11/2023
By Ray Shaw
In Reviews

The Hobot Legee D8 and Lulu mop cleaning station comprise an intelligent robot vacuum/mop and a mop-cleaning/drying station. You can buy it separately or as a bundle.

Hobot is distributed exclusively in Australia by Melbourne-based Robot My Life. They import and support Hobot Legee and Ultenic robovacs and mops, MoeBot robot mowers, Hobot Window cleaners, and PoolBot cordless pool robot vacuums. The hallmark is to look for great tech and bring it cost-effectively to Australia.

Let’s position Legee D8 and Lulu

This is a $1,200 Gen 4 robot vacuum/mop with an optional $650 LuLu clean station – $1850, but astute buyers can get the bundle for $1,250 (limited time as of November 2023).

Given the excellent price there is no way it should be compared to the Gen 5 $2499 Ecovacs Deebot X2 Omni – can a robot vacuum/mop get any better? or Gen 4.5 $1799 Ecovacs Deebot T20 Omni – faster, cheaper, and better. These are true one-pass cleaning systems with cameras and smarts that can even detect pet poo!

The Hobot Legee D8 is a highly speced (for the price) Gen 4 robot

It has lots of smarts including:

D-shape design for better edge and corner cleaning.
Legee (Lidar, Encoder, Gyro, E-compass, and Position Estimation) and FDS (fixed distance sensors), two pairs of cliff sensors and a carpet sensor give it excellent navigation, carpet, and cliff detection abilities.
Quick mapping and map editing.
OK Google, Alexa, or Siri voice control.
Both front suction and rotating brush suction to avoid hair tangles.
Rubber caterpillar tracks instead of wheels for better traction.
A mopping pad that vibrates at 1300 times a minute, an 8mm stroke, and an 800g downward force – that is mop grunt.
AI-controlled four water jet spray delivery system that wets the floor – not the pad.
It lifts 7mm over carpets, and the AI turns off the water jets.
A comprehensive App that allows for eight cleaning modes, customised cleaning scheduling, and much more.
Five maps, including multi-floor, in memory.
5X dust compression for extra dustbin capacity.
Easy Link dual-band Wi-Fi and automatic switching between 3 Wi-Fi networks, mesh and hotspots.
Includes a charging station (for another floor if you purchase LuLu).
Decorator white with diamond cut and aqua accents.

Its Hobot LuLu cleaning station thoroughly washes/scrubs the mop pad and dries with 40° air.

This is a joint review.

We will look at these specs to see what makes the Hobot Legee D8 and LuLu mop cleaning station special.

This is for those that want one-pass cleaning, don’t have pet poo lying around and want to save some hard-earned cash.

Note: The Robot ‘Generations’ refer to intelligence levels and are defined in Five Tips for Choosing a robovac/mop (2023 update. This also covers home preparation and issues to consider when buying a robovac/mop.

Australian Review – Hobot Legee D8 and Lulu mop cleaning station

Website	Legee D8 Robot my Life product page Lulu Robot My Life product page
Price	RRP $1145 excludes any special promotional sales, including Australia-wide shipping and a 30-day money-back guarantee
From	Robot My Life online shop
Warranty	24-months ACL from Robot My Life
Company	Robot My Life is an Australian company based in Victoria. It designs and sources robot vacuum cleaners, robot mops, robot mowers, robot window cleaners, stick vacuum cleaners, cleaning fluids and accessories. Hobot is a Taiwanese company Est 2010. Unlike the masses of generic Chinese-made robovacs, Hobot has followed its own way and all its products are designed and manufactured in Taiwan.
More	Hobot news and reviews Ultenic news and reviews PoolBot news and reviews

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(able) rating that is not as good as it should be and 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.

First Impression – Pass+

It has a square front on essentially a round robot – a style that is becoming more popular than round robots as it has better edge and corner cleaning courtesy of a right-side whisker brush.

The shape makes it appear larger at 344 (L) x 343 (W) x 97.5mm (H). I like the clean white diamond cut top with aqua highlights – black is so yesterday.

Underneath reveals a few differences from other Gen 4 robots. Most noticeable are the rubber caterpillar treads instead of rubber wheels. They provide more traction and fewer issues with sill and carpet negotiation.

Also underneath is what Hobot calls ‘Tangless’. This means it has two vacuum inlets. The front is a vacuum slot to pick up hair and larger items, and behind that, a 17cm brush/silicon rubber powered roller. A right-side whisker helps with edge and corner cleaning by brushing detritus into the vacuum.

The LuLu cleaning station is smaller as it does not have a self-empty waste detritus bin, relying on the innovative Legee D8 5X compactor technology. It is 410 (W) x 280 (L) x 390mm (H) and has a detachable ramp (you need that), adding 200mm to the depth. The Legee D8 needs about 1.5-metre clearance in the front and .5m on each side to de-dock.

LuLu has 3.2/2.8L clean/wastewater tanks, dual brush mop pad, ‘CNC’ cleaning and 40° air drying. It also charges the Legee D8, giving you a spare charge station for use on another home level.

Set up – Pass+

Download the Hobot Legee app for Android or iOS and set up an account. We have read the privacy policy and terms of use and are confident it only collects usage data needed for the machine and cleaning log. Data is not shared without informed consent or enforceable legal requirements. The Hobot clouds are in Germany and the USA and conform to EU GDPR and US privacy legislation – far stronger than Australia’s.

Consumer Advice: While the privacy policy is benign, we recommend that all online accounts use a ‘junk’ email address easily obtainable from Gmail, and you do not use your name or date of birth to prevent any personal data from being used.

Wi-Fi Easy Link – Pass+

It can select up to three Wi-Fi 2.4 or 5Ghz networks on different routers (good for multi-floor) or mesh networks during set-up. Or you can connect to your smart phone’s mobile hotspot if needed. This should solve Wi-Fi issues like dropouts, not finding the base, etc.

Consumer Advice: 90% of any brand’s robovac performance issues are caused by poor Wi-Fi. We test with the most powerful Netgear Orbi RBKE963 Quad-band Wi-Fi 6E AX 11000 mesh, which has superb coverage and has never experienced Wi-Fi issues. Before contacting support, ensure you get a decent Wi-Fi signal. For Android, the free and easy-to-use Network Cell Info Lite & W-Fi App measures signal strength in RSSI dBm. Below 50 is necessary for stable Wi-Fi operation.

Navigation – Pass+

We expect a Gen 4 robot to clean using a map and a predetermined cleaning pattern. In this case, there is a lot more intelligence than expected.

360° turret LiDAR for 3D laser mapping (standard Gen 4 robots)
Four forward-facing and one right-side-facing FDS (Fixed Distance Sensor) to detect small obstacles, walls, etc. (IR ToF sensors to detect distance. The number is unusual for Gen 4 robots).
Cliff detectors front and back (most are front only).
Two rear IR sensors (obstacle detection and docking station parking. This can dock and charge or use a separate charging station)
It uses these sensors to detect carpets, lift the mopping pad, and stop water jets.
Legee SLAM navigation

Legee uses 360° 3D (Lidar, Encoder, Gyro, E-compass, and Position Estimation) and FDS (fixed distance sensors), two pairs of cliff/carpet sensors, which give it excellent navigation abilities.

Ironically, the Legee name also means ‘Investigator’. Hobot has developed Legee SLAM (Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping) technology that combines all the sensor’s information to reduce the typical bump-and-grind with Gen 4 and earlier robots.

Summary: While it is not a Gen 5 robot (with cameras and ToF sensors, etc.), it does an excellent navigation job. All it lacks is camera-aided AI object detection.

Quick Map and modes – Pass+

Quick map takes about 1 minute per 10m2 – fast. But we noticed a minor quirk – it may not map dark rooms or dark surfaces like mats over lighter floors. We recommend you turn on the room lights in dark areas.

Talent Clean

It has eight modes, including a custom mode. For hard floors, Standard is fine. If you have carpets, increase the vacuum power to 3 or 4. It has a maximum of 5000Pa suction, and we have estimated the suction below.

Eco – 2000Pa lowest power mode and lowest brush roll speed.
Standard – 3000Pa and the most common mode.
Deep Cleaning – 4000Pa high-speed brush spin.
Power Suction – 5,000Pa maximum vacuum mode.
Stain removal – breaks area into 1.5m2 segments and increases water spray for 2X mop.
Tangless – for maximum pet hair shedding – uses front vacuum slot only to avoid brush tangle.
Dry cleaning mode – for hard floors that are water-sensitive.
Custom – whatever you like – 1-5 settings. Spray, Vacuum, Brush roll speed, cleaning speed, mopping frequency.

Home Prep and Obstacle Avoidance – Pass+

In our guide, we outline the best house prep practice. Follow this for at least the quick map and first one-pass clean.

After that, we did not do house prep, and it navigated around tables, chairs, footstools, shoes, clothes on the floor, etc. It lacks AI camera object detection, but the FDS sensors did a good job on larger objects.

Vacuum efficiency – Pass+

Hard floors – Pass+

In standard mode, it picks up 95% of the test detritus (as measured using a Dyson Gen5detect – the evolution continues). Ramp the power up a notch, and it is very close to 100%.

Carpet – Pass

Carpet comes in short, medium, and longer piles. The mop platen lifts 7mm, so your carpet needs to be <5mm short or sisal weave, or you need to remove the mop pad and turn off the water spray in the App (easy).

Another carpet issue is inherent static that makes lint and fluff stick like glue, especially if a weave has peaks and valleys. There are two solutions. First, ramp up the vacuum power to 4 or repeat clean.

In standard mode, it removed 75% of the test detritus (lower than expected). At power level 3, it removed 82%, and at level 4, 88%. This is pretty clean.

Edge cleaning – Pass

After a first-time quick map, the AI establishes edges and corners to orient the robot to use the 20mm reach right-side whisker brush. In some areas, this is adequate, but in many, the robot cruises about 50mm from the edge, especially where there is a kickboard. Hobot should address this in a firmware update and offer an adjustable offset, as its side FDS should be able to handle closer encounters.

In any case, every robot we have tested is poor at edge cleaning, and you need a stick vac to do edges, corners, stairs and under furniture.

Corner cleaning – Pass+

The square design and right-wide whisker brush do a reasonable job in corners. Gen 5 robots will crabwalk along an edge or around a corner for better results.

Mop efficiency – Pass+

While many Gen 5 robots use rotating mops, this uses a vibrating platen – 1300 times a minute with an 8mm forward/backwards stroke and 800g downwards force. In other words, it has some grunt. The mop pad is 270mm wide (the robot body is 343mm wide and achieves coverage by overlapping runs).

But a problem with all brands (there may be one exception) means about a 50mm edge that cannot be mopped. A corner arc can’t be mopped as the mop is at the rear.

In terms of mopping grunt, the default level 3 did a good job on hard floors. Again, as per all brands, it did not remove dried-on stains like coffee, juice, or milk in standard mode. The stain removal option began to remove the dried stains, taking an additional pass (a pass is two times).

The onboard 320 ml water container is refilled each time the robot returns to base. It appears adequate for at least 150m2.

Four adjustable jet sprays put water on the floor – not the map pad – far better as it leaves the pad drier.

The mop pads are Ag+Ion, meaning there is a small percentage of silver to act as a steriliser. You can hand or macine wash.

It can use floor detergent

Hobot suggests using a Legee floor detergent for $12 per 220ml bottle or $60 for five bottles. Mix 1:50 with water. The only issue is that you should add this to the 320ml tank, not the 3.2L LuLu tank (or it is wasted).

The detergent contains Deionised water, Sodium Laurel Sulphate (cleaning agent and surfactant), K9N (inhibits the growth of bacteria, yeast, and fungi), Ethylene Glycol Monobutylether (solvent grease cutter), and citrus oil (perfume and grease-cutting). Interestingly, the TDS reading (see water quality) did not change when adding the solution.

Legee D8 and LuLu and TDS water quality

Total dissolved solids (TDS) are organic and inorganic materials, such as metals, minerals, salts, and ions, dissolved in water. The acceptable range is 3-300 mg/L (milligrams per litre). TDS is not Ph (alkaline or acid) but a measure of water quality.

The TDS meter supplied is essential to ensure that the jet sprays are not affected by dirty water. Here is the conundrum. In Australia, tap water can be up to 900 mg/L, although most water providers aim for 20-40 mg/L.

Boiling, adding water softeners, and most filters (including carbon) cannot reduce TDS, and you cannot use distilled pure water either (0 mg/L). Talk to your local Council or Water provider if you have an issue.

Remember, if Legee D8 can’t drink it, you should not either.

Curtain setting (in map edit) – Pass+

Legee will nudge floor-length curtains to the windows to clean under. Most obstacle recognition systems treat curtains as edges.

Loosen climb – Pass

You can set small zones where you don’t want it to climb over things like table legs etc.

Sills – Pass+

It will negotiate up to 20mm sills with ease. The rear mop plate lifts to give the caterpillar track maximum grip.

Cleaning speed – Pass+

Standard – cleaning speed setting 3 is 1m2 per minute.

Head height – Pass

It is 97.5mm high and can clean under furniture with at least 110mm clearance. It will clean under cupboard overhangs with 90mm clearance.

Battery/Power – Pass+

It has a 4900 mAh battery that can be charged via the LuLu mop cleaning station LuLu charger 19V/1.05A/19.95W or the 19V/1A/19W Legee charger plate.

LuLu uses LuLu a maximum of 240V/3.75A/65W when cleaning and drying the mop.

While Leege quotes a 6-hour (360 minutes) charge, our tests varied from 280-320 minutes.

Run time – Pass+

Hobot claims 140 minutes, but that is on Eco mode.

In various tests, mainly on standard mode, we easily got 90-100 minutes, so the claim is fair.

Volume – Pass

It is 60-70dB depending on the mode. LuLu reaches 70dB during mop cleaning.

Build Quality – Pass+

It is very well-made, verging on over-engineering. A two-year warranty adds peace of mind.

Maintenance – Pass

The exhaustible components include the roller brush, whisker brushes, mop pad and internal HE filter. These are all washable and should last several months. Note you cannot use Legee D7 parts.

Most component’s lifespans are tracked via the app. While not strictly necessary, you should clean the robot after use.

There is a package price of $50 that includes

1 x Main brush roller
3 x side sweeping brushes
2 x HEPA filters
4 x replacement spray jets

Cleaning

Trash Bin & Screen Filter – wash
High-Efficiency Filter – vacuum/dust or wash if required. Replace occasionally.
Side Brush/Main brush – remove and wash.
Ag+ion mop pads – wash by hand in a washing machine.
Spray Nozzle – replacement set provided but generally just unclog with a pin if not spraying.
Bumper/Sensors/Charging Contacts/Refilling Port – wipe clean.
Universal Wheel/Wastewater Tank/Dual Brush and Instant Drain – wipe clean

LuLu mop cleaning station – Pass+

It has fresh and wastewater tanks, a CNC moveable, and dual motor/rotor mop pad cleaner brushes. At the end of a cleaning cycle, it cleans the mop, and 40° air dries it to prevent mould or odour. The station bath is very clean requiring only an occasional wipe down.

CyberShack’s view – Hobot Legee D8 and Lulu mop cleaning station – excellent Gen 4 robot vacuum/mop

As our Guide shows, there are five generations of robot vacuums and mops. This is Gen 4 that, apart from AI camera obstacle recognition, does more than other Gen 4 devices.

The price is fair (especially if you can get it on sale), and the performance can give a one-pass, whole-of-house clean.

One of the best things about Hobot is the extent of their video tutorials, making it one of the easiest to set up and use.

Competition

It is hard to choose with dozens of brands and even more retailers. If you are looking, read the guide and decide what Generation features you need.

The Hobot Legee D8 and Lulu mop cleaning station compete squarely with the Eufy Robovac X9 at $1499 and the Ecovacs Deebot T20 at $1799. It is missing only AI camera-based obstacle detection, which is unnecessary for one-pass cleaning in the average home.

Rating (as a Gen 4 plus benefits)

Features: 90 – It has more than most Gen 4 robovac/mops. It can do one-pass cleaning on hard floors and short pile carpets.
Value: 70/90 – At RRP $1809 for the pair, the Deebot Ecovacs and Eufy X9 offer better value. If you can get it for $1250, it is the best value Gen 4 device.
Performance: 90 – Excellent one-pass clean with the usual caveats that you need a stick vac to finish off edges, corners, and stairs. Its mop has a grunt and does as well as a rotating mop.
Ease of Use: 90 – The App is easy to use and offers all expected features. Curtain mode is a nice touch.
Design: 90 – The square front enables better corner and edge cleaning, but it is still a round robot at heart. I like the white diamond cut finish with Aqua highlights.

Pro

Gen 4 plus benefits and hot air mop cleaning station

Taiwan designed and manufactured

Australian support and warranty

Excellent vacuum/mop on hard floors and lifts mop on carpets

5X Compactor dustbin is novel and works.

Con

Default settings (standard) need customisation for carpet.

No AI Obstacle avoidance camera (not expected on Gen 4)

7mm mop lift is not enough for medium and long pile carpet