Viomi ALPHA S9

Viomi ALPHA S9 Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Robotic vacuum cleaners are products that help and improve our daily lifestyle, greatly reducing the need to clean homes manually. Those who use it cannot do without it. However, there is still one “step” to be solved to make these robots truly autonomous: emptying the dirt that accumulates on them.

This is not an absolute novelty, it is a technology that some manufacturers have already implemented, but the Viomi S9 series is the first to do this at a price that is more acceptable, even “cheaper” if we look only at the competition from this area. In fact, the Viomi S9 is sold with its attachment that collects the dust that the robot has vacuumed in the house in a more “classic” bag. In the package, in addition to these two elements, there is apparently a power cord, an extra side brush, a cloth that can be washed with water and finally some reusable cloths for the same purpose.

Today we are going to introduce the Viomi ALPHA S9, the upgraded version of the Viomi S9, which adds UV Sterilization. UV Sterilization cleaning experiments sterilize with 99.99% efficiency.

The installation is super easy and takes only a few seconds, as well as the very short time needed to associate the robot with the home Wi-Fi for the first time through Xiaomi’s Mi Home app. It works perfectly with the Italian/European servers. As for positioning, you obviously have to take into account the height of the turret, so you can’t hide it under a couch or bookshelf. In addition to the space in height, you must also consider the minimum extra space to be able to open doors and extract bags of dirt. In fact, this turret will be extracted in autonomy, thanks to a powerful vacuum cleaner, the robot collects the dirt in a bag more “classic” and can be thrown directly into the trash without risk of getting your hands dirty. As well as only needing very little to do. It’s hard to say exactly how much dirt it collects, but we estimate that if you use it a few times a week in a 100 square meter house that is very dirty because of cat hair, the duration is a little over a month. The turret will indicate with an indicator that the bag is full, but in fact we managed to get it to fill up more times than necessary without having to replace the bag immediately.

The robot is built in a rather classic way: it is fitted with a central turret with integrated laser navigation sensors that map the house, allowing it to be cleaned more efficiently and quickly after the initial reconnaissance cleaning. There is also no shortage of fall sensors and buffers to cushion contact with the home’s furniture. In our opinion, the mapping of the house is very faithful and we also found the navigation system inside the house to be very good. In addition, it is one of the most tenacious robots, able to climb on carpets or over any other obstacle. However, for the same reason, it is important to avoid having cables or other distractions around: in this case, it is not good at it.

As for the quality of cleaning, we are at the average level of high-end robots. We wouldn’t rate it as the best, but for its top price range, it is definitely adequate. Even the passage of a wet cloth is discreet, as it supports a Y-shaped motion curve (and then goes back and forth in the same place), and the water tank can hold 250 ml of water for an exact cleaning job of 100 square meters. On the other hand, the robot is slightly noisier than its competitors, not to mention the strong suction noise of the turret, which, however, lasts only 15 seconds.

It is also very autonomous and guarantees to clean about 200 square meters on a single charge. It can do better if you don’t have a lot of obstacles around, and in case of low battery, it will return to base to recharge and finish the job as soon as possible. We noted that in our tests, there was one instance where it was unable to return to base to charge, despite being confirmed on the map to be in the correct location in the house.

The app is Xiaomi’s outstanding Mi Home. Here you can manage a map of your home, divide the house into zones and then decide to clean a certain area or one or more rooms. Of course, you can also draw no-go areas or virtual walls. Here we point out what we think is the only real flaw of this product: it is not possible to prevent the wet cloth from passing through areas (such as carpets!) , so depending on your needs, you will definitely mark that time as a forbidden area.

Obviously, you can decide in the application if (or only) cleaning is also done, how much water to run on the cloth, and the suction power. In the general settings, we found the possibility to enable only brushing the edges or a second automatic cleaning. Here you can check the status of the consumables or recheck the cleaning log. It is better to lower the volume of the English voice (you can also decide the time not to disturb), because it is really too powerful. Finally, you can decide to schedule the cleaning (even for individual rooms) or manage the map, because you can safely use it to clean multiple homes (or multiple floors of the same house), choosing the right map from time to time.

If you are looking for a robot that empties the dirt drawer by itself, this is one of the best and cheapest solutions available.

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