Robots are supposed to make our lives easier, taking over the jobs we don’t want or have the time to do. And most of the time, that’s exactly how it goes. But they aren’t perfect. Occasionally, things go a bit wrong, though it is usually down to something simple and easily fixed.
That’s what the test of the Ezviz RE4 Plus robot cleaner reminded me. The combo robot vacuum and mop did, for the most part, a good job. But sometimes, despite being given very clear instructions – clean here, avoid here – it went a bit rogue and did its own thing. That meant it was wandering into areas it wasn’t supposed to, often resulting in the robot marooning itself until someone could come and rescue it.
It was puzzling. The robot would build the map quickly, allow me to zone it off and create custom cleaning instructions for each room – mop here, vacuum at max strength here, avoid this area – and all would be fine for a day or so, Then something would happen, the map would seem to shift a few feet and the robot would get confused and try to create a whole new map. Then I’d have to delete the new map, reselect the old one, and off it would go again.
After a few weeks of this, I concluded it was the floor, rather than the robot, that was at fault. The base likes a firm floor, so foam mats with a bit of give in them, say in a playroom for example, or carpet with a softer layer of underlay where it can shift ever so slightly, seems to throw it off. Relocating the base to an area where it was on wood or tiles solved the problem; the map stopped altering itself, the base stayed put, and the robot did as it was told. Problem solved.
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After that, the RE4 Plus did a good job. It picked up dust and dirt, it gave the floors a cursory mop – avoiding the rugs and carpeted areas set up in the app – and it emptied its own dust bin regularly so I didn’t have to. The only intervention really required was making sure the floor was relatively clear of things we didn’t want to end up in the bin – Lego was a regular casualty – and remembering to refill the 300ml water tank when it was due to mop.
The Ezviz app allows you to set a schedule for the robot, so it will clean every day, or twice a day if needed. It uses a smaller roller bar and a small side brush to flick the dirt into its path, and while it won’t get right up into the corners of the room, it does a decent enough job that you will only need to occasionally run a vacuum over the floor.
Aside from eating the odd cable or sock, there were no further problems.
The RE4 Plus is on a par with similarly equipped rival machines. The mapping is done quickly and the apps tools help you create different rooms and zones so you can customise the cleaning for each area of the house. For example, in the kitchen you might want the robot to mop more intensely, but leave the livingroom with just a quick pass over with the mop. The suction on the vacuum goes up to 4000 Pa at its max, which will tackle the worst dirt and debris, but will hit battery life between charges.
Speaking of which, on regular power, the battery lasted a decent amount of time, getting through all the rooms without needing to return for a power top-up in between. And it lifted all the visible dirt, so the max power mode was needed only occasionally.
Good
As a budget-priced robot vacuum, this did a better job than I expected. The robot maps and cleans quickly, with the lidar sensor building up an accurate picture of your home in a matter of minutes. You can zone the map with a few in app tools, and then build a custom cleaning plan.
The auto-empty base has a lot of a capacity so you don’t have to keep replacing the internal bag. Ezviz says it should last up to three months.
The robot detects carpet, upping the suction as it crosses the different floor types to make sure it gets everything clean. And it moves around obstacles in real time, so if you move a chair or a table, it will sense the obstacle and adjust itself accordingly.
Bad
Make sure the auto-empty base is on a sturdy area of your floors. Occasionally, the map shifted on the app and needed to be reset. However, this was fixed by moving the base to a location with a more solid floor – tiles and wood rather than carpet.
Excessive dust interferes with the lidar sensor, too, causing some issues with the map, so make sure you perform regular maintenance to keep it in tip-top condition.
The drop-sensing technology wasn’t as sensitive as I’d have liked. Although it prevented any accidents, the robot still occasionally wandered off a drop that other robots would have registered as a no-go area.
Getting hold of it might also be a challenge. Although it is available on Amazon, not every seller will ship to Ireland.
Everything else
You can connect the Ezviz robot to your Google Home or Alexa voice assistant, enabling voice commands. Then all you have to do is say “Ezviz, clean the kitchen” and off it trundles. Who knows: it might be the only thing in your house that actually listens to you.
The robot is available in two colours, white and black, and the replacement dust bags are available from Amazon, where Ezviz has a store.
Verdict
Works well under the right conditions.
