VIOMI Alpha S9 Robot Vacuum-Mop, with Auto Dirt Disposal, 2700Pa Suction, 3L Dustbin Capacity, 250ml Smart Water Tank, 5200mAH Battery, MiHome App…

Sehr guter Saugroboter. Sehr empfehlenswert und bestes Preis-Leistungsverhältnis. Habe ihn nun 1,5Jahre und er ist immernoch top in Ordnung. Toller Service auch von dem Hersteller, der direkt geantwortet hat, als ich eine Frage zu den Wisch-Modi hatte. Würde ich jederzeit wieder kaufen und habe ihn auch schon einem Freund emfohlen, der auch sehr zufrieden damit ist.

A product which punches way above its weight class..

What I love about this product
1. Easy setup out of the box.
2. Intuitive interface and design of the app
3.Loaded with tech which you will see on 30-40k robo vaccume
4.Cleaning is easy and suction is very good even on the quiet setting
5.Cleans throughly with the occasional missed spot which isn’t a big deal from time to time
6.Mopping works quite well and can clean a 1200 sqft apt with water level 3 setting easily
7. Customer care is wonderful and helpful without over explanation and over complication

What I don’t like(This might be nit picking)

1.Replacement cost for consumables
2.sometimes gets stuck on my floor mata
3. Can’t climb certain heights half an inch to a inch

More than that if you are looking for a value for money robo cleaner look no further

Now thats a loaded title, but I think that this bot justifies it. Surely I haven’t bought every single robot out there and put them to a scientific test (but I have read innumerable reviews for many/most of them) and finally settled in on this one, the Viomi S9. To get into this feature set (self-disposal) today (2021 July) you have to pay considerably more – nearly twice as much for the Roombas or about the 1.5x as much for the Ecovacs combination. And even then then the Roobas come with some major disadvantages (need 2 devices for vacuuming and cleaning, and AFAIK, they cannot navigate in a dark room). As such the real question here is basically this – does this bot deliver a satisfactory experience on the various features it claims at what appears to be a significant discount to the prices of other options?

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– Pros –
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++ Vacuuming and mopping performance is good ++
I used the quiet mode (weakest of 3 suction modes) for vacuuming and found it to have sufficient suction already for typical household dirt like hair, dust, small pieces of paper etc. The sound at this mode is like that of a hairdryer running at low-medium and definitely tolerable. The vacuuming proceeds at roughly 1.3 squared meters per minute.

Mopping: I used Level 2 (medium) and Level 3 (maximum water usage) for mopping and both work fine. Mop wont clean older dry stains in one pass, but repeating the mopping over an area definitely removes it after 1-2 attempts. S mode is sufficient to clean in my opinion (though Y-mode supposedly gives better cleaning). While I haven’t tested it specifically it appears that one filling of the water tank will last ~1600-2000sq ft or more with Level 2 water usage set (which is definitely enough for the mopping).

Auto waste disposal from the robot to the base station also works reliably.

++ Navigation is robust ++
Once the map has been created the robot is very robust in its navigation. It was able to dock successfully with the base station every single time, even when I left less than the recommended clearance around the docking station. If picked up and displaced by hand its capable of returning back to the base station on its own (after the map has been created for the first time) if you press the return to home button on the robot or in the app.

It is not affected by randomly appearing/disappearing objects – like walking humans, bean bags, chairs etc being moved around after forming the map for the first time.

The anti-drop feature too has worked perfectly every single time I tested it by letting the mop wander off from a ledge – while I was always ready to catch it should it fall, I never needed to (though it mentally always feels a little worrying to see the robot reach the edge of a ledge about 7 ft from the ground – since a fall would basically mean irreparable destruction. But it has always stopped/backed off safely)

++ Battery and recharging ++
A full recharge of the battery takes about 2.5-3 hours. The robot will return to its base station automatically if its running out of battery and then once topped up with power, will resume its original plan
Vacuuming seems to consume about 1% battery for every 2 squared meters (which takes about 1.5 minutes for our house) at the quiet suction mode (which is sufficient for our needs). I haven’t checked battery with mopping enabled.

++ Misc. features ++
Scheduled cleaning, multiple maps supported (not sure how many – but at least 2 are supported). Multiple virtual walls and no-go areas work reliably. The robot/app supports point and area cleaning as well as cleaning just the wall-floor edges.

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– Cons –
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>> Robot silliness when power is lost on the base station
As it stands, with the the latest firmware in place, the robot will leave the base station when there is a loss of power (power-cut) – it seems that the robot does not “remember” that it was already docked when the power was lost, and so starts searching for the dock when it (the dock) looses power. I work around this by turning off the robot when its close to the dock and doesn’t need recharging (you cant turn off the robot when docked – appears to be a safety feature).

I am told by the customer care that they expect a fix for this issue soon – potentially within a month. Its not a deal breaker, but is a definite annoyance on a device/system this expensive.

>> Cleaning reach
While not a big deal for me personally, I think its something every buyer would like to know – in this model the mop (or the vacuum) is not as “wide” as the body of the robot. This means that when mopping close to the wall, the mop will not be able to reach the 3-5 cm of the floor closest to the wall. This is not a problem during vacuuming because the spinning brush “sweeps” the dirt from the edges to the “mouth” of the vacuum (near the walls the robot always moves such that the wall is on its right side so that the brush on the right can be used to “sweep”)

Also, if your house has a lot of double edged walls (edges like ¯¯|__ when seen from above) then the cleaning around such edges may not be effective since the brush may not reach the inner edge properly. At the outer edge too, about 2-5 cm strip may not be “swept” as the robot tries to avoid the edge and then find the wall again. Obviously this is a small nit pick for me, but hey, its an expensive robot so you need to know what you are paying for.

>> Misc
The disposable mop cloths (looks be a fiber-paper composite) are not useful. They dont touch the floor at all points reliably and thus have poor mopping performance and occasionally leave streaks on the floor. I used two of them and have no plans of using the other 8. The reusable mop (microfiber, 1 pc) on the other hand cleans well.

My sister also reported that clearing a map cleared both maps we had saved until then for different floors. We havent checked if this was an issue with the app, or if she mis-clicked some option.

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– Tips –
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1. Get a second mop plate (and one or more additional reusable mop cloths). If you have a dusty house then you may want to change the mop cloth when about half the mopping is done. This process involves taking out the mop plate and removing the mop cloth, running it under water to clean the dust/dirt , reattaching it to the mop plate and sliding it back into the back of the robot under the water tank. Now if you have a second mop plate, then you dont have to remove and re-attach the cloth – you can simply slide in the second mop plate with the new mop reusable cloth attached on it. To me this is a definite quality of life improvement.

2. Wet the mop cloth when/after attaching it to the mop plate before sliding it under the robot. This ensures good mopping from the get go, instead of waiting for the water pump to wet the mop which takes a few seconds after starting mopping and will leave the first few meters of mopping insufficiently wet. If you are wetting the mop, you can also add a few drops of cleaning fluid (dont add it into the water tank, since its not rated for it) directly to the cloth if you need it (you may also spray the cleaning fluid on the floor if you need more).

3. The Mi Home app used to control this robot needs a bunch of permissions to work well. If you are having trouble connecting to the robot for the very first time, make sure your phone’s Bluetooth is on and your Wi-Fi network has internet access.

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– Overall verdict –
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Despite the couple of flaws I noted above, the Viomi S9 definitely met my expectations even if its expensive. I got it for my mother who is finding it hard to bend over occasionally and this looks to be successful in taking over the sweeping and mopping duties from her in this pandemic. There is definitely a learning curve, particularly for older people in using the app and getting familiar with all the various options, but the robot has been reliable in its functioning and I’m happy with the purchase so far (about a month of use). If it lasts a few years, I’d consider it a good buy for my needs.

I am using Viomi SE since one year (Since 31st March 2022). I am writing this review because it helps others to choose and decide.

1. Suction Power: Very good. Cleaning/sucking the dust is really good and sufficient enough for home. When cleaning is completed by Robo, floor looks as if we mopped manually with the cloth. My observation is, manually with the help of broom, we will never be able to clean very small dust particles. We all know that only vacuum cleaners can suck very small dust particles. So, this ROBO sucks even very small dust particles and hence floor looks very clean. Suction & Cleaning I rate this ROBO 100 point out of 100.

2. Mopping: It has 2 mopping styles. “S” Mopping and “Y” mopping. “S” mopping is a simple mopping pattern. Water in the ROBO tank flow slowly to the mopping cloth. Cloth is attached behind the ROBO. Cloth will wipe while ROBO is moving. While sucking the dust, it mops also. If the cloth that we attach to ROBO is very clean, then ROBO mops really well. After 1 or 2 mops, cloth gets dirty. Better to clean the cloth manually after every ROBO mopping. If we have 2 to 3 such spare cloths, very easy for us to manage ROBO mopping. It is natural that if cloth is dirty, cleaning will not happen well. If you do Vacuuming and Mopping daily using the ROBO, then floor will be very clean and neat. “Y” mapping intensive mopping. ROBO moves zig jag in front and back direction; the way we manually mop using the cloth (left right, left right). Hence “Y” mopping is very intensive. But it take more time (Probably 30% extra time when compared to “S” mopping). Why to worry about the time when ROBO is doing that for us. We can sit and relax OR we can go to office while ROBO is cleaning our home. But, after “Y” mopping the floor will be very clean and looks great. In total I rate ROBO mopping function 70 out 100. I rate 70 because, we can’t compare ROBO moping with manual mopping. In manual mopping, we use 1 to 2 buckets of water and frequently we clean the mopping cloth multiple times while mopping manually. We even add disinfectant detergent in bucket of water while manually mopping. So, quality of manual mop is extremely good. But the problem is we can’t do the manual mopping daily. Am I right? Who has time and patience of daily manual mopping? You also know the way house maids do the work. Usually maids mop the whole house in 15 to 20 minutes and run to next house. But if you do ROBO vacuuming and mopping on daily basis, then floor is going to be very clean and dust free. I prefer ROBO mopping over maids. As we also can’t do the manual mopping on daily basis, ROBO is the best option. If you are still not 100% on ROBO mopping, then you can do the manual mopping once in a month. You efforts reduced a lot by using ROBO. Enjoy the ROBO’s.

3. Maps & Planning: This ROBO can store many maps (I don’t remember how many maps right now). Since I am staying in a Duplex house, I need to use the same ROBO on both the floors. This ROBO has created 2 Maps. One map for First floor, and another one for Second floor. I manually move the ROBO to First floor and Second floor. Select the map based on the floor that you wants to clean and press start in mobile. ROBO starts cleaning. Because this ROBO works based on the map, the ROBO will not leave even a single inch of the floor for cleaning. ROBO will create the plan of cleaning and cleans each and every inch of the floor. So, map based planning is really good. Sometimes maps get distorted for unknown reason. Probably because of internet disconnect OR when ROBO get stuck with unknown objects Sometimes my kid throw cloth and toys on the floor and ROBO get stuck with such objects sometimes. But this is not a head ache. ROBO can re create the map. So, in such case, I will delete the old map and recreate the new map. By this problem would be solved. I have put Virtual wall in maps so that ROBO will not go inside the bath rooms. I rate ROBO Maps & Planning as 100/100.

4. Electric Power: I am least bothered about electric power consumption. I am not sure how much of electric power it consumes and also we can’t measure how many units it consumes in our home. My house electricity bill also not much increased noticeably. So, not worried about the electricity. Nothing to rate here 

5. Chairs and Tables: If you keep the chairs below the dining table, then ROBO can’t go below the dining table. ROBO should have space to go below the dining table. So, I will keep the chairs apart in such a way that ROBO can go below the table. Once ROBO cleaning is done, I will move the chairs below the dining table. This we need to do before starting the ROBO cleaning. Not a head ache, but we can do this if we need ROBO to clean well.

6. House Architecture: This is very important point. My house is little big (2 floors) and don’t have different levels. I have seen few houses, where Living room will be in one level and Dining will be in different level. Kitchen will be again in another level. I feel, if house is in multiple levels, then head ache is more for us. ROBO can’t climb up or down. We manually need to place the ROBO in different levels. I don’t have this much patience. Luckily my house is a duplex house, but don’t have multiple levels. Only 2 levels. So, at one go, ROBO can clean whole of First Floor (Kitchen, Living, Bedroom, Dining, utility, Horanda, etc.,). Then after some time I will place the ROBO in second floor. Then ROBO will clean the whole of Second Floor including additional 2 bed rooms, Gym area, Study area, etc., Planning to buy another ROBO for Second Floor, but not required. We can manage easily with on ROBO only for 2 floors. Otherwise I will become too lazy 

7. I also recommended my brother, Aunt and couple of friends to buy this so that they also get benefitted. All of them are very happy with ROBO Viomi SE.

8. Comparison with other brands: Sorry, I have not used any other brand ROBO to compare with Viomi SE ROBO. I used only Viomi SE ROBO in my house. But I purchased this Viomi SE ROBO after comparing many other brands ROBO vacuum cleaners with their specifications in internet and many YouTube demos. More than 6 months I studied about these ROBO vacuum cleaners before buying this brand. Spent lot of time in analyzing. Good that finally I purchased Viomi SE and I am very happy now. You can also do the comparison of different brands for months and give some work to your head and brain and buy whatever you like. Why I only need to scratch my head . Now it is your turn.

9. Rate: I got this ROBO for Rs.18,000. My friend and brother got it for Rs.19,000. Another friend got it for Rs.17,000. All of us purchased this in Amazon.

10. I will share the photo OR video of ROBO after sometime if possible. Don’t have patience after writing such a huge review.