Ecovacs Deebot X1 Turbo review: Robot mop makes short work of carpets

The Ecovacs Deebot X1 Turbo in a nutshell

The Ecovacs Deebot X1 Turbo has many strengths, there is no doubt about that. However, the manufacturer charges a hefty premium for them with a recommended retail price of $1,349. First its strengths: The mopping and vacuuming robot offers excellent cleaning performance. With 5,000 Pa of suction power, it does not need to hide behind dedicated vacuum robots, and the two rotating wiping pads reliably scrub hard floors clean and give your carpets a wide berth at the same time.

Unfortunately, the software repeatedly caused problems in the review. The Ecovacs X1 Turbo needed half a dozen attempts to scan its own four walls, and the cleaning processes were stopped at random multiple times. The live view of the robot's position also did not work reliably. What would be forgivable in a $300 robotic vacuum cleaning is disappointing in an upper mid-range model that currently costs $850 after being discounted from its MSRP of $1,349.99. You read that right: Ecovacs is currently offering its top model with a massive $500 discount.

Unboxing and set up

The setup of the Ecovacs Deebot X1 Turbo is quick and easy. You install the manufacturer's app, follow the settings on your smartphone, and a few minutes later, the robot and station are connected to the Wi-Fi network. Mapping out the cleaning route however, is a challenge.

What I liked:

• Quick and easy setup.
• Surveillance camera function.

What I disliked:

• Mixed mapping performance.
• Cannot clean carpets and hard floors in one go.

As with most modern day vacuum robots, setting up the Ecovacs Deebot X1 Turbo works very easily. After installing the app, you set up an account, inform the app of your Wi-Fi password, and a few seconds later, the vacuuming and mopping robot is ready to go. In the next step, the Deebot X1 Turbo wants to map your apartment and it begins with a tap of the finger.

Unfortunately, the X1 Turbo always finished fails to completely map the entire region in the review. In other words, the robot simply ignored some rooms despite having the doors wide open. The app even indicates this with a "Mapping incomplete" message, and you can send the robot off to map its route again with a tap. Why this doesn't work automatically is beyond me. After about half a dozen attempts, the place is finally mapped.

Ideally, the X1 Turbo recognizes individual rooms right away. However, according to the Ecovacs app, my apartment consists of one huge room and a storage room behind the kitchen. Ah well, at least there is the possibility to manually divide the rooms. However, this works worse in reality than it is better as my attempts always leave me with a no-man's-land that is no longer assigned to any room.

If you want, you can even add furniture to the scanned floor plan via the Ecovacs app. The X1 Turbo even recognizes some things on its own, such as my couch. However, I had to add a dining table manually. Once I've done that, I can theoretically say: "Yiko, clean up around the dining table". In practice, this actually works if you have configured your living space accordingly in the app. The only thing that did not work in the review was calling "Yiko, clean up here" - the X1 Turbo could not find me.

What is far more important would be the regular cleaning capability. The Ecovacs Deebot X1 Turbo has two fundamentally different operating modes: vacuuming and mopping. If you have the robot running in mopping mode, then it will skip all the carpets in your home and only take care of hard floors. If you remove the two magnetically held mops, the robot vacuums the entire place.

This has its own set of advantages and disadvantages: For starters, it actually makes sense because this way, the edges of your precious oriental carpets actually don't get damp. On the other hand, it prevents the X1 Turbo from reaching areas in the home that can only be reached by walking across a carpet. Here, a "screw my IKEA carpets" mode would still be desirable. Or do buyers of $1,350 robotic vacuum cleaners not own cheap carpets?

Last but not least, the surveillance camera feature is worth mentioning. You can access the live image of the robot vacuum at any time via the app and even control the Deebot X1 Turbo freely using the control pad.

You can also record short videos via the camera, communicate with your home via voice, and even let the robot patrol regularly around the home.

Vacuuming and mopping performance

The Ecovacs Deebot X1 Turbo does not show any weakness in terms of vacuuming and mopping performance. The cleaning robot vacuums and wipes away everything that gets in its way. The X1 Turbo only has to admit defeat when it comes to day-old ketchup that is splattered all over the floor. However, who leaves stains like that out to dry for so long? The bigger problem in the review, however, was to get the Ecovacs robot to perform a complete cleaning.

What I liked:

• Strong suction power at 5,000 Pa.
• Wipes very thoroughly, can use an optional cleaning agent.
• Station cleans and dries mop pads.
• Handles carpets with care.

What I disliked:

• Station has not suction function.
• Very slow charging rate.

What the Deebot X1 Turbo cleans, it cleans thoroughly. Even without using an optionally available cleaning agent, the Ecovacs vacuum robot thoroughly scrubs footprints, liquid traces, and other stains from the floor. The X1 Turbo only failed to remove really stubborn dried sauce residues. However, the Dreame L10s Ultra also failed when it came to similar dried sauces on the floor, even when armed with some cleaning agent in the tank.

The suction mode was also convincing. At 5,000 Pa, the Deebot X1 Turbo reliably pulls dust, lint, hair, and other nasty stuff from hard floors and carpets into the tank. The rotating brush relies on a mixture of bristles and flaps. It is just a pity that the station does not have a suction function. Therefore, you have to empty the dust tank regularly yourself. The following table shows how the Deebot X1 Turbo performs in the NextPit vacuum benchmark.

	Test volume (g)	Suction volume (g)	Cleaning performance (%)
Rice	10 g	9,6 g	96 %
Oats	10 g	9,9 g	99 %
Coffee	10 g	9,6 g	96 %
Sand	Laminate: 10 g Carpet: 10 g	Laminate: 9.1 g Carpet: 8.8 g	Laminate: 91 Carpet: 88

For the vast majority of homes, the Deebot X1 Turbo should provide a sufficient range. In pure mopping mode, the robot needed a good quarter of its battery capacity to scrub 35 square meters in just under an hour. Meanwhile, the robot goes to the dock about every ten minutes to thoroughly rinse its mops. Each time it does that, the robot comments, "The mopping pads are slightly dirty." After two complete cleaning cycles, an entire tank of clean water has turned into dirty water, and the X1 Turbo prompted me to refill or empty it.

If you now think that you can make four such runs with 100 percent battery life, you are mistaken: The Deebot X1 Turbo always retains at least 25 percent residual capacity in the battery - and then returns to the dock for recharging. It also ends the wiping process and unfortunately does not automatically continue where it left off. Even when the tank is devoid of clean water, the X1 Turbo does not continue where it ran out of juice.

If you have less than about 70 square meters of surface area to be mopped, make sure the water tank is full before cleaning so that this will not bother you. However, there's no quick charge function, and it takes around five to six hours until the battery is charged from 25 to 100 percent.

Ecovacs Deebot X1 Turbo

To device database