Yeedi 2 Hybrid review: Is this €300 robot vacuum any good?

Short conclusion: Inexpensive tip for the patient

Are you looking for a good robotic vacuum cleaner to clean your apartment without running the risk of breaking your precious vases? If your answer is in the affirmative, then I think you will like the Yeedi 2 Hybrid a lot. This is because it has performed admirably well in terms of suction power, placing it on par with far more expensive models. In addition, it was nice to have the mopping function thrown into the mix.

I particularly liked the app. But the vacuum robot comes without a laser-navigation system, which means the Yeedi 2 Hybrid will constantly bump into furniture and other obstacles. However, mapping out my living room via its camera worked surprisingly well.

For the recommended retail price of €299.99 (in Europe), you get an above-average automatic robotic vacuum cleaner to keep your living space nice and clean. I would say that anyone who would like to dive into the world of robotic vacuum cleaners can start with the Yeedi 2 Hybrid in order not to be disappointed. At the end of the day, my floor was clean, which proved that this bad boy lived up to expectations.

Setup & App: Surprisingly user-friendly

Let's begin as though you were the one who is using the Yeedi 2 Hybrid. Before having it perform its first cleaning-task, you will need to unbox and set up the robotic vacuum cleaner. Since everything important has been pre-installed, the process for setting up can be completed in double-quick time. 

Remove a minimal number of environmentally damaging foam spacers, have a look at the thin quick start guide that is stored in the large plastic flap on top of the Yeedi 2 Hybrid, and then follow the instructions accordingly. This includes setting up the charging station and downloading the app. You will also need to press a hardware switch on the Yeedi 2 Hybrid itself to get things going. 

The connection between the robot vacuum, smartphone, and home Wi-Fi network is quickly established via a QR code. I only think it's annoying that your WLAN key can only be entered manually. Other smart home devices score some extra-points in this department with automatic credential sharing.

While waiting for the Yeedi 2 Hybrid to calibrate itself for the first time, we can take a closer look at the app.

App: Intuitive and very well translated

The Yeedi app is available as a free download for both iOS and Android platforms. After installation, you will need to create an account, which makes switching to a new device afterward a rather convenient affair. This is because the Yeedi app saves the setup configuration of its robotic vacuum cleaner, of which you can also include your floor plan whenever you switch. 

• Yeedi in the Google Play Store
• Yeedi in the Apple App Store

Spoiler alert! Before I move on to the technical features of the Yeedi 2 Hybrid, I'll share a spoiler. This robotic vacuum cleaner relies on a camera located on top to measure your apartment's layout. For this purpose, it will perform an initial exploratory journey through the place to create a map, of which you can then label and assign virtual exclusion zones.

But more about that later, because I think the app is really quite well-executed, making me want to spend more time with it. In the main menu, all configured robotic vacuum cleaners are displayed, and by tapping on the selected model, you can see the map of your home and the basic controls.

In this digital control center, you can begin or opt to automate cleaning processes, set the robot's suction power, and even find out just how much wear and tear the filters and collection sensors have gone through – these two parts are crucial in ensuring all the dust particles in corners will be ushered into the vacuum cleaner's hungry mouth. 

Prior to the review, I had a few concerns as Yeedi is a fairly new company. In my experience, the hardware of new products tends to work fine, but the apps are the weak link. You can imagine my surprise when I found no translation errors, complicated menus, or other glitches in the Yeedi app. This cute little robotic vacuum cleaner surely knows how to endear itself!

However, it is a pity that there is no manual remote control option in the app. Since the targeted cleaning zones must always be at least 1 x 1 meter in size, small corners in your home can only be controlled via automatic cleaning and a lot of waiting.

Technology: This is what the Yeedi 2 Hybrid offers

Strictly speaking, I would have had to write "vacuum and mopping robot" for each time I want to accurately describe this smart home device. While that would be more accurate  linguistically, doing so would be a mouthful. This dual-capability makes it practical for users with tiles or parquet floors, and the Yeedi 2 Hybrid does come with another special feature.

This is because the manufacturer shares some components, including the brush and charging station, with Ecovacs. This partnership means a little bit of the Deebot models' DNA from Ecovacs would have made its way into the Yeedi 2 Hybrid, which is a good thing. However, Ecovacs is already far advanced in terms of its navigation system, which is still a weak point with the Yeedi 2 Hybrid.

Yeedi 2 Hybrid navigates via camera and random movement

That's because the Yeedi 2 Hybrid doesn't use a laser navigation system to detect objects in its path. Instead, the bumper, which makes up about half of the robot's body, reacts to obstacles and tells the Yeedi 2 Hybrid to find another route.

In most cases, you can then watch a game of collision, confusion, reorientation, and movement for a few seconds, without end. You may want to protect your more treasured furniture though, or ensure no expensive vases or other fragile items are placed there which could topple over by accident as the Yeedi 2 Hybrid constantly bumps itself around when cleaning. 

To improve the precision of its navigation over time, the Yeedi 2 Hybrid has a camera on top. This digital eye records rather useful maps of your home, making area cleaning or targeting specific dirty areas possible.

What you would miss, however, is the automatic detection of surfaces. You will have to manually adjust the flow rate of its mopping function and the suction power in the app. Bummer!

Vaccum and mopping capability in figures

Feature	Yeedi 2 Hybrid
Max. Suction power (On boost level)	2.500 Pascal
Dust container capacity	430ml
Water tank capacity	240ml
Loudness (manufacturer's specification)	56 decibels
Maximum edge height	2 centimeters
Overall height (aka "There must be this much space under the sofa)	7.7 centimeters
Battery life with continuous cleaning	200 minutes

We'll take a closer look at the suction performance in a moment with my "highly professional review methodology". It is technically on par with the top model from Roborock - the Roborock S7. But since this one is priced at just under €550, the value-for-money proposition that the Yeedi 2 Hybrid offers is simply remarkable.

• The Roborock S5 Max reviewed

It is a little smaller compared to current top models though. Both the water tank (300 ml in the S7) and also the dust container (almost 40 milliliters less space for dust) are smaller. That's almost ... acceptable, as I don't think that it would make much difference in the end.

One thing that I liked about the Yeedi 2 Hybrid was its relatively low noise levels at approximately 56 decibels, which is pretty much on par with other models in the same price range. In reality, you can certainly hear robotic vacuum cleaners when they "work", but I would not rate the noise level as annoying. Using a volume measurement app, I was able to measure it vacuuming at 50.4 decibels 10 centimeters away in standard mode and 61.6 decibels under full power. Pleasant!

Cleaning: Vacuuming and mopping

Let's take a look at the suction performance on two different floor surfaces. In my apartment, it is covered with PVC all over, of which some previous tenant thought it was a stroke of genius to just lay it over the concrete floor. "Manual" vacuuming is therefore a problem, since you will always pull the rubber floor up a little.

The only carpet in my living room is a long carpet from IKEA. Of course, I put the robotic vacuum cleaner through the paces by having it clean this carpet. In each case, I purposely created five large piles of dirt, consisting of:

• Oatmeal
• Coffee powder
• Flour
• Chip crumbs
• Rice

Let's see how well the Yeedi 2 Hybrid coped with my stains.

On PVC

On the smooth PVC floor, I have to rate the suction performance five out of five stars. The Yeedi 2 Hybrid vacuumed all the dirty areas clean without any problems, but it took several tries to do so. The reason? Rotating brushes on the underside.

Like a sweeper, these rotating brushes are supposed to get into the corners and push dust towards the vacuum opening. While this works (not all the time), dirt that is especially light, such as oat flakes, flew all over the place. However, as the Yeedi 2 Hybrid gradually swept up every spot in my living room, it could clean up its mess in due time.

The result? A very clean PVC floor. It even gets cleaner when mopping, but more on that later.

On a carpet

Suction performance on carpet surfaces was not really satisfactory. However, I think that the fringes of my carpet are a bit too long, because the Yeedi 2 Hybrid somehow refused to work in a straight line. This is especially annoying, since it was supposed to work even when faced with surface edges of 2 centimeters.

What followed was an ordeal of somehow steering the robot vacuum towards the dirt piles. Good thing I rubbed the flour nicely into the carpet, right? The fine dust also gave the Yeedi 2 Hybrid a hard time. Because at some point the cliff sensors on the underside ended up dirty.

An alert beeped on the app, which I correctly interpreted via the visual instructions within to remove a small brush from the robot vacuum and clean the sensors. The Yeedi 2 Hybrid then continued until the problem occurred two more times.

"This is of no use," I thought, and I set the robotic vacuum cleaner down from the still-dirty carpet. Since I had to rearrange my living room for the review, it then kicked up an oatmeal storm on the way back to the charging station. Bad vacuum, stop that!

Mopping performance on PVC and tiles

The Yeedi 2 Hybrid's mopping performance lies somewhere between my clean PVC and the carpet debacle. At the bottom of this smart home device lies a wiper that is moistened with water from the water tank via a pump mechanism.

As it moves, the Yeedi 2 Hybrid then drags this wiper behind it, leaving behind a trail of water, like a snail. While this modus operandi works, it is not all that accurate. Since the wiper is also a little narrower than the housing of the robotic vacuum cleaner, wet cleaning does not quite hit the mark when it comes to corners. 

In the photo, you can see that the Yeedi 2 Hybrid left quite a wide strip around the edges of the bedroom. In summary, I'd say the mopping is a nice extra that adds a bit of cleanliness. Stubborn stains, however, must be wiped away by hand.

What else you should know about the Yeedi 2 Hybrid?

Here are a few pointers that I wanted to share after spending time with the Yeedi 2 Hybrid. They do not affect the final score too much, but might be of interest to prospective buyers.

• I think the battery life of 200 minutes in active cleaning mode is realistic
• My doorsteps that are 5 cm tall are too high for pretty much any robotic vacuum cleaners. Therefore, I could. only ever create maps of individual rooms in the review
• The brush, water container, and dust container can be removed very easily via small sliders
• You can set the voice output in the app to your favourite language
• You can also control the Yeedi 2 Hybrid with your voice via the Yeedi Alexa Skill

Yeedi 2 Hybrid

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