Ecovacs Deebot N30 Omni review: Powerful cleaning, reasonable price

Price When Reviewed

$599.99

Best Prices Today: Ecovacs Deebot N30 Omni

$349

$349

Yet another in a growing field of moderately priced robot vacuum/mop combos, the Ecovacs Deebot N30 Omni Robot Vacuum aims to make light work of your floor sweeping and scrubbing without busting your budget.

Besides its self-emptying bin, the Deebot N30 Omni boasts impressive suction power, can clean its own mop heads (including hot-air drying), and is even capable of hoisting itself over tall carpets and modest door thresholds.

Not bad, but you’ll also have to settle for compromises that are common in the N30 Omni’s price range, including room-temperature (rather than hot-water) mop head washing.

What’s included

The Ecovacs Deebot N30 Omni comes with most of what you’ll need right out of the box, including:

• The vacuum itself
• Charging base/dust and mop water bin
• Charging base platform
• Instruction manual

Note that this vacuum doesn’t come with any extras, so you should look into ordering bags, extra mop heads, side brushes, or filters before you use the product for too long. Most everything can be found on the Ecovacs website or within the app.

This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best robot vacuums.

Also, there’s no cleaning solution in the box to get you started, something you’ll want before you ever start mopping floors. We were advised that a standard wet robot vacuum solution can be used in a pinch, although it would have been nice to try the brand’s version for the most authentic experience.

Finally, the manual mentions a solid floor cleaner that appears to be a cartridge that you place in a hole under the water tank. We could not find this product on the website. The manual states this is all you need to clean, and it shouldn’t be used with other cleaners. 

Design

At 13.5 x 5 inches (WxH), the Deebot N30 Omni is a standard-sized robot vacuum. The bot boasts an all-black minimalist design, with many of its buttons hidden under a removable panel on the top of the machine.

The charging/cleaning/dustbin base, called the Omni Station, serves many purposes and is, therefore, very large, measuring 21 x 13 x 18 inches (HxWxD), including the loading ramp. Despite holding clean water, dirty water, a dust bag, and a filter, the base sports a simple black design and would blend in well in most settings. 

Linsey Knerl/Foundry

While not included in the specs, we estimated that the clean water tank has a volume of roughly 5L. The dirty water tank was of similar size, although the manual recommends you empty the dirty water after each run rather than waiting for the tank to fill up.

Setup and room mapping

The user manual directed us to download the app to begin. We were then told to scan the code under the removable panel on the top of the vacuum so the app could recognize our vacuum model. The only part that was confusing was the child lock, which we accidentally set by holding down the wrong buttons; luckily, it’s easy to undo the child lock, and we were back on track in seconds.

The vacuum supports only 2.4GHz or mixed 2.4/5GHz Wi-Fi networks, but that’s par for the course.

Like most robot vacuums, the Deebot works best on its first mapping run if everything is removed from its path. You can begin the first map by using the app or pressing the power button on the robot. It will automatically begin cleaning and mapping the area.

Because the Deebot N30 does both hard floor cleaning and carpet cleaning, it will determine whether to use water or not based on its sensors. If you’re worried about the bot spotting your carpets on its first mapping run, you can set it up to just vacuum the first round, and it will map the floor layout. Then, you can specify on the app whether to vacuum and mop on later runs.  

This vacuum can juggle multiple maps, which is handy if you have more than one floor. The add will automatically divide a map into rooms, but you can also edit the map later to create larger rooms, add dividers, or change the shape of an area. 

Features

In addition to refilling the vacuum’s internal water tank, emptying all the debris, and washing and drying the mop heads, the station charges the vacuum between uses. When you’re ready to start a cleaning run, you can choose from four suction settings. The highest setting goes up to 10,000 Pa, which is quite impressive given the Deebot N30 Omni’s mid-range price point.

For each run, you can choose to vacuum only, mop only, mop after vac, or vac and mop at the same time. You can also choose the water flow rate for a light mop or more aggressive cleaning. You can also set how tight of a cleaning pattern the robot will follow (the tighter the pattern, the longer the clean), as well as determine whether the vac takes one or two passes per run. Altogether, there are dozens of cleaning configurations you can choose from. 

The app also lets you trigger manual cleaning and drying sessions for the mop heads, as well as activate the solid floor cleaner. (Note that this was the feature we couldn’t access, so we are unsure how it works through the app.)

Other app features include a detailed cleaning log, FAQs, and the user manual for troubleshooting recommendations. 

The Ecovacs Deebot N30 Omni works with three voice assistants, all of which can be set up through the app: Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Siri Shortcuts. 

Performance

The vacuum did well with cat hair, dry debris, and cat litter. The robot had little trouble with finer particles, with no need to do more than one pass. We found that it worked better to vacuum than mop when dealing with particularly dirty or dusty hard floors. Otherwise, the brush would fling small particles into areas that had just been mopped, creating wet cat litter and food. We did appreciate the tangle-free cleaning, which ensured we never had to stop to get longer hairs, threads, or pieces of paper from the roller by hand. 

The N30 Omni was also a thorough cleaner on soft carpets and along the edges of rooms. One thing that really surprised us was its ability to navigate around oddly shaped areas. We have a table leg that’s close to a wall, with just enough room for the robot to squeeze through. It did so successfully every time without having to back up, reposition itself, or bump into the wall.

The robot comes with rather large, treaded rubber wheels that allow it to clear high-pile carpets and door thresholds up to 20mm (or roughly 0.78 inches) high. These “monster-truck” wheels make it much easier for the vacuum to enter rooms and other areas that other bots might have trouble traversing. But is also means the vacuum could climb–and then clean–flat items on the floor that you don’t want cleaned, such as a stray book. When we placed a half inch-tall cutting board on the floor as an experiment, the robot moved over the top of it and cleaned it as if it were a standard floor surface. 

Linsey Knerl/Foundry

We did the cereal test of placing a half cup of “o’s” on a hard floor, and the vacuum initially threw many of the pieces around with its spinning brush. It did eventually pick most of the bits up, but because our kitchen cabinets stick out further than where the vacuum can reach, we did have to get on our hands and knees to retrieve the remaining particles. The same thing happened when we spilled out a third of a cup of uncooked rice. In all our tests on the hard floor, a few pieces were thrown by the brush, but as long as the vacuum could reach the stray rice grains, it could pick them up.

The carpeted surface tests didn’t see the vacuum throwing as much debris around, meaning we had an almost 100-percent pickup rate for the cereal and the rice. 

Mopping both new and dried-on gunk was a success. We found we had the best results when vacuuming first and then mopping (not at the same time.) We used the maximum amount of water for things like fresh jelly, and the mop seemed to get almost all of the residue up. We did find that there was a slight stickiness to the floor in a few areas, but it’s very easy to ask the vacuum to take another pass after cleaning the mop heads.

We were also impressed by the TrueEdge Adaptive Edge mopping arm, which can extend itself into small nooks and crannies where my large, traditional mop couldn’t reach. 

Noise

This vacuum was very quiet–so quiet, in fact, that it was frequently able to clean without startling our cats. Only on the most powerful suction setting could we hear the N30 Omni from the next room.

We would feel comfortable running the bot at any time of day or night without disrupting the rest of the household. 

Dust and water bin

As homeowners with many pets, we often find that dust bins get easily clogged the first few times a new robot vacuum empties itself. However, the Deebot N30 Omni had no issues moving the hair and debris from the robot to the bin. Aside from a few prompts to add more clean water (because we mopped almost daily), we didn’t have to touch the base/bin much during our test period. 

Linsey Knerl/Foundry

Of course, while you could probably get away with rarely touching the base station, you don’t want to let that dirty water sit in the tank for too long. Ecovacs recommends dumping the dirty water after every mopping run–a good practice, although we didn’t exactly adhere to the guidelines (blame it on our busy schedule). We didn’t notice any odors or mold in the week we left the dirty water untouched, but given enough time, bacteria and foul smells would surely build up.

The base also comes with mop pad washing (room-temperature only rather than hot water) and hot-air (86 degrees F) drying. After every session, the pads soak in the cleaning solution and dry off to prevent mold and mildew, thus keeping you from having to toss the mop pads into the wash.

Obstacle avoidance

The Ecovacs Deebot N30 Omni’s laser navigation technology kept the vacuum from getting into trouble, and we only had one instance where it pulled an appliance cord away from a wall. It stopped right away, notifying us of the problem before it could wrap the cord up into its brush or cause any issues.

Aside from that, it did a very good job of noticing changes in the room and not getting too close to obstacles. We have a few pieces of furniture that get moved around frequently, and the vacuum noticed them without needing to bump into them. We found it could still get very close to these misplaced objects, cleaning right up to their edges, and it never got confused or turned around.

The vacuum went around a sock, and our cats did not have any issues. And while the main vacuum brush can’t go where the vacuum won’t fit, the extension arm controlling the mop head often can. Indeed, the N30 Omni could mop up the edges of a spill even if it couldn’t vacuum those few inches next to a cupboard or door.  

Battery life

According to Ecovacs, the Deebot N30 Omni can run for up to 320 minutes on a single charge in “quiet” vacuum mode, or up to 220 minutes in standard vacuuming and mopping mode. Those estimates held up during our testing, although your own mileage may vary. 

The vacuum takes up to 6.5 hours for fully charge, with the robot more than halfway charged when we received it.

Specifications

• Robot measurements: 13.5 x 5 inches (WxH)
• Base station measurements: 21 x 13 x 18 inches (HxWxD)
• Suction power: 10,000 Pa
• Navigation: Laser
• Anti-tangle brushes: Yes
• Battery life: Up to 320 minutes (quiet mode) or 220 minutes (standard vacuuming and mopping mode)
• Time to fully charge: 6.5 hours
• Smart home integrations: Alexa, Google Home, Siri shortcuts

Should you buy the Ecovacs Deebot N30 vacuum?

The Ecovacs Deebot N30 Omni offers a compelling package for the price, including a self-emptying vacuum that also mops, while also washing and drying its own mop heads. Laser navigation helps the N30 Omni map your floors while steering clear of obstacles, while “monster truck” wheels allow the bot to roam where other vacuums can’t.

You’re getting a lot of value here considering the current $599.99 sale price, and while we’re bummed by the room-temperature mop head washing (a typical compromise at this price point), the hot air drying will help keep mildew at bay.