One thing you can count on when it comes to mopvacs is that companies are always trying out something new. Ecovacs has been steadily iterating over the past few years, adding more and more features to their automop robovacs and self-cleaning docks. With the Deebot X2 Omni, they’ve made their best bot yet.
What makes it so good?
One glance and you can see that Ecovacs has completely reworked their design. Instead of the circular bot that just about every robovac company uses, the X2 Omni is square. And it’s a proper square, not the half-square/half-circle that Neato uses for their bots or the “squircle” of LG’s Hom-Bot Square.
Ecovacs says that it enables the X2 Omni to get into corners more efficiently, as well as giving some extra room for a wider, redesigned rubber brush. It also lets them pare down the width of the dock so that it takes up less space overall.
And if that was all that Ecovacs had done, hardware-wise, it would be enough to warrant a closer look at their newest bot. But they’ve made some impressive functional changes as well.
In my review of Ecovacs’ previous flagship device, the T10 Omni, the one thing that I dinged it for was its inability to raise its mops, so it could only vacuum your rugs and carpet if you manually removed the mopping pads. That limitation is gone with the X2 Omni’s new auto-raise dual rotary mopping pads. They go even farther than their competitors, with a 15mm clearance, more than double that of their closest competitor, Roborock’s Q Revo.
Navigationally, the X2 has AI, 3D mapping, and, for the first time an internal LIDAR system, letting it ditch the hump on the top of the unit. This allows it to get into more areas and keeps it from getting stuck in “low-clearance” areas (something that the T10 is prone to).
Suction is upgraded as well to an impressive 8,000Pa. That’s 2,000Pa more than other high-end mopvacs and 3,000Pa more than their own T10. So it’s good that Ecovacs has improved their brush system to a rubber, tangle-free brush that works as advertised, with longer hair traveling to the either end of the brush so that it can be easily removed, rather than wrapping around the center.
And the Omni station itself makes the X2 Omni a practically hands-off self-emptying, self-cleaning system. It features redesigned water tanks (for less-frequent emptying and refilling) a removable dock tray (for easy cleaning), and hot water cleaning and hot air drying of the mopping pads.
How well does it clean?
As you might expect, pretty damn well.
The OZMO Turbo 2.0 rotating mopping system is exceptional, scrubbing hard surfaces and lifting to easily clear rugs and carpeting. The X2 also lifts the mopping pads when traveling through areas its already cleaned, a nice touch.
The hot-water cleaning of the new and improved dock system improves the pickup of the mops as well, resulting in some of the filthiest dirty water I’ve ever seen while emptying the dock. This is a good thing.
That improved cleaning efficiency is evident when the bot encounters soft surfaces or the onboard AI detects large messes, automatically boosting suction. It’s not going to replace your Dyson for deep carpet cleaning, but each generation is creeping closer to matching manual vacuums’ power. You’ll be able to go considerably longer between those deep clean sessions where you break out the manual stick vac.
The AI system provides considerably better obstacle avoidance than previous-generation bots, avoiding cables, pet toys, and socks that have tripped up older models. It’s still a stubborn bot, pushing around furniture, closing open doors, and locking itself in rooms. It also can’t “see” french doors and mirrors, thinking that those are entryways to other rooms (this isn’t an issue just for the X2 though, it’s every robovac). So while I still have to rescue the X2 from obstacles it’s created (literally happened while I was writing this), that happens considerably less than with the T10 (though Roborock still wins as the most independent bot).
The new Omni dock is incredible and the best Ecovacs has released. It takes up less space but still has more than enough capacity that you only have to deal with refilling and emptying the water bins every other time the X2 runs. The hot water cleaning does a fantastic job of keeping the mopping pads clean and the hot air drying prevents any mold or mildew growth. The dust bin has enough room for about 60 days of vacuuming before it has to be replaced (though the emptying mechanism is really loud). One other nice touch is the removable dock tray. Much better than having to get on your hands and knees with a scrub brush to clean the old dock.
So why should you think twice?
For a $1,499 device, the X2 Omni is surprisingly noisy. This is attributable mostly to the rotational motor for the side brush. It produces a constant high-pitched whine that you’ll notice more for its absence once the X2 moves off to the other side of the house. But there are intermittent audio interruptions as well, with every operational message and error being repeated four times and the aforementioned loudest bin-emptying system I’ve ever tested.
The X2 Omni is a consistent performer as long as it doesn’t lose its network connection. I’ve had this problem with other Ecovacs bots and it’s led me to believe that their wireless chips don’t work well with dual bandwidth mesh systems. It leads to inconsistent bot behavior. Some days the X2 works perfectly, executing its cleaning routine without issue. On other days it decides that a corner of my house is not a wall but a portal to some robovac Valhalla that it must access, banging into it over and over.
If I hadn’t seen similar behavior in other Ecovacs, I would dismiss it as early production issues. The fact that I keep having to rescue what are supposed to be bots with advanced obstacle avoidance makes me think that there’s some nagging incompatibility. To be fair, it’s not uncommon for IoT devices to be 2.4Ghz compatible only and have issues with advanced wireless networks. But given how common those are becoming, and the fact that you’re paying over $1,000 for the X2 Omni, you’d hope it’d be a non-issue.
Where can I get it?
Complaints aside, the X2 is still the most powerful, most effective, most advanced robovac on the market. It has unparalleled suction power, a fantastic mopping system, and a dock that’s better than anything else I’ve seen. It will undoubtedly get your floors cleaner than any other bot. You can reserve yours on the Ecovacs site for $1,499.
And this weekend only, if you’re lucky enough to be in NYC, you can get up to $500 off a new X2 Omni when you trade in your old bot at the New York Bot Exchange.
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