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ECOVACS DEEBOT M80 Pro vacuum and mopping robot final review

81rolHX9VQL. SL1500 1 - for some reason we don't have an alt tag hereThis will be the fourth and final review of the DEEBOT M80 Pro unless something interesting pops up. At this point I believe I’ve seen everything this has to offer with the current firmware.

I’ll note there are coupon codes that are good for the next two days at the end.

Testing environment

My house has kids, tons of cables, and a cat. My wife thinks every room needs a throw rug. There are shag rugs, flat rugs, and thick yarn rugs. There’s tile in the kitchen, bathroom, hardwood where the throw rugs don’t cover. There’s a 1 inch transition into the kitchen, and two pieces of furniture that are the exact height off the ground as the DEEBOT M80 Pro and the Roomba.

In short, it’s a complicated hellish maze.

Compared to an old Roomba (vacuum)

Deebot M80 stuck, Roomba 550 stuck
Deebot M80 stuck, Roomba 550 stuck

I put the ECOVACS DEEBOT M80 Pro in a head to head with a slightly broken Roomba 550. This was an unfair fight as literally everything on the Roomba needs replacing.

The DEEBOT M80 Pro did a significantly better job of filling up the bin. Once again, most likely because the Roomba needs work.

I could tell no difference in times stuck as neither the Roomba nor the DEEBOT M80 Pro generally made it back to home. The Roomba would most likely wedge itself under a cabinet, the M80 would turn over a rug corner and then somehow beach itself.

The Roomba was more likely to return to docking station when I put it near than the M80. The M80’s docking station moves. It needs to be secured down somehow. I tried it on carpet and hardwood and in both cases the M80 would at some point move the docking station where it was unusable.

Mopping

I was skeptical that  I would have a flaming hockey puck wandering around the house mixing water and cleaner and all, but it was fine. You’re required to roll any area rugs over so the M80 Pro will not attempt to mop the carpets. Fail to do this and get ready for damp dirty carpets.

Overall it does an OK job at dust mopping. There’s not a lot of pressure and the DEEBOT M80 Pro only goes over things so many times. Anything ground in is probably not coming up.

That said, it did shine up the floors and make things look pretty good every time I did it. I just don’t particularly think it scrubbed anything. Floor cleaner was applied, cleaner was wiped with about 3 pounds of pressure behind the pad, done.

Scheduled cleaning

It started out pretty good, 7:20 am every work day I’d hear it kick on and know if I didn’t get on the road I was going to be late. Then one day I noticed it hadn’t cleaned. It didn’t clean the next either. I checked and although it was on the dock it was not docked. Don’t know what happened.

That night at 11 pm it decided it was time to clean. There’s no indicator what time the DEEBOT M80 Pro thinks it is so I decided to reset the time via the remote control. That seemed to work.

It stopped working a few more times, each the M80 Pro was off the charger.

ECOVACS DEEBOT M80Remotes

One of my first “duh” moments was realizing that the app doesn’t have any way to set or see the time the M80 Pro has. You can set the schedule, but if it’s pulling time from somewhere I don’t see it. So I popped in the batteries to the IR remote which I’d rather not have, set the time, then went to the app, and set the schedule.

Stuck again
Stuck again, naturally

Internet connection

I can start, stop, and basically every day read about the thing being stuck somewhere. If it’s gone more than 10 minutes that means it’s probably vacuumed once. It’s actually kind of nice to watch a kid make some crumbs and remote control the DEEBOT M80 Pro to go pick them up.

It’s not particularly nice to every day check in and see that it’s stuck. The remote control has allowed me to back it off of something once (I was not at home, no idea what it was on,) and resume, but it’s usually not going to get unstuck if it couldn’t get itself out.

Questionable logging

Deebot M80 Pro loggingFor the past 46 days I have used the ECOVACS DEEBOT M80 Pro on average at least every other day. I started the review around October 1st, posted my first article on the running review on the 10th, and have been using this at the absolute least 15 times since the 5th. The cleaning log shows I’ve used it five times after the fifth.

While I did have a house with questionable internet at the same time Pocketables was down, that was two and a half days (internet issue.)

There’s also that it claims to have cleaned 26 hours, 25 minutes and in the log shows 102 minutes of cleaning since 10/2/2017. Assuming workdays only (30, of which it hasn’t done all) it’s claiming to have worked every day for about 40 minutes. This is incorrect. At least I’m pretty sure it’s incorrect.

Hull damage

After a month the DEEBOT M80 Pro looks used. It’s bumped into thing it didn’t see, scraped itself trying to get out of a situation. Nothing major but it’s looking less like a spaceship robot and more like a slightly used vacuum cleaner. Did I take pictures of this before I left the house? I thought so. Do I have them? No.

Vacuum ability

The pickup is very good. This is a vacuum I’m impressed with. It fills the bin nearly every time with dust, Barbie shoes, cat and human hair, and throw-rug fibers. The high-clean mode gets things my Roomba never would and my Shark would generally be required to get. They have that part down pat.

Overall

I’m more impressed with the DEEBOT M80 Pro (MSRP $229,) than I was with the Roomba 550 (MSRP at the time, $300something?) back when it worked properly, that said I think it could do better with a firmware update. The ability to set the clock from the app, reliable logging, and better mounting detection (it’s stuck itself before with both wheels off the ground,) and avoidance.

It feels like it need a firmware update to fix some of the logic problems that are getting it stuck in my house rather than me needing to change the house around. We’ve been doing robot vacuums for 10 years and some of the jams I’ve watched seem preventable. Your house will most likely be less of a Roomba and Deebot obstacle course than mine is.

I like it, but don’t love it.

Coupons and get it

I’m cutting and pasting what my ECOVACS rep sent me with the modification of tagging the link to Pocketables and a comment on the 78 that this is not what I reviewed. That said this is what I have been given and hopefully it works for you (if it doesn’t let me know)

DEEBOT M78 – this is not what I reviewed, the M80 is later
Promo Code: 3U9IGMQF
Launch time:14th Nov to 18th Nov
ECOVACS DEEBOT N78 Robotic Vacuum Cleaner at $129.59 with $50 OFF Lowest Price of the Whole Year

ECOVACS via Amazon is offering a $50 coupon for its DEEBOT N78 robotic vacuum. Use the code 3U9IGMQF to get the cleaner at $129.59. Lowest price you can get and the coupon is activated now. You will love its tangle-free suction for pet hair, debris and dirt. Best friend for your family and pets.

DEEBOT M80 Pro (this is what I reviewed)

Promo Code: PPEFBY9I
Launch time: 14th Nov to 18th Nov(PDT)
ECOVACS DEEBOT M80 Pro Robotic Vacuum at $170 with $60 OFF

ECOVACS will have a DOTD (Deal of the day) promotion on Amazon on Black Friday (24th Nov). Use the code PPEFBY9I to get the DEEBOT M80 Pro robotic vacuum cleaner at $170, the same price as the DOTD offers. Lowest price of the whole year. With the ECOVACS app in your pocket, you can effortlessly control M80 Pro anywhere, anytime. Its 5-stage cleaning system supports to agitate, brush and suction floors. Plus, it can mop and dry.

Random commentary

Looks like if you’ve missed the coupon you can pick it up on November 24th as a deal of the day.

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Paul E King

Paul King started with GoodAndEVO in 2011, which merged with Pocketables, and as of 2018 he's evidently the owner. He lives in Nashville, works at a film production company, is married with two kids. Facebook | Twitter | Donate | More posts by Paul | Subscribe to Paul's posts

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