Review: ECOVACS DEEBOT X2 COMBO

Robot vacuums are not just getting smarter, they’re doing more. ECOVACS’ newest floor bot can vacuum and mop, and clean itself too, and now there’s another handy new feature in the ECOVACS DEEBOT X2 COMBO: an extra handheld vacuum, perfect for cleaning your car or small spaces. In this review I’m going to try out the newest Deebot in my home as part of my spring cleaning regimen. I’ll show you what it can do, test how well it cleans on the floors and everywhere else. I’ll go over the pros and cos and let you know if I think I can recommend it to you.

I’d also like to thank ECOVACS for being an ongoing sponsor of the blog and the YouTube channel. While they are paying for my time here, they have not told me what I have to say or what I can’t say about the new X2 Combo, and I got to test it as I wanted to. So these thoughts are 100% mine.

What you get: ECOVACS DEEBOT X2 COMBO

The all new ECOVACS DEEBOT X2 COMBO not only adds some new cleaning features, it’s improved on the robot vac-mop too.

In a nut shell, The all-new DEEBOT X2 COMBO combines the hands-free convenience of a nearly autonomous robot vacuum and mop, with the flexibility of a handheld vacuum. You can also upgrade to the DEEBOT X2 COMBO COMPLETE, which includes additional accessories that convert the hand vac into a full-sized stick vacuum.

The ECOVACS DEEBOT X2 COMBO has an impressive 8,700 pascals of suction—which can be double and up to three and four times as powerful as most other vacuum robots, and it’s up even from the substantial 8,000 pa on the previous X2.

This should mean it will do an even better job of suctioning nearly every thing from your floors. We’ll check out what it can do in my cleaning tests, coming up.

Watch my hands-on review of DEEBOT X2 COMBO in my home

Unboxing ECOVACS DEEBOT X2 COMBO

Let’s unbox it to get a closer look… There’s a few components in here; first and most importantly is the DEEBOT X2 robot. This D-shaped bot has a squared front for getting closer to baseboards and edges. Underneath, a corner brush and roller brush inhale dust and dirt, while two rotating mopping pads wash the floor. We’ll dig a bit deeper on this in a bit…

Also in the box is a handheld vacuum. Three brushes come with the handheld; a flat dusting brush, a mini motorized brush, and a crevice tool.

The all-in-one OMNI station is the biggest component and this is base camp for your bot. Inside the OMNI station is where your bot will empty its own dustbin, then wash and dry the mopping pads. Two large tanks under the lid hold clean water and dirty water.

There’s also the power cord, extra vacuum bags and a small ramp for DEEBOT to get to its garage.

How it all comes together is pretty cool: the robot parks under the ONMI station and just above that is where the dustbin auto-empties into a sealed bag. To the right is where you can dock your handheld vacuum. The dock will automatically empty the handheld for you too after every use, and it keeps it fully charged.

Cleverly, a small drawer in the base holds all your tools so there’s no misplacing them, and I love this feature so much.

Now I will be transparent here and say that this base station is very large and does need a good amount of space to operate. The station measures about 20-inches tall, 22-inches wide and 14-inches deep. And you will need it to have some clearance for the bot to come and go and to pull the handheld from its dock too, so keep that in mind.

Set up

Getting things set up is going to take just a minute or two. From my experience reviewing numerous ECOVACS robot vacuums, the process has been easy, seamless, and bug free. It’s one of the reasons I really like recommending ECOVACS; the user interface is easy, particularly for those new to robot vacuums.

You just need the free ECOVACS app. Sign up for or sign into your account and then choose the option to add a new robot.

Essentially you’ll power the robot on, scan the QR code on the bot and connect to your home’s Wi-Fi.

With that done your DEEBOT will prompt you to go on a mapping run of your house so it can learn the layout. I was really impressed that the robot found its way around my space in about 10 minutes and I had a fully generated, and accurate map, where it had even chosen the room labels for me and they were correct! Freakishly impressive.

With the house mapped it was time to put the DEEBOT X2 COMBO to work.

Cleaning tests

Whenever I test out a floor cleaning robot I always run them through the same set of tests. I will spill finer stuff like flour or sugar, middle size bits like rice or oatmeal, and bigger cracker pieces on both carpet and hard floors. With the mopping I create liquid spills and let some dry to test the scouring prowess.

Since this unit also has the handheld vacuum, I’m going to test it out on a few different things since I’m doing my spring cleaning this week. I’ll try it out on the dog bed, the sofa (which is usually loaded with dog hair) and then I’ll take it to the car and the camper van where I think it will actually be really valuable.

Vacuum tests

There was nothing I threw at this bot that it couldn’t clean. It was a master at vacuuming up pet hair, and we have a lot of it this spring because it’s shedding season. DEEBOT X2 was also able to pick up every last speck of granola, flour, sand, dried fruit and more, whether it was on the hard floors, or carpet and rugs.

It even vacuumed up spare change!

I’d say from my days of testing it got about 99-100% of anything on the floor.

The DEEBOT is only about 32cm or 12 inches in width with a ground clearance of 9.5cm or just under 4-inches tall so it’s made to get under furniture like the sofa, the bed and it manoeuvres well around the legs of tables and chairs.

Mopping tests

I was really impressed with the mopping, as I was on the original X2. The mop has a neat way of wiggling itself over particularly troublesome stains to add wiping to the scrubbing motion. In all of my tests, the DEEBOT X2 COMBO was able to clean the floors beautifully, again getting about 99-100% of spills bot damp and dried.

The DEEBOT has scrubbing, spinning mopping pads, and I like these better than a flat pad because I’ve found they work better at routing off dried on stains. Technically ECOVACS calls this the OZMO Turbo 2.0 Rotating Mopping System, and it’s designed to apply constant pressure to the floor for deep mop scrubbing. The soft and nubby chenille pads can lift up to 15mm off the ground so if the robot hits carpet, it won’t get it wet.

When I tested this I was able to see the lifting in action—and you can too.

Another feature I really like about the mop is that I can dial the water flow up or down.

Handheld tests

I have to say I found the additional handheld vacuum got a lot more use than I initially thought it would. It was so easy just to grab it from the dock to vacuum up a small spill in the kitchen or to give the dog bed a once over. When I put it back to recharge, it empties itself.

In the camper van, it’s small enough that we could bring it on any trip, and it was really great at keeping the bed, cushions, seats, and even the floor free of sand, grit, and pet hair. If the auto empty base is not nearby, you can just pop the bottom open over a garbage can.

I also found this vacuum is the ideal car cleaner. The three attachments make it ideal for getting into every space; the mini motorized brush can clean the floor wells, the dusting brush is perfect for vents and cupholders, while the crevice brush gets into all the small spaces in the car.

Self cleaning & emptying

The All-in-one OMNI station has several functions, like I mentioned. It works to keep all your tools charged, but it also automatically empties both the robot and the handheld vacuum into the same sealed dust bag. It automatically refills the robot’s on board water tank with fresh water, and it will clean the mopping pads with 60-degree hot water if they are getting too dirty. Once the full clean sweep is over, it gives the pads a final hot water wash then starts a 2-hour Hot Air Drying cycle, which runs absolutely silently.

The ECOVACS DEEBOT X2 COMBO keeps fine dust from getting back into your home with a 4-stage filtration system. There are filters both in the DEEBOT, and in the handheld vacuum. The sealed dust bag inside the station also prevents particles from escaping.

Yiko Voice assistant

Another feature I wasn’t sure I needed, but found was so handy is the Yiko voice assistant. Just by asking Yiko, I can start or stop a clean, empty the dustbin, wash the mops or pause drying.

You can even go anywhere in your home and call for Yiko to ‘clean this spot’ and it knows where you are by measuring the distance to your voice. Pretty cool.

Schedule

One of the most useful features of a robot vacuum is the ability to schedule cleanings anytime. The app makes it easy to choose regular daily or weekly cleanings and I find this is one of the best ways to maximize your investment.

Obstacle avoidance

After reviewing dozens of robot vacuums, I’ve come to learn that obstacle avoidance and hazard recognition are actually a very underrated feature.

The truth is if your robot floor cleaner is not smart enough to see, assess, and then avoid potential hazards, it may become very unlikely to finish its cleaning jobs. ECOVACS bots in my opinion are some of the best in the market when it comes to never getting tangled up in the first place and the X2 combo is no exception.

On more than one occasion it was able to unstick itself from a tricky throw rug, a charging cable, and even the base of some stools. That means DEEBOT X2 Combo requires virtually no help from you to get its spring cleaning chores done.

Battery life

This new generation of DEEBOT has a 6400mAh battery which adds up to about 140 minutes of runtime when used at full power, and you can get up to 210 minutes or 3.5 hours if you run it at lower power and in vacuum only mode.

The Handheld has a 4000mAh Lithium Battery, which will let you clean up to 60 minutes.

Noise level

I really appreciate the fact that with this robot floor cleaner you can adjust the noise level by adjusting the cleaning power. Inside the app you can simply dial the vacuum suction up or down if you want which also lowers the noise level. This is great if you’re trying to have a work call while you want the floors cleaned. When DEEBOT is emptying itself, the noise level does go up a bit, but the auto empty sequence is much faster and really only lasts less than 10 seconds.

Overall review: ECOVACS DEEBOT X2 COMBO

Overall, I think ECOVACS has another winner here. In essence the company has taken the floor bot I’ve found it the market’s top performer, and made it even better by adding the handy handheld vacuum, and boosting suction. Let’s go over the pros and the cons.

On the pro side, the vacuuming performance is outstanding, picking up every scrap from sugar grains to cereal. The mopping actually cleans floors extremely well with downward scrubbing pressure and spinning pads.

The handheld vacuum has quickly become our go-to for small spills and it’s a lifesaver for the car and the camper van.

ECOVACS bots are easy to set up, schedule and they’re super user friendly, and with the Yiko voice assistant you don’t even need your phone. You can also dial the suction and the waterflow up or down for more cleaning power or a quieter task.

So what are the downsides? I think the biggest barrier for folks will be the size of the base station. There’s no escaping that it’s huge and you do need clearance for it, due mainly I’d say to the larger water tanks. So the tradeoff here is the station is bigger but there’s less emptying and refilling. I solve the size issue by putting it in our guest bedroom.

In short I can absolutely recommend the ECOVACS DEEBOT X2 COMBO if you’re looking for the smartest, most versatile best cleaning floor bot with extras.

ECOVACS DEEBOT X2 COMBO sells for about $1,599 USD / $2,149 CDN and you can get one from ECOVACS.com or from Amazon.

You can also take a look at some of ECOVACS’ other high-tech floor cleaning robots… right now. (link to other bots, X2 OMNI, T20)