Best Robot Vacuum Under $200 - My story with Kyvol E20 Cybovac
As a buyer for an educational supply company, I’m always on the go. Travelling to meet suppliers, visiting trade shows and more, mean that my time at home is precious. My husband also travels a lot for his job too, so I’m always looking for ways to get more done in less time. Our old vacuum was struggling to cope with the deeper pile carpet rugs we bought last Christmas, so we began to look for something with more power to pull dirt from the deep pile.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve always had an issue with robots. I like the idea of robots, having a tireless helper to do things for me, but that is not how it works in practice. If you’ve ever dealt with an automated call center, you will know what I mean. Press 1, press 5, press hash... a maze so deep you can never find your way out. It’s not just phone automation either, I once had an automatic bean to cup coffee machine that I maintain to this day had some kind of vendetta against me.
So, when we were looking for a new vacuum the idea of a robot cleaner was not at the top of my list. However, with a $200 budget we found that one of the vacuums in our price range was the Kyvol Cybovac E20. It’s a robot vacuum, something I was not that enthusiastic about, but it has really great specifications that made it a better option than a lot of the traditional vacuums that were within our budget. In particular, the astonishing suction power at 2,000 Pa. We have a couple of really thick pile rugs that lower power machines always struggle with, so we always look for more powerful vacuums.
The other thing that mattered in store was battery life. I don’t know if you’ve tried $200 cordless vacuums, but most of them last about 15 minutes of vacuuming before needing a charge. I don’t mean robot versions, that’s just the traditional vacuums with a cordless option. The E20 has a 150-minute battery, that is up to two and a half hours between charges. Not only that, but even then, because it’s a robot, it goes off and charges itself anyway.
So, despite my own reservations about another machine that would rebel against me in some unforeseen way, the long battery life and powerful suction performance made the E20 the best option. Not just the best robot option, but one of the best vacuums of any kind for the money.
The Journey Begins
Getting it home and unboxed, the first thing I found was that Cybovac takes the complexity out of things so it’s easy to understand and simple to use. I don’t like things being complex just for the sake of it, but this is all easy to do. There are three ways to control the E20 vacuum, it has an app that you download to your iOS or Android phone. Pairing is easy, and the app is remarkably simple. You can start a clean immediately or schedule one for later, I found it all intuitive, and the app even tells you when any consumables need replacing. It also comes with a remote control too, which makes it as easy to use as the TV. However, because we have Amazon Alexa, we chose to use that to control the vacuum, for even more convenience. Adding the Cybovac skill was simple, and again, it all just seems to work. At this point I was still looking for the catch with a robot vacuum, but there really hadn’t been anything.
Once it was connected and visibly working, then it was time for what I thought would be the hard part. Organizing the vacuum areas for it to focus on. We have an open plan living area, including a lounge, dining area and kitchen. There is a hall that leads off towards the garage, and this has a step down. In the box the vacuum comes with a magnetic strip that you can use to separate areas, the vacuum will not cross the magnets. I was going to use these to protect the hallway to stop the vacuum falling down the steps, but it has sensors that detect drops and avoids them. So, for our home, the magnetic strips weren’t needed there. I did set them up at the main doorway though, so if the vacuum does a scheduled clean and one of us forgot to shut the door, the vacuum turns around and doesn’t wander off to clean the rest of our home.
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Setting our Robot Loose
The moment of truth then, fire up the E20 and send it on its way. Maybe it is just me, but for the first few times we sent the E20 off to clean the home, I followed it around, like some dog minder walking a young puppy watching for mistakes, ready to turn it away from obstacles. It didn’t need that, as it turns out the vacuum robot is better at avoiding the furniture than I am with all its sensors and clever tech, but getting to the point you just trust the vacuum to just do its thing took me a few days.
So, what is it like as a vacuum? Let’s start with the important part. It hasn’t organized a revolution or anything, and unlike the old coffee maker, hasn’t tried to kill me either. What it has done is clean, and it has done it very well. Once I’d got over the need to follow the E20 around like its own personal security, then it cleans without hassle too.
First, we set up a schedule, so it does its thing while we are busy elsewhere and not using the living space. This is perfect because you set that schedule once and it does the rest. It leaves the charging station, goes around the room, does the job and then returns back and charges itself for the next clean. This is how I imagined a robot vacuum should work, but I didn’t think it would also be the reality of it.
There are several things that really stand out apart from the convenience. Our open plan area includes hard flooring in the kitchen, shorter pile carpet and a couple of deep pile rugs. The E20 automatically adjusts its cleaning power to suit the surface, and that gives consistency across the whole area. It has a 3-stage cleaning system with brushes at the front and sides, so it catches everything. It isn’t very tall either, a bit less than 3 inches, so it cleans under the sofa too. I only did that a few times a year before, now its spotlessly clean.
There are three modes for the vacuum, most of the time we leave it on Auto mode, where the vacuum works its own way around the room using the sensors, avoiding obstacles and cleaning everything. This really does do a great job. The next mode is called Edge, and as that suggests, in this mode the vacuum follows the walls and really cleans the edges and corners. Finally, there is Spot mode, which is used for giving an extra clean to a specific area that needs help. I have only used Spot mode once, but it did the job.
The Final Verdict
I was not someone who welcomed a robot vacuum into my home, but I did want a powerful cleaner that could cope with the varying floor surfaces in our living area. The Cybovac E20 has given me exactly that. Look beyond the robot stuff, and you have a great vacuum in its own right. The additional features that come from the technology, the ability to set a schedule and let it do its thing, recharging itself and telling me when the large 600ml dust bin needs emptying, make keeping the floor clean a hassle-free experience.
I really didn’t think I would ever get used to a robot vacuum wandering around my home without supervision, but today I can’t imagine not having it. I don’t think I could go back to a manual cleaner, having to do everything myself. For once, this is the future living up to expectation.
Thank you for sharing @Rebecute ?