Ecovacs Deebot N8 PRO review

Ecovacs Deebot N8 PRO is a robot vacuum cleaner that takes the hassle out of vacuuming your house. 

For its price, the N8 PRO has premium features like TrueMapping technology, TrueDetect 3D technology, Scheduling and Continuous Charging, usually only found in much more expensive robot vacuums. 

These features all add up to a robot vacuum that is effective and hassle-free. All you’ll need to do is set up the N8 PRO and then let it do its thing. 

Unfortunately, the N8 Pro’s starting price of $899 doesn’t include the Auto-Empty Station accessory (which is an extra $400). And as the robot doesn’t alert you when it’s full, it means you have to check up on it often, taking away from its autonomy. 

However for the most part the N8 PRO is very good at doing what it set out to do, and that makes the user not have to ever think about vacuuming the house.

Price

The Ecovacs Deebot N8 PRO costs $899

Features

Ecovacs’ Deebot N8 PRO is an affordable robotic vacuum that comes packed with premium features. 

The N8 PRO comes with TrueMapping technology that accurately maps rooms in your house. On the Ecovacs Home app, I was able to see the outline of the rooms in my unconventionally-shaped house within seconds of the vacuum starting up. The app separated the rooms, and I could then set up a cleaning sequence that defined the order in which I wanted the N8 PRO to clean them. It worked well and the vacuum becomes more efficient and accurate as it familiarises itself with the pattern. It’s great.

On the Ecovacs app, I could also set up my own boundaries that I didn’t want the cleaner to cross and the vacuum would turn around as soon as it met the boundary. I didn’t have to set boundaries for my stairs because the vacuum has anti-fall sensors that recognise when it’s on an edge. With over 50 cleans with the N8 PRO, it never toppled over the edge of my stairs.

The most beneficial feature the N8 PRO has is its TrueDetect 3D technology. This is basically how the vacuum sees things and avoids them. I tested this out in a complicated room with tables, chairs, couches and TVs and the N8 PRO never faltered. It avoided obstacles easily and it has wheels large enough to get onto a raised mat or carpet. If it’s your first robotic vacuum you’ll feel like you have to watch the robot to make sure it doesn’t flip or get stuck, but after seeing it circle around table legs and dodge children’s toys you’ll be more than comfortable leaving it to vacuum on its own. With that said, it is obviously recommended to clear the room as much as possible before cleaning. 

If you have an unconventionally shaped house like mine – with stairs all over the place and rooms that aren’t connected – the N8 PRO has multi-room functionality in which it scans multiple rooms and creates a map of each one. It will recognise when it’s in a room with a saved map and will know where the boundaries are. This worked well, however you do have to physically move the vacuum and the charging port into these different rooms to start the cleaning.

Scheduling allows you to set times when you want the vacuum to start cleaning. I set mine to 7.30am every morning and it’s cool hearing the robot say “starting clean” without touching the app then watching it set off to clean my lounge.

It also has a Continuous Cleaning feature that will ensure the vacuum always completes its task. When the vacuum runs out of battery, it will automatically return to its charger. If it runs out of battery in the middle of a clean, it will continue that task once it has enough battery. It’s a great feature that again allows you to just leave the vacuuming to the robot. It’s hassle-free.

The N8 Pro will also mop the floor. To mop the floor all you need to do is fill the container with water and attach the mop accessory (that comes in the box). This is not a complicated process and once set up it will vacuum and mop simultaneously. In my kitchen, I have a cork floor that connects to another room with carpet. The vacuum was able to tell the cork and the carpet apart and when in mopping mode it didn’t go on the carpet. I did find I had to set the water flow level in mopping mode to high in order for it to work well, but once that was set I didn’t have to touch it again. It also easily held enough water to mop my kitchen.

Performance

I was pleasantly surprised by the Deebot N8 Pro’s performance. Although it doesn’t pick up quite as much dust and dirt as the latest $1,500 Dyson V15, to the naked eye, it’s impossible to tell the difference.

Yes, more expensive vacuums like the V15 will pick up dust that’s deeper in the carpet but generally, we can’t actually see the results of that. And when it comes down to it Unless you have allergies that you’re vacuuming to protect against, when vacuuming, what we can see is all that really matters . The questions we ask ourselves are, does the carpet look like it’s been vacuumed well? And have large bits of dust or dirt been picked up? With the Deebot N8 PRO the answer to both questions is a resounding “yes”. It’s a very good robot vacuum that will noticeably clean your carpets and hard floors.

The N8 PRO is easy to set up, once you download the Ecovacs Home app on iOS or Android, you’ll be prompted to follow some simple steps. I had the N8 PRO up and running and scanning the boundaries of my house in less than 5 minutes, it’s great.

The N8 PRO works best in a house where all the rooms are connected and on a single floor. I live in a house that’s better described as a labyrinth of stairs and rooms. The N8 PRO wasn’t in its element here. That’s because it can’t go up or down stairs, which is to be expected, there aren’t any robotic vacuums on the market that can. With that said I was still able to effectively use the Ecovacs vacuum in my house. This is due to its multi-room functionality and its very good TrueMapping features as explained above.

You can set the suction power of the N8 PRO to one of three settings; Standard, Max and Max+. I never felt I needed Max+ as the standard mode did a good job in my house, but if you have a particularly dusty environment, it does boost the suction power significantly. Bear in mind that the higher the level, the more battery it will drain. 

I have two dogs (labradoodles) in my house and the N8 PRO did struggle with this pet hair. For example, when I was cleaning the vacuum, hair would be wrapped around the brush, but fortunately, it comes with a handy tool that allows you to remove the hair easily. For dust and dirt, it worked well. It even picked up the dreaded Rimu leaves which are a particular nuisance for vacuums.

I would’ve loved a way for the vacuum to tell me it’s full and needed emptying. It has the ability to tell me when it’s finished cleaning (a message would appear on my phone) but it wouldn’t tell me when it needed emptying. It would continue to clean even though it was full and on some occasions I would find groups of dust where it had fallen out the bottom of the full container. You can get an auto-empty station, but this costs an extra $400.

Cleaning and battery

Emptying the N8 PRO is very simple. Everything can be opened up, taken out, emptied and put back again easily. I never had any problems with this. Usually I would have to empty the N8 PRO after two to three vacuums of my moderately sized lounge.

The battery is okay. Charging the N8 PRO from empty takes around 4 hours. The Continuous Cleaning feature kind of makes the battery life redundant. If you’re happy for the vacuum to start cleaning at any time when it has enough juice, it will finish off what it started. It’s great.

Verdict

The Ecovacs N8 PRO is a good robot vacuum cleaner for a very good price. To get the most out of it you’ll want a more conventional one-story or a two-story house, and the $400 Auto-Empty station. However, its multi-floor function means it also works well in less conventional houses and you can always easily empty it yourself. 

It’s easy to set up, it does a great job of picking up dust and dirt, it accurately maps your house and it’s hassle-free. You can leave the N8 PRO to its own devices and never have to worry about vacuuming again. 

It is relatively expensive at $900, but by its fifth clean, you’ll wonder why you never invested in a robot vacuum before.The Ecovacs Deebot N8 PRO is great.