One of the hits of Christmas was the robotic vacuum cleaner, now we’ve tried a cheaper piece.

Introductory

Honestly, I’ve met a “silly” robot quite a long time ago. I also have to say that I didn’t have a very good experience with them because I wasn’t particularly convinced by the knowledge of the old winding cars that going forward until he bumped into something, then he turns around and goes on to the next hurdle. Because of this, I had my doubts, but because of the reviews and videos on the net, I still decided to order for Christmas. It didn’t cost much and it got to a place where the floor plan wasn’t too complicated, so I cut into it. I don’t want to shoot the joke, but I didn’t regret it, I really didn’t!

Exterior and packaging

The packaging of the Alfawise V8S is much more showy than the Chinese average. It doesn’t come in a simple brown box, but in a nice green that would look good on any store shelf. There are not too many accessories in the package, a remote control, two side brushes, a dock, and an adapter only live in the box next to the machine.

The vacuum cleaner itself was given the usual robotic look. It is a completely round, flat structure with a particularly showy top. There is no display, just a button to start the automatic cleaning. On the side we find windows for the sensors, at the front there is the usual rubberized, collision (touch) sensor. What is a surprise is the charging connector on the side of the machine, through which we can charge the machine directly. I haven’t seen anything like this anywhere before, it doesn’t make much sense, but after all, he doesn’t ask for food and it probably wouldn’t be cheaper without it.

The dimensions of the machine are 32 x 32 x 8 cm, which means a circular shape with a diameter of 32 centimeters, which is only 8 centimeters high even with the chassis. The weight of the machine is 2,6 kilograms. The bottom of the structure is also completely typical. There are two larger rubber wheels, a smaller planet gear, a cylinder and two circular brushes, and an air inlet here.

Overall, I like it, it's no wonder, it seems that it was not made to the taste of the Far East, but rather aimed at the European market. The cover level can also be said to be elegant, as long as this word can be used on a vacuum cleaner.

Description

abilities

The Alfawise V8S robot vacuum cleaner is among the dumbest. It differs from the expensive pieces in essentially three striking features. The first is that it does not have a MOP function, meaning there is no wet cleaning. The second is that it does not have advanced sensors to map the room, meaning it does not use a camera or laser distance measurement. The third is that we cannot use a smartphone application for it, we can implement the control with a simple remote control.

Because of the second and third points, we can call this vacuum cleaner silly, as it does not have the ability to map the floor plan of the room in real time and use it to plan the route of cleaning in real time.

However, there are quite a few sensors in the machine, and the benefits can be observed during operation. I’ll report on the experience later at the end of the article, but in the meantime, it’s good to know that we’re getting an anti-fall sensor. In addition, the V8S features a dual SLAM system, intelligent gyroscope navigation and a PSD positioning sensor application, and common accurate positioning. These abilities are quite conspicuous in use, essentially resulting in you being surprisingly well-informed despite your stupidity. In addition, although I didn’t find a trace of suspicion in the descriptions that there are some infrared sensors as well, because you don’t have to touch the wall or, better yet, the legs of the furniture, you stop nicely in front of them.

The most important of the physical data of the machine is the height, as it depends on whether you can pass under the furniture. The Alfawise V8S robotic vacuum cleaner is really a winner in this respect, as it is only 8 centimeters high, so it can sweep under cabinets or under beds. The weight of the machine is just two and a half pounds anyway, as you may have read above, so you don’t have to be scared even if, say, you want to take it upstairs to work sometimes.

The suction force can be 880 or 1300 Pa depending on the operating mode. The battery capacity could be higher, but in my experience the 2600 mAh capacity is enough to clean up an average home. Of course, this machine won’t stay in the middle of the apartment either, if it runs out, it will always return to the dock with its last crumbs of energy to recharge itself. The full charge is 4-6 hours, after which another cleaning can start. What I still feel a little little about is the 350 ml capacity of the powder container, but I’ll talk about that in the last paragraph as well.

Unfortunately, most apartments have thresholds, but we rarely encounter ascents. That is, being able to overcome a 15-degree ascent will not affect most of us, it is much more interesting for us to be able to cross a threshold of up to one and a half inches.

In cleaning mode, the Alfawise V8S robotic vacuum cleaner has what you expect. You can use the remote control completely manually, but of course you can also choose the fully automatic mode. In addition, the usual edge mode - which is not Microsoft's browser - is available, in which you clean around the walls, and the spot mode, which means intensive cleaning in a part of the apartment. In this case, moving in an ever-narrowing circle, he sweeps and vacuums a relatively small area intensively. The planning mode essentially allows you to clear a larger but unobstructed area, systematically traversing the entire area back and forth. The automatic mode mentioned at the beginning of the paragraph, of course, uses all three procedures, automatically combining the modes depending on the area to be cleaned.

Among the visible capabilities, perhaps even worth mentioning is the double side brush, which does its job quite effectively. Of the invisible ones, it is important that the machine has a high-performance carbon brush-free motor, which allows for higher performance compared to carbon brush solutions with the same energy consumption. What I haven't talked about yet is the noise. The factory gives a value of 65 decibels, which is neither loud nor quiet, roughly average.

Experience and use

As I indicated in the introduction, the machine performs surprisingly well. However, there are gaps that should not be ignored, but let’s start at the beginning!

I bought the vacuum cleaner as a Christmas gift for an apartment with roughly average amounts of furniture. There is an air space for the kitchen, dining room and living room, as well as a bathroom and two rooms where the machine can rumble. We can talk about a size of about 90 square meters. There is a threshold in the door of the rooms and the bathroom, there are no other obstacles to overcome, except for the furniture, of course. For weighting, there is a larger bed with quite a few legs back and forth, and a cross brace in the middle of the bed at the bottom, under which the machine cannot fit. Roughly this environment.

As I wrote above, I didn’t really trust the silly machines, but I was convinced by the Alfawise V8S robotic vacuuming capabilities and the reviews on the net. After the first start, he did a lot of surprising things, ones I didn’t even expect. First, as I mentioned above, he didn’t slam against the wall like a stupid kid, he stopped nicely in front of him before turning back. Of course, there is also a collision sensor on the front of the machine, if, for example, you do not "notice" an obstacle, you do not want to move it out of the muscle.

It was surprising that although he didn’t make a map and didn’t plan the route in advance, he was able to clean the apartment with surprising efficiency and relatively little overlap. Sure, it’s not as efficient as, say, a Xiaomi Roborock S50, but the price is only a third of it. This efficiency is otherwise significant due to the relatively small battery capacity mentioned above. The cleaning time of one and a half hours thus allows much more efficient work, because if you get lost and clean a place unnecessarily 3-4 times, you could clean a much smaller area with the same capacity. For this reason, I can safely say that the battery is abundant enough to clean an average apartment once, it never turns out during the tests to go back to the dock because the battery is exhausted.

What is still very surprising during use is that it is capable of quite complex movements. Two things are worth mentioning. One is that he recognizes perfectly when he is facing the foot of a piece of furniture, and if so, he goes around the foot in a pretty smooth arc depending on the size of the foot, and then, after making a full circle, continues his journey on the other side of the foot. The other is that if a piece of furniture is not exactly in line with the direction of travel, it handles this tiny discrepancy perfectly, going tiny next to the furniture. These seem like a basic function, but believe me, it’s not at all obvious that we experience normal operation in such cases.

I have written above about the dust container and the relatively small capacity. In this regard, my opinion is that the robotic vacuum cleaner is designed to clean the apartment with it regularly, every two days. On first start-up, it is common for new owners to be amazed at how much dirt the machine collects from a clean apartment. In fact, if you turn it on the next day, there will be a huge amount of dirt again. For this reason, I suggest that if you start using a robotic vacuum cleaner, vacuum the apartment thoroughly beforehand, and then it will be enough to take out the large conventional vacuum cleaner every 3-4 weeks, depending on the amount of dirt, of course. If you do, even a 350 milliliter capacity will suffice, though, it’s worth emptying the tank every two turns. Speaking of the tank, it is important to mention that removal, cleaning and re-installation are, for example, an easy and simple task that can be carried out quickly and without falling dirt.

I had a bad experience with the operation of the machine in the apartment described above, and this was in connection with the threshold climbing. Although the wheels of the machine have a very and properly notched rubber surface, they are not yet able to cling to all surfaces. In one room, a hardwood, lacquered threshold caught on it. He was supposed to go because of his height, but when he slid off the threshold he didn't back off to run from him in front of him again, but started with one wheel on the doorway and the other on the floor. He ran essentially parallel to the threshold and turned to the obstacle again at the next door jamb, with the result that the wheel up until then slid down and the other could not climb up. If, however, the wheel on the opposite side managed to reach the threshold, it all continued from the front, just in the opposite direction. It is interesting, on the other hand, that the machine climbed loosely on the metal leg of the hanger, which is not one and a half, but rather three inches high, but it got stuck on it, so I had to help it off with my hand.

The point is really, as I described in the Roborock S50 test, that if we buy a robot vacuum cleaner, it is worth starting even for a piece over 100 thousand forints by being there in the apartment for the first time. There are obstacles that catch on machines, and it's good to know that, it's good to prepare for it. Quite a few tricks are also suitable, such as shoes placed in front of the hanger’s legs, such as an artificial obstacle or a rug pulled to the threshold to keep the height to be overcome.

Based on the above, you probably have a picture of the Alfawise V8S robotic vacuum cleaner, but the summary doesn't hurt.

Summary

I think you can understand from the above that the Alfawise V8S robotic vacuum cleaner was a very pleasant disappointment.

Efficient, relatively quiet and surprisingly collected in terms of movement. He cleaned up every point of the apartment and did well on the difficult tracks, such as the multi-legged bed mentioned above. A threshold caught on it, perhaps due to the slipperiness of the lacquer, the wheel could not cling to it properly.

Overall, knowing the competition, the machine is worth the price. Alfawise most likely intended it to be the opponent of the iLife vacuum cleaners, so it’s pretty much in par with them in terms of capabilities, but the price, if not much, is lower. So if you don’t insist on wet cleaning, however, you want effective sweeping and vacuuming. If your apartment is not larger or more complicated than the average layout, I can safely recommend the Alfawise V8S robotic vacuum cleaner, well worth the price!

The current price of the machine is about 40 thousand forints, for that we can also order it from a European warehouse (FAST-23), with a delivery time of a few days, so it not only arrives here quickly, but is guaranteed to arrive free of customs and VAT!

I bought from: Alfawise V8S robot vacuum cleaner