Xiaomi Viomi V3 Robot Vacuum Test - Successful Conquest

 I don’t know a stronger robot right now, and it even destroys viruses.

Introductory

Viomi vacuum cleaners have a history with me. When I got my first, the Viomi V2, I immediately started researching the net to see what the machine knew. To put it mildly, I came across overwhelming opinions, which surprised me. I was surprised because Viomi was still only Xiaomi's sweet child, and also because I didn't find any traces of the listed defects. Well, a yes, the lack of timing was real.

Then came the Viomi V2 Pro, and the story was almost eerily similar to what the predecessor had. Lots of bad reviews and everything was fine with me. The mystery was also heightened by the fact that in our Facebook group, as a result of my article, quite a few people bought from the machine and everyone has been flooding with it ever since.

A few months have passed again since the Viomi V2, and during that time I became enlightened. I realized it wasn’t the vacuum cleaners that were wrong, but the software that came with them. Whether this was due to the fact that Viomi was still new to the field, or to the fact that the machines were launched too hastily before regular tests, I do not know, but the fact is that - long after the introduction - the vacuum cleaners came to me, the software bugs have been fixed with a few updates.

In the case of the Viomi V3, this was not possible because I got it among the first not only in the country but also in the world. Of course, I jumped on the net, but found nothing but an orphaned unpacking video.

Because of this, two things turned in my head. One is to woe, just lest I get trapped in the same way as other early testers on previous machines and not have to report that the machine is full of bugs. The other is that I will try this machine well now before I write this article.

Don’t get me wrong, of course the previous vacuum cleaners were thorough as well, but now, I have given myself more time than before to mature my opinion, which I will pass on to you now.

Packaging and accessories

For me, the Viomi V3 was essentially a single surprise in terms of packaging. Everything is the same with the V2 Pro, the number and size of the tanks (even the tanks themselves), the round brushes, the filler, so everything from A to Z.

The accessories come out of the box in relatively large quantities, as we get three tanks, one of which is a huge 550 ml powder tank, one of the same size, ie 550 ml water tank, and a combination of 200/300 ml water and water. dust container.

There is one roller brush and two side brushes. There is a spare HEPA filter, a snap-on mop head on the bottom of the vacuum cleaner and three types of mop cloths for the MOP. Of this, one for washing up with water, one for wiping, and a third paper that hasn’t been with Viomi machines so far.

The latter is a disposable MOP attachment that, as its name suggests, can be used for a single mop, followed by a trash can. To figure out why the package doesn't need a diploma, the Viomi V3 is the first (if you can tell us anything else) robot vacuum cleaner with antibacterial capabilities. That is, the disposable mop is part of a suite of services that helps fight the virus. It is not a foolish thing, especially in the case of office use - because even the machine is suitable for this, but only later - that the wiper is placed in the trash immediately after use for reasons of hygiene.

Exterior, or the old familiar in a new dress

The Viomi V2 Pro and V3 are exactly the same in size, but we also find differences. The circumference and height did not change, remaining 350 (width) and 94,5 millimeters (height), respectively. Within, however, changes have been made, at least suggesting that the weight of the machine has increased by 200 grams compared to its predecessor.

If we look at the two vacuum cleaners from their bellies, it is an inability to decide which one is which. From above, however, the situation is different. The gun turret has changed and the cover has also changed. The circular pattern disappeared from the top of the laser sensor hump, and the cover changed to black, the kind that connoisseurs call piano varnish.

Whether these changes are good or bad is not up to me to decide because we are not the same, one of us likes it, the other likes it. I can describe my opinion because I regret the disappearance of the “patterned” lid, I liked that with this the machine stood out a bit from the others. What’s more, he also collected less fingerprints than the black color, which evidently evokes a premium feel.

Abilities, or paper form

I’m still going to compare my V3 to its predecessor, but I’ll spice it up a bit with other machines as well.

Let's start with the most important thing, suction. The Viomi V2 Pr with its 2150 Pascal power is exceptionally powerful and in fact, almost not one of the most powerful machines on the market. Even the big in-house competitor, the roborock S6, only knew 2000 Pascals, though that was then the peak of the premiums.

Then the Roborock 7 Series was introduced, and I looked down at the specification table with the dropped chin showing that the suction power had increased by 25 percent, to 2500 Pascals. This is where the Viaomi V3 comes in and says germ or roborock, I’m the stronger because I can suck the dust with 2600 Pascal.

This force is quite amazing, especially if we know how big an engine is, what kind of structure produces it. If something can be called serious engineering performance, then this is especially true - and now stick to it - that this suction power has been achieved at lower engine speeds.

And why is this important? Because higher speeds also result in stronger sound. Let’s sit down again and gather the animals that fell to the ground, the Viomi V3, despite the much higher suction power, became quieter than the Viomi V2 Pro was. As they say as a joke, these Russians know, in this case the Chinese. Performance must be glazed!

Let's see what has changed yet! Well, for example, the capacity of the battery has increased, not a bit, from 3200 to 4900 mAh (there's what made the machine 200 grams heavier). This increase also means that the cleaning time available on a single charge, depending on the complexity of the apartment, has risen to 100-150 minutes compared to its predecessor, which is otherwise very decent at 80-120 minutes.

It is only natural that the larger battery, the longer operating time, makes the new Viomi suitable for cleaning larger flats. Numerically, this means that compared to its predecessor’s 150 square feet, the Viomi V3 is suitable for cleaning an apartment of up to 250 square feet, although I feel like you have to recharge yourself at least once for that.

However, the number of cleaning methods did not change. The suction power can be adjusted in four and the water supply in 3 steps. There is still no water pump built into the water tank (thankfully, heck, you don't want to drink the vacuum cleaner with distilled water). So, in terms of cleaning, there is practically no difference, except of course that the Viomi V3 is stronger in everything, but that's not a problem, for me the Viomi V2 Pro has already earned the perfect token.

As I wrote above, we get three tanks, which one is in the machine is also detected by the phone app through a sensor. So, for example, if you only insert the dust container, you cannot set up mopping, and conversely, if there is only a water tank inside, the machine will not vacuum, it will just wipe. The combined tank, as before, will be good if you want perfect dedusting, because using this the vacuum cleaner absorbs everything and the dust layer left on the floor is handled by the mop.

To say a lot in addition to a lot of good ones, even though the vacuum cleaner has got a lot of different sensors, the pressure sensor, as with its predecessors, is no longer part of the package, so in extreme cases the machine can get stuck under furniture. This is only a matter of principle for me, so far none of Viomi has been stuck anywhere, but it is appropriate for me to mention this as well.

I left virus writing to the end as an ability we can’t control. According to factory data, airborne viruses are disposed of by ionization, namely copper-silver ions. The method is not unknown, it is also well known that viruses are destroyed on copper surfaces, and copper-silver ionization is used in many parts of the world, although not in ventilation, but rather in aqueous environments, primarily in office buildings, and mostly for legionella.

That is, the method works, but we do not know whether the manufacturer applies some special extra coating to the HEPA filter (unlikely) or whether the machine performs ionization in airways (perhaps more likely).

The extent to which the method works with home devices is impossible to verify, as measured by a Chinese independent lab (of course, Chinese and independent are two difficult-to-match markers), the method kills 99 percent of viruses.

At the end of this chapter, I return to office use. It is quite clear that a robotic vacuum cleaner, even a muscular piece like the Viomi V3, cannot compete with not only an industrial, but also an average home, traditional vacuum cleaner. However, we do not need to use industrial machines everywhere or in all cases. During the summer, when there is less mud and rain, the Viomi V3 can be used to clean even larger office spaces, as its power and battery capacity make it possible.

Naturally, just as in the case of home use, it is important to emphasize that a robotic vacuum cleaner cannot completely replace cleaning with a conventional machine, but we have to do the work with daily, regular, robotic cleaning with conventional vacuum cleaners much less often.

One more interesting thing at the end. The picture below is worth looking at, here you can see where the components of the vacuum cleaner come from. In short, I would just note that so much about the fact that this vacuum cleaner is Chinese. It obviously contains traces of parts made in China, but the main components are apparently products from foreign, plus reputable manufacturers.

Software capabilities

I loved the case of Viomi V2 Pro, that the software was able to break the mapped apartment into rooms, separate rooms, but I felt a bit one-legged giant because he couldn't be told ahead of time that if I left home tomorrow, clean the kitchen, bathroom and children's room. but leave the rest. Then the next day I could have said that okay, now the whole apartment needs to be vacuumed. Well, V3 already knows that. Of course we can tell him live, without timing, to head to the bathroom, keep up, go (wow, but I hated the military)!

We also get a lot of everything. We can rename the rooms, we can also adjust their boundaries by hand. That is, in a house with an American kitchen, we can draw the line between the kitchen and the living room. We can use a virtual wall that the machine cannot pass through. We can designate an area for intensive cleaning, so if the pot is overturned, you don’t have to clean the whole apartment, it will be enough to guide your robot to the overturned ground. In addition, there is an area that is excluded from cleaning, which I used mostly in the mop function to exclude carpets from mopping.

And there is a terribly important feature of map management, which is that the machine's memory now holds not just one, but five different maps, all of which store our settings with renamed rooms, virtual walls, areas excluded from cleaning, and more. . This ability will be really appreciated by those who live in multi-storey or several houses separated into separate parts.

Although Viomi will still not go up the stairs on her own if we take her upstairs and start cleaning in her usual place, her first thing will not be to re-map the place, but she will be able to stop cleaning right away.

I find it important to note, although this will not be relevant information for new customers that while the first version, the Viomi V2 or the Viomi or Mi Home phone app, worked, the V3 only communicates with Mi Home, so we don’t have to worry about accidentally getting something that can’t fit into our Xiaomi smart home system.

Software hasn't changed anything externally anyway, obviously there will be minor differences deep in the menu system, not least because of things like the ability to store multiple maps.

This invariance is more good for me, I am used to the old one. Easy to see, easy to use, in a word: never worse!

Cleaning, use and experience

This is the chapter I wrote to him two days after writing the former. Although I’ve been using my Viomi V3 for weeks, it’s not easy to put my experience into letters. Already in the case of the Viomi V2, I considered the operation of the machine to be perfect, but the announcers said that the cleaning algorithm was further improved in the case of the V3. Well, that’s what I was really curious about, because yet, what can be improved on a perfect system. You may not be surprised, but of course you could.

There is clearly no difference in the operation of the fund compared to its predecessors. The laser LIDAR system maps the apartment, calculates the most optimal cleaning route in real time, halves the larger rooms if necessary, so that you have to go through a point as few times as possible, you can perform the most accurate cleaning in the shortest possible time.

I have already described the cleaning time and flat size available with a single charge on the paper form, but these are factory data, let’s see the worst narrative, i.e. when the machine is doing full suction and first cleaning. The fact that consumption also increases with increasing suction power should not surprise anyone. The first cleaning is important because the machine has to map the apartment, ie it will work longer than during the second and many cleanings.

In my experience, a 65-square-foot, with quite a few hurdles, directly reclined chairs, sofas, armchairs, multiple beds and many bed and table legs, so-called intentionally hard-carved areas, cleaning took 75 minutes and the machine had a 25 percent battery returned to his charger.

It’s a lot less than paper, but as I wrote, in the most energy-consuming way, with the hardest possible fictional cleaning path. I note, of course, it wouldn’t be a problem if the souffle ran out of battery on the go either, because the machine would go back to recharge itself and continue cleaning from where it left off.

Well, as I see it, with the improved cleaning method, we both won and lost. We won an even more perfect, more efficient cleaning, and we lost by the fact that much more precise cleaning certainly takes more time.

But what does improvement mean in practice? I know you’ll find it weird, but I sat for hours and watched the movement of the vacuum cleaner, trying to compare it to what the V2 Pro knew. What I’ve noticed, for example, is that it tries to get around the table and chair legs in an even smaller curve, even more closely. As much as possible, he also goes into places he can’t get through anyway, and thus he gets to vacuum even at points where his predecessor hasn’t gotten to. In this case, however, the outward navigation from the bottlenecks takes longer.

On the other hand, and this is very, perhaps most importantly, quite simply nowhere stuck. I couldn’t put myself in an impossible situation (except for the rag carpet ending in long tassels because it was rolled up with noble simplicity) from which it didn’t blend. I made the chairs around the dining table (the vacuum cleaner doesn’t fit between the legs of the chair) so that I could get to the wall and back in a winding way. It was an extremely difficult and straightforward difficult track, he fluffed him for half an hour, but he went to the innermost point with honor and came back from there.

One of the most common questions about robotic vacuum cleaners is how to get along with dog hair. Well, I couldn’t try that, but I’m sure, as with all machines, we’ll have to use the hair-splitting blade that comes with the Viomi on the roller brush. However, since it is currently the most powerful robot (to the best of my knowledge), it may still be the best for the hairy challenge.

Honestly, I can’t take a stand on noise. Based on the paper format, the maximum noise was reduced from 72 to 70 (the scale is not linear), but this 2 decibels was not audible to me. On the other hand, I say with a calm heart that it has not become louder than its predecessor, and this, knowing how much it has become stronger, indicates a really serious redesign and repair compared to the previous machine's air duct system and other elements of the intake system.

I can report pretty much anything new. In all other respects, we get the already very good V2 Pro capabilities. Mowing is left with a much more efficient fan-like drive than older solutions, allowing the machine to pass through several times at one point, making wiping more intense. This intensive mopping is aided by the already mentioned 3-stage adjustable amount of water that flows from the huge 550 milliliter tank to the MOP. Vacuuming is flawless, so it’s unnecessary to waste more words on it. Let's evaluate!

Conclusion

My fears mentioned in the introduction quickly passed, by the second day I was sure the Viomi was able to level up. Already, the V2 Pro competed in the premium category, at least to the best of its knowledge, but the V3 is already clearly aiming for the top, the highest rung on the robot vacuum cleaner Olympics podium, and not without success.

I still don’t understand why it’s good for Xiaomi if the individual sub-brands within the fleet are competing with each other for the throne, but that should be their problem. We should rather be glad that there are not one (roborock) but at least two sub-brands that can compete for the title of the best laser robotic vacuum cleaner.

The price of the Viomi V3 is, of course, higher than that of the V2 Pro. You can get upset about this, but let’s face it, no Mercedes happens to be more expensive than an Opel. Both are good cars of their kind, but when we sit in we not only see but also feel the difference caused by the higher quality. It's no different with vacuum cleaners.

The Viomi V3 is brutally powerful, with very advanced cartography, orientation, cleaning algorithm, mop function, so it's usually everything. We get the top of everything, and top quality comes at a price.

Of course, this cost is also relative, as Xiaomi has given top performance and top quality cheaper than the competition, and that’s no different now. So, the bottom line is, the Viomi V3 is currently one of Xiaomi’s most expensive machines on offer, but it doesn’t cost much in relative terms.

I am grateful to Gearbest for being able to try out the current top model Viomi for the third time now, and mainly for being able to try out this machine, which is no longer just one of Viomi, but one of the top robots in the entire robot vacuum range. For me as a gadget maniac, it was an experience of several weeks, and I hope there will be those who will be able to enjoy his services in their home in the long run.

If you liked the vacuum cleaner, you can now order it from a European warehouse with a short delivery time. We also get a $ 30 discount, but you don't need a coupon for this, for a stack of products, if the price of the product reaches $ 499, the price will automatically decrease when you add it to the cart.

In this case, this means that with the free delivery, with which we will receive the vacuum cleaner within 3-7 working days, we have to leave 156 thousand forints at the checkout. Of course there is no VAT and customs!

Here you can buy:

Xiaomi VIOMI V3 LDS laser navigation robor vacuum cleaner

You can read our test about your predecessor here: Xiaomi Viomi V2 Pro smart vacuum test

More Xiaomi tests on our site