The most underrated 2-in-1 robot vacuum I've tested is from a brand you've never heard of

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• The Yeedi Cube robot vacuum and mop is available for $700.
• Ecovacs’ Yeedi Cube has nearly every feature you’d want in a robot vacuum and mop, including a self-emptying dustbin and dirty and clean water tanks to wash its mop pads. It also features a handle to easily carry the robot from one room or story to another.
• While the vacuum’s lack of object avoidance is a glaring gap in its far-reaching features, this shouldn’t be a problem for homes without young children leaving toys and socks everywhere.

My dog sheds — a lot. Of course, getting rid of him isn’t an option, so instead, I’ve superpowered my home’s cleaning routine with robots. Slowly but surely, different types of robot vacuums glided through my furniture, over carpet, hardwood, and tile, in search of every last strand of dog hair, only to repeat the process a few hours later.

The Yeedi Cube joined my home’s constant whirring and suctioning last year. 

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The Yeedi Cube is a robot vacuum that leverages 4,300 Pa of suction to pick up every last crumb, Cheerio, and pet hair from your floors and then empties its dustbin in the base station. If you want it to mop as well, it has a vibrating mop pad that can scrub hard floors up to 2,500 times per minute. It also has carpet detection to automatically lift the mop pad when going from hard floors to carpeted areas.

One of the most attractive features of the Yeedi Cube is what the company calls the UFO water tank. When creating a mid-range vacuum and mop with high-end features like a self-emptying dustbin and self-washing mops, Yeedi made the most of every inch of real estate on the Yeedi Cube. Instead of adding the water tank in the base station, the Yeedi Cube takes it on the go as a flat, UFO-shaped, removable 1-liter tank that sits along the robot’s top.

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The UFO water tank has a handle that serves two purposes: not only can you remove the clean water tank and carry it using the handle to refill it, but when it’s attached to the robot, it works as a carrying handle for the device. This feature makes it easy to carry the robot from room to room or one story to another, so you can easily bring it upstairs to clean up the popcorn from last night’s kids’ sleepover.

As a neat freak and germophobe, I wouldn’t say I like getting my fingers under robot vacuums to hold them and move them somewhere else or flipping them to rescue the main brush when it gets overeager and sucks up something it shouldn’t. Not to mention that vacuums are awkward to carry as they are; they’re heavy, and you always need to hold them right so as not to drop them. The handle on the UFO water tank solves these issues for me. 

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The clean water tank serves as the robot vacuum and mop’s water source to mop and wash the mopping pads at the station. The Yeedi Cube robot docks itself periodically during cleaning and washes the mop pad, which is a single one instead of two rotating ones like many other robot vacuum and mop combos feature.

I’ve preferred rotating mop pads for a while; years of using an early Roborock model that dragged a wet mop pad around did that for me. It would leave streaks on my hardwood floor, and I’d have to pause the cleaning and refresh it now and then. But the Yeedi Cube made me believe a good mop pad can work. 

The power of the Yeedi Cube mop pad lies in two main features: the robot returns to wash it periodically, and it vibrates 2,500 times a minute. The vibrations help remove dry stains on the floor. My floors suffer greatly from muddy paws and kids spilling drinks, slime, paint, and other sticky substances, but the Cube robot rises to the challenge of tackling most of them. 

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With said kids also leaving behind tiny toys and socks everywhere, I’ve discovered that object avoidance is a big must for me in a robot vacuum. Unfortunately, the Yeedi Cube doesn’t feature it. I assume that is part of what makes it a great midrange robot vacuum and mop that’s $700 right now, but it’s something to consider if you, like me, find yourself constantly stepping on Lego bricks.

As the first midrange robot vacuum I’ve tested with a self-emptying dustbin, that feature alone would make me buy it. I love not having to get way too familiar with the dust and pet hair the robot picks up. Instead, I only worry about emptying the dirty water tank and filling up the clean water tank. 

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One thing I wasn’t expecting, however, that I haven’t experienced with other self-emptying dustbins is that I’m not sure that the two flashes of suction to empty the dustbin at the base station are enough for my particular home. As I said, my dog sheds a lot, and the dustbin self-empties after every cleaning. But with all the hair that my black and white dog sheds, it’s not uncommon to see the robot rolling around carrying a gray tail of hair where the self-emptying port is. It’s more of a funny occurrence than anything else, but I wish I could set it up in the app to self-empty every 30 minutes or so like I can with the Deebot X2 Omni.

ZDNET’s buying advice

The Yeedi Cube is such a good robot mop that I’m not sure I would recommend it for someone with mostly carpeted floors. It still has good suction at 4,300 Pa, but I find it better suited for homes with a mix of hard floors and carpet or rugs so as not to waste the great mopping performance.

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But if you want AI-powered object avoidance to go around charging cables and kids’ toys, you’re better off paying extra for a higher-end model like the Deebot X2 Omni. Otherwise, you’ll have to pick up every toy and cable every time you want to run it or be forced to bend over to fish them out of the main roller brush — but hey, at least the handle on the top will make it easier to flip.

The Yeedi Cube is a great fit for anyone looking for a midrange robot vacuum and mop with hands-free cleaning, especially if you don’t have kids and want to come home to a clean house. It’s tackled the pet hair successfully when I run it just once daily, tail and all. And the self-emptying dustbin for a midrange robot vacuum and self-washing mop is worthy of a chef’s kiss.