Takes the hard work out of mopping
It’s a touch rough around the edges, and the inability to move over carpet when the mop is attached may make the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro unsuitable for use in some homes. The ability to store just one map is annoying, too, although that will be fixed in August with a new update. But what the vacuum lacks with finesse, it makes up for with power: it vacuums any surface brilliantly and its mopping is exceptional, especially for this price. If you’ve mostly got hard floors and want to keep them in their best condition without spending a fortune, this is a top choice at a very attractive price.
Pros
- Very powerful vacuum cleaner
- Intense mopping
- Optional Self-Empty Station
- Great price
Cons
- Stores just one map
- Canu2019t move over carpet in mopping mode
- Smart assistant skills are basic
Don’t let the low price – $449 – make you think that this is a bog-standard robot vacuum cleaner, as the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro is more than just a budget robot vacuum cleaner and mop.
Thanks to its oscillating mop bracket, this robot mops the floors far better than many more expensive models and is comparable to more expensive rivals such as the Roborock S7 MaxV or the Ecovacs Deebot X1 Omni.
It’s a touch rough around the edges, but if you want excellent vacuuming and mopping without spending the eye-watering prices commanded by the high-end competition, you could do a lot worse.
Read on for our comprehensive Yeedi Vac 2 Pro review.
Yeedi Vac 2 Pro: Design and build
Robot vacuum cleaner manufacturers all seem to have given up trying to make their products in different shapes and sizes, so the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro is as you expect: a short, round robot. Its layout is as you’d expect, too.
On top, there’s a single power button that starts and stops a clean and that’s it. That’s enough for me, as I never use spot-clean buttons that some other manufacturers provide.
Alternative: Yeedi Mop Station Pro review
Flip open the top lid and there’s the lift-out 450ml dustbin, which also houses the filter. And, for cutting away hair that will eventually get wrapped around the main floor brush, there’s a cutting tool embedded into a recess.
It’s nice to have in that it makes the job of cleaning up easier, but a brush that doesn’t get clogged with hair, such as on the iRobot Roomba j7+, would be better.
Flip the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro over, and it’s business as normal: there’s the aforementioned roller, plus a single side brush, designed to coax dirt out from the side of the room into the main vacuum’s path.
As this is only on one side, the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro has to orientate itself correctly to get that brush all around the edges of a room and furniture.
Budget rival: Dreamebot D10 review
When not mopping, there’s a blank insert that fills in the gap where the 180ml water tank normally goes. It’s pretty quick to swap between the two options, with an audible prompt from the robot telling you whether it’s ready to vacuum or mop.
Yeedi only provides a single mop cloth in the box, which isn’t really enough, given you’ll need to wash it regularly to maintain cleaning performance. A pack of three costs $19.99 and is a worthwhile investment.
Rather than a basic static mop, the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro has an oscillating mop that slides backwards and forwards to really scrub the floor in a similar way, the company says, to you manually mopping.
While a lot of high-end robot vacuum cleaners use LiDAR for navigation, the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro has an upwards-facing camera for visual navigation. This isn’t for object detection and avoidance, as on the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra.
Yeedi has also added its 3D Obstacle Avoidance tech, using sensors to detect objects and move around them, without bumping into them.
This model ships with a standard dock, although you can buy the Self-Empty Station for $199.99 (or as a bundle with the robot for $579.98).
This is the same model as used in the Yeedi Vac Station and includes a 2.5-litre dust bag for automatic robot bin emptying. That does put the entire system closer in price to the iRobot Roomba j7+.
Replacement bags cost $16.99 for a pack of three, and each bag should last a month or two, depending on much you use the robot and how much dust it’s picked up.
There’s no docking station that can refill water or clean the mopping pad, as you get with both the S7 MaxV Ultra and Ecovacs Deebot X1 Omni.
Yeedi Vac 2 Pro: Features and in use
Visual navigation isn’t quite as good as LiDAR, and it takes the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro a little longer to work out how to move around a room, particularly if you’re directing it via the app to a specific location.
The robot did spend a little while bouncing around some dining chair legs, although it eventually found its way out without any intervention.
Although the 3D Object Avoidance tech means that the robot doesn’t slam into big objects, the lack of a camera means that smaller objects, such as shoes and cables are hit.
If you’re not a fan of having to tidy up before a robot finishes tidying up for you, then buy a robot with a proper forward-facing camera.
Cleaning performance is exemplary. Thanks to a maximum suction power of 3000pa, the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro is capable of competing with the best robot cleaners.
Lots of mess on a carpet? No problem, the Vac 2 Pro sucks it all up. Hard floors are no problems either, with the vacuum managing to nimbly get right around the edges of my room to clean up to the skirting board and kitchen plinth.
Yeedi Vac 2 Pro: Mopping function
It’s mopping that’s particularly impressive. A robot vacuum with a water pump and microfibre cloth can clean well, but the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro goes a step beyond.
Thanks to its backwards and forwards motion, the cleaner scrubs at the floor, removing harder, trodden-in dirt.
Making a noise like a set of wind-up false teeth, the action isn’t particularly pretty, especially compared to the refined sonic mopping action of the Roborock S7, but it is very good. Only the Ecovacs Deebot X1 Omni, with its dual spinning microfibre cloths, mops better.
When the mop pad is attached, the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro can use its carpet sensor to tell when it’s no longer on hard floor and back off automatically.
This prevents a soaked, and potentially ruined, carpet, but can lead to some problems. If there’s a wide rug or carpet in a hallway, for example, they can prevent the robot from getting to all areas.
Robrock’s S7 line-up has a mopping cloth that can lift off the ground when carpet is detected, making it far more flexible.
With the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro, it works better if you’ve got contiguous areas of hard floor and areas of carpet; if you’ve got a mix, this robot may not work as well for you.
Yeedi Vac 2 Pro: App and digital assistants
Once hooked up to the app, the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro needs to perform a mapping run, so that it can work out the local environment.
It will automatically split the map into rooms, although accuracy leaves a lot to be desired. Fortunately, a recent app update has added split and merge features, so that you can partition up your home the way that you want it.
IC
Having rooms is useful: you can set the cleaning order and you can tell the robot to just go and clean up one room. Not specific enough? You can still draw a bounding box on the floor and get the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro to clean that area.
This is better than a spot-cleaning option, but the map lacks the detail and clarity that the Roborock app provides, so it can be hard to work out the orientation of a room in order to draw the box in the right place.
The most annoying restriction is that there’s only an option to create a single map. If you’ve got multiple floors, then you’re out of luck: if you move the robot to a new location, you have to wipe the stored map and start over again.
How frustrating that will be will depend on what you want to clean and your home layout: mine’s got a step down to the utility room, so the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro can’t touch that area. An update is coming that will allow multiple maps to be stored.
From the app, you can set the vacuum cleaner’s power. Max seems about right in terms of cleaning performance, without draining the battery too fast.
There’s control over how much water to use, too: Low, Medium or High. I generally go with High for the best clean and accept that the small water tank will need filling up for each fresh clean.
Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant skills are basic: you can start and stop a clean.
Still, if, like me, you tend to keep robot vacuum cleaners under furniture so they’re out of the way, voice control makes starting a clean easier than trying to reach for the button on top or using the app.
Yeedi Vac 2 Pro: Battery life and maintenance
A quoted 200-minutes of battery life sounds like a huge amount of time, but this is on the least powerful setting. Up the power and battery life drops; not to the point, where it’s an issue, though: even on Max, there was enough power to tackle my downstairs (utility room aside), with juice left to tackle spot cleanings.
Effectively, when I wanted the vacuum to clean, it was ready and able to do so.
I measured sound at 62.3dB, which isn’t too bad given the power on offer: it’s not an intrusive noise. Well, unless you have the Self-Empty Station. When that kicks into life: that’s super loud, although only for a few seconds.
Without the Self-Empty Station, you’ll need to empty the bin manually. I’d check it after every clean. Wash out the filter every month, too, to maintain the best performance.
The app will also tell you when it’s time to change brushes (or at least check them).
