Key Takeaways
- The $599 SwitchBot Mini Robot Vacuum K10+ Pro is small, quiet, and easy to set up.
- This device struggles to deal with pet hair and debris, so it requires frequent intervention and monitoring.
- Robot vacuums have low suction power, limited obstacle avoidance capabilities, and no efficient cleaning patterns.
Last winter, I made my annual trip to CES in Las Vegas, primarily as a journalist and a purveyor of all things technology. Amid the five-day barrage of AI, there were some impressive technologies on display, one that stood out above the rest: robot vacuum cleaners. At the time, I had no interest in them, almost and unfairly, because I’m the worst kind of skeptic.
One memory that sticks out in my mind is when I bought a Roomba for a relative, only for it to chew up her dog and everything else it shouldn’t have.
Here’s a Jererie Clarkson-style warning: A new generation of cleaning robots that scan your home using AI-powered evasive technology has me rethinking my perspective.
I was lucky enough to be sent a few to review and now I can’t live without my Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra. My floors are sparkling clean, my wood floors are well-maintained and my carpets are sparkling clean. I also have a cat so pet hair used to be an issue and I had to vacuum regularly. Not an issue anymore.
So, it’s safe to say I’m very happy. When a small robot vacuum like the SwitchBot K10+ Pro hits the market, it has a few advantages. Thanks mainly to its size, this robot vacuum can reach places other vacuums can’t, solving my biggest (and only) complaint about larger vacuums: having to take out my Dyson to clean between furniture or the gap between the fridge and the wall is a pain. But it’s not a big deal, because the SwitchBot promises to get into places few other robot vacuums can.
Small but ineffective
SwitchBot Mini Robot Vacuum Cleaner K10+ Pro
The SwitchBot Mini Robot Vacuum K10+ Pro has quite a few drawbacks and few great features beyond its size and portability. Its limited battery life might not be suitable for a large home, but it might be fine for a small apartment.
- Small and compact
- The quiet environment is very quiet
- Doesn’t require many consumables
- Works with Google Home and Alexa
- Weak suction power
- Poor obstacle avoidance
- Full mopping function
- For small homes only
Pricing, Specifications and Availability
SwitchBot sells the Mini Robot Vacuum K10+ Pro for $600. The device comes in only one color: white. To use the device’s smart home features, you’ll need the SwitchBot Hub 2, which will cost you another $70 if you want to jump into the SwitchBot ecosystem.
At the time of writing, the K10+ Pro is only available to purchase from Amazon or the SwitchBot website.
What I like about the SwitchBot Mini Robot Vacuum Cleaner K10+ Pro
Small, quiet and cute
Size is a key feature of this robot vacuum, something I really appreciate. It’s also very easy to start up and use. There’s minimal setup required out of the box, and the docking station has a maximum of three tabs. All you have to do is open the lid of the SwitchBot Mini Robot Vacuum K10+ Pro and switch it on – a small but important step – and then sync with the usual app.
I live in a three-story house. The first floor is dominated by the Roborock, so to compete with it, I decided to use the K10+ Pro on the second floor, which has carpet and tile floors. This floor consists of a bedroom, a bathroom, a walk-in closet (which is also where the cat lives), and a study. In total, the robot vacuum will be able to clean about 890 square feet.
I found that to avoid disaster, I had to choose some areas to be off limits, like stairs.
After rolling the K10+ Pro for the first time, the vacuum scanned the second floor with some success, though I found I had to pick out some no-go areas, like the stairs, to avoid catastrophe.
Related
Apple’s next big device: a desktop robot iPad that controls your smart home
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The SwitchBot Mini Robot Vacuum K10+ Pro managed to work even with 30% battery power remaining, which is better than expected. I docked it in the 4L dust collection base to charge it, and SwitchBot says you won’t need to change the bag for about 90 days.
While cleaning with the SwitchBot Mini Robot Vacuum K10+ Pro, you can choose from several power modes, ranging from quiet to maximum power. Quiet mode is great, while maximum power is loud and consumes battery power. We measured the sound produced and recorded about 48 decibels in quiet mode, which is close to the advertised 45 decibels.
The build quality is pretty good. It’s made entirely out of plastic, but it feels premium, as does the docking station. There’s a mopping feature, but it’s pretty much an afterthought; to use the mop you have to attach what can only be described as a wet diaper to the back of the K10+ Pro. But it works well enough.
SwitchBot has a fairly robust ecosystem that connects nicely to Google Home and Amazon Alexa. If you want to check, there’s an extensive list of compatible devices on the company’s website. However, you’ll need to purchase an additional hub, as mentioned above, to get everything to work. SwitchBot’s app has a lot of features, including schedules and routines that you can create to fit your lifestyle.
What I didn’t like about the SwitchBot Mini Robot Vacuum K10+ Pro
Power is meaningless without control
I wanted to like the K10+ Pro robot vacuum, but unfortunately, it has some insurmountable issues. First, my biggest complaint is the way it works.
There doesn’t seem to be much thought put into how the K10+ Pro cleans. The vacuum doesn’t enter a room and start moving left and right and up and down. Instead, it just seems to run around completely randomly. This is highly inefficient for saving power, and when you see a map of where the robot has been, it looks reckless. Eventually the robot vacuum starts to get more organized with things, but it’s just plain weird compared to other robot vacuums I’ve tested.
It seems like not much thought has been put into how the K10+ Pro cleans: When the vacuum enters a room, it doesn’t move side to side or up and down.
The second issue is power: With a suction power of just around 2,000 Pascals, the K10+ Pro struggles to pick up anything other than pet hair and a bit of dust. By comparison, Roborock’s top-of-the-line vacuums are around 10,000 Pascals, and most of Dyson’s handheld vacuums are around 2,100 Pascals, depending on the model.
Quiet mode will do a light sweep of your carpet and will significantly reduce power to keep your device quiet, while Max Power mode, as mentioned above, will give you a more thorough clean but at the expense of battery power and will also be louder.
The K10+ Pro required a lot of stopping and attention during its first full house run, something I struggled with with the old Roomba mentioned above. I couldn’t have a moment to myself because the app would yell at me if the robot had come across a shoelace or something. Even while writing this review, I had to stop a few times to tend to the robot.
I wish I could just leave this device alone and let it do its thing, but it can’t. It may seem unfair to compare a small device like the K10+ Pro to the much more expensive Roborock Ultra, but I didn’t feel like the SwitchBot robot vacuum helped me save time. At every price point, the level of human touch required for each cleaning is unacceptable.
You cannot change the name of the room.
I also ran into some issues with the company’s software. The companion app split my bedroom in two so it looks like there are two rooms to clean instead of one, and I can’t figure out how to change that. It also doesn’t let you rename the rooms, so everything is labeled Room 1, 2, 3, etc., which is an obstacle when you want to tell the vacuum to do something using Google Home or Alexa.
Manual mop changes and app notifications every time the robot hits an obstacle are frustrating for me. For me at least, the K10+ Pro is a device to avoid. You can’t save time and energy, and you can’t trust your schedule to get the job done. Unlike its larger, more expensive counterparts, the K10+ Pro doesn’t get the basics right.
Should I buy the SwitchBot Mini Robot Vacuum K10+ Pro?
An easy choice for a select few
You have to ask yourself if you’d ever find yourself in a situation where you would actually buy a SwitchBot. If you lived in a small apartment with tile and hardwood floors, the answer is “maybe.” But I can’t think of any other scenario where I wouldn’t shell out the extra money for a better device that doesn’t require intervention every time it activates. The K10+ Pro’s complete lack of obstacle avoidance and poor cleaning capabilities negate most of the appeal of having a device that announces birth in the first place.
Now, you need to remove all the stuff that’s stuck in the SwitchBot. It’s a pain.
Small but ineffective
SwitchBot Mini Robot Vacuum Cleaner K10+ Pro
