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Kyvol Cybovac E30 Robot Vacuum: A Competent Cleaner with Floor Mapping Memory

Sep 10, 2020

219

Rating:
7/10
?

1 – Absolute Hot Garbage
2 – Sorta Lukewarm Garbage
3 – Strongly Flawed Design
4 – Some Pros, Lots Of Cons
5 – Acceptably Imperfect
6 – Good Enough to Buy On Sale
7 – Great, But Not Best-In-Class
8 – Fantastic, with Some Footnotes
9 – Shut Up And Take My Money
10 – Absolute Design Nirvana

Price: $249.99

Buy on Amazon

The Cybovac E30 is a robot vacuum cleaner (RVC) that forms part of the new Kyvol range of semi-autonomous cleaning solutions. They have released three models: the E20 (vacuum), the E30 (vacuum), and the E31 (vacuum/mop hybrid). The E30 is their midrange option and, as such, has several features you would expect from such an RVC.

Here’s What We Like

Excellent suction on carpets
Ready to clean out of the box
Mapping capabilities
Quick clean
Decent battery life
Boundary strips are useful

And What We Don’t

Only one side brush
Unnecessary app
Very long charging time

Retailing at $249, you actually get quite a bit for your hard-earned dollar. This is a seriously low price for a robot vacuum so I was genuinely curious to see how the E30 would perform when lined up to some of its competition. That competition is pretty stiff in a market that is becoming more and more saturated with like-for-like models, so the Cybovac has a lot to prove.

With all of that in consideration, let’s take a look at the performance of this cyborg chambermaid and see what all the fuss is about.

A Box of Tricks

We’re not talking Masked Magician level tricks, here, but the Cybovac E30 does come with some features that will make it stand out against other robot vacuums within the $249 price range. The box contains all you need to get started; you don’t actually need to use the Kyvol smartphone app which can be downloaded from the Google Play and Apple App stores, although that is an option.

In the box, you get the Cybovac E30 vacuum, a power adapter, the charging dock, remote control with two AAA batteries (manufactured by Sundy; you know, the inventors of the Strollboy personal cassette player and the RecreationTerminal games console), two side brushes, instruction manual, the maintenance tool, a HEPA filter, and the boundary strips with 3m tape to stick it down.

In terms of dimensions, the vacuum is 325mm diameter x 73mm high. This means it should slip under sofas and such without a problem. It is always worth measuring this kind of space before you buy any robot cleaner; underneath the sofa is where most dust will accumulate, so you want to make sure the robot can get under there and give it a good clean.

In terms of its looks, you’re getting a circular robot vacuum that emulates the appearance of pretty much all of the other RVCs on the market. It comes in a black colorway with a high-luster plate at the top, complete with an attractive concentric circle design. The top houses the auto-start button and the charge button. The former will commence a clean, while the latter will send the vacuum to the charging dock. You will also find the Wi-Fi indicator next to the auto-start button.

The front of the Cybovac houses the sensor for mapping your home. This is covered by a plastic bumper that absorbs any bumps or knocks that your vacuum may take during a clean. The back features the recess for the dustbin, which is capable of holding up to 0.6 liters of dust and is easily removed with a click of the orange clip. This is the average volume of dustbin for a robot vacuum where the dustbin clips into the back. The E31 hybrid model has the same-sized dustbin, which can be swapped out for the included mopping reservoir.

The belly of the beast is where the action all happens. We have all manner of gubbins on the underside, including (from front to back) the front drop sensor that prevents the vacuum from doing its best Slinky impression down the stairs, the universal balance wheel, the “hall sensors” that detect the magnetic boundary strips, the mount for one side brush (we’ll discuss this later), two more drop sensors, the drive wheels, dust inlet, the main brush, and the power switch.

In all, there isn’t really anything outstandingly different about the appearance of the E30, apart from the fact that it only has one side brush. We’ll talk about this when we discuss the performance of the machine later.

Just Get Vacuuming, Will You?

If you are a newbie where robot vacuums are concerned, then I’ll venture that you will like the Cybovac E30. As mentioned earlier, the vacuum can work with or without the Kyvol app. So, you don’t necessarily need to download it at all if you’re happy with just setting the vacuum off on its first clean.

Just pop the robot on the charger for its first full charge and, once that is done, you’re ready to send it off on a scouting mission. Once you’ve loaded the Sundy batteries into the remote, just hit start, and off the E30 will go to map the space it will be cleaning. It will complete a clean now as well, killing two birds with one stone. Note, if you don’t use the app, you won’t see the map that the E30 creates. Not that you really need to.

If you do want to use the app, you need to connect the robot to your Wi-Fi, so it can speak to your phone. It will only connect to a 2.4 GHz band, so dual-band routers will need to have the signal split so it can recognize this. It uses the 2.4 GHz band, as that offers better stability through walls and floors etc.

Once you have connected to the app, it’s pretty much the same as using the remote control in terms of operating the vacuum. There is even a soft-remote within the app that sets the device off in exactly the same way as the remote control does. Simple, Simon!

The initial bedroom mapping/cleaning session took four minutes in all. I was kind of expecting this, as the same has been true with previous mapping robovacs I have reviewed. My house is small, so it was over and done with pretty sharpish. Overall, setting the device up is nice and simple, whether you decide to use the remote or the app.

It Vacuums … Well

So, how does the E30 perform in terms of vacuuming? Well, it has a whopping 2,200 Pa suction power so, with that in mind, it should make light work of any debris littering your floor. Even carpets shouldn’t be a bother for this kind of suction. But are they?

Well, apparently not. I threw the vacuum in at the deep end and set it to task in my upstairs space (which is essentially just two bedrooms). This area is carpeted, and it is also where the cats spend most of their day. They’re molting heavily at the moment, so the carpet needs to be vacuumed every day.

The vacuum does an excellent job of cleaning the floor upstairs. It lifts the cat hair out of the pile with ease and sucked up any cobs of cat hair without even breaking a sweat. I had noticed a couple of strands of cotton on the carpet before I started the test clean and those were gone, too. So, it is great for carpets.

The E30’s performance was relatively good downstairs on the laminate floor. Most of the cat litter trails were gone, so that was great, and it made light work of most other dust and debris that was laying around. Like a novice Pokemon trainer, though, it didn’t catch ’em all and there were some bits randomly strewn across the floor, so I did need to then make use of the spot clean function where it hadn’t quite grabbed everything. It took 23 minutes in total; this time is in line with other robot vacuums I’ve used.

The vacuum cleans in a linear pattern, thanks to the gyroptic navigation (presumably a combination of a gyroscope and the optical mapping sensor, I’m guessing…). This offers a significantly more efficient clean than a vacuum that cleans in a random pattern. The Cybovac E20 is a vacuum that uses a random “bounce mode.” It is cheaper, and hence, why the E30 is the midrange model.

There is one hang-up I have about the E30. I mean, I’m really flummoxed over this one. The E20—Kyvol’s lowest-priced vacuum—comes with two side brushes. However, both the E30 and the E31 come with only one side brush, with an optical flow sensor located where the other should be. I feel like they should have maybe placed the sensor somewhere else, as having only one brush means that the vacuum can only pick up debris that lies to the right-hand side of the vacuum. However, I also accept that this might not be possible.

This is why the cleaning downstairs wasn’t overly impressive, I’ll venture. It basically only has 50% of the dust-sweeping efficiency of a vacuum with two brushes. Aside from getting into corners, the brushes are supposed to sweep debris towards the vacuum inlet. If only one brush is present, it is logically only going to do half the work. I just wish that the more expensive models had two brushes.

Mid-Range Performance?

We do have mid-range performance with the Cybovac E30. It takes 6.5 hours to charge it from empty (which is what you are required to do when you first get it). That is a long time. However, you do get the full Kyvol-published 150 minutes of cleaning time out of the device once it’s fully charged.

Plus, once it is fully charged, unless you use it for the full 150 minutes, it will never fully run out of battery. It heads back to the charging dock of its own accord once a clean is complete. In my case, it took 4 minutes to clean my bedroom. This is only a small space, however, and is predominantly inhabited by the bed and sideboard.

The boundary tape certainly helps when it comes to the E30. It recognizes these on the floor via the hall sensors underneath. These prevent the vacuum from crossing over the boundary strip and into, say, a pile of wires or an expensive vase. That way you know both the vacuum and your belongings are safe from damage.

The remote control is decent, though. It has all the cleaning modes on there, plus it even displays the time on the display at the top. This is important as you can also use the remote to schedule cleans, meaning that it can clean when you’re not even at home, without you even having to interact with the E30. I’m a fan of this ability straight out of the box. It means you don’t even need the app. Speaking of which….

So … the App

The first thing that annoyed me about the app was the fact that I need to create an account to use it. Had I not been reviewing this device, I genuinely wouldn’t have bothered with the app. Why do I need to register my details to clean my house? None of the other app-enabled RVCs I have reviewed require this—you just launch the app and connect the vacuum. So, that got my goat from the offset.

Once my abject rage had subsided (perhaps I’m exaggerating a little), I added my details and I was into the app. The first thing we are greeted with is the “Add Device” screen. This is pretty straightforward and connecting my smartphone to the vacuum wasn’t an issue. You just select the right model, and the app guides you through the setup process. Then you’re ready to direct the vacuum with the software.

The app is fairly light. It can show you a cleaning record, which features a map of the area it has cleaned, plus the size of the space it cleaned and the time taken. Aside from that, the only other real feature in the app is the soft remote.

I can’t help but feel the app is a little unnecessary. You have a remote control that you can use to direct the device, and you have boundary strips to block areas off. You can’t draw virtual walls on the map as with the OZMO T8, so this is more like a gimmicky remote control. I don’t really need to see a map of my room; I live in it, so I know the layout.

What’s the Verdict?

The Cybovac E30 cleans relatively well. It doesn’t struggle with carpets or hard floors in terms of actually sucking the debris up. However, I feel it is hampered by the fact that it only has one side brush, and therefore, doesn’t pick everything up as you might like. The fact that the lower-end model has two brushes, while the mid- and top-end models don’t, is somewhat confusing.

I recently praised the simplicity of the Yeedi K700 (which can also mop, by the way) for not having an app. With a basic device, this just hampers matters and could make it seem less accessible to people who perhaps aren’t as techy as others. I feel like the Cybovac app isn’t necessary at all. You can schedule a clean (with the remote control) for the time you finish work so that, when you return, it is all clean and nicely vacuumed.

In all, the E30 does a relatively decent job of cleaning, but I do feel that there are other vacuums out there that are within the same price bracket, yet do a better job.

Rating: 7/10
Price: $249.99

Buy on Amazon

Here’s What We Like

Excellent suction on carpets
Ready to clean out of the box
Mapping capabilities
Quick clean
Decent battery life
Boundary strips are useful

And What We Don’t

Only one side brush
Unnecessary app
Very long charging time