“Need to mop, or vacuum? The Deebot Ozmo 930 is one device that can handle either chore.”
- Works as both a vacuum and a mop
- Cleans well
- Versatile attachments for a robot vac
- App map makes it easy to tell it where to clean
- Good for mopping maintenance
- Short battery life
- Assembling the mop can be frustrating
- Very app-dependent
Whether you want a robot vacuum because you’re a clean freak who wants daily maintenance or you’re simply too busy or lazy to do the chore yourself, chances are a robot mop also sounds appealing. The Ecovacs Deebot Ozmo 930 is actually a hybrid of both, so it mops and vacuums. Thanks to its handy app, it has one of the better mapping experiences we’ve seen, so you don’t have to worry about it soaking your rug.
The ups and downs
Big, black, and round, this vacuum resembles an overgrown hockey puck. Because it’s almost 14 inches in diameter and four inches tall, there are some places the Ozmo 930 simply cannot go. It looks like it could climb over the Electrolux Pure i9, which is 3.35 inches tall and 12.8 inches in diameter. But most of the height issues come from its round long distance sensor that sits on top. The robot would make it most of the way under our console table until this disc stopped its momentum. One conspicuous aspect of the Ozmo is its single “auto” button on top. This is how you start and stop the robot.
Despite the robust size, its dust bin is quite small at 0.47 liters. (The Electrolux’s is 0.7 liters.) There isn’t a visual or audible reminder to empty the bin when it’s full, so you’ll probably want to do it after each sweep. It’s easy enough to remove, open, and replace, though.
Though it’s fairly big, it probably takes up less room than two separate vacuum and mop robots.
Underneath, the Ozmo looks different from a lot of robot vacuums because of the position of its main brush. It’s not stretched across the front. Instead, it’s smaller and toward the middle of the robot. The brush is also removable and can be replaced with a direct suction tool when the vacuum isn’t running on carpet or rugs. We found the tabs you have to slide over to swap these tools to be a little tricky the first few times.
Where the brush normally sits is a removable water reservoir. It’s simple enough to clip back into place when the Ozmo is upside down, but it’s more frustrating when it’s right-side up and the reservoir is full of water.
Spending time on the border line
The worry with hybrid products is that they’ll do be mediocre at two jobs instead of excelling at one. The thing with a vaccop (or mopuum?) is that it doesn’t really have that much to live up to. The Ozmo 930 suffers from the pitfalls of all robot vacuums, in that it misses corners, gets cat toys stuck in its wheels, and bumps into furniture. It doesn’t always make it back to its home (charging) base at the end of its cleaning cycle. On the plus side, all you really have to do is push a button.
The first time you run the vacuum, it rolls from room to room, making a pretty good map of your home. It wants access to all areas this first run. Since it doesn’t know where anything is, it bumps up against tables, chairs, and anything else in its path. Once it sorts out where everything is, it stays far away from problem areas, but only if everything is in its proper place. We don’t tuck our dining chairs into the exact spot every night, so the vacuum would smack into the legs frequently. But the bookshelf where it got irrevocably stuck its first run? It never went under there again. For some reason, it never managed to get the space between the couch and the coffee table, though there was plenty of space for it to maneuver.
Once it had the map down, the vacuum would usually run around our 840-square-foot home for about 20 minutes. When we directed it to vacuum continuously, the battery only lasted 50 minutes.
The 50-minute battery life could definitely be longer.
In terms of mopping, the Ozmo comes with two microfiber cloths that attach to its bottom. When you attach the cloth, the vacuum automatically knows it’s time to mop. It sprays out water and then runs over it with the cloth. It’s fairly similar to how the iRobot Braava Jet 240 works, though everything about the Ozmo is bigger. This means that it holds more water and can cover the same space more quickly, but it also can’t get into tight spaces like the Braava. One of the best things about the iRobot’s little mopper is that it got between the toilet and wall. The same isn’t true of Deebot’s hybrid.
As you’d expect of this type of cleaning, it isn’t a replacement for regular mopping. It does fine with picking up surface ick, but it’s really for maintenance than actual deep cleaning. The Ozmo is supposed to be smart enough to differentiate between floor types, so it won’t mop your rug or carpet. We found this to be true, but you can always use the app to designate what rooms it should skip.
Restart
Remember how we mentioned the Ozmo’s lonely auto button? That should give you pause, and not just because it stops the vacuum. Everything, and we mean everything, else happens on the app (iOS and Android). When the Ozmo is on your Wi-Fi network, you’ll see the bot’s map of your house (at least, a single floor of it). On the map, you’ll see different color-coded sections. These roughly translate to rooms, though our yellow area is both the hallway and the bathroom. If you want to keep the vac out of your cord-ladden office, you can select all the other rooms and send it on its way. If you just want to mop the kitchen, you can tick a single section or use the custom feature to draw a rectangle around the problem area.
These features are incredibly easy to use but aren’t flawless. For example, we wish we could designate that the hall and bathroom are actually different spaces, but the map seems set in stone. Also, the custom feature comes only in a rectangle shape, and you don’t seem to be able to make more than one. This meant we couldn’t properly mark off the area around the cat food and water bowls.
Being able to keep it out of an office full of cords is a boon.
On the app, you can also set daily cleaning schedules, but again, it’s not as powerful as we’d like. If we could choose to have the bot vacuum the bedroom on Tuesdays and Thursdays and clean the kitchen and bathroom every day, we would. Unfortunately, you can’t designate on the map where you want the Ozmo to clean with a set schedule.
The app is also where you’ll adjust the amount of water used for mopping, set up continuous cleaning (so the vacuum runs until it’s out of battery), and turn on and off the robot’s voice alerts. The Ozmo communicated regularly with us, telling us almost every time it started cleaning, “Difficult to locate. I am starting a new cleaning cycle.” Speaking of speaking, this vacuum is compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, in case you want to start your cleaning that way.
One thing the app didn’t do was give us alerts. We don’t want them all the time — like when the bot starts and stops — but it would be nice to know if the Ozmo was stuck.
Warranty
The Ecovacs Deebot Ozmo 930 comes with a one-year, limited warranty.
Our Take
We found the Ozmo 930 for $540 on Amazon and Home Depot. For that price, you get a double-duty robot that can help you maintain your floors. We wish it wasn’t so app-dependent and that the app was little more versatile. It’s complicated. Still, it’s one of the more versatile robot vacs we’ve come across.
What are the alternatives?
There aren’t a ton of mop-vacuum hybrids. For $160, there’s the iLife V5s, which lacks an app and the ability to designate the bot only clean specific rooms. Then there’s the bObsweep PetHair Plus ($899). All its controls are right on the top, and it doesn’t have an app. In addition, it only comes with a dry mop; its wet mop attachment is sold separately.
How long will it last?
The one-year warranty isn’t very long, and robot vacs require regular maintenance, like de-furring brushes and emptying bins. On top of that, you’ll want to empty extra mop water to keep the reservoir from getting funky. If you do plan to mop a lot, keep in mind that Ecovacs recommends washing the cloth every time and replacing them after 50 washes.
Should you buy it?
We were impressed with the Ozmo’s cleaning ability and found the ability to designate specific rooms to clean really useful. If you don’t mind such an app-heavy bot and want one that will save you some mopping, the Ozmo 930 is a great choice.
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