Hobot LEGEE-D8: ECO Compactor, Auto-Lift Mop, Powerfull Suction and D-shape body!

Hey guys, welcome to Robotobzor! Today we’ll look at the new Hobot LEGEE-D8 robot vacuum cleaner. This model is scheduled to go on sale in May 2023 with an estimated starting price of $520. For its price, it offers a lot of different cool solutions. For example, the D shaped body and dirt pre-collection on the brush, which protects the brush from hair and fur. The cloth lift function on carpets, and the high-frequency vibration of that napkin, allow you to scrub dirt off the floor. There’s creative voice commands that you can record yourself. And a proprietary ECO Compactor that squeezes the dirt into the container. And even an optionally available self-cleaning station called Hobot LuLu, which will come out later. All in all, the robot is very interesting and could be one of the best in 2023. Now, I’ll test and review Hobot LEGEE-D8 in detail, after which I’ll tell you if this is the robot for you. Let’s get moving!

Kit

The vacuum came in this box:

It includes:

1. Charging base.
2. Power cord.
3. Two extra microfiber cloths.
4. Instruction manual.
5. A water bottle for pouring the water in the container.
6. An extra water spray kit.
7. Two extra side brushes.
8. Extra HEPA-filter.

The box is full, and includes every spare part that you could need. Right away I’ll stop to look at the Hobot LuLu station, and I’ll periodically come back to review it. It’ll be on sale from September 2023 and will cost about $260, which is actually not bad, considering its features.

Appearance

Now let’s look at LEGEE-D8 Hobot’s build. The design doesn’t really differ from the previous D7. It’s white, D shaped, with 4 buttons on top. What is different is the top rim’s color, a new wall sensor on the right side of the bumper, lots of sensors in front of the bumper to see obstacles, and extra charging ports for charging with the station LuLu, as well as a hole for auto tank refills at the station.

The dirt and water tank are under the top lid. The dirt tank has been updated, and I’ll give it some brief attention. It has a mechanical press, which is called the ECO Compactor. It presses light debris, thereby increasing the estimated capacity of the container up to 5 times. So 5 times less cleaning for you. It’s an alternative to the Hobot engineers’ self-cleaning function, and at the same time a significant saving on bags.

The dirt container also has 2 openings in it: one for loading in the dirt from the pre-suction nozzle, as well as from the central brush block. The filtration system is based on mesh and HEPA. It holds up to 500 ml (16.9 Oz.) of dirt.

The water tank hosts the robot’s cleaning tool and brushes. The tank holds up to 320 ml (10.8 Oz.) of water.

On the bottom are 4 height sensors, one side brush, charging ports for the regular base, tracks for moving the robot, a pre-suction tube for light debris in front of the brush, and the central brush itself. It’s bristle-bladed, can’t be removed, which in my opinion could’ve been fixed, comparing it to the D7 model.

Behind the brush, are four nozzles for spraying water. This is another unique feature in the HOBOTS. Other robots have water supplied through the cloth from top to bottom, which makes the water dirtier than just sprayed. But with Hobots, the purity of atomized water does not depend on and does not decrease in the process of cleaning. And most importantly, the wipe itself collects residual water, wiping the floor dry and without streaks.

I’ll also stop on the wipe platform. The manufacturers state that it has silver ions to disinfect it. The platform vibrates up to 1300 times per minute. Plus, it has a pressure wiping force of up to 800 grams (1.7 lbs.) and can automatically lift 7mm (.27 inches) on carpets. Additionally, the wipe lifts up after cleaning when it goes back to the base. This stops the wet wipe from touching your floor, and ruining it.

All in all, it’s one of the most advanced and productive robots in terms of the design’s solutions. The only thing missing is an object detection system for small things.

I’m gonna give you a little preview of the Hobot LuLu station, which we’ll see a bit later, so expect a review. So, on it Hobot LEGEE-D8 is able to refill the tank with water, clean the wipe during cleaning, as well as dry the wipe with warm air after the end of the cleaning cycle.

All these features of the station allow you to use the new Hobot LEGEE-D8 for cleaning large areas, and the end result is to minimize the maintenance of the robot-vacuum cleaner.

Тechnical features

Hobot LEGEE-D8’s main characteristics, given by the manufacturer:

• Battery Li-Ion 4900 mA*h.
• Suction power 5000 Pa.
• Cleaning area up to 240 sq.m.
• Battery life up to 140 mins.
• Charging time: 200 mins.
• Dirt container 500 ml (16.9 Oz.).
• Water tank 320 ml (10.8 Oz.)
• Wipe frequency: 1300 vibrations per minute.
• Wipe lift: 7 mm (.27 inches).
• Obstacle size up to 20 mm (.78 In.).
• Size 340*339*98 mm (13.3×13.3×3.8.

Here it’s important to emphasize the increased suction power, I’ll definitely have to test. The other characteristics are quite standard and don’t differ much from Hobot LEGEE-D7.

Functions

Hobot LEGEE-D8’s main functions:

• ECO Compactor.
• Saves multiple maps in memory.
• Fast map scanning and saving.
• Automatically zones the space into rooms.
• Room choice for cleaning.
• Cleans in a set space.
• Cleans under curtains
• User’s zones.
• Virtual walls and no-go zones.
• 7 work modes for different uses.
• User mode.
• Manual suction power adjustment.
• Manual water flow adjustment.
• Manual robot’s speed adjustment.
• Manual brush speed adjustment.
• Manual vibration speed adjustment.
• Cleaning log.
• Cleaning schedule.
• Automatic power increase on carpets
• Automatic wipe lift on carpets.
• Continues cleaning after charging
• Customizable creative voice commands.
• Compatible with Siri and OK Google.
• Connects to 2,4/5G Wi-Fi.
• Saves 3 Wi-Fi networks.

I’ll stop on some of the features. I told you earlier about ECO Compactor when we were going over its design. It’s very convenient and lets you flexibly adjust different parameters of the robot in User mode, such as the vibration frequency or the cleaning speed. Of course, the cleaning quality will increase. In User mode by selected zones, you can select individual cleaning parameters for each room, another useful feature. Cleaning under curtains is what makes the Hobot LEGEE-D8 pop out. You can set areas with curtains on the map so that the robot literally rams curtains up to the wall in those areas and cleans behind the curtains. Other lidar robots neatly go around them.

Custom zones A “loosen-climb” zone is, conversely, a manually set zone, too, where the robot must gently touch and go around objects without trying to drive over them. These can be fragile vases, the drying rack legs, or bar stools, and so on.

And Hobot LEGEE-D8 lets you record creative voice commands for every status of the robot. You can either select the sound files you want from your phone’s memory or record them on your recorder.

Testing

Navigation

And, finally, let’s get to the tests. First of all, let’s test its navigation in a room with obstacles. First, the robot goes around the room’s perimeter, then goes through it in a snake like pattern. It didn’t get stuck on the drying rack, it swept separately around several chair legs, but it didn’t sweep around the box.

As for the rest of the house, Hobot LEGEE-D8 cleans room by room first along the perimeter, then in a snake like pattern. Nothing’s dirty, it’s fast, and so the navigation is good.

Suction power

They weren’t lying about the suction power. The robot sucked dirt out of a 8mm (.31 In.) slot. The earlier Hobot LEGEE-D7 could go up to 10 mm (.39 In.) but the thing is that with D7 you could turn off the pre suction, which you can’t do with the D8. And so the suction power is evenly distributed through the two nozzles. Overall, it proved itself powerful enough.

Vacuuming

It did well picking up different dirt off the laminate. The robot sucked all of the dirt from the floor, including the corners perfectly cleaned. And there’s no hair or fur coiled around the brush. Most of the dirt is in the container. Test passed with flying colors!

Carpet cleaning

LEGEE-D8 also did a good job cleaning the carpet, there were literally a couple of hair clumps left that got caught in the carpet. But anyway, considering the initial condition of the carpet and that it’s fluffy – I think the robot cleaned the carpet well and is good for carpets!

ECO Compactor

I separately tested the ECO Compactor. Before the test, the dirt container was clean, weighing 125 grams (4.4 Oz.). Then I ran the robot in a very dirty room with a lot of garbage, including hair and fur, several times sprinkling new dirt on the floor after the end of each cleaning cycle. So, as a result, after a while, the efficiency of the collection began to decline, and the robot began to miss some of the garbage on the floor. After weighing it, the weight was 170 grams (6 Oz.). So as a result the robot managed to crush 45 grams (1.5 Oz.) of dry dirt. It’s much more important to show how much trash it is, here, take a look:

Yes, the idea is cool, a better solution than robots without a station at all. Definitely. But, self-cleaning solves the problem of a full dirt container completely, and ECO Compactor only gives you the opportunity to clean it less often. So you have to choose what is more important: saving money on buying bags + environmentally friendly garbage collection, but the need to clean the container manually every 3-4 weeks. Or completely autonomous emptying of the dirt container, but the cost of bags and the presence of a factor of dustiness of the room during self-cleaning at the station.

Mopping

Hobot LEGEE-D8 wipes dirt off well. And it can not only scrub dried up dirt, but also stubborn coffee and sauce stains. This is definetly a scrubber, given the presence of a vibrating platform.

The only drawback is that there is an unwashed area along the baseboard, as the wipe can’t go to the edge. But this is common with all of the robots I’ve tested.

Mopping on carpets

As for mopping with carpets, the robot recognizes the carpets and automatically picks up the cloth on them. This keeps the carpets dry and clean at all times. Very useful!

Obstacles

Hobot LEGEE D8 is good off-road. It went over 2 cm (.78 In.) thresholds, and drives over medium carpets.

Dark spaces

But there is a problem with dark spaces. On hard black surfaces, as in my case a black plastic mat, the robot passes without any problems. On the other hand, it fears the black mat, as do most other robots on the market. It sees it as a cliff, and backs up. Keep this in mind.

Volume

The volume is between 62-73.7 dB, depending on the selected operating mode. At maximum power, of course, it’s loud, but it’s worth noting that its very powerful.

Opinion

Hobot LEGEE-D8 robot vacuum was thoroughly reviewed and tested. Our algorithm scored 155 points giving it a TOP 7 place of tested robot vacuums with the Robotobzor project. And this one is in the package without the station. After the release of the Hobot LuLu station, I’ll test the robot with it, and separately evaluate it. I am sure it will fight to be in the top

The overall rating of models that passed the Robotobzor test https://robotobzor.com/ratings/general-rating-of-robot-vacuum-cleaners.html.

I’ll now share my opinion. I liked the following:

1. High suction power
2. The turbobrush protection system against hair.
3. ECO Compactor solution which solves buying bags.
4. Gets in the corners better than round robots.
5. Water supply via nozzles.
6. High mopping and vacuuming quality.
7. Automatic wipe lift on carpets.
8. Vibro Platform, which gets it tighter to the floor.
9. Lots of functions for flexible adjustments.
10. Quality cleaning in areas with curtains.
11. Optional wipe drying and cleaning platform.
12. Creative voice commands.
13. Supports 5G.
14. Full kit.
15. Supports voice assistants.
16. Good assembly.
17. Warranty and service inclusion.

As for disadvantages, they’re more just comments, and just highlight that haven’t been implemented in this robot when compared to others:

1. Is scared of dark spaces.
2. The central brush can’t be disassembled.
3. A small strip of dirt is left along the baseboard..
4. There is no full dirt self-cleaning. For some people the ECO Compactor will be an alternative, but for some people it’s not, and that’s a fact.
5. No object detection system.

Don’t take into account the pros and cons, we’ll do that in a later review. Overall, for the price, Hobot LEGEE-D8 will definitely be one of the best vacuums, but, like others from other brands, it has its weaknesses. For some they are minor, for others they are important. Personally, I liked the upgrade and definitely recommend this robot.

On this note, I’d like to edn the review. If you still have questions, make sure to ask them in the comments below. Don’t forget to like and subscribe. Have fun shopping, bye!