Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro: retractable mop, 11,000 Pa suction, new station!

Hey guys, welcome to Robotobzor! Today, we have another new model for us to review – the Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro robot vacuum. The model’s front runner in 2024. The model also got a number of new design solutions to improve the cleaning quality. They also increased the suction power up to 11000 Pa, added new functions and made the station more compact. Now, I’ll test and review Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro in detail, highlight the pros and cons found from the tests, and then share my own opinion and let you know if this robot is right for you. At the time of the review the vacuum starts from $800 in the Chinese market, and up to $1100 in the local market in a utility connection set with a module to connect to the water supply and sewerage. Don’t forget to like and subscribe, and let’s get this show on the road!

Ecovacs Deebot T30s on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3KFwufG

Regionality

First, let’s talk about this robot’s regionality. The model is made for both the Chinese (PRO) and European (OMNI) markets.

Here comes up a few things about Chinese version:

1. To connect the robot to your phone, you need a Chinese SIM card to register an account. As a rule, stores provide unique access to log into the account, but have a plan before orering just in case.
2. Given that the robot is designed for the Chinese market, notifications come up in Chinese. YIKO, the brand’s voice assistant, also takes info only in Chinese. But at least the application interface is in English. It’s not difficult to understand, everything is intuitive.

Don’t worry about using Chinese Ecovacs robots outside of China. According to the official Ecovacs website, their robots work fine in other countries. The key is to register with a Chinese phone number. So, your robot won’t stop working or get blocked.

Kit

Let’s start with the kit. The vacuum came in this box:

In my case, the station has a module for connecting to the utilities. You can remove and replace the module with clean and dirty water tanks of you’d like.

The kit includes this aside from the robot:

1. Power cord with a Chinese plug.
2. A detergent module.
3. Tubes and accessories to connect the station to the utilities.
4. An instruction manual in Chinese.

Pretty standard, no extras were provided.

Appearance

Now let’s look at Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro itself. The robot is round and white, standing at 104 mm (4.09 In.), although it’s really 102 mm (4.01 In.).

The robot has wall sensors on both sides of the bumper and a system of sensors in the center to detect and avoid obstacles. This technology, called TrueDetect, was upgraded to TrueDetect 3D 3.0 in the 30th series, similar to the Ecovacs Deebot T20 Pro.

However, it only avoids obstacles and doesn’t include remote home tracking via the camera. The Lidar, responsible for the navigation, is hidden with a spring loaded cover. There’s three buttons next to the lidar. The dust container is under the top cover. Next to it is a reset button for the WiFi connection and a QR code to connect the robot to the network. The 300 ml (10 Oz.) container is HEPA-filter with a foam insert, and a mesh.

The robot also has a small 55 ml (1.8 Oz.) water tank hidden inside. Water is pumped into the tank automatically at the station and fed to the wipes while cleaning.

The bottom of the robot has four sensors to stop it from falling and a carpet sensor next to the roller brush. Surprisingly, it only has one side brush. Even Ecovacs has realized that a second side brush isn’t really needed. For example, earlier models like the Ecovacs Deebot T20 Pro and X1 Omni had two side brushes, which were pretty popular amongst users.

The center brush unit is fluid. The turbo brush itself has been updated.It now comes equipped with soft and elastic inserts. The manufacturer points out that the anti-stattic V-shaped bristles are there to reduce hair tangling rates down to almost 0%. The brush can be taken out on one side to clean from coiled hair and fur.

Behind the brush is a comb for untangling hair and fur.

Behind the turbo brush, there are two round holders with wipes. There’s a mechanism on the left side to help clean along baseboards and furniture more thoroughly. I think I’ve seen this somewhere before.

This technology, called TruEdge by Ecovacs, is a great update!

You can also turn off the side-to-side movement of the wipe or choose a delicate setting, which keeps the wipe a few millimeters away from the baseboard. This is useful if you don’t have baseboards or don’t want the wipe to touch them or your furniture.

And one more thing – the mopnot only presses against the baseboard when cleaning, but also drives tightly into the corner, which gets the dirt in the corners better.

I’d like to add that the wipes are automatically lifted up by 9 mm (.35 In.) when the robot drives onto carpets, when returning to the station, and also when the robot moves to the selected cleaning zone.

As for the station, Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro self-cleans from dirt, washes wipes with 70 degree (158 F.) water, and dries the wipes with warm water after. The robot’s entry ramp, combined with the wipe washing tray, is completely removable, making it easy to clean.

The trash bag is right above it and has four layers, including a silver ion membrane and a black activated carbon layer for antibacterial protection. There’s also an optional module with silver ions to disinfect the water in the tank, which is a nice bonus.

As for the utilities connection module, it’s also removable.

Under the front cover are the covers for the clean and dirty water tanks. They simultaneously serve as water filters. You can install the 350 ml (11.8 Oz.) detergent tank in the center.

The station automatically mixes it into the clean water when washing wipes. The station is very easy to connect to the utilities. It’s necessary to install the corner connectors in the corresponding holes in the station, install the through outlet and connect the pipes: one to the through outlet and the other to the drain.

Technical features

Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro’s main features, given by the manufacturer:

• Navigation: Lidar + TrueDetect 3D 3.0
• Battery Li-Ion 5200 mA*h
• 11000Pa powerful suction
• Dirt container 300 ml (10 Oz.)
• Water tank 55 ml (1.86 Oz.)
• Bag in station: 4 L (1 G.).
• Conquers obstacles up to 20 mm (.78 In.)
• Robot’s size: 353*104 mm (13.9×4.09 In.)
• Station size: 409*490*394 mm (16.1×19.3×15.5 In.)

Here, I’ll point out the high suction power, which I’ll have to definitely test out later.

Functions

As for Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro’s functions, the robot is controlled via the Ecovacs Home app. Since the version is for the Chinese market, you need a Chinese phone number to log into the account. The seller should provide all of the credentials.

Connecting the robot to the app didn’t cause any problems. Consider that the interface of the app is in English, and the robot itself speaks only in Chinese, so its better to turn notifications off. This is one of the main disadvantages of the robot – the lack of adaptation to the Russian language. But in reality, it is not as inconvenient as it seems. Once you set everything up, you won’t even realize it. After that, you just press the start button and the robot cleans.

The main functions of Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro are up on the screen. The new features are highlighted:

• Cloth cleaning with hot water (70 °C/ 158 °F)
• The cloth drives up to the edges (TruEdge)
• Better cleaning in the corners
• Automatic cleaning mode detection (intelligent hosting, Cleaning Mode Extra)
• Self-cleaning the dirt container
• Dries the wipes with warm air.
• Object detection on the floor.
• Saves multiple maps in memory
• 3D-map of the area
• Automatically zones the rea into rooms
• Chose zones and rooms to clean
• Virtual walls and no-go zones (for mopping as well)
• Regulate suction power
• Frequency of wipe washing intervals (10, 15, 25 mins)
• Cleaning log
• Cleaning schedule
• User mode
• Automatic power increase on carpets
• Carpet avoidance while mopping
• Automatic wipe lift on carpets

Here, they increased the water from 55 to 70 degrees when washing wipes. They added automatic cleaning mode detection. The mode is called intelligent hosting. Something like SmartPlan in Roborock and CleanGenius in Dreame. And I already talked enough about the wipe lift in the previous segment.

It’s also important to emphasize the voice assistant YIKO, which lets you control your robot without third-party applications. The idea is cool, but English commands aren’t supported.

Overall, we can see that there is a slight upgrade in functionality, compared to the previously released T20 Pro. There are a lot of settings, and they allow you to flexibly customize the cleaning parameters for your own conditions.

Testing

Video review of Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro:

Navigation

Now, let’s move on to the tests. First, we checked how the Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro navigates a room with obstacles. The robot vacuum first cleaned around the perimeter, then cleaned the rest of the area in a snake like pattern. It had no trouble with dryer legs, and it swept around the box and chair legs separately before returning to the station. Test passed with flying colors!

As for cleaning the rest of the house, the robot vacuum cleaned each room by following the perimeter and then moving in a snake like pattern. Every 15 minutes, it returned to the station to wipe its brushes and then resumed cleaning from where it left off. It made three trips to the station to wash the wipes during the cleaning cycle. No areas were left uncleaned, so the navigation on this model is great.

Object detection on the floor

But the object detection system still needs work, no matter what set of sensors and cameras Ecovacs engineers have implemented. The robot touched a toy, a floor scale, a sock, a sneaker and a charger. I note that these objects didn’t stop it, but it still touched them, and for example if it went a little more over the wire, it would have wrapped itself. And the fake pet surprise it completely ran over. So Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro is neater than others without a system for detecting objects, it’s a fact.

But the system itself definitely needs serious work. In the dark it’s not better. The robot again ran over the pet poo, and moved the object even more than last time. Test failed.

Suction power

The suction power is high. It was able to suck dirt from cracks that were 2, 4, 6, and 10 mm (.07, .14, .23, .39 In.) deep.

However, it only got the deeper ones partially. It looks like the power was decreased from the previous T20 Pro, likely due to the new turbo brush design. Despite this, it’s still a powerful vacuum and cleans dirt better than the earlier Ecovacs Deebot X2 Pro.

Dry vacuuming

The robot does a good job picking up different types of dirt on laminate floors. Some dirt is left in the corners since round vacuums can’t reach them well. Almost no hair gets tangled in the center brush, and all the dirt goes into the trash bag. Overall, the test was successful!

Carpet cleaning

The same dirt was scattered on a low carpet, and Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro cleaned the carpet thoroughly.

It can also clean a medium carpet, but not so well.

Self-cleaning

Immediately after the “dirty tests” I checked how well the robot vacuum cleaner cleans itself. Before returning to the station, the container is full of garbage. After self-cleaning the dirt container is completely cleaned. So the self-cleaning is done really well in this model, with excellent results!

Mopping

The scrubbing quality is really good. The cloth presses well against the floor and absorbs all dirt.

It even handled tougher dirt like dried coffee and sauce stains. It took a few tries, six to be exact, but it got the job done. Many other models couldn’t do that.

Mopping with carpets

As for mopping when you have carpets, you have a few options. It can drive around them gently in mopping mode, it can drive in and contact the carpet with a wipe if you want to clean the carpet in some way with the robot. Or it can clean the carpets in mopping mode, automatically picking up the wipes when you drive in on the carpets. This is the best cleaning option.

Cloth washing quality

Let me talk about how good the cleaning station is. After mopping the floor, the cloths get a thorough wash at the station. It removes dirt really well with warm water.

Cleaning the station is a breeze too. Just take out the trap, give it a rinse in the sink, and pop it back in.

Obstacles

The robot is awesome off-road, conquering 2 cm (0.79 In.) baseboards without a problem!

Dark spaces

There are no problems with driving over black carpets. The robot moves across the black carpet as if nothing had happened.

Volume

Well, as for the volume, it’s within 59-72 dB depending on the selected mode. The volume is average, which is quite normal considering the really high power.

Opinion

Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro robot vacuum cleaner was thoroughly reviewed and tested. Our evaluation system scored it 193 points, entering the top 7 tested robot vacuums. If not for the remarks that will be listed below, it could surely compete for a place in the top 5. I’ll highlight the pros and cons, after which I’ll share my own opinion about the new robot. I liked the following:

1. Quality dirt collection on both hard surfaces and carpets.
2. Scrubs away dirt on the floor really well.
3. High suction power.
4. Able to scrub the area close to the baseboard, thanks to the retractable clot holder.
5. Improved washing in corners thanks to the robot’s rear end driving in with the wipe extended.
6. Turbobrush protection system to prevent hair and fur from winding up.
7. Availability of a self-cleaning station that allows for washing and drying of wipes.
8. The station can be connected to sewage and water supply by purchasing a separate module.
9. Washing cloths with hot water.
10. Drying cloths with warm air.
11. Easy to maintain station design, thanks to the removable one-piece driveway.
12. Quality self-cleaning.
13. System of disinfection of garbage and water in the station.
14. Automatic wipe lifting when driving on carpets. And the wipes are raised higher than many other models.
15. More accurate object detection system.
16. A large number of functions in the app.
17. Smart automatic cleaning mode, in which the robot selects its cleaning parameters based on AI algorithms.
18. Not afraid of black surfaces.
19. Good off-road.
20. Well assembled.

As for what could be improved::

1. The model is designed for the Chinese market, so the app interface is in English, the built-in voice assistant doesn’t work and the robot connects to the app only through a Chinese phone number.
2. There’s no full service and warranty support from the manufacturers. Again, due to the fact that the version is for the Chinese market.
3. Doesn’t support popular voice assistants.
4. No auto detergent feeder as a standard feature of the station.
5. Doesn’t sweep out dirt in corners.
6. Object detection system needs improvement.
7. No remote home monitoring function via the robot’s camera.

Overall, despite the improved design, Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro still has problems that were also found in previous models. That’s why it only ranks in the 7th place. But in general, the robot vacuum deserves attention and I would recommend it. If the listed problems aren’t as curcial to you, you can freely make this an addition to your home. Although for me personally, Ecovacs Deebot T30 Pro, at least its non-adapted Chinese version, doesn’t top vacuums from Dreame or Roborock.

Ecovacs Deebot T30s on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3KFwufG

On this note, I’d like to end the review. If you still have questions, make sure to ask them in the comments down below. Have fun shopping, bye!