Hobot Legee D8 + Lulu service station review

You may be forgiven for not understanding Hobot. Though well-liked in Australia and South Africa, the corporate solely lately launched within the UK, with its fifth-generation Legee D8 robotic mopping vacuum cleaner main the cost.

Not like some robotic vacs, the place mopping exhausting flooring is extra of an added additional, the Legee D8 specialises in it, particularly when mixed with the non-obligatory service station Legee Lulu. This refills it with water, and washes and dries the mop pad for a hygienic clear each time.

Keep in mind that the D8 and the Lulu should be purchased individually and the value above is for the D8 robotic vacuum and mop solely – though there’s a method to purchase each for lower than the value of the robotic alone on Amazon.

Design & Construct

• Robotic has flat entrance for edge cleansing
• Eight cleansing modes
• 500ml compression waste bin

Whereas a number of robotic vacs are disc-shaped, Hobot’s Legee D8 favours a D-shaped design, its flat entrance permitting it to get nearer to partitions and plinths. Completed in white plastic, its measurements are pretty common at 34.4 x 34.3cm and a low peak of simply 9.75cm.

On high, there’s a raised LiDAR sensor, and a single button that works in 4 methods, which means it’s easy to manage manually: it’ll allow you to ship it dwelling, change the cleansing mode (there are eight) and begin and cease cleansing with out having to achieve in your machine. The button additionally lights up, altering color when charging and cleansing.

Flip up the lid on high and also you’ll discover the sensible components: a 320ml water tank, cleansing software for shifting any clogs, and 500ml waste bin. The bin additionally has a helpful compression characteristic, permitting you to empty it much less typically.

Beneath, moderately than a few spinning mop pads like some robotic mopping vacs, the Legee D8 has one giant pad (plus a spare within the field) that makes use of reciprocating, or up and down, movement. Plus, there’s a few sturdy wheels with treads, and a information wheel on the entrance.

Rachel Ogden / Foundry

Efficiency & Options

• Lulu station doesn’t empty robotic’s onboard bin
• App and mapping could be irritating
• Mopping operate stronger than vacuum pick-up

For this evaluate, we additionally examined the Legee D8’s companion product, the Legee Lulu cleansing station. It’s an non-obligatory accent that recharges the Legee D8 as a substitute of the bottom it comes with, cleans and dries the mop pad, and modifications the water, decreasing the necessity to refill. Sadly, in contrast to most stations, the Lulu doesn’t robotically empty the Legee D8’s onboard bin, which means you’ll nonetheless want to remain on high of the filth emptying each few days or so.

One of many first issues which will strike you in regards to the Legee D8 is how talkative it’s. You’ll quickly be taught that Legee will not be pronounced, as you would possibly guess, ‘lee-gee’ however truly ‘leggy’, as a result of it says its identify typically because it narrates what’s occurring. The voice could be muted throughout sure occasions and the amount diminished, luckily.

And when you actually don’t prefer it, you possibly can go for ‘inventive voice’, which lets you file your individual voice or use different audio. One other plus for big houses is that the Legee D8 can swap between three units of Wi-Fi networks, and use a hotspot if Wi-Fi is unavailable, giving it extra flexibility.

Setting the Legee D8 up was fairly easy – the app linked immediately, which is uncommon. Nonetheless, we felt that Lulu’s energy cable was fairly brief, which restricted the place we might set up the service station with out an extension. Regardless of this, more often than not, the Legee D8 returned to the Lulu station with out problem.

We discovered some options of the app complicated to make use of: every cleansing operate isn’t clear from the picture, and mapping could be irritating. Over a number of weeks, we discovered that including a brand new impediment on the ground (a field or transferring a chair) triggered the Legee D8 to remap the entire flooring and attempt to reserve it over the outdated map we had created with boundaries and names.

Rachel Ogden / Foundry

This meant it ignored the particular areas we had arrange for the each day schedule and tried to scrub each room. We additionally thought that the app wanted a spot clear operate however couldn’t find one. Nonetheless, we did like that the mapping information is saved on the D8, moderately than within the cloud, as we felt this was safer.

Cleansing efficiency was largely passable, although we discovered some niggles. It options 5,000pa of suction mixed with a single facet brush and central brush that promised ‘tangless’ (presumably tangleless) cleansing up of hair, however on each a tough and gentle flooring, it struggled with bigger particles pick-up (we have been utilizing oats to symbolize particles).

As well as, whereas the Legee D8 recognises gentle flooring and picks up its mop, it solely does this by 7mm. On a mid-pile carpet, this implies the mop pad can nonetheless drag, particularly if it’s very moist.

We used flour to symbolize mud pick-up. On the exhausting flooring, this was picked up properly. Nonetheless, on carpet, regardless of making an attempt the best suction stage, some flour was nonetheless left behind, and needed to be sucked up by our common vacuum. Nonetheless, that is typical of robotic vacuums. Arduous flooring cleansing of moist mess additionally introduced some points. Whereas the dried-on brown sauce we left on the ground was largely picked up, there was nonetheless stickiness and marks on the ground afterwards. It required two extra moist cleans earlier than this was resolved.

Rachel Ogden / Foundry

The Legee D8 picks up soiled water because it cleans – nevertheless, we seen that on the deep clear mopping setting, when the mop pad was very moist, it might generally depart drips of water behind. Additionally disappointing was the filth compacting. A few occasions, we had the alert to empty the bin solely to search out that it was simply half full. As well as, the Legee D8 struggled with low obstacles, corresponding to a hearth fireside, was liable to sucking up pet toys and different equally sized objects, and have become caught on a doormat greater than as soon as.

What we did like was Lulu’s washing capabilities: the rollers it used to scrub the D8’s mop pad did so effectively, and it had heated air to dry them – which could be ceased if there’s no want for it.

Value & Availability

The Hobot Legee D8 is priced at £599 on Amazon. If you need the Lulu service station, you’ll want to purchase that as properly. It prices £299, additionally from Amazon. Nonetheless, when you’re ready to affix Prime, you may get one – or each – for a lot much less. With Prime, the Hobot Legee D8 prices simply £399 and the Lulu service station £149 and you’ll enroll on the product web page.

This saving is critical and we predict it makes an actual distinction as to if or not the Legee D8 is price shopping for. But when it isn’t the precise mannequin for you, take a look at our round-up of one of the best robotic vacuums we’ve examined for extra choices.

We’ve obtained info on how one can get a free trial of Amazon’s Prime service and what advantages you’ll get with it.

Must you purchase the Hobot Legee D8 and Lulu service station?

The Legee D8 is greatest regarded as a mopping robotic with vacuuming as an addition, particularly when you think about the capabilities of its service station. This makes it extra appropriate for these with giant areas of exhausting flooring, moderately than houses the place carpet is king.

It presents a couple of attention-grabbing options: having the ability to file your individual voice prompts is novel, whereas the mop pad washing is impressively thorough. Nonetheless, when it comes to being fuss-free, it’s not as superior as some: we spent extra time rescuing it and sustaining it than we’d have appreciated.