Review: Ecovacs Deebot X11 OmniCyclone

Ecovacs Deebot X11 OmniCyclone stands out in several ways. Among other things, the robot vacuum cleaner features flexible roller mops instead of rotating mops, a single brush arm and a bagless base station.

Deebot is also an ambitious robot vacuum cleaner. The base and robot were barely unpacked and set up before the robot took off. I was adjusting settings in the EcovacsHome app when Deebot X11 sprinted across the dining room floor, over a doorstep and into the kitchen.

Now, robots aren’t supposed to just run away, but I’m still impressed. During the escape, Deebot X11 OmniCyclone quickly negotiated one of the most difficult doorsteps in the home for a vacuum cleaner robot. I first ‘caught’ the robot again on the kitchen floor.

Deebot X11 searched for the base station to orientate itself. The base is the starting point for the first mapping, but it wasn’t switched on yet and was in the dining room. In other words, in the exact opposite direction.

Ecovac’s TruePass Adaptive feature enables the Deebot X11 to negotiate doorsteps up to 2.4 centimetres and multi-level doorsteps up to 4 centimetres. Which has now been proven.

Design and setup

Scan the QR code under the robot’s removable lid to download the app. Slide the red button to ‘on’ (symbolised by the number ‘1’). Press the button with the waffle symbol (Wi-Fi) to get the robot on the network. A female voice tells you when the process is complete. All in all, a simple and quick setup, classic style.

As mentioned, the base station is bagless. When the robot vacuum returns home and delivers a load of dirt, it is sucked into the dust chamber in the centre of the base. The contents are (less than prettily) visible from the outside.

The tanks for clean and used water are located at the top of the base station, but less visible than on the Deebot X8 Omni and Deebot T50 Omni. Only the tank lids are visible from the outside.

Both tanks have a symbol on the lid for clean and dirty water respectively. The tanks and their handle to lift them up seem sturdy. Unfortunately, they are quite small. For example, on the Deebot Omni X8 and Deebot T50 Omni, the tanks hold 4 litres each.

With the Deebot X11, you have to make do with a 3.2-litre clean water tank and a 2.7-litre waste water tank. The latter was filled to the brim several times after just three days of use. In practice, after washing approximately 100 m2 of floor. However, you get a warning in the app before the tank overflows.

To the left of the base station’s central dust chamber is the compartment for the two detergent containers. The small container with a black lid is for the concentrated detergent and the larger container is for the regular detergent.

The two versions are automatically added depending on how intensive your cleaning needs to be. For deep cleaning, concentrated detergent is added. Ordinary cleaning uses the mild detergent. The prices are €39 for one litre of regular detergent and the same for 1 litre of the harsher detergent.

Measuring and mapping

The hasty escape attempt showed promise for Deebot X11’s handling of Nordic doorsteps and other tricky obstacles. To test the robot’s acrobatic abilities, I opened all doors in the test area and asked for a survey.

The area includes five doorsteps of different widths and heights (between two and three centimetres). The Deebot X11 never gave up, but climbed them all. Not as elegant as I’ve experienced with Roborock’s AdaptiLift Chassis feature, but straight on and hard.

The Deebot X11 took about 12 minutes to map 82 m2. Impressively fast, but with a few shortcomings. A bit of the distribution corridor ended up belonging to the dining room (despite a doorstep in between). The kitchen, hallway and entrance were captured as one room and had to be separated inside the app.

The adjustments don’t take long, but a robot in this price range should be able to separate rooms with doorsteps in between. Deebot X11 scans its surroundings with the same AI camera type as Omni X8: AIVI 3D 3.0 (with 3D texture lighting).

Overall, however, the Deebot X11 does a better job. In its mapping, Omni X8 claimed that my rectangular bedroom was a triangle and that two rooms can be on top of each other.

Voice control and Matter

Ecovac’s voice assistant Yiko has three voice types. Two female and one male. I used the male voice ‘Eric’ for most of the test. The choice of voice has no impact on functionality.

Yiko is more cooperative than in my test of the Deebot Omni X8. The assistant picks up various spoken commands. You can find the list of options inside the app.

The assistant was not always responsive. Switching languages made no difference.

Eric happily replied ‘At your service’ when I called ‘OK, Yiko’, but the requested tasks were only performed about every other time. Often Eric had to give up because ‘he’ didn’t understand my spoken command.

You can use Apple ShortCuts, Alexa and Google Assistant for the assistant. By connecting a Matter-supported speaker (in my case, an Apple HomePod Mini), I got the Deebot X11 on my Home environment and could talk to it without using ShortCuts.

In the Home app, you can set scenes and control the Deebot X11. However, most of this is also available in Ecovac’s own app, EcovacsHome.

As long as the Yiko voice assistant is still not 100 per cent reliable, I prefer to order my tasks by typing them into the app instead. However, the assistant will get better over time thanks to its inbuilt AI.

Mop roller and brush

Like the X8 Omni and X8 Omni Pro, the Deebot X11 is equipped with Ecovac’s flexible Ozmo roller mop. Unlike in our test of the Omni X8, the Ozmo roller on the Deebot X11 works without loud and annoying squeaks.

Overall, the Deebot X11 OmniCyclone is one of the quietest robots I’ve tested. On the lowest and medium suction, the robot was so quiet that I sometimes wondered where it was.

The Ozmo mop roller shoots out sideways as needed, allowing the robot to clean around furniture, for example. Not all edges were followed evenly. For example, the robot made some strange fluctuations along the moulding in the kitchen.

The mop rotates at 200 revolutions per minute opposite to the robot’s direction of travel. At the same time, water and detergent are added, while a built-in scraper removes dirt and grime with each rotation.

After mapping, I asked for complete vacuuming and medium-level floor cleaning. This means a medium suction power and a medium amount of added water for floor cleaning. The water volume scale has 50 steps.

The robot vacuum took 2 hours and 27 minutes to clean 82 m².

The Deebot X11 rotating side brush has one arm and not several like Dreame, for example. The brush is also not flexible, so it doesn’t slide out to reach into shallow gaps between floor and furniture.

However, the brush and mop roller did a good job. The base dust chamber was visibly filled. So was the used water tank. A bit of a disgusting greenish soup.

The cola/coffee test was replaced with semi-moist coffee grounds sprinkled on the kitchen floor. In the first test, the robot vacuumed at the lowest level and with minimal addition of water. In several places, Deebot X11 just rubbed the dirt around without removing it.

Halfway through, I paused the robot and adjusted the suction to the next highest level. I asked for double cleaning of the area (two crossings) and with level 22 on water. All debris disappeared. Even with no visible streaks left behind from the roller. Absolutely approved.

On the way back to the base, the robot had to pass two doorsteps of different heights. A small amount of debris from the mop roller could be spotted at both steps. During the X8 Omni test, a much larger pile was visibly left behind.

Conclusion

Ecovacs Deebot X11 OmniCyclone is overall a thorough and agile vacuum cleaning robot. The mapping leaves something to be desired. Not all rooms and areas shown in the app match reality.

Ecovacs Ozmo roller mop and AI have improved. The robot usually gets around objects and obstacles just fine. Overall, you get a decent clean without too much mess.

A bagless base station is a visible change for a Deebot series robot. You don’t have to pay for bags but have to manually empty and clean the chamber. It can get a little dusty.

The voice assistant Yiko is also not as willing as I would like, but significantly better than in my test of the Deebot X8 Omni.

In other words, we’re dealing with a robot that delivers good cleaning, but doesn’t stand out significantly compared to similar models in the same price range.