The robotic vacuum cleaner is all the rage right now, and Minsu have just released their version of this popular product. But is this new addition to the market any good? Should you spend your cash on it? Will it save you time?
Well I recently tested this latest offering from Minsu and I have to say - I was impressed, but also disappointed. Some people will love this product, and others will find it very frustrating. It all depends on the type of dwelling you live in and how you plan to use it.
Read on for our Minsu NV - 01robot vacuum cleaner review and to see if you should consider buying it.
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Detailed Review
Note: I tested the NV-01 in a large house with many rooms, it is likely performs much better in a smaller apartment with only 1 or 2 bedrooms.
Disclaimer: This unit was sent to me by GearBest free of charge. However, this review is completely honest and is no way influenced by GearBest or Minsu at all.
I know that it is unlikely I will see the Minsu robotic vacuum cleaner in any retail store, but I still feel like they could have gone to more effort with their packaging.
The very first thing I noticed was that the box has a rather noticeable spelling mistake on it. And not a mistake in small print somewhere, out of 5 words on the front of the box, they managed to mis-spell "Robot". Apparently the box contains an "Advanced Bobot Vacuum Cleaner"!
While this is not what I judge the device on, it IS the first impression that most customers will have and it isn't a great start.
The Minsu vacuum cleaner comes with everything you need to get going and a little bit more.
Included in the box is:
- 1 x Minsu robotic Vacuum Cleaner
- 1 x Docking station
- 1 x DC charger
- 1 x Remote control
- 4 x Sweeping side brushes (2 spare)
- 1 x Mopping attachment
- 2 x Mop pads
- 1 x Cleaning brush
- 1 x Spare filter
- 1 x Suction Nozzle
- 1 x Instruction manual and quick start guide
The spare sweeping side brushes and filter are a welcome inclusion as is the additional mop pad.
The instructions are in English but unfortunately, are not very detailed. Many of the features are not well documented and the I was left to work out how to use them on my own.
My last complaint for this part of the review is that their were no batteries included for the remote control. While this is not a huge issue, it was annoying and forced me to find some in order to properly test it.
Cleaning Ability
The cleaning power of this robotic vacuum cleaner is great, in fact I have no complaints at all about how well it works as a vacuum cleaner.
It rarely fails to pick up any mess that it drives over, and I am contantly amazed about how much dust it has picked up from the floors when I empty the dustbin box.
My wife was very impressed when it cleaned under the bed for us, although she wasn't as happy about the huge amounts of dust it found under there!
The mopping ability of this unit is not great. I gave it a quick test and as far as I could tell, all it did was drag a damp mopping pad over the floor. The water tank is tiny, and it went dry very quickly.
Automatic Vacuum Functionality
Another area where the Minsu Robotic Vac is less that impressive is it's automatic functionality. There are quite a few problems in this part of its functionality that need to be mentioned here.
Firstly, the automatic navigation of this vacuum left a lot to be desired. While it did seem to have a cleaning pattern that made sense, it still seemed to spend a lot of time cleaning the same part of a room, then skip the rest of the room all together before moving onto the next. I am guessing this is no way for the user to map out an area for the unit to clean manually, so it is always relying on its internal algorithms to decide where to go next.
I found that round dining chairs it would get stuck, even though there was sufficient space for it to navigate between and under the legs.
The ability of the vac to automatically return to the charging station when the battery is low sounds great, but it never worked for me properly. Even if the charging dock was in the same room as it was currently cleaning, it would go off into areas it had not even cleaned yet looking for it. Now I admit that our house is quite large with a lot of rooms and this was probably part of the issue, but the fact that I didn't get it to return to base automatically even once (unless I literally picked it up and sat it in front of the dock) is concerning.
I do feel that the Minsu Vac would work a lot better in a smaller area, perhaps it is more suited to a 1-2 bedroom apartment which is kept relatively clear. But I wouldn't recommend it for a large house with many rooms.
Battery Life
Included with the NV-01 is a built in 2,600 mAh rechargeable battery, it does give you up to 2 hours of use before needing to be recharged....with one caveat - IF the unit has just come off an activated charger.
I found that if you fully charge the vac, then take it off the charge and turn it off - in a matter of 8 - 12 hours the battery would lose ALL of its charge.
For someone who hates leaving these sorts of devices powered up all the time, this is quite an issue.
But if you are happy to leave it in a powered up charging dock all the time then this likely won't be a problem for you.
Battery specifications got you confused? Read our battery guide to learn the lingo!
As I mentioned earlier, the included manual isn't very detailed about how to use the NV-01, but luckily it is very straight forward to get working.
Once it is charged, it is simply a matter of activating the auto mode either on the remote, the unit itself or on the app.
The remote control includes some interesting additional functionality which all seem to operate correctly, some of these features are:
- Power mode - activates a high power cleaning mode
- Manual control - allows you to manually steer the vacuum with directional arrows
- Spot clean - cleans an area in a spiral pattern
The 'WeBack' app is quite easy to set up and connect to your Minsu NV-01 (which has WiFi functionality) and the app is easy to navigate. It includes most of the same functionality as the remote control and it works well.
When I took the unit out of the box for the first time, it feels sturdy and well built. It includes both metal and plastic parts and the overall design is good.
As already mentioned, the area where this unit is let down is it's automatic functionality. I feel like the software that drives the vacuum needs some serious work, so let's hope that future firmware updates solve some of these issues.
Price and Value for Money
Sitting in the mid range price bracket, The Minsu NV - 01 robotic vacuum cleaner is up against a lot of competition. It offers great cleaning power for the price, but the automatic functionality leaves a lot to be desired so for now it is probably slightly over priced.
Who Should Buy The Minsu NV-01
The NV-01's inability to navigate large house with lots of rooms mean that if you live in such a house, steer clear of this model. Let's hope that future firmware updates improve on this functionality and if they do, I will update this review.
If you live in a small 1-2 bedroom apartment that does not have a complicated layout then you will likely find some value in the NV-01 and will probably find it be a good buy.
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