Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai - Dyson Does Me Dirty

Robot vacuums seem to be the "it" appliance right now - and it's hardly surprising.

We are all time-poor these days and the last thing we feel like doing with our weekends or evenings is cleaning the floors.

So it stands to reason people have been looking to Dyson for the ultimate solution; after all, it's generally agreed Dyson has been setting the standard for home vacuuming for decades.

How hard would it be to add a robot into the mix?

Turns out, it's pretty hard. Spoilers; I don't love the Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai, even though it pains me to admit it.

Problem one; this thing is huge. You're going to have to really love Dyson's functionality-over-form design approach if you're prepared to set the Spot+Scrub Ai up anywhere it can be seen in mixed company. The robot itself is not just taller and wider than most, its water tank sticks out even further, like some kind of stuck-on afterthought.

But the hygienic cyclonic dock is even worse. It's an extremely wide charging and emptying station housing a bagless dustbin and the clean and dirty water tanks. Rather than covering these three cylinders up, they stand out proudly, in a very industrial way - especially the cyclonic bin which makes the visuals worse by being transparent - because who doesn't want to see up to a 100 days worth of dirt, dust, hair and fluff on full display every time you walk past?

At least it's easy to empty and not having to buy replacement dust bags is always a plus. The water tanks are also easy to pull out and reattach, although, because the dirty tank is tinted a very dark grey, it's impossible to know if you've managed to rinse it clean or not.

Another issue is the noise. Whether the Spot+Scrub Ai is cleaning, emptying or washing itself, it all seems to happen at full volume. The first time I used it, I left the voice notifications on. Big mistake. This essentially meant twice the noise, with a running commentary of every stage of the cleaning process - unnecessary because I could already follow that process via the My Dyson app on my phone. Little did I know, that commentary would continue into the night, as the tireless robot finished cleaning and charging itself, letting us know about every step along the way.

Domestic Manager unplugged it in exasperation. A few hours later, the robot complained it had gone flat and would be turning itself off.

The app is quite stripped-back compared to the companion apps of other robot vacuums I've trialled - not necessarily a bad thing as some can be quite overwhelming with the customisations, settings and routine programming they offer.

The MyDyson app isn't just for the Spot+Scrub Ai, of course - you can pair any number of other Dysons with it, from fans and air purifiers to desk lamps. So it's not surprising to find it doesn't offer quite the number of tweaks some others do. 

The initial automatic mapping process left a little to be desired and I had to change quite a few walls around afterwards to make the room layout more accurate. Also, it thought the garden outside one window was another room, so I walled that off too - only to finI wasn't able to delete it, so it's still on the map, like some unvacuumable amorphous blob.

Oh, and it fell down the stairs the first time it came across them. Whoops.

As you would expect from a Dyson, there's a lot of impressive tech under the hood. 

The roller is sprayed with 60° heated water when mopping, which indisputably results in a fantastic clean. It also extends out when mopping along walls as many other high-end robotic vacuums now do. This is all part of the Spot&Scrub Ai's 24 separate sensors and LiDAR navigation, telling it where to go and what to avoid, which for the most part seems pretty effective - other than stairs and the corners of rugs.

Mystifyingly, after just a few cleans, the main brush head was soon clogged up and tangled with long hair and dog fur - the very stuff I'm trying to get rid of. This is just so weird as the last few generations of Dyson stick vacuums have been all about a tangle-free experience. I guess the robot design team didn't get the memo.

Battery life is surprisingly disappointing, given the advances Dyson has made in its constantly evolving line of stick vacuums. As I write this, we're about 2/3rds of the way though a clean of the upper storey of my house - still more than three rooms to go and we're down to 15% battery. Yes, the robot will just return to charge when it needs to, then carry on once it's juiced itself up, but that takes ages.

I haven't managed to complete a whole clean in less than six hours so far. I've either got a very filthy house or a very slow robot.

This is a real heartbreaker for me. Nobody loves Dyson more than I do (except possibly one M. Hosking of Matakana) but I just haven't enjoyed the experience of using the Spot+Scrub Ai at all.

Compared to other robot vacuums I've used, it's oversized - as is the hygienic cyclonic dock - which not only makes it difficult to find somewhere to put it, it's just plain ugly.

And because the battery life is so bad, and it returns to base to charge and clean itself so often, it takes forever to clean a whole house.

It's loud, it's clunky and it broke the cardinal rule of robot vacs and fell down the stairs.

Despite all that, I grudgingly admit, in terms of getting the floor clean, it's perhaps the most thorough and effective robot I've ever used. It fairly whizzes around hard floors, leaving only the smallest amount of moisture behind and is smart enough to recognise stubborn stains, remopping the same area up to 15 times if necessary.

Meanwhile, although much slower travelling across carpet, because it will use up to quadruple the amount of suction, like any other Dyson, no stray hair is left behind. Carpets are not only cleaner afterwards, they look it too.

Mats and rugs are a different story. From what I've seen, the Spot+Scrub Ai has a lot of work to do when it comes to recognising and traversing loose floor coverings without bunching them up and turning them into impassable barriers in the process.

I don't quite know what's gone wrong here. Dyson's design philosophy is legendary and yet there are so many areas where the Spot+Scrub just doesn't deliver. If you're a hardline Dyson fan and all you care about is really clean floors, you might be prepared to put up with its deficiencies. I fear for most users though, they'll find a quieter, quicker and more aesthetically-pleasing way to spend their two-thousand bucks.

    

Click here for more information and pricing on the Dyson Spot&Scrub Ai.