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Yeedi Mop Station: test / review
Published on: 09-07-2021 / Modified: 07-10-2022
When I started testing for my blog, I had to make choices to test everyday items because I have a job and I don't have enough time to test products that I don't use in my everyday life. I started with phones, it was the easiest subject as I use this kind of product intensively every day. Then I tested projectors, cameras, watches, a bicycle and then one day... I tested a vacuum cleaner!
I tested a vacuum cleaner because I needed a new one and by sharing my experience I realised that there was a real interest for this kind of product so I continued. In the last three months I have tested 5 vacuum cleaners (sweepers or robot cleaners), so I am starting to build up an appetite for these products as they have proved more useful than I expected.
I tested my first Yeedi robot vacuum cleaner a little over a month ago and I really liked it, several people around me bought it after seeing it in action at home, it is always a good sign. After taking a few detours through other brands, I'm coming back to Yeedi to test another type of product, this time it's a cleaning station called Yeedi Mop Station.
Yeedi?
Until I tested my first Yeedi, I had never heard of this brand and yet it has been around since 2019 and you can find Yeedi products in most major online shops such as Amazon. I am obviously not the only one to appreciate the products of this brand because the ratings on Amazon are very positive (4.5/5 with many votes). Yeedi is a Chinese manufacturer that has managed to make a place for itself between the big brands known in Europe by offering good products at a lower price than the competition. As you can buy it on Amazon, you get a 2 year warranty just like any other product and as Amazon tends to protect its customers well, it might be the right time to try something new.
Price Yeedi Mop Station
The concept?
I was on a video conference for work when the Yeedi Mop Station arrived at my house, so I couldn't pick up the package myself but I had heard the postman dropping the box in the lobby, usually he just passes the package over the fence to the first person who opens the door. When I saw the package I understood why, the package was huge. The Yeedi Mop Station is a cleaning station consisting of a large, sleek docking station and a robot cleaner.
What does it do? The docking station is equipped with two tanks, one in which you have to pour clean water for cleaning, the other will contain the dirty water from the cleaning. Basically, the vacuum cleaner receives the water from the station, it goes off to do its cleaning and when it runs out of water, it returns to the station to empty itself and leave with a new refill. The vacuum robot can therefore work autonomously.
Docking station / Mop Station
The docking station is quite large, you need to place it where you not only have the space to place it, but you also need to have space in the front for the robot to start. The station measures just over 40cm in height, almost 40cm in width and just over 30cm in depth. You need to allow 40-50cm at the front of the station to give the robot space because as it reverses into the station, it often has to do some manoeuvring before it can fit properly into the station.
Under the lid there are two containers, one for clean water and one for dirty water. These tanks can hold 3.5 litres each. They are connected to the robot cleaner from below and are capable of injecting clean water into the robot cleaner but are also capable of sucking up dirty water and storing it in the tank provided. With a capacity of 3.5l, the robot cleaner should be able to do almost 10 cleaning sessions, this will depend on the intensity of the cleaning mode.
The robot reverses into the docking station, sensors allow it to orientate itself correctly and the toothed wheels allow it to climb the small access ramp. Once the robot is installed, the robot charges up, cleans the brushes and puts clean water back into the robot tank. The station is quite simple to use, with only three buttons (start a session with the vacuum, pause/start and return to the station). So you can use the docking station to start the vacuum and without an app but it would be a shame to do without it, I explain that later in this article.
Vacuum cleaner/mop
The Yeedi Mop Station box contains a Yeedi robot vacuum/cleaner, a brush to bring the dirt to the vacuuming area, two rotating brushes for cleaning and a manual. The robot is fairly flat, so it should be able to get under most furniture. Its detection system relies on sensors like most robots of this type but it also uses its bumper to assess its surroundings. For light objects the detection system is sufficient but for dark objects I have noticed that it tends to use its bumper to identify obstacles.
The cleaning brushes attach directly to the water tank and can be removed easily. These brushes rotate to clean but the robot also applies pressure to loosen the dirt more easily. I have not yet tested a robot cleaner of this type, and I will show below that the cleaning efficiency is far superior to robots with a mop that simply glides across the floor.
The sweeping brush is located on the right side of the robot and you will notice that the robot cleaner will try to organize the suction from the right side, so it will first go along the walls from the right side to use this brush efficiently. I would have preferred a double sweeping brush like on the Yeedi 2 Hybrid but I guess that would have taken up space at the expense of the cleaning system. Fortunately, the robot is capable of generating 2500pa of suction, which is the same power as a Dreame T20 type upright vacuum or some Dyson models.
The water tank also incorporates the dust tank and the dust tank is really small, this robot is clearly more for cleaning than vacuuming, so it is worth switching the robot to vacuum mode before considering cleaning. The dust tank is very easy to detach, it has several HEPA filters to better filter the dust.
The suction is assisted by a silicone brush, this brush is removable and will be particularly useful if the robot sucks up small objects or cables. The choice of a silicone brush is a good idea as it will make cleaning the brush easier.
The power button is located on the side of the vacuum, there is also the wifi initiate button which will allow you to associate the robot with your phone.
Configuration / Start-up
To control the Yeedi Mop Station, you need to download the free Yeedi app. I had already downloaded this app as I have another Yeedi at home, so I was able to test if the app was able to control multiple devices at the same time. I followed the process step by step and it didn't work, or at least not the first time. The setup is very simple but every time I got to the end of the setup, I got a confirmation that everything was set up correctly but I didn't see the docking station appear in the app. I tried automatic and manual recognition but it didn't work until I gave up and restarted the app the next day. I was surprised to see that the docking station had been added to my list of devices and from then on everything was fine. I think the initial setup had actually worked but the device hadn't registered on the home screen and by restarting everything, it eventually appeared.
To save you the headache of configuring it, here is what I recommend:
- turn on the robot (on/off button on the side)
- press the wifi button (next to the on/off button), the robot should confirm that it is waiting for a connection
- open the application and add a new device
- follow the instructions:
If the robot is detected correctly, you don't need to do anything but if you don't see it appear in the list, you need to go to the menu on your phone where you can see all the wifi networks. You should see a Yeedi appear, select it, ignore the message that says it is not an internet connection and then go back into the app to continue
- after following the instructions, if the Yeedi does not appear in the list of devices, close the application, restart your phone and restart the application
I didn't have any problems with my first Yeedi robot but I suspect that the app wasn't yet ready for the Yeedi Mop Station or that the app doesn't handle multiple devices well. So you shouldn't have these problems.
First test
When I start a test of a new product I am always eager to use the product for the first time, I had to take a bit of a beating for the Yeedi (and all the other robots too) as the first thing you need to ask the robot to do is map its environment. You can launch the mapping of your home directly from the app and the robot will start to explore its playground, sucking up dirt as it goes. For this mapping to be effective, you need to do some tidying up by opening doors, raising your chairs, freeing up access to the underside of chairs/furniture...in short you need to prepare your home as if you were going to vacuum it yourself. The first mapping can be quite long depending on the size of the rooms and the number of obstacles to identify. In my case, I have an area of about 45m², the robot cleaner took more than 60 minutes to do the mapping of the area, sucking up the dirt as it went by and as the dust tank is small, I had to empty it once in that time. After this first mapping, the battery had gone from 100% to 65%, so the robot should be able to reach 2h of autonomy (or even a little more).
Obstacle detection
At the time I did my first test, my spinning bike was in the living room, I filmed the robot near the bike as this illustrates quite well how obstacle detection works. The robot has sensors at the front but when it is confronted with small or very dark objects, it will hit them and sometimes quite hard. Look at how it behaves near the feet of the bike. These feet are not very big but they are completely black. On the other hand, I have a white piece of furniture and you can see that the robot stops a few centimetres away from the furniture without touching it. As soon as the robot has determined the perimeter of the obstacle, it tries to resume its normal grid.
Here is another video showing its handling of obstacles:
Another example:
Here we see that the robot relies on resistance to judge whether an obstacle exists or not, the Playmobil used in this video is too light to be considered a real obstacle.
I guess you're wondering if what I'm showing is good compared to other robots I've tested. I would say that the Yeedi has a good level of detection but you have to be aware of its method of detection which means that you have to clear the floor as much as possible for it to work optimally. After clearing the various rooms to be cleaned, the Yeedi was able to get underneath all the furniture without any problems.
Vacuum mode
As I don't have a dog or cat at home, I can't test whether the robot is effective at picking up pet food but to overcome this problem, I placed dry breadcrumbs on the floor to see if the robot was able to vacuum them up. Breadcrumbs are a challenge for several reasons. Firstly, the size of the crumbs - they have to be small enough to fit under the robot. Then there is the risk that the robot will eject the crumbs with its brush before vacuuming them up and finally there is the risk that the crumbs will get stuck in the robot.
The Yeedi literally makes short work of the crumbs despite their size, you can see that it runs over the larger pieces without being interrupted. Some of the smaller crumbs are thrown to the side, but as the robot passes over the same spots several times this should not be a problem. However, it is possible for a piece of bread to get stuck in the brush as larger objects are blocked at the silicone brush.
Cleaning mode
I've tested several robot cleaners this year and so far these robots have been equipped with a mop that wets the floor and lightly scrubs its surface. So the cleaning was not very effective. The Yeedi Mop is a real cleaner, it has two rotating brushes that not only rotate but also apply a pressure of 10N on the floor (equivalent to a pressure of 1kg). This mechanism is similar to the industrial cleaners that can be found in some factories. This type of cleaning is much more efficient than that offered by robots with mops. The robot is equipped with a 200 ml tank but when it needs water, it returns to its base where it empties the dirty water and refills with clean water from the 3.5 litre tank. The water replacement makes a little noise (sounds like a coffee machine).
So the Yeedi Mop is by far the best robot cleaner I have tested so far, it is able to remove most stains and if a stain is stubborn you can send the robot to clean the area where the stain is to make two more passes. I would however advise vacuuming before cleaning as the cleaning function tends to wet the small vacuum brush at the front, this results in dirt tending to clump up at the brush.
I can't say that I have completely delegated the cleaning of my house to the Yeedi Mop, but it does reduce the need for manual cleaning. If you use it regularly you can space out manual cleaning to focus only on the toughest stains and places the robot has not been able to reach.
Test conclusion/Final opinion
The Yeedi Mop robot vacuum/cleaner and its docking station is arguably the best robot I've tested so far. Although it stands out from the rest in its ability to clean the floor, the suction module has not been overlooked as with a suction force of 2500pa, it will capture the majority of everyday dirt. The Yeedi Mop comes with a docking station that contains a 3.5 litre clean water tank, the robot returns to its base to refill with clean water and clean its brushes before setting off again. The Yeedi Mop is a truly self-contained product but I would advise not waiting until the dirty water tank is full to empty it as stagnant dirty water will eventually smell.
Highlights:
- Cleaning efficiency
- Suction power
- Full autonomy, it can make about 10 trips before needing to add water
- Well-designed and easy to use app
- 3 suction modes with a particularly quiet mode
Weak points:
- the dust tank is small
- large size of the station
- some communication errors with the application
Questions/Comments