Switchbot S10 Is a Truly Independent Robot Vacuum Cleaner
One of the main things that prevents robot vacuum cleaners from being completely autonomous is the need for us humans to empty the vacuum bag or water tank from time to time. Switchbot’s newest robot vacuum, the S10, aims to automate these tasks—and it works quite well. Switchbot S10 ($1,199, but you can get an extra $100 off with promo code LIFEHACKR100 when you order before June 12), a new robot vacuum from one of my favorite smart companies, lets you directly link your mop’s water inlet and outlet . into the water supply line, allowing the robot to fill and empty itself. If you take care of the plumbing work (optional, but recommended), this bot can run for months without human intervention.
While I have some quibbles about some things, I’m still impressed with the S10 and what it means for the future of home robots.
Installation requires basic plumbing.
Before you buy an S10, you can use Switchbot’s compatibility checker to make sure you have a place to connect your water properly. Luckily, you can connect the S10 to almost any water source in your home, be it a toilet, washing machine or faucet, and the S10 comes with every kind of connection you’ll need.
To get an idea of how the S10 works, it’s helpful to think of it as consisting of four parts: the robot itself; a vacuum docking station where the robot charges, empties the vacuum and dries; a dock that you can connect to and dump water wherever it ends up (more on that in a second); and water tanks, which you will need if you decide not to connect the S10 to the water supply. Unlike other floor robots, these docking stations aren’t one big piece of equipment—they’re separate, and while each is smaller than most vacuum robot docking stations, I’d rather dedicate floor space to just one thing.
Returning to the water tank situation, ideally the S10 water station is connected to the water supply, but you can use additional water tanks instead if this is not possible. If you decide to skip the plumbing installation, it’s important to know that these tanks are smaller than most modern robots. So using the tanks will require you to empty and fill the tanks quite frequently, which removes much of the automated convenience that makes the S10 so enjoyable.
Switchbot has done its best to make plumbing installation something that the average person can do, but it’s still basic plumbing and you may run into the same problem I did: too many items that require plumbing. To connect the S10 to the bathroom plumbing, I had to either choose between a bidet and Switchbot, or ask a plumber to add a connection. (As smart technology continues to proliferate, I suspect the problem of technology requiring access to our water supply will become increasingly common.)
Easy setup and fast mapping
Setting up the S10 was easy. First, the Switchbot app will ask you to map its two stations (water and vacuum cleaner). You then send S10 to map your floor, and like most other bots using LiDAR (a laser-based method for measuring light and distance), it was a precise process that happened quickly.
Once matched, you can start playing with different settings to customize it to your liking. The feature I use most often on robot vacuums is the intensity setting, which allows you to control how much suction the vacuum uses or how much water and vibration the mop uses. The S10 has limited customization here, so you can’t just mop the floor, for example. Mapping also felt limited: I couldn’t add furniture to my rooms, which is useful when setting up zones. However, these are not that serious bugs and can be fixed in future software updates. Most of the features I like, including remote control, the ability to see the service status of parts, and the ability to connect to most voice assistants, were present, and since the S10 supports Matter , it’s a lifeline for Apple HomeKit users. .
The S10 mop is great, but its size can be a problem.
One of my favorite robot vacuums was the Switchbot K10+ , which was an impressive vacuum both in terms of how well it sucked up debris and its tiny size. Because it was so tiny, the K10+ got into places no other bot could get, made sharp turns around chair legs, etc. Unfortunately, the mop on the K10+ sucked.
The S10 has the opposite problem: it’s huge. At 14 inches wide, the S10 can’t make as tight turns or corner as well as the K10+, and without the arm extensions some competitors have, it left corners throughout the house littered with debris. However, the S10 was able to pick up most small to medium sized debris, although it failed my dog toy test. (When testing a new robot vacuum cleaner, I like to leave a piece of fluff from a dog toy to see if the bot will suck it up or perceive it as an obstacle and avoid it. The S10 swam very close to the float but avoided it.)
On the S10, the mop is truly the headliner. This model belongs to a new class of robot vacuum cleaners that don’t just pour fresh water on the floor – like the Eufy S1 , the S10 cleans the mop while it’s outside, ensuring there’s only clean water on the floor and only dirty water. the water is sucked out. But unlike the S1, which didn’t do a very good job mopping my house, the S10 picked up wet debris and dug through dried debris on the floor. I was impressed by how much less dull my white tiles looked after one pass, and two passes also got rid of most of the dried-on stains.
However, all of this has led to a small problem with the S10: everything we ask this robot to do drains the battery, and so the bot often has to stop at the dock to recharge. This meant that large jobs were rarely completed at once. This would be a bigger problem if the robot needed my intervention to clear out debris or add water, but generally speaking, the robot and I lead different lives, and that’s quite important.
Bottom line: good value for money and lots of promise.
The S10 was the device I was most looking forward to this year, and in many ways it lived up to expectations. I didn’t have any issues with the fill and empty station and look forward to seeing more devices that Switchbot offers in the future to work with the S10 (the app already has humidifier settings, but the hardware isn’t available). more).
As far as mops go, I was impressed, and while the vacuum wasn’t as good as some of my favorite Roborock models, it was still pretty good. You’ll need to be patient with the S10, both in dealing with multiple docking stations and in that it will need to be recharged frequently. But as a trade-off, you’ll almost never have to interfere with the robot’s life.