Robot vacuums are an excellent way to keep your floors free of debris without putting in any hard work yourself, but you’ll still want to mop wood, tile, and other non-carpeted surfaces to really get things clean. If you already own a robot vacuum, you can supplement it with a robot mop, or if you’re just starting out, you can find a model that does both, like the 360 Robot Vacuum Cleaner S9. At $549.99, the 360 S9 is one of the pricier hybrid models we’ve tested, but it’s also good at everything it does, with strong cleaning performance, intelligent mapping capabilities, and excellent battery life. It doesn’t have an auto-emptying dustbin or a camera for home monitoring like our Editors’ Choice winner, the $799.99 Ecovacs Deebot Ozmo T8 AIVI, but it’s also less expensive, making it a good alternative if you’re looking to spend less.
An Attractive Design and Features
In addition to the robot itself, the 360 S9 comes with a 48W charging dock and a power adapter for plugging it into a wall outlet, with multiple plugs for different countries’ outlets. There’s a cleaning tool to help remove any hair that gets tangled in the main brush, a spare side brush, a remote control, four universal plug converters, and some user manuals. Considering this is a mop in addition to a vacuum, you also get a removable water tank, a detachable mopping tool, and a spare mop head.
The S9’s 8.5-pound body is attractive and minimal in its design, but feels robust and sturdy. It’s also fairly compact at roughly 13.8 inches in diameter and 3.5 inches high, allowing it to fit under low-profile furniture and in other tight spaces.
There are just two controls on top: clean and recharge buttons. The clean button doubles as a power on/off control, the recharge button sends the robot back to its dock, and pressing both buttons at the same time initiates Wi-Fi setup.
By lifting the top cover, you gain access to the water tank and dustbin with integrated HEPA filter, both of which are easily removable. The bottom of the robot holds the main brush, secured by a cover and a buckle. There’s also a side brush that helps pull debris toward the main brush to be sucked into the dustbin. Right next to the side brush is a stabilizing wheel, and above these is a pair of driving (or main) wheels.
There’s a fairly large laser distance sensor that rises above the rest of the top panel. This is complemented by four anti-drop sensors on the bottom of the vacuum, an infrared collision protection sensor on the front, and wall sensors. These all provide the S9 with excellent navigation capabilities.
Setting Up and Using the 360 S9
Getting the S9 up and running is as simple as pushing a button. A long press on the power button turns the robot on, after which a short press starts cleaning.
But before you power up the S9 and send it on its way, you’ll want to download the 360Robot app on your Android or iOS device. After downloading the app and turning the robot on, press and hold the two buttons on the S9’s top panel until the Wi-Fi light begins to flash blue, after which you can follow the instructions to pair it with the app.
The final step is to pair the included remote control by pressing and holding the clean button on the robot and the suction adjustment button on the remote for three seconds; a blue LED indicator blinks to let you know the pairing was successful. In addition to starting and stopping the robot, the remote lets you move it in any direction, enable spot cleaning, change suction levels, and send it back to its charging dock.
It’s worth mentioning that throughout all of the processes above, the S9 gives voice prompts for every action. The prompts are detailed and helpful, especially for newbies. The accompanying manuals are also useful in walking you through the setup process.
Works Well as a Vacuum or a Mop
After powering it up and pressing the clean button, the S9 began to clean along the walls of my bedroom. Once it used its multiple sensors to scan my room and generate a map of it in the app, it began to clean the area inside of the border it just mapped out. It moved swiftly, stopping right before walls. I spread some orange peels on both my wood and carpeted floors to see how the S9 would handle larger debris, and it sucked them all up in one pass. Thanks to a strong 2,650 Pa maximum suction power, it never had to go over the same spot twice in order to get it clean.
On the first run, the S9 took its time to map out my entire house (which only has to be done once). It seamlessly traveled from room to room without bumping into anything or even getting into any close calls. The only time it paused was when it came across a mess of power cords on the floor, which was partly my fault (you should always move any obstacles like this before you start cleaning). But even in this case, the S9 stopped immediately upon coming in contact with the cables.
The robot went to areas I didn’t even expect it to go to. Thanks to its svelte form factor, it managed to squeeze into a number of tight spaces, including between the chairs around my dining table, under the media console, and around the space between my bed and the wall.
After all of my floors were clear of dirt and debris, I filled the S9’s water tank and snapped on the mopping attachment. As we’ve seen with other robot mops, the S9 did a sufficient job of mopping my floors clean, though you’ll still need to put in some manual labor for any problem areas, like the dried ketchup stain on my kitchen floor. For regular maintenance, however, the mopping feature is enough to keep your floors looking spotless. Better yet, the S9 is capable of mopping and vacuuming at the same time, so you only have to run it once if you’re looking for a complete cleaning experience.
The company claims the robot has 180 minutes of battery life, though in testing the S9 lasted closer to 170 minutes That’s still an excellent result, and on par with the Deebot Ozmo T8. When it’s running low on power, you can manually place the robot on the charging dock, or press the recharge button and the S9 will make its way there automatically.
The only real gripe I have is with the dustbin. In order to accommodate the 200ml water tank, the dustbin holds only 420ml, so I had to empty it after the S9 cleaned a large room. And unlike the Ecovacs Deebot Ozmo T8 AIVI, there’s no option to add an auto-emptying docking station, which means you need to manually empty the dustbin and come in contact with dust and debris.
360 S9 App Control
In addition to the remote and the buttons on the robot itself, the 360Robot app provides an even greater degree of control over the S9. For starters, it lets you begin and end cleaning sessions from your phone. It also has a spot cleaning feature, which lets you decide the size, location of the area you want to clean, and the number of passes to perform. I tested spot cleaning with some orange seeds I spread on the kitchen floor in a small area close to my refrigerator. I simply set the size and location of the desired area on the map generated by the robot and it went over the area, picking up every last seed on two passes.
The app also lets you set restricted zones. Learning from the experience of the S9 clashing with my cables, I set that area as a restricted zone in the app, after which the S9 successfully avoided it on all future cleanings. You can also select a specific room on the map and send the S9 straight there. And with scheduled cleanings, you can set a time at which the robot will get to work automatically.
Like the remote, the app lets you pick between four suction levels, including Quiet (600 Pa), Standard (1,000 Pa), Powerful (1,500 Pa), and Max (2,650 Pa). Quiet mode has a 55dB noise level, while Max goes up to 67dB, the same as the Deebot Ozmo T8.
A Versatile Cleaning Machine
Though far from inexpensive, the 360 S9 Robot Vacuum Cleaner offers a lot for the price. It efficiently mops and vacuums thanks to its long battery life, strong navigation sensors, and the ability to block off areas you don’t want covered. The fact that it can mop and vacuum at the same time is a big plus, especially if you plan to clean your floors daily. It could have a larger dustbin, and we’d like to see the option to add an auto-empty station, even as a separate purchase like with the Deebot Ozmo T8. And unlike the Deebot, the S9 doesn’t have a built-in camera for monitoring your home. But at $250 less, these are reasonable concessions considering the S9 mops and vacuums just as well, making it a good alternative for the price. If you’re looking to spend even less, meanwhile, we recommend the Bissell SpinWave Wet and Dry, which doesn’t last as long, but offers excellent cleaning performance for $399.99.
