Yeedi Vac 2 Pro Review
A budget vacuum cleaner that mops brilliantly
Verdict
Considering its solid mid-range price, the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro punches well above its weight. Its map management is an improvement over previous models, although the current lack of multiple maps is still disappointing (a future update will fix this). What is important is that the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro gets the basics right: it mops brilliantly and cleans professionally. There are minor downsides: the map management is a little basic and, with the mop pad attached, the robot may not make it all the way around your home.
Pros
- Excellent mopping
- Powerful vacuuming
- Compatible with self-empty station
Cons
- Only one map (for now)
- Can’t always get to every area
Availability
- UKRRP: £459.99
- USARRP: $449.99
- EuropeRRP: €497.99
Key Features
- TypeA robot vacuum cleaner and mop, with an optional self-emptying station.
- MoppingThere’s a mopping pad that moves backwards and forwards, scrubbing dirt from the floors.
- Battery lifeYou can expect a maximum of 200 minutes runtime on the lowest setting, although there’s enough juice to clean an average floor in one go.
Introduction
We’ve come a long way with budget robot vacuum cleaners. A few years ago, cheap models still worked by bumping into furniture, spinning around and carrying on until the battery was depleted.
Now, with the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro, there’s a robot vacuum cleaner with a proper scrubbing mop, full-on mapping and even an optional self-emptying station. That puts this model up against some of the bigger names in robot vacuum cleaners.
It’s not quite as polished an experience here, and some features that I’d expect are still missing, but I have nothing to complain about performance-wise.
Design and features
- Compatible with self-empty station
- Automatic carpet detection
- Only supports a single map
The Yeedi Vac 2 Pro doesn’t look that different, on the outside, to the Yeedi Vac Station that I reviewed last year. Both are circular vacuum cleaners, with a camera on top for visual SLAM map building.
The differences start to pile up when you look more closely. First, the Vac 2 Pro ships with a standard charging dock, whereas the Vac Station ships with a self-empty dock. However, the self-empty station is an optional extra if you want the convenience of bin auto-emptying.
I quite like vacuum cleaners that are sold in this way. A smaller dock is useful if you want to fit the robot under some furniture, and they’re cheaper. For those that want auto-emptying, paying a little extra makes sense.
The self-empty station takes Yeedi’s 2.5-litre bags, which need to be replaced every month or two. There’s no station available that can clean the robot’s mopping pads or fill it with fresh water, as you get with the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra or Ecovacs Deebot X1 Omni.
If you don’t have the self-empty station, then the robot has to be manually emptied. Its 0.45-litre bin pulls out the top, and also contains the washable filter. Here, you’ll also find the razer for cutting away hair that will get tangled around the main brush.
Flip the vacuum cleaner over, and it’s a fairly standard layout: Floor brush in the middle, with a single side-sweeper brush for getting into the edges of the room.
There’s a blank cartridge that can plug into the rear of the robot vacuum cleaner, replaceable with the mopping system. While the Yeedi Vac Station had a basic mop, the Vac 2 Pro adds in a scrubbing mop. This slides backwards and forwards to scrub at the floor, not just pass a wet microfibre cloth over it.
Control of the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro is through the Yeedi app. Yeedi is a brand owned by Ecovacs, so it’s unsurprising that the layout of the two apps is quite similar. Yeedi’s app is definitely a little more basic and lacks the polish of the Ecovacs one.
Once connected, the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro has to go on a mapping run, which lets it discover your home. Mapping has been improved since I reviewed the Vac Station, and the Vac 2 Pro now generates a full map. It will try and guess where rooms are, too, although it often gets these wrong.
That was an issue with the initial release of the product, as there was no manual way to split rooms. Fortunately, this has been fixed in the most recent version of the software, and rooms can be manually divided up, giving the option to clean one room or even clean in a specific order.
The software makes the rooms fairly clear, although the quality of the display and the ease of control lags behind that of Roborock and iRobot’s apps.
In addition, there’s an area clean: draw a box on the map and the robot tackles just there. I find this brilliant for just tackling my prep area in the kitchen after making a meal.
There’s still no support for multiple maps, although I’m told that these are coming later in the year. That can be an issue at the moment, as the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro can’t tackle a house with multiple floors. My house, in particular, is a real challenge. Downstairs, the living room and dining room are on one level, the kitchen is one step down: that needs two maps just to tackle that area; then I have two more floors.
For vacuuming, there’s an option to clean each area twice, plus a choice of power levels: Quiet, Standard, Max or Max+. I found it easier to stick with Max, to get the right balance of power and performance.
With the mopping bracket available, there’s a choice of water level: low, medium and high. The dirtier your floors, the higher you should set the water level.
As with the Yeedi Vac Station, the Vac 2 Pro has carpet detection built-in. Without the mop attached, the robot can increase power when it detects a carpet or rug. With the mop attached, the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro backs off and won’t saturate the carpet.
Place the charging dock on carpet, and the robot will audibly warn you that it needs to be moved to a new location before it can continue, although it can’t make its way back to base.
While carpet detection is useful, there are areas the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro can’t reach with the mop attached: a large rug in the middle of a room may mean the robot can’t get around the sides, or a carpeted hallway will stop the robot from accessing other rooms.
For the ultimately flexibility, the Roborock S7 and S7 MaxV Ultra, are the best choice: these can lift their mops off the ground, vacuum carpet and mop hard floors. As it stands, the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro needs manual intervention to get it to work properly, and is better suited to homes with lots of hard floors.
Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant skills are available so that you can start and stop a clean with your voice alone.
Performance
- Cleans all surfaces brilliantly
- Mops up tough stains
Listed as having suction power up to 3000pa, the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro competes well specs-wise with much more expensive vacuum cleaners. This doesn’t always translate into quality performance, so I put the robot through my standard tests.
First, I started by sprinkling a teaspoon of flour onto the carpet. After a single pass, the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro had done a great job: most of the mess was gone, leaving a trace amount behind.
Re-running the test, to give the robot a second pass, improved things. Here, the robot managed to pick up the remaining mess easily. That’s an impressive performance.
Switching to hard floors, the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro had no problem with the flour in the middle of the room. That was gone in just one sweep.
The tougher edge test proved slightly harder. While most the mess was gone, there was a trace amount of dirt left behind. More expensive vacuum cleaners, such as the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra do better here.
Mopping was excellent, too. Although the robot looks a little odd as it moves, with a kerchunk sound as the mop moves backwards and forwards, that scrubbing action helps it remove dirt that a basic water-only mop can’t touch. I’d say that the mopping was as good here as on the Roborock S7 models, although the Ecovacs Deebot X1 Omni does even better.
There’s only a 180ml water tank here, and no automatic refill option. I found a tank per clean was about right for this model. There’s also only one mopping cloth in the box, although a pack of three is available for €19.99.
I measured the robot on Max power at 61.7dB, which is pretty quiet: sure you know it’s turned on and is moving around, but it’s not that distracting.
Battery life is rated at up to 200 minutes, although that’s on the lowest setting. What I can say is that I managed to tackle my kitchen twice, and still have enough charge for another go. That’s effectively enough for a large downstairs area.
Navigation is alright with this vacuum cleaner. It didn’t always like my office chair legs, getting stuck, and without a forward-facing camera it will run into shoes and cables, so I found it important to tidy up first before running this vacuum cleaner. If you want better obstacle avoidance, then the iRobot j7+ is for you.
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Should you buy it?
If you want a lower-cost robot vacuum cleaner that can mop brilliantly, then this is a good alternative to the bigger brands.
If you want better mapping, automatic obstacle avoidance or with a self-cleaning and emptying station, look elsewhere.
Final Thoughts
At a solid mid-range price of £459.99, the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro is a great value robot vacuum cleaner, particularly for one with a mop. It cleans brilliantly on hard floors and carpets alike, although its carpet detection option means that this robot can often find itself locked out of areas when the mop is attached.
Add on the self-empty station (€199.99) and the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro gets close to the price of the iRobot Roomba j7+, which has better navigation and a nicer app, although it can’t mop.
If you want budget mopping and cleaning, then the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro is a good choice, although those with multiple floors will want to wait until the update adds support for multiple maps. If you want a completely hands-free experience, then the Ecovacs Deebot X1 Onmi is an even better choice, plus there are other alternatives in my guide to the best robot vacuum cleaners.
How we test
Unlike other sites, we test every robot vacuum cleaner we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as our main robot vacuum cleaner for the review period
We test for at least a week
Tested with real-world dirt in real-world situations for fair comparisons with other vacuum cleaners
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FAQs
Yes, it can be used with this optional accessory for automatic bin emptying.
When carpet is detected and the mop is attached, the robot will automatically back off.
Trusted Reviews test data
You can see a detailed summary of all the test data we collected reviewing the vacuum and how it compares to its closest rivals in the table below.
Full specs
You can see the vacuum’s full specs and how they compare to its rivals in the table below.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
