Robots are supposed to make our life’s easier doing the tasks no one likes to do. A perfect example is hoovering and mopping.  ILIFE’s V8s does exactly that, robot vacuuming and mopping automatically – but just how good is it?!

What does the ILIFE V8s do?

ILIFE is a robot manufactures based in, yep you guessed it, China. They manufacture robot vacuum’s and mops for the budget end of the market. If your familiar with Robot robot vacuum’s you will be aware these can easily cost thousands, most ILIFE’s robots cost hundreds but are still packed with features.

The ILIFE V8s is their latest model. It is a 2-in-1 robot that can automatically vacuum and mop your floor.  The robot is best suited to hard floors or short pile carpets.

Robot vacuum often jam or get tangled by pet hair, not the V8s. The brushes and nozzle have been specially designed to prevent tangling.

It has an internal HEPA filter and includes a spare filter. ILIFE recommend regularly changing this.

The v8s is packed with sensors to overcome issues:

• Obstacle to move around furniture or items on the floor
• Cliff detection to detect edges where it could fall
• Corner sensor to adapt its movement for corners
• Recharge sensor to return home when it needs a recharge

It has thick wheels to overcome uneven floors and change between floor type without issue. They claim up to 12mm obstacles.

The V8s has four different cleaning modes:

• Automatic to automatically clean the full room
• Max a super power mode
• Edge mode to clean the edges of the room
• Spot mode to spot clean, great for mopping

Navigation is done by an internal gyro.

ILIFE V8S Robotic Vacuum Cleaner With Floor Mopping

How easy is it to setup?

Simple assembly is required, clicking the brushes onto the body and inserting the filter. No complicated setup or instructions to follow.

What’s the connectivity?

It comes with a simple remote control allowing you to control all the functions you need.

It does not have any other connectivity however at this price point its not very surprising.

The interface does however allow scheduled cleaning. The drawback with this is you cannot schedule a vacuum then a mop as the head unit needs to be switched.

However if you have a smart hub that can send IR you can easily clone the remote codes and add connectivity. We easily added it to our home hub Homey and then Alexa.

How much does it cost?

The RRP is £299 direct from Amazon – this is a great price for a gadget that does so much.

What’s it like living with the ILIFE V8s?

Great! The hoovering function is very good, especially if you set the mode to max mode – it easily compares to a standard upright manual hoover. One drawback is the size of the container, 750 ml, however if you set it to come on daily it should not get full.

Navigation wise it does an impressive job of covering the entire room. A system they call i-move.

The mop function is also good, we tested it on tile and wood floor. On both it did a good job of cleaning the floor. The mop head contains 300 ml water, good enough to clean a few rooms. One big innovation in the V8s is the way the water is dripped onto the pad, making it wet enough but not to soak the floor. This is aptly named the ‘i-Dropping intelligent water dispensing system’.

It is slightly annoying the head unit needs to be changed to allow moping but understandable. The robot would need to be very large to allow them both at the same time and probably cost a lot more.

The size of the unit is a plus, it can easily glide under the sofa, chairs and cabinets. Unlike a lot of robot vacuum’s that are too tall. The wheels do an impressive job of changing between floors surfaces and even over mats and rugs.

Like most vacuum’s it does make a fair amount of noise, especially when on max mode – 68 dB normal mode / 72 dB max mode. However, as it is easy to schedule you don’t need to be in so will not hear it.

The battery lasts for up to 2 hours depending on the mode being used – in testing we got just under this. When the battery is low it automatically returns home to charge, however we found sometimes it can take a while for it to get home. Almost as if it got slightly lost.

What are our final thoughts?

This is smart tech to make your life easier! The hoover does an impressive job and for the price the best robot vacuum we have seen.