‘I halved my cleaning time thanks to IMOU’s £390 robot vacuum – it even helped get rid of pet hair’

In the hierarchy of unfavourable household chores, vacuuming is definitely up there as one of my least enjoyable tasks. Not only is it time consuming, but it’s a pain to do. From clearing your floor spaces to untangling cables and unwrapping hair from the mechanism, there’s not much to love about the task, apart from how nice my house looks once its done.

Determined to spend less time cleaning and more time doing quite literally anything else, I decided to put the IMOU RV-L11-A Smart Robot Vacuum Cleaner, £389.99 here, through its paces to see if not only it could give me some time back, but also if it would actually stand up to the biggest test of all – pug hair.

IMOU RV-L11-A Smart Robot Vacuum Cleaner

First things first, the techy bits. The IMOU robot vacuum is actually a brush, vacuum and mop all in one, so it can tackle three of the most painstaking chores without you having to so much life a broom handle. It’s also self-emptying, so once its done it returns to its hub and unloads all the dirt its collected.

It has a 300ml dustbox that can hold up to 60 days worth of debris, and a 250ml water tank that should mop plenty of floor space before it runs out. It also has three levels of suction power and three different levels of water output, all of which can be controlled from the handy app that’s free to download and use.

It also uses lidar navigation to map out your entire home, with enough space to store up to three different maps at the same time. That means if you have a three storey house, it’ll be able to remember where everything is to give you the most efficient clean.

IMOU RV-L11-A Smart Robot Vacuum Cleaner

I’ll admit when I opened it the vacuum itself was larger than I anticipated – I’d been expecting something the size of a side plate. However, the docking station itself was a reasonable size, and didn’t take up too much space.

It was pretty quick and easy to set up, and the app was easy enough to navigate. After letting it charge up I just chose the automatic setting and let it do its thing. It set off around the edge of my hallway mapping out walls, doorways and obstacles, and seemed to tackle just about anything with ease – including my dog, who was thoroughly nonplussed by it and kept standing in its way.

It did however struggle with a springy wall-mounted doorstop, and when it headed into my kitchen it was bested by the tassels on the rug under my dining table, which kept tangling up in the motor and bringing it to a halt.

IMOU RV-L11-A Smart Robot Vacuum Cleaner

However, you can set up invisible walls and boundaries on the app, so in the future I’ll just mark that as a no-go zone and resign myself to hoovering the rug myself. However, it took on the rest of my flat effortlessly, making its way under side boards, dressing tables and chairs with impressive skill. It even managed to retrieve itself after becoming breached on a curved chair leg, which was impressive.

All in all, it took it around 50 minutes to clean my two bedroom flat including mapping time which yes, is longer than it would take me to do it myself, but also didn’t involve me having to do anything other than watch. It also sucked up a surprising amount of dust, fluff and – most importantly – dog hair, leaving my floors looking immaculate. I also love that it got into areas I wouldn’t usually do, such as under the bed and beneath my sideboard.

IMOU RV-L11-A Smart Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Whilst I know its a pricey investment, I was absolutely thrilled with the IMOU RV-L11-A Smart Robot Vacuum Cleaner, £389.99 here. Not only did it mean I had plenty of time to get on with other things, but it did an even more thorough job than I would have by hand.

If you’re not ready to splurge on this model, I did spot a few others that are slightly more budget-friendly, like this Roomba Combo Essential Robot, £269 here, which has both the mop and vacuum function. However unlike the IMOU one, it isn’t self-emptying – something I found to be a big plus. All in all, it’s definitely a keeper for me!