Dyson Spot+Scrub AI review – a huge improvement over its previous robot vacuums

We know Dyson’s reputation in the vacuum market but it has failed to crack the robot vacuum market – until now.  The Spot+Scrub AI is Dyson’s best robot vacuum by far and a huge improvement over its previous efforts.

In fact we’d go so far to say it has made ground back on other more popular rivals in this space like Ecovacs, Roborock and Dreame.

Even Dyson themselves would admit their previous attempts at a robot vacuum were far from brilliant but we can respect the fact that the engineering-focused company has learned from its mistakes and come back with its best robot vacuum ever.

The Dyson Spot+Scrub AI is a wet and dry robot vacuum that uses an advanced AI stain detection system plus AI vision and laser illumination to identify around 200 types of household substances and objects on the floor until it is absolutely spotless.

The unit also has a bagless cyclonic dock and room for a clean water tank and a dirty water reservoir.

We set up the Dyson Spot+Scrub AI in our living area at home and it mainly had to deal with hard-tiled floors and some carpeted areas.

It all starts with the My Dyson app, which allows users to sync the unit to their device and onto their network before heading out for the first mapping journey.

Previously, mapping and navigation had been an issue for Dyson robot vacuums, but this time out it easily and quickly got around and accurately mapped the floor plan.

It uses Lidar and AI Vision to map your home, and then automatically labels the rooms in the My Dyson app for easier zone cleaning.

By knowing the name of the zone, you can tell the robot where to go if there’s been a spill or a particular room needs extra care.

We set up the dock in an area where it can easily get in and out and filled up the clean water tank before it went out on its first journey.

Users can add Dyson cleaning fluid into the water tank. But unfortunately that wasn’t included in the box despite the instructions telling us to add it to the water.

One thing we found was that we had to specify mopping and vacuuming for every room, rather than the unit assuming we want the full treatment every time.

So the first trip the Spot+Scrub AI did around our home was just purely vacuuming until we specified we wanted both vacuuming and mopping from now on, every time it began to clean.

When the robot is journeying around the home, you can see its green light out in front. This was the area that was constantly being inspected with a high-resolution camera to detect stains.

We did notice a couple before the clean began, and it dealt with them beautifully.

There were, however, a couple of more stubborn stains that, while it tried its best to remove it, we eventually had to get on our knees with a wet wipe to finish the job.

But this was a rare occurrence. The Dyson Spot+Scrub AI could literally be left to its own devices and provide a rather impressive clean.

On the vacuuming side, it did a brilliant job with its 18,000 Pa suction, and you could tell where it had been.

The suction is so strong it actually left a trail like a powerful stick vac would.

And on the mopping side, it has a self-cleaning microfiber wet roller that extends to reach the edges and skirting boards for maximum cleaning.

It could also get up into our laundry and powder room, which was nearly a 2cm climb.

It got up over that threshold with ease.

While it’s out cleaning, it will need to return to the station for recharging as well as to clean the roller, upload the dirty water, and refill the tank with clean water.

One thing I noticed was that the unit was a little noisy, noisier than I expected.

And when it was back at the dock, the high noise level continued there as well.

It was noisy enough for you to schedule the cleans for the daytime. If it was doing this during the night, it would probably wake you up if you’re a light sleeper.

We were impressed with the way the Dyson Spot+Scrub AI found its way around our home.

It did a great job avoiding obstacles and planning an efficient route around our furniture.

On the plus side the dock has a bagless design so, like you would with Dyson stick vacuums, you can empty the bin into your garbage.

And like its stick vacs, the dust bin is transparent.

That’s okay on the stick vac because you put that away in a corner or in a cupboard but with the Dyson Spot+Scrub AI dock, it’s on display in the middle of your home and can look unsightly because anyone can see all the debris if you haven’t emptied it.

The app could also be a little more intuitive and adjustable especially when trying to label your rooms and directing the vacuum to certain spaces in your home. It took a few steps to achieve this.

But overall we were thoroughly impressed with the quality of the clean.

You could tell our tiled floors had had a good scrub. You could see the shiny trail of water on the floor as the Dyson made its passes.

In terms of overall quality and efficiency the Dyson Spot+Scrub AI is certainly in the same ballpark as other more established brands in this space.

And the other great feature and surprise is the price.

The Dyson Spot+Scrub AI is priced at $1,999 with similar models from other brands just well over $2,000 and nearly $3,000.

The Dyson Spot+Scrub AI is available now.

VERDICT

The Dyson Spot+Scrub AI Brings Dyson quality and style to your floors with its best robot vacuum ever. It provides a thorough clean for both vacuuming and mopping and allows you to put your feet up and let it do all the work.