In any case, I took a measuring tool and, while the device was set on the Quiet mode, it produced an average of 53dB a few feet away. It’s quite far from being completely quiet and it will most likely be very audible during the night – you may be woken up by the noise. Moving on to the second mode, the Standard mode, we see a slight increase to 60dB and the Strong mode, as usual, doesn’t bring a significant change, going slightly up to 64dB.
Lastly, the Max mode is the noisiest, going up to an average of 68dB, in line with other robot vacuum cleaners. Obviously, the loudest is going to be the docking station which will go beyond 80dB, so it’s best to set it on Do Not Disturb mode during the night.
No-Go Zones and Area cleaning?
You can easily set up No-go zones from the app where the robot vacuum cleaner won’t enter and thank our stars that the magnetic band era is finally over. As for the area cleaning, we do get to select a certain spot which will be cleaned by the robot vacuum cleaner and, as I mentioned before, it’s amazing just how small this area can be set from the app.
Does it get stuck?
Well, in most cases no, the SwitchBot K10+ does not get stuck and it does have a fairly adventurous nature, trying to go in very tight spaces. But what can make it stuck is the cables, so make sure you remove any potential obstacles from its way unless you want to go and regularly untangle the wires from the brushes.
Low Battery Mode
As all other robot vacuum cleaners that I have tested so far, the SwitchBot K10+ does have a low battery mode which enables after the battery goes underneath a certain threshold (10% if I remember correctly – I didn’t take notes). And it will try to find its way quickly to the docking station. The great news is that it doesn’t hang or forget where it is, no, it’s going straight to those two metal pins for the sweet electricity.
Hard floor performance
My house is mostly covered by hard floors, so this section serves as a direction point to the Navigation section where I explain in great detail how the SwitchBot K10+ cleans the house.
Carpet performance
I made sure that the Carpet detection mode was on and I used the same small carpet I always use when testing the robot vacuum cleaners.
And it may not have been the best idea because it seems that the SwitchBot K10+ wants more time, aka way larger carpets to detect it and adjust the suction level. As you can see from the video, it didn’t initially detect it, but it did with a slight delay, after it was already off, where the motor ramps up for a few seconds. So, it’s not really the perfect system, especially for smaller carpets. As for the cleaning performance, it actually did a bit better with hair (perhaps due to the small brush that cleans around the side brush), but yeah, 2,500Pa is a bit on the entry-level side.
Even so, I do have other robot vacuum cleaners with the same max suction level that performed worse, so perhaps the short canal between the brush and the motor may have payed off.
How easy it is to clean it up?
The dust bin can easily be detached and more thoroughly cleaned even though the docking station does a good job at taking the dust out. The brushes are detachable, so it’s not difficult to quickly clean them up, while the filters do need to be replaced once in a while. Overall, the SwitchBot K10+ is just as easy to clean as other robot vacuum cleaners.
The battery life
I couldn’t see it, but the manufacturer says that we’re dealing with a 3,200 mAh battery which should be able to offer up to 100 hours on a single charge, assuming that it’s set on the Standard suction power level mode. So, I decided to do my own test and, using the Standard mode, I noticed that I lost about 30% in 20 minutes, so the math says that I would get about an hour before the mini robot vacuum cleaner will quickly run back home to recharge. It’s far from a big number, but the best question would be how much space is covered in that hour?
And the answer is unfortunately not that much because as I mentioned before, being half the size of a regular robot vacuum cleaner will require more runs to cover the same space. That being said, the 1000sq feet floor was cleaned thoroughly on a single run and with some spare battery left, so a smaller house will be handled without issues.
The availability of spare parts
With the exception of the filter (you do get an extra one in the package), the dust bag which is universal (you also get an extra) and perhaps the side brush, everything else seems to be proprietary.
The dustbin has a particular shape to fit the SwitchBot K10+ and the main rolling brush is smaller than what we find on regular robot vacuum cleaners. So you will have to get these from SwitchBot.
The Conclusion
I couldn’t really call the robot vacuum cleaners market as stagnant, far from it since new technologies seem to pop out every new generation of devices, but the SwitchBot K10+ still feels like it pushed a lot more boundaries than other vacuums, despite not actually bringing any new tech to the table. The SwitchBot K10+ is incredibly small and compact, about half the size of a regular robot vacuum, and the LiDAR implementation is tuned in a way as to allow the device to enter (and exit) narrow spaces. So, you will have to use the broom less often.
The app is robust and stable (a rarity in this field), and the navigation algorithms are well tuned. Of course, there are some shortcomings besides the use of extra battery to clean up a big house. SwitchBot insisted on adding a mop and I think the implementation is very odd and awkward. And I would really love to see some object detection tech added to the SwitchBot robot vacuum cleaners, even if that means that the device will gain some extra inches.
SwitchBot K10+
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Pros
- It's very compact, easily entering narrow spaces.
- Great for small homes.
- Uses LiDAR.
- The app is well done and so far, bug-free.
- Can work alongside other SwitchBot devices.
Cons
- The mopping system is odd and impractical.
- No object detection and avoidance.