The Deebot X9 Pro Omni is the latest flagship robot vacuum from Ecovacs. At $1,300, it doesn't come cheap, but it is one of the most full-featured automated vacuuming and mopping options on the market right now.
I reviewed the X8 Pro Omni earlier this year, and I've been using the X9 Pro Omni for over three months now. For something this expensive, I wanted to make sure that I extensively tested it before sharing an opinion. The X9 Pro Omni is a Matter-enabled robot vacuum, so it connects to the Apple Home app. It can be controlled with the Home app, the Ecovacs app, or Siri voice commands.
Design
In a lot of ways, it's hard to distinguish the X9 Pro Omni from the X8. The actual design of the robot is similar, though there are several changes. There are some minor updates to the design of the mopping pad and the main brush, and the side brush has a new design. There's also an update to the design of the top cover, but the two vacuums are otherwise identical in size and are close in function.
The X9 Pro Omni is 13.9 inches wide and 3.85 inches tall, and these are important dimensions to consider. If a lot of your furniture is shorter than that, the robot isn't going to be able to get underneath it. And 13.9 inches is the width that it needs for navigating doorways, around tricky furniture, and in other tight spaces. This isn't the smallest robot vacuum on the market, and it is taller than the Saros 10R from Roborock. The Saros 10R can get underneath all of my furniture, but I have a TV stand and a couple other pieces of furniture that are too low for the X9 Pro Omni. I've learned that slimmer and smaller definitely helps for a thorough clean, but there still has to be space for a dust bag and water, so it's a balancing act.
The X9 Pro base station received a much more significant design update than the robot, and it's the reason why I'd absolutely choose the X9 over the X8 if I were going to buy a robot vacuum from Ecovacs. The X9 base station is several inches smaller than the X8 version, and it has a modern, streamlined look. It takes up less vertical space, and the two water containers are hidden away. It's also not quite as wide.
Design wise, the X9 Pro Omni base station makes the X8 Pro Omni base station look clunky and outdated. These base stations can't be hidden away because they need to be easily accessible for the robot, so I appreciate the refined design for something that has a prominent place in my bathroom. It's a major improvement.
Function
Ecovacs says the X9 Pro Omni has 16,600 suction Pa, which on paper is lower than the X8 Pro Omni. I haven't noticed a difference in performance, though. It's still able to get all the dust, dirt, and cat hair off of my floors and out of my rugs.
I have wood flooring and no carpet, so I can't thoroughly review how it performs on carpeting. If you have carpet, you're going to want to read additional reviews from people who have used it extensively on carpet. I have a couple large rugs and some smaller rugs scattered throughout the house, and it's able to clean them well. I have a rug that sheds like crazy, and I feel like the X9 Pro is able to do a better job than my Dyson vacuum, which just gets clogged. Ecovacs says that the X9 Pro Omni gets 137 percent more dust out of carpets than the X8, but I can't quite tell because of how little carpet I have.
I do not like how the X9 Pro Omni performs with smaller rugs. It really struggles with a thinner rug that I have that has fringe on the edges. It gets stuck constantly in that rug, so much so that I eventually just made that rug a no-go zone. On more substantial rugs that have a rubber backing to hold them in place, it's able to perform better and doesn't get itself stuck, but like most of the robot vacuums, it'll move the rugs around a little.
If you have thinner rugs that do not have a rubber backing on them (I have several of these because I don't want to damage my wood floors), then the X9 Pro Omni will be a headache. I blocked it from some of my rugs and others I pick up before it runs. The X8 Pro was the same way, so there's been no improvement. For comparison's sake, the Saros 10R from Roborock is able to navigate those kinds of rugs well enough not to get itself tangled up constantly.
I have no other issues with the vacuuming. I have a lot of houseplants and I have had a dirt spill or two, and it has no problems with that. It also leaves no trace of cat hair. The side brush is designed to get into corners and around furniture, and it works well keeping the area near the baseboards clean. I haven't noticed a major difference between the cleaning of the X9 Pro and the X8 Pro despite the updated side brush design.
There's also a new main brush that Ecovacs is calling ZeroTangle 3.0, up from 2.0. I have never had the brush on one of the Ecovacs robots tangle up. I have long hair, my partner has long hair, and one of my two cats has long hair, but I haven't had to pull out the brush to remove hair wrapped around it.
Ecovacs uses a unique roller mop design for its robots, which I am a fan of. The roller mop gets constantly washed as it cleans, and I like the idea of clean water washing my floor rather than dirt being spread around. The roller mop is an alternative to the dual spinning heads that other robots have, which have to be washed at the base station.
For mopping, the X9 Pro Omni does a good job. If you have something stubborn like dried ketchup or dried cat food on the floor, it's often not able to get it all in one go, but it does get smaller stains and it is able to remove stubborn stains with multiple passes. With robot vacuums, the idea is to run them multiple times a week so that the floor is cleaned over time and stays clean. For small messes, it's great. For a huge sticky stain on the floor? I have to clean that myself unless I want to run the X9 Pro Omni over that area several times, which is an option... Click here to read rest of article
Article Link: Review: Ecovacs' Matter-Compatible Deebot X9 Pro Omni Robot Vacuum Put to the Test
