The best budget robot vacuum – In my opinion
I’m an extremely lazy human, I have a device that grows fresh plants for me in my home and now, I have what I would call the ultimate budget robot vacuum. Step aside Roomba, Dibea is on the scene.
Vacuuming can be extremely boring, which is the best thing about Dibea, it doesn’t get bored or distracted. It’s an extremely useful robot which just gets the job done.
A bit of back story, I bought this robot because I was bored of cleaning up after my house rabbit, he’s fully free roam and his hay is often trodden into the carpet.
Dibea picks up the hay and dust with so much ease it’s honestly quite unbelievable. I bought a VYTRONIX upright vacuum cleaner just for cleaning up after the rabbit, but it didn’t meet the mark
Whilst Dibea is 3x the price of that vacuum, it does have these perks:
- It mops the floor if you wish for it to
- It has detatchable side brushes for picking up hair and dust
- It comes with a remote control which is actually very funny to use with your pets
- The Battery lasts for around 90 minutes (Sometimes longer)
- It goes back to its charging station on its own
- The D shape it uses is surprisingly good at not getting stuck
Our Review of the Dibea Robot Vacuum and Mop
Our Review Score: 4.5/5
Pros
- It’s Lightweight
- It actually works really well with pet hair
- It auotmatically charges itself
- The D shape on it makes it extremely good at cleaning all areas of your home
- It has a mop feature
- You can set it on a schedule
- It’s not $1000+ like the Roomba
Cons
- The dust bin fills up pretty quickly
- It’s not great at getting out of being stuck
My thoughts
Dibea really is a contender for my best robot vacuum list, it’s simply too good for the price it’s at. I have a feeling that most Robot Vacuums will have an auto-bin empty station in the future, however, due to the price of the Dibea, I don’t think that will be a reality for it.
You need to go into this knowing that the Dibea is a budget option that was purchased specifically to get to know more about the robotic vacuum world. It’s not perfect, it’s far from it. But what it does well, it does damn well.
I use Dibea once a day, my rabbit is messy, it drags its food out, it does occasionally poop on the carpet and hay gets everywhere. But the Dibea vacuum has next to no issues with this. It uses its rotary blades to pick up all the dust, spare bits, broken down food and then goes over it with an amazingly powerful suction.
I’ve had my Dibea for around 2-3 weeks now, and honestly, I’m extremely happy I got it. I was initially worried with the voice being that of an Asian lady that it would simply be a cheap knock off. But her personality really has become one to the point where “Dib” is literally part of the family now.
It doesn’t have navigation pathing as far as I can tell, it simply tries to go in a circle constantly before it tries different routes, that may sound daft but it works really well. My home isn’t the easiest to navigate, we still have a lot of boxes and my partner leaves her handbags all over the place. Yet, we still have a super clean carpet at the end of it.
Why a Robot Vacuum cleaner can be useful
As someone who runs their own business, it’s important that I keep my home tidy for when I come home, tidy home tidy mind.
You hear it all the time and whilst I couldn’t find any actual proof of this (this is the closest I found?). It did make me wonder how much happier I would be having just one less mundane job to do.
I can confirm, having a robot vacuum has improved my lifestyle. It’s one less stress to worry about, having a clean home all the time makes the only worry of unexpected visitors being if I have underwear on or not.
Should I get one?
If you can afford to get one and by one I mean a semi-decent one, then the answer is yes. Robot Vacuums have been on the rise for the last 5 years or so and with good reason. Their prices on entry models have dropped significantly and the idea of having an automated clean home is becoming reality.
Why avoid the option to have less stress when you can grab a decent Robot Vacuum for around £160 / $180
Let’s talk mop
I’ve not used the mop all too much, it’s not something that I do very often simply because most of my home is carpet based. But the short experience I had with the mop really wasn’t bad.
It has an 75ml water tank and actually allows you to vacuum and mop at the same time. Typically the mop feature lasts for about 2 hours before needing another charge.
The mop is essentially a water tank seen at the back of the device with a microfiber layer. The water essentially drips down to the mop.
One suggestion I’ve seen from lots of people is to soak the microfiber towel in water first and ring it out to remove any potential streaks.
If you have a particularly dirty floor, don’t rely on any robot vacuum mop, it’s not a replacement to a hand mop.
I don’t think the mop feature is great at cleaning the edges, this is definitely better at vacuuming the edges than it is mopping them.
Can it climb surfaces?
The Dibea D500 Pro is surprisingly good at ‘off-roading’, I use carpet mats for my rabbit to lay on, kind of to mark his own territory and the robot vacuum has no issue climbing them or my other rugs.
The actual robot has a weird suspension like system on the bottom which states it can climb up to 7.5cm surfaces, whilst I’ve not tested this, I can confirm that it’s had no problem climbing surfaces in my home.
Does it work with any voice assistants?
No, the Dibea D500 Pro doesn’t work with any voice assistants, which really is a shame. I would normally complain about this, but given the robot can be started with a remote or by tapping its power button twice I really don’t see it as an issue.
I suggest setting up a schedule for when you’re at work so you can come back to a pet hair free home.
How well does it pick up Pet hair?
Whether you have a Rabbit, Cat or Dog, this robot does an amazing job. It may not pick up the hair the first time it goes over it, but don’t let that fool you. The first move over will likely pick up and loosen the hairs on the floor and the second go over will then suck up all hairs it finds.
I had a real issue with trying to vacuum the trodden in hay and rabbit pellets by hand, but the Dibea D500 Pro is fantastic for pet hair. Can’t fault it!
How often do I have to change the dust tray?
Given I run my vacuum every day, I have to typically clean the dust filter every other day just to make sure it’s able to operate properly.
Due to the small size, this can be a pain but honestly, the time it takes to unclip the dust filter and then just push it back in is still not an issue. This only needs to be done once every other day if you get extreme use out of your vacuum.
