The Switchbot S10 Review (The Game-Changing Robot Vacuum Cleaner)

Disclosure: We received this product from Switchbot free of charge to use and review. That does not influence our views.

Why the SwitchBot 10 is a game-changer

The SwitchBot 10 isn't just another robot vacuum. It has some serious party tricks, including a self-cleaning mop, Auto-Empty & Dry Station, and get this…. an Auto-Fill & Drain Water Station. Yep, that’s right! This cleaner can be plumbed in, fill and empty its own water reservoir and then take itself back to its dock ready for its next mission. If it’s doing it at night, it even turns on some cute headlights to find its way.

Full disclosure – this has been a serious upgrade to my previous Ecovacs Deebot N8, so it might be like comparing apples to oranges, but this Switchbot has absolutely blown it away. Gone are the days of replacing mop plates, refilling the water reservoir and emptying the dirt collector. Once this S10 is set up, it is ridiculously low maintenance, and I can truly put my feet up. All my previous annoyances with a robot cleaner have evaporated.

I’ve been testing out the S10 for the past few months and have thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. If you’re looking to splash out on a higher-end cleaner, then the S10 definitely needs to be on your list. Here’s my in-depth review:

SwitchBot S10 Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Ridiculously good and (more importantly) FAST mapping and navigation
• Fills and empties its own water reservoir; plumbing in the Auto-Fill & Drain Water Station takes this to another level.
• Self-cleaning mop
• Self-Emptying into the Auto-Empty & Dry Section
• Regular over-the-air updates

Cons:

• A bit bulky
• Quite noisy
• Relatively short battery life
• The app can be a little slow
• Took a while to plumb in the water base station
• I wish you could name/label rooms on the map to create more complex Alexa routines.

What's in the box:

 When you unbox the SwitchBot S10, here's what you'll find: 

• The main vacuum unit
• Auto-Empty & Dry Station
• Auto-fill & Drain Water Station
• Accessories: Side Brush x2, Dustbag x3, Cleaning Solution (75ml) x2
• Installation Accessories

Setup and Installation 

If you're new to SwitchBot, have a watch of this helpful video before you get started.

Wifi and app setup

First things, first. If you’re new to the Switchbot ecosystem, you’ll need to make sure you have a suitable Switchbot hub in your home. Once you’ve got that, it’s dead simple to set up the S10 in the app, and you’ll get walked through it. I could give you screenshots, but it’s so intuitive you won’t need my help.

NOTE: One thing to ensure is that you’ve split out your WiFi channels. The S10 connects to the 2.4GHz, so make sure you don’t try and connect on 5GHz. Their reasoning for this is on the support website. 

Plumbing options

Once you’ve got all the setup out of the way, you’ll have the choice whether you want to plumb your water station in or not.

1. No plumbing

Just use the filler and collector boxes on top of the base. Here's a handy instructional video:

2. Plumbing in 

To really unlock the true potential of the S10, you’re going to want to plumb it in. That way, you’ll never have to worry about filling and emptying the water. A major win here is that the Auto-fill & Drain Water Station doesn’t need its own source of power - the robot takes care of that, so you don’t need to worry about finding a plug socket near a water source. 

TOP TIP: If you’re not at all comfortable doing it yourself, then get someone in. Once it’s done once you won’t have to worry about it again.

There are a few different options you can choose from to connect to the plumbing:

• Kitchen tap system
• Dishwashers & washing machines
• Bathroom sinks
• Toilets

For me, this was the most challenging part of the process. I chose to fit the water station to my utility sink, so it was a bit out of the way. I was absolutely fine fitting the supply line for the water station, which is just a case of adding a t-connector to your cold (must be cold) water feed under the sink. It was fitting the waste that caused a bit of a headache.

I’m not sure if my sink setup is relatively unique in the UK, but the P-trap connectors supplied didn’t fit mine. I think they’re made for standard US pipe sizes. I hoped I could add the new section of P-trap supplied, which I could then attach to the waste hose of the water station, but that wasn’t to be. In the end, I was able to add another one of their adaptors to a different section of my P-trap and connect to that. Luckily, their support was on hand to say everything was fitted fine after sending a couple of photos. When the robot empties and fills itself, there’s a fair amount of noise, which can be a little disconcerting if you’re unsure of your plumbing skills the first time it happens. All is fine, though.

As I said, if you’re at all worried about setting it up incorrectly, then get a professional in, and it would be a relatively simple job for them. You’ll need to factor in the cost, though, when making your decision.

Here's a handy instructional video on how to plumb the unit in. If you’re based in Europe, here's the timestamped section of the video:

 There’s also more information on their website, which shows proper placement and loads of examples.

Mapping & Navigation

Once you’re all set up with the base and water station, you’re ready to go, and you can send the robot out to map the areas you want it to clean. It should automatically pick up your base station and water station without issue.

Switchbot give recommendations on how much room you need to have on either side and around your stations. I managed to tuck my base station away behind a chair, and it has no issue getting itself out. So a bit of trial and error maybe what’s needed if you want to get your base station into a tight spot.

I wouldn’t take any chances with the water station, though. When it comes to water, I prefer to follow their instructions, and I’ve got a water leak detector from Switchbot for good measure to make sure every Echo Dot around the house goes mad if a leak is detected.

I have to say mapping was straightforward and FAST compared to my previous robot. It’s clearly much more intelligent. To get the most effective map, I basically clear the rooms as much as I can, leaving the floor as clear as possible. Robovacs hate leads, and this one is no exception. So, if you have any loose charging leads on the floor, then get rid of them.

Once mapped, it will detect carpets and rugs and make sure the mop isn’t used in those areas. You can also set up no mop zones if you like as well. The mapping also auto-detects rooms, but if there are any mistakes and you want to join/divide rooms, you can easily do so within the app.

Cleaning Performance

There are a few options when sending it out to clean. You choose to do the full map, a room or a specific area. If you select a specific area, you use a draggable box that you can resize. You can also choose whether you want to Vacuum & Mop, Vacuum, or use a Custom cleaning plan, where you can select the order of rooms and set different rooms to different strengths, as well as the amount of water you want used for the mop. Finally, you can set up no-go zones as well if you're going to avoid specific areas.

It pretty much ticks every box when it comes to customisation, and I’ve had no complaints on this side of things. I’ve also been able to tuck the base away behind an armchair, and because the navigation is so good, the robot finds its way underneath it to come in and out. Something I absolutely love because you’re not aware of it during the day.

It has loads of tech on board, which helps with obstacle avoidance, threshold crossing, cliff (top of a stair, for example) detection, and it even has a little light on the front of it to help it clean in the dark or poorly lit areas.

In terms of cleaning performance, I’ve been really happy with it.

Vacuuming power

I’ve been thoroughly impressed with the cleaning on this vacuum. It performs fantastically both on the wood floor and the carpets. Due to the navigation being so good, it cleans in such a uniform way. One major concern was the mop dragging across the carpet, but it retracts so far up into the machine that it’s nothing to worry about.

You have four choices when it comes to suction power, and to be fair, I find it noisy because I always have it on maximum power. If you’d like a quieter option, then you can choose between max, strong, standard and quiet.

Once it has completed its vacuum task, it returns to its auto-empty station and sucks up all the debris into a dust bag.

The self-cleaning mop 

This is something I haven’t seen on other robot vacuums. Switchbot have decided to use a single roller for their mop. No spinning pads, no drag pad - just a nice and simple roller. It’s actually really clever because not only is the mop self-cleaning, but it also pulls the mess off the floor up into the unit, so you end up with a really clean floor. And yes, you did read that right - the mop is self-cleaning. In fact, it cleans itself 300 times a minute as it spins. That also means when it returns to its base, all it has to do is dry its mop - the cleaning has already been done. A lovely touch by the creators at Switchbot!

Not only is it clever, but as I say, it does an excellent job at cleaning. I did have a few issues with streakiness when I first got the unit, but it was new then, and a couple of over-the-air updates later, and the problems were no more, and my wood floor was sparkling clean! I would suggest trying it out and seeing what you prefer, but within the app, there are two settings for the amount of water you want to apply to your floor. I always keep it at max, but it will come down to personal preference.

More Smart Integration

From a personal point of view, I would love to see this improved - currently it’s a little limited with Alexa. My biggest request would be being able to label the rooms with intuitive names and then be able to ask Alexa to clean that specific room. Currently, I can only send it out for a general clean.

Final verdict: Is the SwitchBot S10 worth it?

Short answer…yes. Although there have been a couple of niggles on the way with streaking from the mop in particular, as I say, they’ve been sorted with updates. So if you were to buy now, you wouldn’t have to worry about those.

We’ve had this S10 for a few months now and genuinely absolutely love it. Do I wish it were a bit quieter? Sure, but we generally use it when we’re out of the house/rooms anyway, so it’s no issue for us. The performance has been fantastic, and the floors around the house have never been cleaner.

 

The auto-water refill is, without doubt, my favourite feature, and now that I’ve had it, I couldn’t live without it. This robot is truly set and forget, apart from the very occasional emptying of the well-sized auto-empty container.

Would I recommend it to my friends? Definitely! Barring some minimal complaints, I have really enjoyed having the robot cleaning up after us for the last few months. It took a little while to set up the plumbing, but that was really the only pain point during the whole setup up and this thing mapped our entire downstairs in about a quarter of the time our previous Ecovacs took.

So it’s a huge thumbs up from m,e and I would definitely recommend you buy one of these.

Any questions? Leave a comment below!