Self-emptying robots becoming a new trend of 2021 and compared to the previous years they becoming more and more affordable. The Ultenic T10 is one of those affordable models ($499.0 on Amazon) that yet is featured with all options of the $600+ robots. I have never tested an Ultenic before so this one brings my interest on. As usual, I tested it for about a week in various kinds of cleaning tests. Kept an eye on its navigation and other features and now am excited to share my thoughts about it.
Main highlights
- Affordable
- Suitable for multi-level houses as it saves two maps
- Customizable no-go zones & zoned cleaning
- Good mopping performance
Appearance
The Ultenic comes with a self-emptying base that uses a disposable bag system. Two bags come in the box, one holds debris of about 30 dustbin contents so it's basically about a month depending on usage.
The buttons on the robot light up when the robot is turned on and indicates when it's on low power, etc. You can shut them off in the app.
The dustbin-and-water tank is spared which means the bin is not big but that does not matter for as long as you don't have lots of pets that shed a lot as it gets emptied after every cleaning.
The filtration system is triple-layer with foam, pre, and the main HEPA filter. The two prevent the main filter from clogging too fast as well as do not let bigger particles get in.
The self-emptying base empties the dustbin content via a hole located on the side. Under the lid, there is a disposable bag that should be replaced when it’s full. It has to be done as with a stuffed bag, the base loses its power and wouldn’t be able to suck up the debris well.
What I noticed from the start is the docking issue. Most robots start charging if you move it to the dock manually. The Ultenic alerts that it’s charging but leaves the base in a few seconds and tries to relocate itself to dock again. It happens every time and tbh I gave up, just wait for it to dock itself every time when needed to test a self-emptying feature.
The cleaning brush has the same design that most robots in this price segment use. The same goes for the side brush and cleaning tool.
I should mention that I don’t really like the robot’s voice. It reminds me of old movies with robots that didn’t have a good speaker so the voice was a bit squeaky. So I prefer to mute the sound.
Navigation & Technologies
The Ultenic creates a map of the cleaning area via an LDS sensor that scans the area.
The map looks pretty accurate which is no surprise as the robot is Lidar-guided. It doesn't need a few cleaning attempts to create the map. You can see the robot's path in the app. As it navigates, it draws straight lines so you don't have to worry about missing spots.
In various tests I did with the robot, I find the coverage to be almost on par with most high-end devices. In general, it didn’t have issues mapping my place however, it did get stuck a few times when tried to create the first map. Top-line robots like the Roborock or 360 do not have such issues and normally clean my place smoothly so I don’t have to babysit it. The robots like the Ultenic needs some attention or at least to keep the floors as clean as possible so it wouldn’t get tangled or trapped on the cords or in tight places.
What I didn’t like is that it doesn’t show its location on the map when is trapped. Once I turned it on and left the house. When came back, I couldn’t find where it got stuck, so it took some time to finally find it in the bathroom.
But as to coverage, no-go zones accuracy, and overall navigation, the Ultenic did well.
Battery Life
There is almost no mention of battery life. Ultenic claims it has a 5,200 mAh battery that provides up to 280 minutes but I believe this is in mopping mode with suction turned off. I didn’t test its ability to clean the whole place on the highest settings tho in my experience, with such a big battery a robot normally lasts for up to 150 minutes on low power. In addition, there is a recharge & resume feature that helps the robot to finish the job in big houses in case it didn’t do so on one charge.
Cleaning tests
As usual, I put the robot through different kinds of tests with debris and sand to see how well it performs.
Expectedly it did the worst with sand on a low-pile carpet. All robots struggle to pass this test. The average score for this test is 90% in the mid and high-price segments. However, it did almost perfectly in the same test but on bare floor scoring 97.5 when the average number for this test is 96%.
It picked up debris on hard floor and thin carpet collecting 99.2% and 99% respectively.
On a medium-pile carpet with debris, the robot did okay, not the best but not the worst either. The result is 96.5%.
| Score | Bare floor, sand | Bare floor, debris | Medium-pile carpet, debris | Low-pile carpet, sand | Low-pile carpet, debris |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ultenic T10 | 97.4% | 99.2% | 96.5% | 72.3% | 99% |
| Average for mid and high-price range robots | 99.36% | 96.01% | 96.9% | 90.28% | 99.98% |
To sum up, the robot does well with sand on hard floor but much worse on carpet. I would say it is good for as long as you don't have to deal with fine debris on carpet or your house is mostly covered with hard floors.
Hair pick up test
I test robots with cats hair and long human hair on the low and medium-pile carpet. The Ultenic did the job well but you would have to clean the brushroll after picking up long human hair. This is a common thing for most robots.
Mopping performance
The Ultenic is the first robot I've tested that has four water levels instead of three. On the highest water level, the floors are wet, you can really see the robot mopping the floors. So on a day-to-day basis for as long as you use the mopping feature often, mopping performance is decent.
As usual, I used dried coffee, soy sauce, and mayo stains for the mopping test. It needed three passes to remove the stains when normally a robot does it twice. However, another test, showed better results removing all stains.
There is a PowerMope mode in which the robot navigates in a Y-shape path with suction turned off. It is useful when you need to clean wet spills or deal with dried stains. You can also shut off suction and let the robot mop but it would just navigate in straight lines.
So to sum up, the Ultenic T10 is a great machine for maintaining the floors clean but it can't remove stubborn stains.
The base performance
I tried to test the base performance by packing the dustbin with all kinds of debris and hair. The base couldn't empty the bin, it got stuffed fast and gave me an error notification every time I tried to empty the bin.
After trying to understand what is going on, I noticed the suction inlet is stuffed with debris. I pulled the base up and the debris just fell out. I assume the power was not enough to suck up a big amount of debris.
When filling the bin again with a smaller amount of debris the base finally could do the job.
So my verdict is the Ultenic T10 is not suitable for houses with lots of pets or it needs to be working at least twice a week to prevent the dustbin clogging.
App features
The app has all the features you'd want to see in a smart robot vacuum nowadays.
On the main screen, you see the map, can set virtual boundaries, empty the bin, and set water/suction levels. There is also auto clean (the whole place), PowerMop (the robot shuts off suction completely and moves in a Y-path) room clean, area clean, and spot clean too.
With the area clean, the high-traffic areas will be as clean as possible. You can customize the shape, how many passes to do (up to two), and name each area. When those areas set, there is a list so all you need is to tap the needed one and the robot would go cleaning it. You don’t have to set the areas manually every time, the list will be saved. I’ve seen this feature only in the 360 S10.
The no-go zones are customizable too. It also can be saved as a list.
The robot saves up to two maps and can be used in a multi-story house.
The virtual boundaries can be set for vacuuming and separate ones for when the robot is in mopping mode. In this scenario, the robot avoids the no-mop zones only when the mopping attachments are on.
There are four water levels when normally a robot has three. On the highest water level, the robot shuts off suction and leaves wet lines on my floor.
When setting a scheduled cleaning, you can set water level, suction power, and whether to clean the whole house, room, or area. The last one happens rarely as a schedule option.
The auto-emptying feature can be turned off completely or work after three, two, or every cleaning.
Other features allow to merge and divide rooms, reset map, see cleaning history, check for firmware updates.
About company
Ultenic is a new company that produces cordless cleaners and robot vacuums as well as humidifiers.
You can get some accessories on Amazon and the official website
Contact the Ultenic customer service via the following emails:
- The US: service-us@ultenic.com
- Canada: service-ca@ultenic.com
- Italy: service-it@ultenic.com
- Spain: service-es@ultenic.com
- France: service-fr@ultenic.com
- Germany: service-de@ultenic.com
- Japan: service-jp@ultenic.com
- The UK: service-uk@ultenic.com
Price & Where to buy
The Ultenic T10 on Amazon: $499.0
What is the Ultenic T10 good for?
The Ultenic T10 is a good day-to-day cleaner for homes with hard floors mostly. If you have to deal with lots of heavy debris like sand, kitty litter, sugar, etc., the Ultenic might not be the best buy. It is also not suitable for carpets but can do surface debris pick up. If you already have a traditional vacuum cleaner, the Ultenic might be an additional tool to keep your floors clean between the deep cleanings.
But the robot does a great job as a mop. If you are looking for a mop that would also do good vacuuming on hard floors, the Ultenic T10 is what you need.
My floors are hard floors and I run the Ultenic with mopping attachments every time it cleans. Even on the lowest water output settings, you can see the robot leaving satisfying shiny lines on the floor. Compared to most other robots I’ve tested the Ultenic does it better than average. But for good mopping you have to trade off good vacuuming performance on carpet. To me this is not a big deal as I have no carpets, the robot’s vacuuming performance is enough for my place but might be for someone else.
I think the Ultenic is good for as long as you run the robot at least once a week so the self-emptying station doesn’t have to deal with packed dustbin content. The app is quiet user-friendly, the cleaning performance are good especially for hard floors, not to mention navigation that is on par with most top-notch devices.