Proscenic 820S Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Believe it or not the first robotic vacuum cleaner was created in 1996, 24years later and they are steadily being more popular due to the falling price tag and videos of cats riding around on them on the internet.

The Proscenic 820S Robot Vacuum Cleaner is a reasonably priced vacuum featuring Alexa control (sadly not compatible with Google Home or Apple Home), an Auto Carpet Boost and smart app Pro-scenicHome (App only supports 2.4GHz Wi-Fi). The instruction manual was very limited, it tells you the basics about setting it up and how to clean it but doesn’t explain the different modes available and what they do. Getting it charged up and connected to the app was easy enough, the app allows you to set up cleaning schedules and view a cleaning record which shows you when you cleaned, how long for and what surface area it covered, you can also remotely control the vacuum with buttons for auto clean, edge cleaning, spot clean single room cleaning, automatically mop, manual directional controls, automatically recharge and suction mode level. The app will also let you know how much battery life you have left, how long it’s been cleaning and the area its done, one handy feature is that you can view a map of where it has vacuumed, however if you change the settings you will lose the old map and start a new one.

The 820S has a 600ml dust bin which is easy to empty, the suction can be adjusted from Normal mode up to Max (1800Pa), the Li-ion 2000mAh battery provides you with 60-120mins vacuum and will recharge in about 3-4hours. The vacuum has an anti-collision infrared sensor so it will gently move around the furniture and against the walls without causing damage or leaving scuff marks, there is also an anti-drop sensor which prevents it from hurling itself down the stairs, watching it creep towards the edge of the stairs was slightly terrifying but you can trust it to stop when it needs to.

Unlike some of the pricier robot vacuums the 820S doesn’t have laser mapping, it wanders about like a blind folded toddler bumping into things until it finds its feet and starts performing straight lines. We did notice it will miss a small triangle by the edge of the wall with each turn, this isn’t an issue however as you perform an edge clean afterwards which picks up all these spots. The auto carpet boost recognises when it moves onto a carpet or rug and switches to maximum suction power, when its moves back onto a hard floor it returns to the previous setting to save battery life. When the battery runs down the 820S will automatically return to the charging station to recharge whilst the Alexa voice control can be used to command it to return to the station, stop/start cleaning for example, you can also control it via the remote control.

We had a few teething problems, I caught the vacuum eating the cat food at one point where it had knocked into the bowl and scattered cat biscuits over the floor, when I got a right wheel error on the app I went upstairs to discover the robot hiding under the bed attempting to eat my dressing gown cord (the dressing gown was hanging up, how did it get it?!). The app could be a little slicker, I had to reconnect the vacuum twice in one week, there could be more info on the different modes and I would have loved to be able to see the map whilst using the directional controls, so you can get those missed spots from the comfort of the sofa. All things considered the Proscenic 820S robot vacuum cleaner is a great little vacuum, you will still need to do a deep clean with a regular vacuum now and then to get into those awkward spaces but the 820S is perfect for daily upkeep. It has a surprisingly powerful suction, good battery life, lots of different modes to play with and good edging skills, if you want a robot pet to do your vacuuming for you without breaking the bank this is a great choice (just move the cat biscuits). RRP £179.00.