One month ownership update: Dropped a star because of bad navigation and half baked TrueDetect. More on Navigation/TrueDetect: It is simply not worth the extra cost over the N8 Plus. It will not work if the object is not directly in front of the sensor. For example, the N8 Pro was trying to navigate in between my couch and the coffee table in a space with a width of about 3 feet. About 8 inches from the couch my cat had thrown up, providing the perfect test for TrueDetect. Unfortunately, it never detected it and if I wasn't monitoring it, it would have rolled right over it making an even bigger mess. I tried other more systematic tests near the couch using cat toys. Whenever the cat toy was directly in the front of the sensor (about 5 inches from the edge of the couch), the N8 plus would avoid it, however, it never worked if it was closer or further away from the couch during the N8 Pro's approach. It had to be in that 5 inch sweet spot for the sensor to trigger and work as expected. Issues with navigation also persist. It seems to get confused often. For example, I noticed that it got sort of trapped between a potted plant and a cat scratching toy. There was just enough room for the bot to squeeze between the two where is spent 80 minutes spinning in a circle until the battery was low, at which point, oddly, it backed out and went right to the charging dock all by itself. After recharging for five hours, it came out, and finished the run without issue. So, clearly something is wrong with the navigation algorithm. Also, Ecovacs still has not fixed the recharge and resume issue. Since the N8 knows how much it has left to clean, it should only charge enough to complete that run, instead of spending 5 hours to fully charge. There have also been other times, where it has gotten confused. A couple of times, it kept vacuuming one of my area rugs until the battery was low. Another time, it just randomly got confused right in the middle of my kitchen and alerted me to help it get unstuck. I simply restarted it and it went back to behaving normally. ************************************************************************************************** Summary: Overall, it's great, it mapped the house in the first run and it has all the features one expects for the price. However, the battery life is abysmal, it had to go back and recharge twice before building the full map for my 2000 square foot home. Also, TrueDetect is half baked and not worth the extra $100 over the N8. I have a long hair cat that sheds her body weight per day and even with a full bin the auto empty works perfectly for me. Unlike others, I did not have issues with clogging. If I had to do it all again, I would have gotten the cheaper N8 Plus, which for $600 is an almost unbeatable value. Support: This is my second Deebot. My first one was the OZMO 930, which was the Ecovacs flagship three years ago (released 2018). It has been faithfully cleaning daily and only recently began falling apart. First, Ecovacs, suspiciously screwed up the app so that my OZMO always showed up as disconnected. I was able to install an older version of the APK to get around that. Then one of the wheels started to jam, then the brush motor broke (so suction only), then finally it ran into a suspicious wifi problem, where it would only connect after a hard reset for about fifteen minutes (perhaps a firmware issue). I was only able to fix the first problem. I am on this tangent to highlight that Ecovacs does not have the best support. Even if the app was accidentally made buggy, Ecovacs does not appear to have any drive to fix it for an older bot. Next, new parts for the OZMO 930 are nonexistent. Your best bet is to find used ones from auction sites. Companies like iRobot and Neato support their bots for life, with Ecovacs you're on your own after warranty. iRobot will basically sell you every part to rebuild your S9 or i7+. The i7+ is still receiving updates and support even though it was released just a bit after my OZMO 930. I paid $600 for the OZMO when it came out and it is basically a brick now. I really hope they don't continue that same trend with the N8 pro but you should factor bad support into your decision. AutoEmpty bin: Works great. I haven't had any clogs yet and it seems to get 100% of the dust bin empty. I'm not sure if one bag will last me a month though. After the first two runs, it already looks more than half full. However, I think it is possible to just use a second vacuum to clean out and reuse the bag. I wish it had a reusable system instead of disposable bags. Navigation: It is quite good, however the TrueDetect sensor is just alright. It did avoid slippers and a small cup that I deliberately left on the floor, but it's not perfect . Sometimes, for no reason, it will do a little backwards shuffle as if it is about to hit something. Other times, the TrueDetect does nothing. I have a chair with a metal ring base and the N8 Pro repeatedly tried to climb over it--it's a little too persistent. It also failed to avoid cords at several occasions but it never got stuck. Overall, Lidar bots haven't really progressed much. Navigation is about the same as my old Deebot OZMO 930. If anything the N8 pro takes a bit longer to do the same run, probably because of TrueDetect. TrueDetect really isn't a game changer and not worth the extra $100. Hopefully, they can fix it with software updates to justify the premium. I mainly got it because sometimes my cat throws up and I thought this would help with that but after seeing it in action, I don't trust it enough, which means I will continue to only run it when I'm home. Battery life: Horrific battery life. Even left on standard power it is barely able to complete the same 800 square foot run my OZMO could do with over 40% life to spare, even though both are advertised with about 100 minute runtime. As the N8 pro gets older and the battery degrades, I doubt it will be able to even do the 800 square foot run without recharging. Ecovacs still hasn't fixed recharge and resume. If the bot runs out of battery, it will wait to fully recharge, which can take four or five hours. Instead, it needs to know how much cleaning it has left remaining and only charge enough to finish the run. App: It has all the features you'd expect, scheduling, multiple floor maps, no go zones, custom power/mop level per room, room split/merge, voice assistant, etc. It's an average app with a lot of room for improvement. It is very slow to load and update. I wish there were options to adjust more features, such as TrueDetect sensitivity, route optimization (it will go around the edge of a room first before moving in a grid, which I would like to skip and go straight to a grid to speed up runs), side brush speed and aggressiveness when it gets stuck. They also really need to add widgets that will quickly show percent of run completed, let me start a run for pre-selected rooms, let me know maintenance status and such without launching the app. I also don't think the N8 Pro can be integrated with smart automation like IFTTT or SmartThings. Ideally, I want the N8 pro to start a run when the house is empty rather than having a fixed schedule. But, even in 2021, I cannot do that. Suction: I have mostly hardwood floors so I never switched it off standard power but it did as expected. The auto boost also appears to work well on picking up most cat hair from carpets. On the same topic, the brush roll is about the same with hair tangles as my old OZMO. In three years, they've made zero progress on that front. Mopping: Useless. Nothing more to say.
