Wyze Robot Vacuum Review

If you want to buy a Wyze robot vacuum cleaner, then it means you want to save some money. It could be an excellent purchase if you want to get the same options as from other brands, but without paying extra for their actual names. Whether this vacuum cleaner meets your requirements, whether it’s worth the money and how difficult it is to look after, we’ll help you figure everything out in this review.

Who Are Wyze?

The full name is Wyze Labs, Inc. (formerly Wyzecam). The company was founded in Seattle, USA, by former Amazon employees Yun Zhang, Dongsheng Song, Elana Fishman and Dave Crosby. Its main specializations include smart home products and wireless video cameras.

In 2021, Xiaomi submitted a report to Amazon, alleging that Wyze had infringed upon its 2019 Autonomous Cleaning Device and Wind Path Structure robot vacuum patent. On the 15th of July, same year, Wyze filed a lawsuit against Xiaomi in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, arguing that prior art exists and asking the court for a declaratory judgment that Xiaomi’s 2019 robot vacuum patent is invalid.

This probably explains the external similarity of the Wyze robot vacuum WVCR200S with the Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum-Mop P.

With all these, the brand is still less known than others, despite being around for over six years and featuring dozens of products in their line. However, this doesn’t mean that the quality of their products is low, in fact, the company is still growing.

Wyze Robot Vacuum Review: LiDAR Mapping Technology

Since the vacuum cleaner is in the budget category, its main feature is the LiDAR mapping technology, which adds the ability to navigate in the dark. Indeed, there are quite a few inexpensive robots on the market with this feature these days, but you need to know that Wyze’s robot vacuum with the LiDAR mapping technology was released in 2021. It was quite unusual for a budget vacuum cleaner from a little-known brand in 2021. Maybe that’s why the vacuum cleaner is so popular.

Mapping of the house is simple for this vacuum cleaner with a gyroscope and six sensors:

• Induction sensor x 3
• Speed sensor x 2
• LIDAR sensor x 1
• Cliff sensor x 4
• Collision sensor x 2
• Recharging sensor x 1

How well these sensors work can be observed in the video.

The vacuum cleaner shakes because it’s on the ramp for the first time, and the map hasn’t been created yet. It developed during the ascent. After creating a map, the robot climbs the ramp more smoothly. It’s worth noting that climbing the ramp is only possible if the robot hasn’t created a map of the room in advance. Otherwise, it will automatically believe that there’s a wall on the map and not the actual stairs. That’s why it’s necessary for the vacuum cleaner to create a ramp map for the entire room from scratch. You can read more about this experiment on the Wyze forum.

In this video, you can see how the vacuum cleaner goes down the ramp.

As you can see, there are no problems with the descent. The vacuum cleaner doesn’t see the ramp as a ladder that can cause a fall. Instead, it understands that this is a ramp allowing it to go down. From all these, we can conclude that Wyze robot vacuum’s LiDAR mapping technology works perfectly.

Wyze Robot Vacuum: Cleaning

Another feature of the Wyze robot vacuum WVCR200S worth noting is the single brush. It doesn’t mean that it cleans twice as bad than a robot vacuum cleaner with two brushes. By the way, the Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum-Mop P, which looks very similar to the Wyze robot, also has one brush. Also, for both vacuums, the cleaning tool for the vacuum cleaner is located in the vacuum cleaner itself. This is very convenient since you don’t need to look for the tool all over the house whenever you clean the device. It’s always there, in its place.

With a power of 2100 Pa, the vacuum has three suction levels – standard, quiet and strong. It cleans very well on both hard floors and carpets with a pile of up to 20 millimetres. There’s also a professional HEPA filter available.

For those who want to control the vacuum cleaner with their voice, it’s possible to connect it to Alexa. Simple controls are available through the Wyze app too, but without any bells and whistles. As with robots from other manufacturers, you can send this vacuum cleaner to any room. If you don’t want it in certain places or rooms, you can simply set no-go zones.

If the property is a multi-storey house, the Wyze robot vacuum will work on multiple floors. To do this, you just need to move the vacuum cleaner along with the charger to the desired floor. In the Wyze app, click to add a floor and then tap to start a quick mapping process. You can add up to five floors. Without a charging station, after cleaning, the vacuum cleaner will return to the place where it started.

Wyze Vacuum Replacement Parts

The vacuum cleaner has a full one-year warranty. It’s a regular warranty, similar to what most brands can offer. When choosing a robot vacuum cleaner, it’s important to pay attention to the availability of spare parts for sale. There are no problems with parts here, as Wyze vacuum replacement parts are sold in whole sets.

Since the battery life is only two years, you’ll have to change the battery yourself. For some, Wyze robot vacuum battery replacement is a difficult task, although you only need to work on four screws. For those who don’t know which screws to unscrew, the process of replacing the battery has been described in detail with photos on the Wyze forum. Batteries are easy to find these days. Back in the day, finding one was a bit of a problem.

Wyze Robot Vacuum: Cons

What’s missing here is spot cleaning – this is when the vacuum cleaner can be sent to clean a specified area, rather than the entire room. A very convenient option! Another feature that’s missing is the automatic power level. That’s when the robot itself detects a very dirty place and begins to suck harder. However, such requirements for a vacuum cleaner can be a bit excessive, especially in this price category.

Moreover, the Wyze robot vacuum is quite loud. It can wake you up at night, so it’s best to turn it on during the day, when everyone’s at work. If you work from home, chances are the noise from the vacuum cleaner can be disturbing.

Another drawback is that the battery life is only about two years. This isn’t too much for a robot vacuum cleaner.

Wyze Robot Vacuum: Verdict

For the first robotic vacuum cleaner from a company that previously produced wireless video cameras, it turned out quite well. The shortcomings can be associated with excessive demands, otherwise, the vacuum cleaner is good. Wyze WVCR200S is highly recommended as a starting robot for those who don’t understand much about them. Separately, I’d like to mention the Wyze forum, where owners share advice on solving various issues. If this is your first robot, go through the robot vacuum buying guide first, only to make sure you understand whether you need it or not.