Review One of Best-Selling Robotic Vacuum Cleaners on Aliexpress

Review Liectroux C30B with dry and wet cleaning 2022.

Every day, robotic vacuum cleaners are becoming more affordable, and in addition, in the pursuit of a buyer, manufacturers make them more functional. In this review, we will consider a model called LIECTROUX C30B with separate containers for dry and wet cleaning, brushless motor, control using both the remote control and WiFi, 2D-mapping and a number of other functions which I will discuss below.

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LIECTROUX specializes in the production of automated devices for maintaining cleanliness, and today in the lineup there are already 15 different robotic vacuum cleaners, the C30B model among them is the top-end. Despite the fact that the brand is not so widely known in the domestic market, it is actively promoting its products, and the number of C30B orders in the official store on the Aliexpress platform has already exceeded 7,000.

Characteristics of LIECTROUX C30B:

• Type of cleaning: dry and wet;
• Container type: separate, for dust (0.60 l) and for water (0.35 l);
• Brushes: two auxiliary front side brushes and one main (pile + rubber scrapers);
• Battery Type: Li-ion, 14.4 V, 2500 mA / h, 36 W / h;
• Battery life: about 100 minutes;
• Charging time: about 300 minutes;
• Power Consumption: 28 W;
• Noise level: about 45 dB;
• Types of sensors: mechanical (front / side bumper), IR proximity and elevation sensors, gyroscope, IR base search sensors, drive wheel rotation sensors;
• Management: mechanical button on the case, IR remote control, application for a mobile device;
• Notification: indicators on the case, voice notification and sound signals, mobile application, remote control display;
• Cleaning modes: automatic (start manually or by time), one room, along obstacles, local, manual, wet mopping;
• Features: turbo mode, remote control via Wi-Fi, building a map of the room, compatibility with smart home systems;
• Dimensions (WxDxH): 33x33x7.50 cm;
• Weight: 2.7 kg.

Packaging and equipment

You don’t have to worry about the safety of the device during shipment, since the factory packaging consists of two boxes at once: the first is shipping and the second is the main one, with a handle, so that it is convenient to carry or pick up from the post office.

On the second box, in addition to the image and device name, there is also a sticker with brief characteristics of the model.

Inside the box, the contents are housed in molded cardboard boxes.

The delivery kit itself includes:

• a robot vacuum cleaner with an already installed wet cleaning unit;
• block for dry cleaning;
• charging “base”;
• network power supply (100–240 V, 50/60 Hz at 19.0 V, 0.6 A);
• IR remote control
• two sets of side brushes (two right and two left);
• spare HEPA filter dust collector;
• replacement microfiber cloth for wet cleaning;
• combination cleaning tool;
• user’s manual.

A pleasant surprise was the presence of the Russian language in the user manual, and besides, its good quality was frankly pleased. Small flaws later nevertheless appeared, but in general, taking into account the technical complexity of the robot vacuum cleaner, everything turned out to be painted very competently and in detail. I think that after reading this manual, few people will have problems with the development of the device’s functionality.

The control panel of the robot vacuum cleaner is very compact, has a rounded shape and fits nicely in the hand. Powered by two AAA batteries.

The base for recharging allows the robot vacuum cleaner to reach this base after reaching a certain level of discharge of the built-in battery (approximately 16–20%) in the automatic mode, using the infrared beam to find this base and having driven into the metal contacts located here, independently recharge. The main condition here, of course, is the presence of a base connection to the power supply using the included power supply. In the upper part there is a green LED for indicating the operation of the base, and in the lower part there are rubber feet that prevent the platform from sliding over the surface.

The power supply unit (100–240 V, 50/60 Hz for 19.0 V, 0.6 A) has a “euro” plug and is connected to the base on the right side, the cable length is 1.5 meters.

The dry cleaning unit is actually a separate device, since it combines not only filters and a container for collecting dust and debris, but also an electric motor that creates the necessary draft for suction. But even with this in mind, the useful capacity of the dust bag is relatively good 0.6 liters. For power and motor control, a 4-pin metal pad is provided on the block. The location of the engine can be seen through the translucent plastic housing.

At the top of the unit there is a sticker with clear instructions for its proper use and cleaning.

In order to empty the garbage container, you must open the front protruding part of the block and shake the contents into the bin. It also provides a simple check valve-shutter made of transparent plastic, which does not allow debris to fall out of the inlet of the unit.

For complete cleaning, open the top cover.

Here, in front of the engine fan, there is a metal mesh filter, as well as a HEPA filter installed in the plastic frame of the coarse filter.

Due to the fact that the unit uses electrical elements, it is strictly forbidden to rinse it under water, an exception is only a removable plastic coarse filter, but it can only be installed in the seat after it has completely dried.

The wet cleaning unit, although it is, in fact, a water tank, also could not do without an electrical component. It provides a “normally closed” solenoid valve, which can be seen in the upper left part of the unit. Due to the fact that during the outflow of water inside the sealed chamber creates a vacuum of air, this prevents further free wetting of microfiber. During the operation of the robot vacuum cleaner, the electromagnetic valve periodically opens and passes a certain amount of air into the chamber, thereby reducing the vacuum and allowing the water to flow out and moisten the cloth again. That is, in this way, a water dispensing mechanism is implemented.

Water is poured into the unit through a special hole closed with a rubber stopper. The capacity of the water tank is 350 ml.

This seems a little strange, since purely visually external dimensions of the block would allow accommodating at least a liter. But in fact, the water tank occupies only the front rounded part of the block, while the middle part is a dry container in which, as practice has shown, brushes can throw large debris even in the absence of the suction effect (remember that the fan with filters in this case remains in another block).

A microfiber rag in shape follows the contour of the lower part of the block; fastening is done using Velcro.

Water flows out of the tank not directly directly through the holes, but through the wetting of another hard porous material of blue color, drawn from the inside with a strap. The dark circles in the photo below are not end-to-end fixation points of the strap to the block body.

Appearance and design features

The robot vacuum cleaner is made in the form of an almost perfect circle with a diameter of about 33 cm, that is, this model can be attributed to very compact devices. A small height is also a plus here — only 7.5 cm. Thanks to this, driving under a bed or a coffee table is not difficult for him. The case of the device is made of durable thick gray plastic, the upper insert is made of glossy black plastic with a small gray mesh pattern.

After unpacking, two shipping gaskets fixing the collision sensor system must be removed from the housing.

As you can see, in general, minimalism prevails in the design of the LIECTROUX C30B: in addition to the large manufacturer’s logo, there is only a large multi-function button on the top of the case, as well as three illuminated operating mode indicator icons. I personally liked this design very much, in the interior (especially in the dark) the C30B looks stylish and attractive.

The upper indicator lights up green all the time while the device is turned on or working, in the event that “something went wrong” and human intervention is required, the robot stops and the color of the indicator changes to red.

The middle indicator, as you might guess from the icon, is responsible for connecting to WiFi. A green flashing light means that the robot is in search or network connection mode, solid green — the network is connected.

The lower indicator is responsible for the base search mode and charging: if the battery charge drops to the minimum acceptable value or the user forcibly starts the corresponding mode, the icon starts flashing yellow, and the robot proceeds to active searches for its charging station. While being at the base during charging, the icon gradually lights up green and goes out, when charging is complete, it lights up green continuously until the base is left.

The front semicircle of the hull is a movable bumper, which is also a collision sensor, in its upper part there is a tinted window, behind which there are IR sensors for detecting obstacles, a signal from a base station and a remote control command receiver. A rubber strip is also provided at the bottom of the bumper to protect items and furniture from scratches in a collision.

If for some reason the optical sensors could not detect the obstacle, and this mainly happens if the obstacle is very dark, close to black (that is, it practically does not reflect infrared radiation), then when moving the robot vacuum cleaner it rests, the corresponding shift of the spring-loaded bumper will trigger mechanical sensors and the device will instantly stop. Bumper stroke is about 4–5 mm.

Dry / wet cleaning units are installed at the back, to disconnect the unit, press the yellow latch button.

On the lower part of the robot vacuum cleaner are two drive wheels and one support wheel, contact pads for connecting to the base station, mounts for two side brushes, the main brush compartment, the battery compartment, as well as the speaker grille of the audible warning system.

If necessary, the main brush can be removed quite simply by unfastening the latches of the clamping plate and cleaned of winding hair, threads and other debris.

The wheels of the robot vacuum cleaner are equipped with rubber tires and have a diameter of about 64 mm, the spring-loaded wheel travel is about 31 mm, which allows the device to easily overcome obstacles up to 15 mm high.

The front support roller is made of plastic and has an alternating black and white texture that allows the optical sensor to perceive the movement / movement of the robot.

Along the edges of the case, approximately at the level of the wheel arrangement, behind the bumper are three IR sensors that monitor elevation changes along the robot’s route of movement, thanks to this the device can “see” the steps of the stairs and not fall from them, stopping in advance.

If necessary, access to the battery can be quite easy, you just need to unscrew the two fixing screws and remove the compartment cover. Here is a lithium-ion battery with a capacity of 2500 mA / h (14.4 V, 36 W / h), composed of four batteries of size 18650.

Before turning on the robot for the first time, you need to install the front auxiliary brushes from the kit. It is very simple to do this, it is enough to simply insert them completely into the corresponding mounts and not forget that each of the brushes has the corresponding designation — L (left) and R (right), the corresponding designations are on each of the mounts.

During the operation of the robot vacuum cleaner, the front brushes rotate to pick up the garbage in the center of the device, and the main brush-shaft with the help of bristles and rubber scraper blades picks up the garbage from the floor and throws it into the dust collector.

Management ways

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There are three ways to control the LIECTROUX C30B: using the multi-function button on the case, using the IR remote control, and also via the Internet via a smartphone / tablet with a special application installed in it. Almost all actions, perhaps only with the exception of moving in “manual mode”, the robot accompanies voice and sound alerts. After turning on any mode, you will hear a voice confirmation in English and only after a short pause (about 3–4 seconds) does the robot begin to execute. A pause is useful if, for example, the mode was chosen incorrectly, you must choose another or cancel the task altogether.

Using the button on the body, you can control the basic functions of the robot, namely:

• turn on / off the device (long hold of the button), does not work while the robot is at the base;
• run the automatic cleaning program (short press in the on state);
• pause / continue execution of the current program (short press while the robot is running);
• enable the search mode and connect to the WiFi network (two short presses in the on state of the robot).

The remote control gives relatively more possibilities, since there are much more buttons:

• 1 — sequential pressing allows you to switch between automatic cleaning mode (main mode), turbo mode with increased operation of the suction fan and increased energy consumption, respectively, as well as an economical “quiet” mode in which the fan works a little weaker but also more economically;
• 2 — sequential switching between the wet cleaning mode (you must install the appropriate container), the cleaning mode within one room, as well as the cleaning mode of the perimeter (borders) of the room;
• 3 — the central button is responsible for setting / un pausing, the up / down / buttons are responsible for moving forward / backward, the right / left buttons cause the device to rotate in place clockwise / counterclockwise, the movement continues only while any of the direction buttons are pressed, in all brushes and a dust collector fan work;
• 4 — activation of the cleaning settings mode at a specified time. On the remote control screen, using the “crosses” buttons, you can set the time at which every day the robot vacuum cleaner will start the automatic cleaning mode;
• 5 — current time setting mode. Also, using the “cross”, you must specify the current time (required before using the previous mode);
• 6 — forced inclusion of the base search mode and automatic setting for recharging.

The most “advanced” in terms of functionality is the ability to control the robot through a mobile application. Two applications are suitable for LIECTROUX C30B: “Smart Life” and “Tuya Smart”, both are available for both Android and iOS, and besides, as I understand it, this is practically the same application, only under different names, the interface and the functionality of both completely coincides.

When you first start the application, you need to register and establish a connection with the robot following the prompts of the installation wizard (Russian and pictures are present), the main condition for this is that the robot must be in network connection mode, and the WiFi network itself must be available (2 , 4 GHz).

After the first launch and the above steps to connect the robot, the application immediately showed a message about the detection of an updated firmware and a proposal to perform an automatic update (a big plus to the manufacturer). In order for the robot to be able to successfully install the firmware, it must be in the charging mode at the base, you can force it to the base using the corresponding button on the remote control, if this condition is not met, even if you force the firmware to start, a voice notification will inform about a failure during the update (nothing bad will happen, just nothing will change). With normal development of events, the update process takes less than a minute.

Like the vast majority of modern “smart” technology, a global cloud service is used to control the robot using the application, so the main advantage in this case is the availability of access to the device from anywhere in the world where there is Internet access. In fact, the application contains all the same features as the remote control, but there are also a few additional useful “tricks”:

• in addition to the previously listed modes, there is a very useful local cleaning mode (Spot Cleaning, the “sight” icon in the application), forcing the robot to move in a spiral from its current position to clean a specific place in the room if, for example, something is scattered ;
• search mode (arrow icon in the application) makes the robot emit sound signals so that it can be found faster in the room (anti-loss);
• fan power in the current operating mode, you can choose from three available options yourself.

In addition, the robot startup time scheduler here allows you to not only specify the start time, but also to plan according to the days of the week.
For those who, for some reason, do not like or just interfere with the sound and voice of the robot’s actions, it is possible to completely disable them (application item with an icon in the form of three dots, then you need to enable the Mute option). It should be borne in mind that even though the voice notification is turned off, the robot will still take a short pause before starting the execution of commands, because of this it may sometimes seem that “the button has not been pressed, the application is buggy, etc.”

Another interesting feature of the application is the ability to view the so-called “cleaning map” of the robot, on which the device automatically draws an approximate route traveled, white spots are not yet cleared, green places where no obstacles were encountered, and gray on the contrary, places where the robot rested on something. It also displays the number of square meters cleaned, as well as the time spent on it.

For example, the first screenshot shows a bedroom cleaning map. The robot managed to draw recognizable features of the internal layout in a recognizable way: a large white spot at the top in the center is the location of the bed, and a “tail” extending to the right is a small corridor with a door closed at that time, a red dot is a robot that independently left the center of the room at the end harvesting.

The second screenshot shows a map of the process of cleaning the first floor of the house, which had not yet been completed at that time, the outlines of the premises passed by the robot were also very recognizable.

Unfortunately, in addition to clarity and the ability to understand whether the robot is moving now or not, the card does not carry any functional load for the user, it cannot be used to send the device to a specific place or do something else. As far as I can imagine, this map is a visualized part of one of the internal systems of orientation and control of the robot, it builds it for itself in any case, and regardless of whether you use the application now or not, it’s just that it determines the route already traveled for itself , in order to understand in which places of the room he had already visited and in which he hadn’t yet, that is, he determined for himself a certain percentage of completion of cleaning.

Cleaning modes

As I mentioned above, the LIECTROUX C30B can operate in several automatic modes.

In the “Automatic cleaning” mode, which is also the “default” mode, the robot will clean until it removes the entire available area, or until the battery charge drops to the minimum level acceptable for it, after which the device enters the mode search base.

In the “One room” mode, the robot will clean the room until it passes through the whole room (it is recommended to close the doors to limit movement), after which it will switch to base search mode, and if it is absent, it will simply automatically move to the center of the room and switch to mode expectations. When you turn on this mode using the remote control, the turbo mode automatically turns on.

In the “Clean Angles” mode, the robot will only move along the walls, that is, around the perimeter of the room until it is “locked”.

In the “Local cleaning” mode, the robot must either be moved or brought in the manual control mode to the place where you need to remove something, and then run the corresponding mode through the application. The robot will perform cleaning moving in a spiral in the direction first from the center, and then towards the center in a circle with a diameter of about 150 cm, after which it will stop and indicate the completion of the cleaning.

During cleaning in the automatic mode, as well as in the cleaning mode of one room, the robot first moves “snake” from wall to wall with a slight overlap of the previously traveled space, then without fail carries out movement along the perimeter by cleaning along walls and in corners. Watching the process from the outside, especially when there are a lot of different obstacles in the room, sometimes you don’t quite understand the logic of the device’s movements, but looking at the cleaning map, and also knowing where it would have to be removed, it becomes clear that the robot still gets to all possible places.

At an average (standard) suction power, the robot does an excellent job of cleaning up debris and dust from even and smooth surfaces, such as floor tiles or laminate; for cleaning fleecy surfaces such as carpets, you can use the turbo mode. Perhaps the main condition for high-quality and most importantly continuous cleaning with a robot vacuum cleaner is the absence on the cleaned surface of various wires, bags, toys and other things that can be wound on the brushes of the device. If problems with the operation of the brushes are detected, the robot will automatically interrupt its work and wait for help. So, for example, it can happen when the robot sucks the corner of the floor mat.

As for cross-country ability, without going far from the above-mentioned rug, I’ll mention that the robot manages to jump in and ride on it even when it is folded in half, and this already turns out to be about a couple of centimeters thick.

As far as the noise level of the device is concerned, it certainly cannot be compared with the sound from a conventional classic vacuum cleaner, here it is much lower and at medium, low power or even in the wet cleaning mode does not cause any discomfort, and the sound itself can be compared to a medium-sized remote control machine , here’s something like that.

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In my case, a full charge of the LIECTROUX C30B battery in medium power mode is enough to clean an area of ​​about 87 square meters (the second screenshot of the cleaning map is higher), after which you can still replace the container and pass the same area in the wet cleaning mode. This mode is less energy-intensive due to the lack of the need to use a dust collector motor. If we talk about the operating time, then in the same average power mode, the robot is able to work for about 1 hour and 40 minutes, after which it will take about 4.5 hours to fully recharge.

Separately, I want to talk a little about the process of finding a base with a robot. Having switched to this mode, the robot turns off the dust collector fan motor, trying to save the remaining battery charge and starts to roll along the walls of the room in search of the base signal, driving past or near the base, catching its IR beam, the most interesting part begins. At first, I even specifically watched this process hardly restraining laughter (in a good way). It’s just from the outside that this seemingly simple event resembles no more no less than a whole docking of a spaceship with a station: the robot purposefully goes to a position about 1–1.5 meters perpendicular from the base, turns to it, then starts to move along at low speed along while steering a little while adjusting its location relative to the center of the base, at a distance of about 30 cm, the speed becomes even less and the robot very slowly and carefully begins to call into the base. The apotheosis of this process is the voice message that charging has begun. For the sake of completeness, the only thing missing is applause and lightened joyful cheers from the MCC employees, honestly.

The trash bin turned out to be quite spacious and even in the case of daily cleaning it can be emptied with a frequency of several days to a week, depending on the size of the area to be cleaned, respectively. To do this, open the side cover and shake the contents into the bin. Needless to say, it is still recommended to check, so, just in case, if the robot did not find something very necessary but long lost during the cleaning process. It is also necessary to open the top cover and thoroughly clean the filters located here, since their cleanliness, like a conventional classic vacuum cleaner, is the key to good traction of the dust suction motor.

Dry and wet cleaning testing

I think from the photo above it can be seen that the robot vacuum cleaner does its job quite qualitatively, but nevertheless, since it is customary to conduct tests in the reviews, let’s look at how the LIECTROUX C30B handles the cleaning of both very small and quite large debris. As a basis, you can take a quite ordinary situation in which the hostess was not very careful during cooking and in a hurry scattered a small amount of flour on the floor, and then buckwheat.

Despite the fact that the most suitable and faster mode in this case is “Local cleaning” (which with a spiral movement, if you remember), I used the manual control mode for clarity.

So, after the first pass through the flour, an absolutely clean surface in the center of the spot is clearly visible, it is here that the main combined brush is located that feeds the garbage into the container, grooves from the work of the front brushes are also visible on the sides, and there are traces of the tread of the robot wheels too.

We leave for the left turn, while on the surface the remains of flour are visible that have fallen on the tread of the wheel, after which we go through the test bench a couple more times until it is completely cleaned.

Next is buckwheat.

It would seem that in this case the particle is larger and it is much easier to throw them into the garbage bin. In general, the way it is, but when the front brushes work, some buckwheat may bounce to the sides.

After several passes, about 97% of the scattered buckwheat was collected, the rest can be attributed to the inconvenience of the manual control mode, yet it is for another. In automatic local cleaning, all this happens much better, faster, and most importantly — without human intervention.

In general, I consider the test passed, the LIECTROUX C30B is really capable of coping well with both small and large debris.

And now let’s see who the wet cleaning mode is. Which, by the way, is best used after regular dry cleaning. To do this, pour water into the container, the maximum possible volume is just over 350 ml, but I poured about 300 ml, judging by the divisions of the container.

Water immediately begins to moisten the napkin, but this process quickly stops due to the occurrence of air discharge inside the container, i.e. spontaneous leakage of water in the case of a well-closed plug in the filler hole of the container will not occur.

We install the container in the robot and start the wet cleaning mode.

As in the case of other modes, the device just moves around the rooms with the only difference being that it leaves a wet trace from wet microfiber. Large debris, if any, occurs along the way, and it gets to a dry container pretty well. If we talk about the degree of wetting of the surface, then this is about how to wipe the floor with a not very squeezed rag: water does not stand in puddles, but the moisture is palpable by hand and dries quickly enough.

But another interesting point in such cleaning is the flow of water. A total of 100 ml of water was spent on a room of about 16 square meters (for comparison, this is about half a faceted glass) and this despite the fact that, due to the features of the movement algorithm, the robot often travels through the same place several times, leaving behind uniform wet footprint.

And this is what a microfiber cloth looks like at the end of the process. That is, despite the fact that the wet cleaning was carried out after the standard dry one, the robot managed to collect some more fine dust and also refresh the room. Now you just need to remove the cloth from the Velcro, rinse under the tap or throw in the washing machine, and also do not forget to drain the remaining water from the container. Another important point is that charging the robot with an installed container of water is strictly not recommended. I think it’s not worth explaining why.

Conclusion

Robotic vacuum cleaners are increasingly entering our lives, adding more comfort to them, freeing them from tedious routine work, and along with washing and dishwashers, coffee makers, and other useful household appliances, save their valuable time. The hero of this review, the Liectroux C30B robot vacuum cleaner, can not only clean well, but also perform wet cleaning, which is especially useful if there are small children or people allergic to dust in the house. A capacious garbage container does not have to be shaken out after each cleaning, the optimized robot movement algorithm allows it to perform its work fairly quickly bypassing the available territory with a snake, and upon completion of work, it can independently return to the base to charge the built-in battery. If necessary, you can manually control the movement of the device, change the cleaning intensity modes, depending on the situation, you can start cleaning the local area, cleaning along the walls, as well as cleaning in a separate room, and also set the cleaning schedule for the days. In addition, using a mobile application and a WiFi network, it can be controlled remotely from anywhere in the world.

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Advantages of Liectroux C30B:

• quality of cleaning;
• low height adds maneuverability and provides access to areas under low furniture;
• adjustable suction power in combination with a low noise level;
• the presence of a visual indication system in combination with voice notification;
• interchangeable units for dry and wet cleaning;
• three types of control: directly on the device, from the remote control and smartphone;
• good battery life and a large cleaning area, respectively;
• equipment;
• detailed and understandable instructions in English.

Disadvantages:

• lack of functional use of the cleaning card compiled by the robot.

Thank you for your attention and all the best!

That’s all, happy shopping!