The worst part of vacuuming is emptying the vacuum cleaner. The trend of having to empty a relatively open dust bin started because people hated having to always replace the bag in their vacuum cleaner. To solve the unpleasantness of having to empty the bagless vacuum cleaner, Roborock has created an auto-empty station that empties the bagless vacuum cleaner into a bag automatically.
This allows the vacuum cleaner to still have the superior suction of a bagless vacuum, but with the reduction of airborne dust that emptying via a bag allows. In my household filled with asthmatics and hay fever sufferers, this has been a big hit.
However, during my testing, a few odd things came up that prevent it from being a runaway success.
Table of contents
- First impressions
- Specifications and price
- Cleaning performance
- Dock performance
- Static electricity
- Who is the Roborock H60 Hub Ultra for?
First impressions
Like the Roborock F25 Ultra wet-dry vacuum, the Hub H60 Ultra is easy to set up. Take it out of the box, follow the very easy instructions, plug in the hub, insert the hose into the body of the vacuum cleaner and then Bob’s your uncle’s longtime roommate.
After that strong first impression, I noticed that this looks like a vacuum cleaner for ants. The stick part of the stick vac is quite short, to allow it to fit on the hub without making the hub too tall. You can adjust it to make it longer, which is something.
However, this means that you have to adjust the length of the stick every time you use the machine, or just hunch over for a bit. It’s not a big deal, but it adds a moment of irritation every time I start doing a task I’m already not super thrilled to be doing.
Roborock H60 Hub Ultra specifications and price
| Price | $999 |
| Warranty | 12 months in addition to your Australian consumer law rights |
| Manufacturer’s website | Roborock Australia |
| Suction power | 210 Air Watts |
| Vacuum cleaner dust bin size | 0.5L |
| Auto empty station dust bag size | 3L |
| HEPA filter | Yes |
| Weight of the vacuum cleaner | 1.8kg |
| Battery size | 2964mAh |
| Charging Time | 3.5 hours |
| Battery life | 90 minutes on endurance mode 30 minutes on strong mode 10 minutes on super strong mode |
| Noise level | Around 75dB |
Those specs are actually pretty impressive in this price range. Its nearest Dyson comparison is the $1,099 Cyclone V10, which has no dock. Dyson’s vac only has a 60-minute runtime on eco and 150 Air Watts of suction. To get 200AW from Dyson, you need the V11 for $1,199.
The H60 Hub Ultra also has other features that Dyson popularised, too, like the green laser light that shows how disgusting your floor is.
Cleaning performance
This is kinda the most important thing with a vacuum cleaner. Overall, I found the Hub H60 to be pretty solid! It’s not as good as my daily driver of the Dyson Gen5 Detect, but its pickup of small debris (flour) on a tiled floor was impressive, given it doesn’t have a fluffy head option. The flour pickup was even better on carpet, where the brush head was better able to agitate.
I did get some medium-length hair tangled on the brush, despite the vacuum’s many assurances that it has an anti-tangle brush head. It’s not as bad as some other vacuum cleaners I’ve tried, but it’s still interesting to note.
Medium-sized debris of oats was also handled pretty well, even though it required a couple more laps of the area than I expected.
What I was really disappointed by was its pickup of larger debris, such as 2cm pieces of cut paper that came off my Cricut Maker machine. Where my Dyson would pick those up easily, the Roborock H60 Hub Ultra would briefly pick them up and then spit them right back out.
So, to sum up: good for small and medium debris, better on carpet, okay with hair, not great with larger debris.
Dock performance
I am really impressed by the dock. It’s such a useful all-in-one solution.
On top of emptying the machine, it also stored the two extra heads that come bundled. As someone who lives in a house full of asthmatics with dust allergies, I really appreciate that the hub not only does all the emptying for me, but that the HEPA filter inside seems effective.
Emptying the machine in the hub doesn’t spike my air purifier, and it doesn’t set off my wife’s allergies. This is, essentially, the dream.
Static electricity
This is the part that makes me hesitate to fully recommend the Roborock H60 Hub Ultra, despite overall really enjoying the machine. When I first used it and vacuumed the rug in my daughter’s room, I got strong static electric shocks roughly every 30 seconds. It was deeply unpleasant, and something I haven’t encountered in the decade I’ve been reviewing vacuum cleaners.
I asked Roborock about this, and they said it’s because I obviously wasn’t touching the static discharge point on the handle. The static discharge point is a 10mm x 1mm piece of metal buried in the bottom middle of the handle, which is really easy to miss.
Unless you read the instruction manual closely, you wouldn’t know it was there. I asked several of my colleagues if they had experienced something like this before, including more-experienced reviewers, and they hadn’t heard of this either.
Looking around, I can see that the Dyson V6 had some static discharge issues, so this has clearly been an issue on other cyclonic stick vacuums. Understandably, the bin builds up a lot of static charge.
What’s not understandable is why the static discharge point is so small, hidden, and easy to miss if it’s this important.
Since I’ve started ensuring that I’m touching the static discharge point at all times (which requires me to hold the vacuum in a slightly unintuitive way), I haven’t had any further issues. It is something that people who purchase the Roborock H60 Hub Ultra should be mindful of.
Who is the Roborock H60 Hub Ultra for?
This is a fantastic vacuum cleaner for people with large hands, short bodies (or the patience to adjust the length of the stick every time they vacuum), and the space to store an auto-empty hub in their home. It’s perfect for allergy sufferers and people who never remember to empty their vacuum cleaner after they clean.
At $999, it’s a good choice. At the time of writing, it’s on sale for $499, so you can find it for an absolute steal. Especially when on sale, the Hub H60 Ultra is well-suited for people who want an excellent vacuum cleaner at a reasonable price. You just need to be mindful of the static discharge point in the handle.
The post Roborock H60 Hub Ultra review: It sucks (mostly in a good way) appeared first on GadgetGuy.
0 comments:
Post a Comment