Uwant U200 test: A lot of features for little money

In the meantime, not only the top manufacturers in the field of robot vacuums come up with practical cleaning stations. Even brands that are rather unknown in this country, such as Uwant, have now discovered the “flagship sector” for themselves. The advantages are obvious. After all, the separate station brings with it a significantly higher level of user convenience. And Uwant offers the whole thing at a really competitive price. But does the all-in-one solution deliver what the household expert from the Far East promises? We take a closer look in the Uwant U200 test.

In recent years, robot vacuum cleaners have improved a lot. Over time, manufacturers not only equipped their devices with modern navigation technologies such as laser-based LiDAR sensors. On top of that, you can hardly find a smart household helper for floor cleaning without a mopping function nowadays. When the first models with an extraction station were launched, there was initially a great deal of excitement. Here, the manufacturers unceremoniously expanded the compact docking station with a compartment, which is available as a storage place for the collected dust.

But that was not enough. In the next step, the companies tackled the problem of dried-out and smelly wiping units. The result was a cleaning function, which was also added to the docking station. During the cleaning process, the smart household helper is rinsed at regular intervals, which ensures a significantly better cleaning result. To prevent bacteria formation and unpleasant odors, the cleaning surface is often blow-dried afterwards. Since the robot vacuum takes care of its own maintenance in conjunction with the cleaning station, there are hardly any tasks for the user.

Here, it is only necessary to fill up the fresh water tank and remove the dirty water tank. On average, the dust bag has to be disposed of once every two months. However, the much greater ease of use naturally comes at a price. For example, for a Roborock S8 Pro Ultra (test) you pay a proud 1499.99 euros. All the more exciting is the Uwant U200, which we want to take a closer look at today. After all, at least on paper, it offers almost all the features that the high-priced competition can boast of. And that at a price of currently 573 euros (with coupon) on Geekbuying.

Robot vacuums with cleaning stations have one thing in common: they come in a big package. In the case of the Uwant U200, this is of course also the case. Most of the space here is taken up by the robot vacuum itself and the suction station. But the manufacturer also surprised me with a lot of accessories. While this used to be common practice for vacuum cleaners and vacuum robots from the Far East, the manufacturers have actually been rather stingy in this area lately – even for high-priced devices! I was all the more surprised in view of the rather lush scope of delivery that the Uwant U200 has to show.

Inside the package are:

However, I have to criticize the use of a dust bag even with the Uwant U200. I can understand that the HEPA filters should be a relief especially for allergy sufferers. But then the manufacturers should make them optional rather than mandatory. After all, you don’t just have to adjust to running costs here. On top of that, the dust bag represents additional waste that unnecessarily pollutes the environment.

Let’s take a quick look at the looks. As mentioned at the beginning, Uwant relies on a combination of a suction robot and cleaning station here. Both elements harmonize wonderfully with each other visually. The manufacturer relies on a color combination of silver and black. Only the upper side of the U200 looks a bit vulnerable, since the glossy black seems to magically attract scratches and dust. The same applies to the few black areas on the station. Otherwise, the manufacturer does not deviate from the other brands in terms of design.

Thus, the LiDAR sensor, which is used in navigation by means of laser technology, is enthroned on the top of the circular vacuum robot. In front of it are three buttons that allow you to operate the vacuum cleaner without an app. Besides spot cleaning, you can regulate stop/pause and the return to the cleaning station. Furthermore, you will find a maintenance flap here. The view of the underside is exciting. And I don’t mean the two side brushes that are supposed to fight dirt in your corners. There is no rigid wiping plate there. Instead, like many other manufacturers, Uwant relies on two rotating mops here.

That these conjure up a much better wiping result, I can confirm after various vacuum robot tests. So it’s pleasing that the U200 is jumping on this bandwagon. The main brush is less pleasing. It partly relies on classic bristles, which might not please pet owners. However, this is not a point of criticism. After all, Uwant has thought along and includes a solid rubber main brush as an alternative in the scope of delivery. For me, it is a novelty in the field of vacuum robots that exchangeable main brushes are offered. A really great service!

Like the robot vacuum itself, the cleaning station also scores high on build quality. Both do not crack or creak at any point. A look under the upper flap of the station reveals the inner workings. The waste water tank is on the left, and the fresh water tank is on the right. In turn, you’ll find the vacuum cleaner bag in the center. On the front of the upper side is a control unit with touch keys. Here you can not only start the vacuum cleaner, but also activate the self-cleaning function. In addition, there is a small display, which, for example, informs you to fill in new water.

Overall, the cleaning station performs four different tasks. Firstly, the mops of the robot vacuum cleaner are rinsed through with fresh water here before each cleaning tour. Since 60° C hot water is used here, the cleaning performance is supposed to be amazingly high. We will find out whether this plan works later in the practical test. To prevent the smart household helper from spreading dirt on the floor with the mop pads, the vacuum robot travels to the cleaning station at regular intervals to have the mop surfaces re-moistened or cleaned.

And that brings us to the second feature. As the wiping pads rotate over the station’s wiping grid during cleaning, excess dirt is effectively flushed out. The corresponding dirty water then lands in the water tank and cleaning continues. Once the robot vacuum is finished, it returns to the station for a final cleaning of the wiping pads. The third function then comes into play. The collected dust and other dirt is vacuumed and ends up in the dust bag. Last but not least is the fourth feature. The hair dryer kicks in and the wiping surfaces are dried.

In my opinion, ease of use starts with the setup and commissioning of a robot vacuum cleaner. And here the U200 does very well. From the factory, both the vacuum cleaner and the cleaning station are, in a sense, ready installed. All you really have to do is insert the two wiping pads into the magnetic holder on the bottom of the device and connect the docking station to the power outlet. Before the first cleaning, you should also make sure that there is fresh water in the water tank. However, if this is missing, the smart household helper will point it out to you.

Once you’re done with these steps, the pairing with the Uwant app also begins. Here, the focus is on transferring the robot vacuum to your WiFi network. You can easily follow the clear step-by-step instructions of the smartphone application. Once the robot vacuum cleaner is in the network, you can expand the smart home features. For example, the smart household helper can easily be used via Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. The voice control can then be used to instruct the cleaning of a certain room, among other things.

Of course, complete setup also includes map creation. After all, the robot vacuum has to find its way around your own four walls. The U200 creates the map during its maiden voyage through your premises. The vacuum cleaner scores here with its LiDAR technology. With the help of lasers in a small tower on the top, the device skilfully measures your home. This is possible even in total darkness without any problems. Accordingly, the U200 quickly measured my apartment. On top of that, different floors are possible when saving.

Of course, Uwant’s in-house app is not only for setting up the robot vacuum cleaner. On top of that, the software available for AndroidOS and iOS is the linchpin for operating the smart household helper. At first glance, the application scores with a very good overview. You can even overlook the one or other language barrier. Currently, it can almost only be used in English. In view of the increasing success in our area, this small problem should certainly be solved in the course of the next software updates.

In the app you can now act, among other things, with the map that the robot vacuum cleaner has previously created of your premises. The map automatically divides the app into rooms. This worked very well in the test. If you have a more unusual floor plan, you can adjust the rooms yourself afterwards. The subdivision makes it easy to send the U200 to a room of your choice. Alternatively, you can also mark a specific area within one or more rooms to be accessed and cleaned. Conversely, no-go areas are also possible. I use this feature in my dog’s food area, for example. As known from other robots of this kind, you can also regulate the suction and wiping strength.

Furthermore, it is possible to set in the app whether the wiping water should be cold or warm. This is interesting for people who want to protect their floors or save electricity. Electricity can also be saved by regulating the drying time. You can also set this here. Of course, you can also save cleaning schedules. If you take a look at the map, you can see not only the rooms, but also the location of the cleaning station and the robot vacuum. During an active cleaning tour, you can also see where the household helper has already made its rounds. In addition, you get important information such as the active battery status of the device.

The Uwant U200 is a combination device that offers several functions at once. In addition to vacuuming, it’s also mopping your floors. Accordingly, we want to put both under the microscope in the practical test. Subsequently, the functionality of the cleaning station is still to be checked.

A look at the technical data of the robot vacuum makes the anticipation of a strong suction performance grow. Namely, the manufacturer speaks of a considerable 5,000 Pascal. However, you don’t have to use this to the fullest every time. If you want to save the battery or do not want a too loud vacuum cleaner, you can simply select a different level. You can choose from four different levels of suction power: “Quiet”, “Standard”, “Strong” and “Extra Strong”.

In practice, the robot vacuum left a really good cleaning result. In my opinion, however, it becomes clear with the U200 why more and more manufacturers of smart household helpers rely on one and not two side brushes. These do their job more badly than well and throw dust and dirt into areas that the robot has already cleaned before. If there is any dirt left over, you can simply let the robot do an extra round.

As soon as the robot vacuum moves onto a carpet, it automatically adjusts the suction power. The full 5000 pascals are supposed to ensure that even dirt deep in the carpet fibers is caught. In practice, this works quite well – at least for short-pile carpets. Alternatively, the robot vacuum can also go around your carpets. Why this can be advantageous, we clarify with the wiping function.

Let’s continue with the mopping function of the little helper. The two mops rotate with a total of 180 revolutions per minute. In doing so, they do not exert any independent pressure on the floor, unlike models from other manufacturers. Consequently, you can only rely on the weight of the robot, which presses on the floor. In practice, however, this does not have a negative impact. Especially in combination with warm water, the cleaning results are really impressive. In the test, even a dried jam stain was no problem.

How good the cleaning result is, you regulate not only by the water flow rate. You can also determine the interval at which the robot visits the cleaning station. You can choose between 6, 9 or 12 minutes. If you want it to be particularly clean, you should opt for the shortest possible intervals. On stone and wooden floors, the robot vacuum left really great results. The only problem was my carpet. After all, the fact that the robot can’t lift its mop pads has a negative impact on carpeted floors.

As a result, your carpet will inevitably come into contact with the wet pads as the vacuum passes over it. Accordingly, you should regulate from the start that the smart household helper avoids carpets. If you do not want to do without cleaning them, simply remove the two pads and let the robot run again without avoiding carpets. If, on the other hand, you mainly have carpets, buying a model with liftable mops is advisable. A good example at a fair price is the Dreame L10s Ultra (test).

The Uwant U200 is an all-around carefree package in its basic design. After all, the device works completely on its own most of the time. That’s especially the case if you’ve set cleaning schedules in the app. Then you don’t even have to start it for cleaning. In practice, this pays off in terms of user convenience. After all, the cleaning station not only automatically empties the robot vacuum’s dust container. The mop pads also remain permanently clean and hygienically safe thanks to the subsequent air drying. Anyone who owns a robotic vacuum cleaner without a cleaning station knows that you actually have to replace the cloths with a fresh one after every clean0ing. However, since Uwant includes another pair of the wiping pads, you can schedule regular washing machine stops for the circular cleaning areas on the U200 as well.

You should also plan for the subsequent drying during the cleaning function. Finally, the hair dryer can be quite noticeable. Ideally, you should place the station in a place where this does not bother you. Alternatively, you can reduce the drying time via the app and let the device clean your apartment when you are sitting at your desk or on the road. Most of the work is actually only done when filling or emptying the water containers. How often you have to do this depends on how often the robot vacuum cleaner runs or how high the corresponding water flow rate is during this time. You have to worry least about the dust container. You only have to replace it with a new one after just under 60 days – at least according to Uwant.

The U200 is no speedster, but it’s not lame either. Rather, the vacuum robot moves at a normal speed through your home. It never seemed disoriented in the test, but always had a precise plan of where it was. The only problem was the chairs at my dining table. Here, he had to struggle with the horizontal legs resting on the floor. While trying to cross them, it always sounded like the entire underside of the robot was scratched.

However, to save chair and robot, I simply created a no-go area here. A real Achilles heel when navigating through the apartment is the lack of object recognition. This is due to the fact that Uwant does not have a camera on the front of its smart household assistant. You should definitely keep this in mind, especially with cables. If you don’t clear your floor of corresponding sources of danger, you run the risk of the U200 having to interrupt its cleaning tour because it got tangled up in some object again.

First things first, the Uwant U200 is a real value for the money. In testing, I haven’t had a device that offered this much equipment at such a price. This already starts with the scope of delivery. The manufacturer includes a pleasingly large number of consumables, so you only have to reorder the first dust bag after a few months. The build quality and design are also good. Actually, the only thing that bothers me here is the sensitive surface in glossy black.

Furthermore, the smart household helper scores with a good orientation. Thanks to LiDAR technology, it creates a map of your entire apartment in a pleasantly short time. As a vacuum cleaner, the U200 performs very well. The wiping result is also impressive. Thanks to the cleaning station, the user enjoys maximum ease of use. This is also supported by the clearly arranged app, which only has to struggle with a few language barriers. Unfortunately, where there is light, there is often also shadow.

This is not different with the U200. The lack of a camera on the front is particularly noticeable in practice. If you don’t pick up cables, shoelaces and other objects from the floor in time, you have to reckon with the robot getting tangled up here and interrupting the cleaning process. Furthermore, I would have been happy if the U200 could lift the two mop pads to avoid getting carpets wet during cleaning. Those who have a lot of carpeting in their homes should keep this in mind. With that said, it does have to admit defeat to the top models.

The Uwant U200 scores with an attractive price, but has to admit defeat to the top models.