Review of Xiaomi Robot Vacuum S40C, a clean home solution for slackers

Minimalist and weighty design

Xiaomi Robot Vacuum S40C has a minimalist design and is quite weighty. The dimensions are 340 x 340 x 97 mm with a weight of 3.44 kilograms (kg). The device is coated in white, and some parts are decorated with light gray. The device buttons are also wrapped in a gray color. Overall, it looks elegant because it is dominated by neutral white and does not have many prominent parts. Suitable for homes with a modern minimalist design.

The S40C Vacuum Robot is equipped with a Laser Distance Sensor (LDS) protruding at the top of the device. This sensor supports a laser navigation system that helps devices evaluate complex environments quickly. Thus, the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum S40C can determine its position more accurately, especially in carrying out the task of cleaning various rooms.

Near the sensor, Xiaomi puts two buttons whose design is made together like a capsule. The first button is the power button to turn the device on or off, and to pause the cleaning process. The second button is a versatile button with a home icon. This button can be used to pause the vacuum robot while it is working, to turn on or off the device key from children’s access.

The icon on each button is also accompanied by a light that will light up in several modes. For example, it turns on white to indicate that the vacuum robot is working normally, blinking white a bit slow when the device is charged, or flashing yellow when the battery is weak.

The Xiaomi Robot Vacuum S40C also has an infrared sensor, a proximity sensor, and a bumper to protect the device engine when dealing with objects around it. At the bottom, there is a sensor that Xiaomi calls a cliff sensor, several drive wheels, charger contacts, brushes, brush covers with buttons to open and close the brush cover.

Fill in the completeness of the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum S40C

Xiaomi Robot Vacuum S40C is packaged in a large packaging box. When packaged, the device is also coated with a thick layer of cardboard to protect the device from impact and so on. When removed from the packaging box, the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum S40C is equipped with several installed accessories, ranging from dust cleaning brushes, brush covers, and dust containers.

There are also other additional accessories that the user needs to install before use, including a side brush, and a mop board that blends with the water tank. The packaging of the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum S40C also accommodates a power adapter and a white-colored charging dock. Although some areas of the dock have a black color because it accommodates the signal receiving components.

Not to forget, Xiaomi includes a fairly thick device manual because it includes guides in various languages, as well as a warranty card.

Rely on sensors to identify the room

Before using the S40C Vacuum Robot, Xiaomi encourages users to charge the device. For this reason, the KompasTekno team first charges using the adapters and docks that are already available. At that time, the charging lasted approximately an hour because the device still had built-in power.

Next, we connect the S40C Vacuum Robot to the Xiaomi Home application so that its operation can be done more easily than a smartphone. The process to connect the device to the application is also quite easy, because the various stages are explained through the text description in the application.

In addition, the S40C vacuum robot will also respond through sound. For example, when the device is connected or ready to run commands. The problem sometimes arises from the vacuum because even though it produces audio information, the sound is quite fast and sometimes does not recur, so sometimes it cannot be understood immediately.

After the battery is fully charged, we try to run the S40C Vacuum Robot. Well, for the first stage, this robot needs to “acquaint” with the room to be cleaned. This process involves various sensors including the LDS sensor earlier. During this acquaintance process, the S40C Vacuum Robot will go around the room one by one to map the room that will be cleaned later.

Interestingly, the sensor owned by this vacuum can recognize the presence of nearby objects, so that it can avoid or hit it somewhat. If you get hit, for example hitting the leg of the chair because you recognize the space under the chair, this device will then retreat a little and look for another safer route.

During the mapping process of this room, it should be noted that the user should not be near the vacuum so as not to obstruct the device sensor in identifying objects in the vicinity. This vacuum robot will also provide a warning for users to keep their distance from the device.

The mapping process itself lasts quite a long time, depending on the area of the room or the area to be cleaned. The experience of KompasTekno, the process of mapping the room with an area of about 40 square meters, takes approximately 30 minutes.

Easy to set robot from application

When the mapping process is over, users can also review it first in the Xiaomi Home application, so that the cleaning process can be carried out optimally without any problems. In this application, users can monitor and manage the cleaning area. For example, limiting areas that can be cleaned, marking areas where furniture is occupied and so on.

For example, the KompasTekno team marked the area next to the mattress as a forbidden area to clean because there were too many things. The trick, by editing the map that has been recorded by the robot and installing a virtual wall, through the menu with a map icon and a pencil > edit > limited area & virtual wall.

We also added some furniture such as cabinets to sofas according to their physical presence in the application, to make it easier for robotic vacuums when operating. On the Xiaomi Home too, we can set the schedule and cleaning mode.

More specifically available four modes including vacuuming mode for vacuuming only, vacuuming & Mopping to vacuum and mop at the same time, vacuuming before mopping to clean the dust first before the mop and the mopping mode for the mop only.

The KompasTekno team itself chose the vacuuming & Mopping, so that floor cleaning is more effective and efficient. The reason is, the vacuuming before mopping mode according to Xiaomi Home, consumes more battery up to double.

In addition, in this application we can also adjust the vacuum suction power, whether it is standard, stronger or even stronger with turbo mode. There is also a silent mode, you can want the vacuum sound to be more muted, for example when scheduling night cleaning or when you don’t want to be disturbed by the sound of the device.

The silent mode is quite quiet compared to standard and other modes. But we still choose the standard mode as the default suction mode. This vacuum itself has a suction power of 5,000 Pa. The flow of water that comes out when the rotor is mopping can also be adjusted, from level 1-3. We chose level one so that it wouldn’t get too wet, especially when the robot vacuum was running while we were active.

Practical Solution for the “Mager”

Regarding the results, in general the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum S40C is able to clean the dust to mop the floor quite cleanly. Various types of dust and dirt such as lumps of dust, hair, to pieces of paper can be sucked easily. Likewise, small objects such as toys tucked under a chair, for example, can be taken and accommodated in a dirt reservoir.

The results of the mop are also quite clean, even though the water content that is flowed is only level one or not as much as when we mop the floor manually. Even if it feels less clean, we can restart the S40C vacuum robot and ask it to do the cleaning again.

The container is also quite large at 520 milliliters, so there is no need to throw it away often. Likewise with a water container that holds 260 ml to support the mop process, which can be used several times without the need to refill each mop.

Regarding the power, the S40C Vacuum Robot is equipped with a 2,600 mAh battery. To clean (vacuum and mop) of a room covering an area of 40 square meters, this device consumes about 25 percent of the battery. So in general when the device battery is fully charged, this robot can clean the same room up to four times. The recharging of the battery itself is quite long, approximately two hours.

The drawback is that this robot is not able to reach the corner of the room, especially for mopping or mop mode. Unlike the vacuum mode, because this device is equipped with a side fan to attract dust or dirt that the main vacuum can’t reach. In addition, Xiaomi also does not allow users to add any liquid to this vacuum, so we do not add floor cleaners to the device. Therefore, the cleaning results are not fragrant like using floor cleaning fluid when mopping with traditional methods.

Xiaomi Robot Vacuum S40C can indeed avoid objects around it, including various large children’s toys. However, in order for the cleaning to be more optimal, we need to move it first to another room, so that the entire floor can be cleaned. And this process is sometimes a bit inconvenient, it’s not as easy as giving up work to robots just like that.

Apart from some of these shortcomings, the convenience offered by the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum S40C can be a practical solution for users to clean the house or room without wasting time. In addition, this vacuum robot can also carry out cleaning orders several times and at any time according to the user’s wishes, without being tired like humans. Moreover, the operation can be done remotely through applications that can be installed on cellphones or other devices, and the progress can be monitored in real-time.

The Xiaomi Robot Vacuum S40C is already available in Indonesia. The price is priced at IDR 2.2 million, can be obtained at the official Xiaomi online store and the Xiaomi partner marketplace in the country.