With two kids and a dog, vacuuming for me is not a happy experience; if the dog isn’t confused and interested in the loud sucky thing, then the kids don’t want it happening because the telly is on. It's also a daily chore to keep on top of the floating dog hair, and outside dirt trampled through the house with the little ones. So, you can only imagine my joy when the Proscenic M8 Pro Vacuum came into my life.
Not only because it hoovers up the everyday dust and dander, but it will also mop the floors as it goes. Proscenic has a range of robotic vacuum cleaners, which will go about their business relatively unknown, and the M9 Pro is at the very top of that range, coming in at £500.
The first question when is generally asked of these robotic vacuum cleaners is generally ‘are they any good?’ and the response is typical, ‘Yes, but….’ So let’s explore both that yes and but.
Is it any good?
Well, yes, but… and the but is annoying really. To get the absolute best out of the vacuum cleaner, you have to ensure that everything is up and off the floor, just like when you’re vacuuming. While the constantly rotating laser on the top of the M8 Pro (which draws a map of your floors and feeds the data straight back to the app on your phone) and front bumper stop it from attacking table legs, they don't stop it from sucking up and dragging along stray bits of paper or small kiddy toys.
We should get the elephant out of the room first – it’s not a vacuum which is built for a carpeted house; this is not because it cannot handle carpet; it does; it’s mainly because you cannot turn the mopping element of the vacuum off like you can the suction element. It means that unless the water tank is empty, it’ll try and mop your carpets – not ideal, but there is the solution of just not putting water in the tank.
It’s safe to say that this little robot is happiest on your home’s laminate or tiled floors, where it excels at vacuuming and mopping. You don’t need to do a lot to achieve maximum results. Ensure the water tank is complete and the Velcro-attached microfibre cloth is clean, and away it goes. You can even schedule it to clean your floors; be aware that if you do this for an early morning or late night clean, the vacuum is quite loud on its maximum setting.
If the detachable cloth is not clean before use, it can sometimes give the smell of a wet towel, which isn’t great as it goes about mopping your floors. It comes with two cloths, so swapping them after each clean is easy to do. A quick rinse under a warm tap and leaving them to dry will ensure they’re ready to go the next time.
The M8 Pro has a particular way of cleaning your home, and it’s fascinating to watch. Once it’s correctly set up - which is done by letting it freely roam and clean one level of your home - it’ll map out rooms and the best way to clean them. Once its cleaning floorplan is mapped, it’ll clean room by room, first around the edge of the room and then in straight lines curling back on itself to ensure it covers the whole area. After that first bit of settling in, it’s pretty hassle-free.
Another huge bonus is that this vacuum has a ‘base’ where it returns after each use recharges and empties itself into a vacuum back, so you don’t have to. Proscenic recommends that this vacuum bag needs changing every 90 days and provides spares on your initial purchase.
There is also a solitary mop function that uses the same map and big wide arches to ensure it doesn’t miss a spot on your floor. This functions well and works; you may be surprised by how much you have to clean your microfibre cloth afterwards.
Battery wise – there should be plenty to clean your home, the longest I’ve had it running for 104 minutes, cleaning 87m2 in one go, and it still had battery life left. So unless your home is massive, it shouldn’t be too much of an issue. If you find your vacuum running out of battery before cleaning your home, you could always split the cleaning in two and have it clean half in the morning and a half in the afternoon.
What does the tech offer?
This is where you can fine-tune your M8 Pro to make sure that relatively hassle-free becomes completely hassle-free. The app is straightforward to use, and shortly after connecting your M8 Pro to your house’s Wi-Fi, it’s incredibly intuitive.
The laser-guided navigation builds a real-time map of your home each time it vacuums; if you have a dog bed on the floor, for example, and you lift it out the way one day, the laser will pick this up and clean where the dog bed was, updating the map as it goes. Only once your home has been fully mapped out that you will be able to create cleaning schedules, no-go zones, cleaning zones and more. All this is done via the app and is super easy to do.
You can also connect your vacuum to your smart speaker and tell it where to clean, but again you will have to name and label each room in the app.
What would be super helpful would be if these maps were saveable; that way, you could save your downstairs and then save you upstairs; otherwise, if you move it to vacuum upstairs once, it has to ‘relearn’ downstairs. This becomes annoying if you have specific areas in the home which isn’t suitable for the vacuum or it keeps getting stuck. The vacuum can get up a 20mm lip, and my kitchen seating legs must be a bit above that every time it gets stuck trying to vault the legs – once the map is set, I can put this as a ‘no-go zone’, but if it forgets the map, this can be very annoying.
The downsides
There are more upsides than downs with the Pro M8, and I'd consider the following points as things for Proscenic to consider for the next model.
The water in the tank will only stay warm for a certain amount of time; when I’m mopping the floor, I like to make sure that I use very hot water to ensure everything is kept as clean as possible. This isn’t always the case, though, so it’ll be mopping the floors with lukewarm or cold water. I’d also like some disinfectant which I could put in the water tank or a solution which smells nice so that when it’s cleaning, it leaves a pleasant smell around the home.
The ability to turn the mop setting off would be appreciated as you can turn the vacuum setting off – so it seems odd that the mop setting can’t be turned off. This is a minor gripe as you can ensure the water tank is empty before running your vacuum cleaner.
It's a slight annoyance is when the vacuum has forgotten the floorplan of your house when it’s done an update or similar, and you have to reteach it and reschedule everything; advice here would be to keep things simple as possible and then you won’t have to reteach it everything.
A word of warning: manual vacuuming and mopping won't be fully replaced by the M8 Pro, but it will significantly reduce the frequency you will have to do them.
Finally, you have to make sure that the area you’re cleaning is at least tidy – the M8 Pro will go around more considerable obstacles, but if there are kids’ toys or fairy wing costumes on the floor, it will get caught up in the wheels as it struggles to pick up on what is on the floor.
Price and competition
It’s not cheap, £499 for this M8 Pro model, which might seem expensive, but then let’s consider you are buying a brand new Shark. You could spend £349, and a brand new Dyson could set you back £515.
These models are not its competition, though. The Eufy RoboVac X8 is a much closer rival at £449, which, while it has a self-charging port, doesn’t have a self-empty base or mop function (that's an optional extra on the X8 model). The Neato Robotics D450 sits at £450, but this one doesn’t have a mopping function.
Verdict
For time-saving and the ability to keep on top of the animal hair and dust around your home, it’s fantastic. On the odd occasion, it forgets its map but it’s no big drama as it can still go about its business and relearn what it forgot.
As long as you keep on top of the small things like changing the microfibre cloth every so often and making sure the floor is tidy and the water tank topped up, this little robot will slip into your life, and you’ll forget about it - which is the way you want it to be.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| • Seriously reduce your housework chores | • Can't 'hurdle' all obstacles it thinks it can |
| • Cleans floors well | • Better thinking around a wet microfibre mopping cloth needed |
| • Avoids obstacles well |
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Suction (max): | 3,000pa |
| Navigation: | LDS8.0 |
| Dust bag: | 4.2L |
| Filter: | Washable |
| Routine: | Multi-floor, zone, custom routine, spot |
| Connection: | Wi-Fi, Alexa, Google Assistant |
| Runtime: | Up to 200mins |