Imou RV-L11-A Review
A cheap auto-empty robot vacuum
Verdict
The Imou RV-L11-A has a low price, but you still get a mopping option and an auto-empty dock. A useful and powerful app gives fine control over how the robot cleans. While capable of cleaning well, I found that bigger dust spills needed two passes to get the robot to clean everything up.
Pros
- Powerful app
- Well priced
- Automatic dust emptying
Cons
- Battery life is a little short
- Doesn’t always make a clean pass of dirt
Key Features
- TypeThis is a robot vacuum cleaner and mop, which has a self-empty station.
- MoppingUses a static mop bracket with adjustable levels of water.
- Battery lifeRated at up to 110 minutes maximum on the lowest power setting.
Introduction
At a fraction under £400, the Imou RV-L11-A might be a more budget robot vacuum cleaner, but with a self-empty station and mopping option, it certainly doesn’t miss out on features.
A useful app and some smart cleaning features are good to see, but battery life and cleaning performance on carpet could be better.
Design and features
- Self-empty station
- Mopping bracket
- Clever app
Given that cleaning out a robot vacuum cleaner is one of the most miserable jobs, it’s always good to see a self-empty station. With the Imou RV-L11-A, the dock takes replaceable bags (three are provided in the box), each holding around 30 days’ worth of dust from cleaning.
That means that the relatively small 300ml bin on the robot doesn’t matter: after each clean, the robot can just return to the dock and have its bin emptied automatically.
It is worth removing the bin once a month so that it can be cleaned out and you can remove and clean the filter. This bin also holds the water container for the mopping system.
As the dock doesn’t take water, it’s only a little taller than a regular charge-only dock, and not any wider. It’s similar in style and design to the one on the Eufy X8 Pro.
There’s a mopping bracket, which is fed by 250ml of water stored in the main bin. As the dock doesn’t ship with a floor protector, it’s worth removing the mopping bracket after each mopping session to protect your floor and to let the mopping cloth dry.
You’ll also need to remove the mopping bracket if you want the vacuum cleaner to be put into vacuum-only mode. For those with mixed hard floors and carpets, the Imou RV-L11-A can’t lift its mopping cloth off the floor to avoid soaking carpets, which may make some jobs tricky. If you need more flexibility, you’ll need to spend more money on a rival, such as the iRobot Roomba Combo j7+, which can lift its mopping pad completely off the floor.
Imou also provides several disposable cloths, as well as the washable microfibre cloth. These disposable cloths are still wetted with water from the tank, but can be thrown away at the end of a clean. It feels like a waste and I’d rather see additional microfibre cloths provided.
The Imou RV-L11-A is a round robot vacuum cleaner, the same as most of the competition. It has a LiDAR dome on top for fast mapping and navigation and two buttons on the front: start/stop a clean and return to dock.
Flip the robot over and it has a standard layout: a motorised roller for agitating dirt on carpets and hard floors, and a single side-sweeper brush for teasing dirt out from the edges of rooms.
The main brush doesn’t have an anti-tangle mode, so it does get clogged up with long hair. If you live in a home with pets or people with long hair, then a model with an anti-tangle brush, such as the Eufy X8 Pro may be a better choice.
The robot is controlled via the Imou app. The installation wizard is easy to follow, and it took just a few minutes to connect to Wi-Fi and be ready to go. Once in the app, I ran a mapping run to have the Imou RV-L11-A find its surroundings and generate a map.
Once a map has been generated, I could split it into rooms (or merge two rooms into one). There are also standard controls for adding no-go and no-mop areas. I did have to set up a no-go area around the sofa: this stands high enough off the ground to let the robot pass under, but I found that the Imou RV-L11-A managed to wedge itself at the back. That aside, I didn’t have any problems with the robot getting stuck when moving around.
In its Auto mode, the Imou RV-L11-A will clean everywhere, parking up and recharging in the middle of a clean where necessary.
At its most basic, there’s a simple control to set the suction power (Quiet, Standard or Strong), and three water levels. You can then set the robot to clean everywhere, a selection of rooms or a zone that you draw on the floor for spot cleaning a mess.
For more control, there’s an option to set custom cleaning, where each room can have its own power and water settings. There’s also an option to tell the robot to make either one or two cleaning passes per room. That’s handy: I could have the robot clean around the kitchen area with two passes and more water, and have it tackle the office area of the lab with just a single pass.
Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant are available with simple on/off commands used to start and stop a whole-home clean.
Performance
- Basic mopping
- Average suction power
- Battery life is a little light
I put the Imou RV-L11-A to work cleaning the Trusted Reviews home tech testing lab. Setting it up for a single clean, I found that it needed a charge part-way through the clean. That’s not a problem regarding the robot finishing its job, but the need to recharge meant that the robot was slow to finish the entire clean. Most other robots that I’ve reviewed recently are capable of cleaning further on a single charge.
This is definitely a more mid-range robot vacuum cleaner, as the real-world tests show. On carpet, I found that the robot’s path over the test carpet was a little hap-hazard, missing out a section of dust entirely.
A second pass was better, but there was still a bit of dirt left behind.
Moving to the hard floor test, navigation again proved to be a challenge. Where the robot got a clean pass, it managed to collect dust from the floor; however, it left some areas completely untouched, requiring a second pass to collect the dirt and thoroughly cover the room.
Similarly, for the edge test, the robot did a relatively good job of getting close to the plinth in my kitchen, where I’d sprinkled flour, but couldn’t collect all of the dust and left dust behind that the Imou RV-L11-A’s wheels ran through.
Mopping, using just a simple pump to add water to a microfibre cloth, is quite basic. Without the scrubbing action that you get on a more advanced product, such as the Eufy Omni X10, the Imou RV-L11-A can only handle more basic stains: it’s good for light mess, such as fresh muddy paw prints from a pet cat; tougher, ground-in stains need more than this robot can offer.
I measured the Imou RV-L11-A at 65.1dB, which is pretty quiet. In fact, the robot can make a pass, and you can still hear the TV or listen to music while it’s doing its job.
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
You should buy if you want a low-cost auto-empty robot
The Imou RV-L11-A is great value, has a decent app and can clean well enough for lighter spills, particularly on hard floors.
You should not buy if you want more flexibility or anti-tangle
If you have to deal with hair in your home, a cleaner with an anti-tangle brush (such as the Eufy X8 Pro) makes more sense; those with mixed flooring may prefer a model with a lifting mop bracket.
Final Thoughts
When it gets a clean pass, the Imou RV-L11-A is capable of lifting hefty dirt spills, but I found that cleaning was a little erratic at times, with some areas missed on a first pass. For deeper messes, two passes are required. The issue was more pronounced on carpet, and hard floor performance was better.
If you want a cheap auto-empty cleaner, for primarily hard floors, then this one is good; spend a bit more on the Eufy X8 Pro and you’ll get better overall cleaning and an anti-tangle system to prevent hair wrapping around the brush. For alternatives, check out my guide to the best robot vacuum cleaners.
How we test
Unlike other sites, we test every robot vacuum cleaner we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as our main robot vacuum cleaner for the review period
We test for at least a week
Tested with real-world dirt in real-world situations for fair comparisons with other vacuum cleaners
You might like…
FAQs
No, this model keeps its mopping pad on the floor; to deal with carpets and rugs, you need to set no-mop zones and/or remove the mop bracket.
Full specs
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
