REVIEW – A few weeks ago, on March 29, 2025, we published my review of the best robot vac/mop I ever tested – the DEEBOT X8 PRO OMNI robot vacuum and mop from Ecovacs. You can imagine my surprise when I got an offer to review the brand-spanking new DEEBOT X9 PRO OMNI a few weeks later. The X8 was so good, what could possibly be better? It turns out that the wizards at Ecovacs were already at the drawing board, tweaking navigation, improving suction, and making other incremental improvements. Let’s take a look at the new X9 and see what’s changed.
⬇︎ Jump to summary (pros/cons)
Price: $1499.99
Where to buy: Ecovacs and Amazon
What is it?
The DEEBOT X9 PRO OMNI is the latest flagship robot vacuum mop from Ecovacs. It is the second model to feature a roller mop versus the spinning mopping plates used in older models, leading the field that includes the New T80 OMNI and X8 PRO OMNI. The X9 PRO OMNI (or X9 for short) brings improved vacuuming through its BLAST™ (Boosted Large-Airflow Suction Technology) vacuuming system, along with improved main brush anti-tangle tech, 3D edge mapping, and ARClean™ anti-tangle side brush. The X9 and its OMNI docking station allow for a nearly hands-free cleaning experience for extended periods of up to 150 days.
What’s included?
- DEEBOT X9 PRO robot vac/mop with dust bin, sweeper brush, and roller mop installed
- OMNI docking station with dust bag and water tanks
- OMNI station approach ramp
- Power cord
- User manual and support documents
Tech specs
Robot dimensions: 13.90″L x 13.84″W x 3.86″H
Station dimensions: 13.31″W x 18.07″D x 19.69H (with approach ramp installed)
Max suction: 16,600 Pa
Airflow system: BLAST™ (Boosted Large-Airflow Suction Technology) combines a high-torque motor, optimized airflow design, and larger fan blades
Battery: proprietary 6400mAh battery provides 50% higher discharge current, 2.5x longer lifespan, and 50% less heat generated
Mopping system: OZMO™ Roller Instant Self-Washing Mop with lifting system over carpet
Mop washing/drying: 167°F hot water washing / 145°F hot air drying, 2/3/4 hour selectable
Main brush tangle resistance: ZeeoTangle 3.0 technology
Sweeper brush: ARClean™ anti-tangle side brush
Edge cleaning: TruEdge™ 2.0 technology with 3D edge sensing
Navigation: Embedded Laser LiDAR Navigation with advanced AIVI 3D 3.0 for enhanced AI-powered precision
Voice assistant: YIKO-GPT intelligent assistant
Design and features
As you can see from the photo at the top of this post, this looks like most robot vacuums/mop—round. One change is the cover. Rather than covering the entire top of the robot, this one only covers part of it.
You can see the power switch, WiFi reset button, power button in the “Y” design, and the installed dustbin.
The dustbin pops out easily. The filter assembly comes off the dustbin. The filter slides into a cassette with a mesh screen, and that slides into the door that closes the dustbin. The HEPA filter is rinsable and replaceable.
Underneath, we find the business bits and pieces. There is a castering front wheel, two drive wheels, the main brush, the extending and retracting roller mop assembly, and the newly redesigned side sweeping brush.
Here’s a closer look at that new side brush. If the robot detects large particles or a wet mess, the brush will lift so it doesn’t spray particles or liquid around. Well, that’s what it was supposed to do.
The cover over the main brush pops out easily, letting you remove and clean the brush. It is almost academic, given the anti-tangle tech Ecovacs bakes into their new robots. It worked incredibly well with the X8 and continues that trend with the X9.
Long-pressing the poser button extends the roller mop for removal.
There is also a small door revealing a compartment that needs occasional cleaning. That scrapes and cleans the roller with every revolution, ensuring a clean mop is always on the floor.
The X9 has a small waste tank on the back, much like the X8, that also needs occasional cleaning.
The right side of the robot is the wall side, as that’s where the sweeper brush and roller mop extend. That’s the side that will run along the walls and corners with the brush and mop extending out to the baseboards. To know exactly where to be, there is a laser window just above the sweeper brush, letting the robot check distances to side obstacles.
On the opposite side, we see a different type of window, covered with a rubber flap. This is the exhaust port where the debris from the dustbin gets extracted into the dust bag in the OMNI station.
Up front, we see the AIVI 3D vision system. Moving it from the huge wart on top of older units and putting it inside the robot is a huge improvement, letting the X9 get under more furniture.
Let’s take a look at the OMNI station. I’ll start with a comparison of the new X9 and the X8.
Ecovacs stayed with the rose gold accents on a dark background. I think the design is attractive and definitely a classier look for something that will likely be on prominent display. The X8 on the left is noticeably larger than the almost diminutive X9 on the right. Rather than having the water tanks sit on top, the new X9 OMNI station drops them into the body, making the look a little cleaner. I prefer the older design for a couple of reasons. First, I could always give a quick glance and know if there was water in the tank. Now, I have to pick up the tank to check it. Second, the smaller design carries over to the water tanks. They are smaller, and that means I will be emptying and filling them more often. That’s not a huge deal, but it is still a change.
Here’s a look at the water tanks.
They sit inside a cavity on top of the OMNI station.
Here they are, installed. You can see the rose gold colored top handles and the clean (right) and dirty (left) labels.
The power port and power switch are located on the back.
The front of the ONMI station pops off the reveal the replaceable and automatically sealing dust bag on the right and the cleaning solution tank on the left. The X9 doesn’t require any cleaning solution and can be used with just water. Ecovacs recommends using their cleaning solution on floors that get a lot of traffic for better cleaning. The OMNI station automatically dispenses the solution when it adds water to the robot. Like the water tanks, the cleaning solution tank also got smaller on the X9.
The bottom of the tank has a small hand grip for removal from the station.
The rubber top pops off for filling the narrow tank.
At the bottom front of the OMNI station, we find the docking area where the robot is charged, the dustbin is emptied, and the mop is cleaned and dried.
Assembly, Installation, Setup
You start with the quick-start guide that fills the top of the shipping box.
Everything comes pre-assembled except the parking ramp and power cord for the OMNI station. Snapping on the ramp and plugging in the cord completes the assembly. Setup is another issue. To set up the robot, you need to install the Ecovacs app and create an online account. I had that done already since this isn’t my first Ecovacs robot. Adding the robot is simple. You click to add a robot, scan the unit’s QR code, add it to your WiFi, and you’re good to go.
Well…generally that’s true. The X9 that I’m testing hasn’t been released for sale yet. What that means is that firmware is being updated regularly, and that happened here.
A quick over-the-air update fixed that situation.
With that update, the X9 was ready to start working, so let’s get into it.
Performance
The first step to begin using the robot is to have it map your home. We have a 2,005 square foot home. The X9 performed the mapping in a similar time to the X8, finishing in just over 12 minutes.
Using the excellent map tools in the Ecovacs app, I was able to subdivide rooms, combine others, and label everything.
The app lets you define carpets and what you want the robot to do. In our case, we have a really fluffy area rug that is simply too thick for a robot vacuum. You can see it as a hatched pattern at the top of the living room. I have that set for no entry. You can divide or combine areas, name all the areas with meaningful names, add virtual boundaries, place furniture, and more with the mapping tools. The benefit of doing this is that you can use the improved Yiko voice assistant to send the robot to a named area or a named piece of furniture. Unfortunately, the furniture icons are defined sizes, and they don’t line up well with our furniture.
The robot has a complete suite of customizable parameters.
The OMNI station also comes with a complete list of options.
There are a couple of experimental lab features. I turned them on and then turned them off. I might play with them later.
With everything set up like I wanted, I put together two cleaning scenarios. The first covered all the main living area except the entryway right outside our bedroom. The second included that entryway along with our bedroom, bathroom, and closet. I set up a schedule to clean the main area overnight, starting at 12:30 AM on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Because our schedule isn’t set, I didn’t set up a schedule for the bedroom. I just run that scenario when we leave the house.
We keep our other two bedrooms closed most of the time. When we have guests, it is as simple as opening the bedroom door and telling Yiko, the robot’s voice assistant, “Vacuum the guest bedroom” or “Vacuum the spare bedroom”, and it gets done.
With all this said, how does it clean? Two words: exceptionally well. I can’t say whether it is better than the outstanding X8, but it does bring some new tech to the party. The improved side sweeper brush, for one, seems to be a great improvement. It doesn’t spin so fast that it scatters debris like some older models could. The curve in the brush is designed to snag debris and direct it under the robot, where the main brush and outstanding suction pick it up.
Speaking of suction, the X9, with 16,600 Pa suction power, has less than the 18,000 Pa available in the older X8. But the X9 delivers that suction with Ecovacs’ new BLAST™ (Boosted Large-Airflow Suction Technology) system. The basic idea is that BLAST increases the volume of airflow, removing more dirt. The main brush raises the dirt, and the increased airflow moves that debris into the dustbin. The HEPA filter stops the dust, keeping it in the dustbin, and only clean air is exhausted.
Here is a look at the extending roller mop in action and the automatic headlight turning on and off based on ambient light.
I decided to give the X9 a decidedly unfair cleaning test – one much worse than I did with the X8. I dumped a lot of flour on the floor, crumbled in some crackers, and then dumped a lot of water all over it.
I essentially created paste – not a fair test for a vacuum/mop. Still, with the large debris and liquid, I wanted to see the sweeper brush lift out of the mess. Alas, I was disappointed. The sweep brush sailed right through the goo, spreading it around. It also flung a few of the cracker pieces around, but they did get picked up later. After making a couple of cleaning passes, the floor looked OK, but there were streaks and spots from the flour left behind.
I defined a much smaller cleaning area and ran it again. The results were much better, but still not perfect. Again, this wasn’t really a fair test, as this mess would prove to be difficult with a regular mop and vacuum. Overall, the robot did an admirable, if not perfect, job. I was disappointed that the sweeper brush did not lift as expected.
After the two-hour hot air mop drying (configurable for up to four hours in the app), I decided to flip the robot over and check the brushes and roller. Wow, I’m glad I did. My little unfair mess made, well, a mess. The flour-water paste was everywhere. It took a little scrubbing, but I got it all cleaned up. Note to self, don’t try to clean paste with the robot.
One of the better setup options is the vacuum first mode. This is different than the mop after vac mode in the cleaning mode selection. In mop after vac mode, the robot will vacuum hard floors and then mop them. The vacuum first mode is designed for mixed areas with both carpet and hard floors. In vacuum first mode, the robot will hit the carpeted areas first, return to the station, wet the mop and fill up with water, and then return and mop and vacuum the hard floors. This reduces the potential for a wet mop to contact the carpeting, even with the mop’s automatic lifting when encountering carpet.
The X9 comes with a video mode where you can pick a point in your home and have the robot drive there, displaying live video along the way. You can drive it manually and send it on a home patrol as well. It’s cool, but I don’t know when I’d use it. It can take short videos or photos along the way, but you can’t take a video of the entire journey. You can place a voice call from your phone to the robot, so I guess that could be fun. When at work, drive the robot to where your kids are watching TV and then tell them to start doing their homework.
The much-improved Yiko-GPT voice assistant works extremely well, unlike older models. You can talk in natural language, instructing Yiko to vacuum the guest room, clean the living room, mop the dining room, and so on. Yiko also performed flawlessly whenever I asked to undock or dock the robot.
Final thoughts
Short and sweet, this is an outstanding floor cleaning tool. Its outstanding sweeping brushes and suction mean it cleans all the crud out of your carpets. The excellent extending roller mop perfectly cleans hard floors right to the edge. The full-featured Ecovacs app lets you schedule your tasks and clean wherever you want, when you want.
In the grand scheme of things, we have an easy cleaning situation. It is just my lovely wife and me. We have no pets. We have a modestly-sized, roughly 2,000 square foot three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with an open floor plan. The main areas are all hard flooring, and the bedrooms have carpet. Pretty simple. The one complication that confounded all previously tested models before the X9 and X8 before it was my wife’s shoulder-length hair. I routinely removed hair donuts from the axle of the main brush on all of those units. This new ZeroTangle tech has fixed that, and it is incredible. If I had pets and all the pet hair that comes with them, this is the robot I would choose. The outstanding navigation has kept the X9 from getting tangled up in anything. I expect that it would do a good job of avoiding puppy piles, too. A robot’s smearing of dog poo was always an internet favorite video. The intelligent navigation and obstacle avoidance that the X-series brings to the table should eliminate that, too.
The first overnight cleaning job got a little confused, and the robot went onto the area rug, where it got stuck. I have run at least a dozen cleaning jobs with zero issues. I have had issues in the past with the first job before the map is fully understood. Since then, I’ve run at least a dozen jobs with zero issues.
One issue I continue to have is that the mapping system doesn’t add furniture and obstacles to the map. We have a kitchen island and a large bar that splits the kitchen from the rest of the open-concept main living area. It would be great if the mapping system would add those items to the map. This would make drawing spot-cleaning boxes a whole lot easier. Sure, I could use the app to add the pre-defined furniture to the map, but getting the placement right is tricky, and none of the pre-defined sizes or styles match our furniture.
Is the X9 markedly better than the X8? I don’t know. It is an incremental step, and the X9 introduces two new technologies to the Ecovacs family of cleaning robots – BLAST and the new side sweeper brush. Each generation of DEEBOT robot vac/mop comes with new surprises, improving the cleaning experience. I expect to see Ecovacs continue innovating and improving, and I can’t wait to see what comes next.
What I like about the Ecovacs DEEBOT X9 PRO OMNI robot vacuum/mop
- Outstanding cleaning performance
- Quiet operation
- Zero hair tangles
- Excellent mapping and navigation
- Relocating the navigation system into the body makes it short enough to clean under furniture
- Plenty of cleaning customization options in the app
- The attractive design looks good in the home
What needs to be improved?
- I liked the X8’s larger and visible water tanks versus the X9’s smaller and hidden ones
- The cleaning fluid tank has also gotten smaller
- The lifting sweeper brush didn’t lift with wet messes
- I wish the map would automatically add furniture and fixed obstacles to the map, or make the furniture more customizable
Price: $1499.99
Where to buy: Ecovacs and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by Ecovacs. Ecovacs did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
Check out these other reviews!
- Ecovacs DEEBOT X8 PRO OMNI robot vac/mop review
- Yeedi S14 Plus Robot Vacuum and Mop review – The robovac that does it all
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