Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai review

Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai: Introduction

• Type: Vacuum and mop Cleaning – vacuum only, mopping etc.
• Docking: Self-empty, self-clean
• Navigation system: LiDAR, camera LiDAR, SLAM etc

In a world where robot vacuum technology moves fast, Dyson has been slow with new releases, to the point where its previous cleaner, the Dyson 360 Vis Nav, looks positively out-of-date. With the Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai, it’s back to redress the balance with all the features that you might expect: mopping, self-emptying and self-cleaning, and proper obstacle avoidance.

With Dyson’s usual high price, and plenty of stiff competition, is this the robot vacuum cleaner to buy? Read my full review to find out.

Design and components

It was October 2023 when we reviewed the previous model, the Dyson 360 Vis Nav. That robot was very much of its time: a standard charging dock, a need to manually empty it, no mop option, and the slow camera-based navigation system. All of these things let it down, even if it was powerful and vacuumed well.

Today, there’s the Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai, which looks far more modern, and it also comes with a full self-empty, self-cleaning dock. 

This dock immediately looks like a Dyson product, with the purple-clad bin on the left-hand side looking like it’s been taken straight out of one of the company’s regular vacuum cleaners.

And, like those regular Dyson vacuum cleaners, the dock’s bin is completely bagless. Just pull the bin out by the handle, and use the pull-up ejection method to dump the dirt into a bin.

With 3L of space, this bin will only need emptying around every 100 days, so you won’t need to empty it more than once every two to three months.

I’m a big fan of bag-free stations, as there are no ongoing consumable costs. The only thing you need to do is wash the filter to maintain suction performance, but that’s a fair tradeoff.

There are the usual water tanks, too: a 2.3L one for fresh water and a 2.1L one for dirty water. You get notifications when it’s time to empty or refill either.

Behind the water tank is the detergent dispenser, which should be used with non-foaming detergent. Dyson sells its own hard floor cleaner, but it doesn’t provide any in the box, so I used an alternative.

While Dyson’s previous robots have been unique in shape and design, the Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai looks very similar to many other robots, with a circular body, much like the Roborock Saros 10.

It’s a little taller than some, at 110mm tall, but the Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai should still be able to slip under regular sofas. On top is the pop-out filter, which should be washed regularly to maintain performance.

Underneath, the Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai has two side brushes for teasing dirt out from the edge. It’s the first time Dyson has used brushes for this job, preferring edge-to-edge brush bars and clever suction tricks in its previous models. Neither brush can swing out for corner cleaning, which feels like an oversight at this price.

There’s a standard brush bar underneath, and a roller that runs almost the full width of the vacuum cleaner. This roller is dosed with clean water, and dirt is squeegeed off into a tank, preventing dirt from being spread across a floor.

This roller can be ejected 40mm to one side, for full edge cleaning, or even to get under fridge doors or similar.

This roller can lift off the ground to avoid wetting shortpile carpet, but the roller doesn’t have a sliding seal to prevent it wetting deeper pile carpet. If you need a vacuum that can move over thicker carpets, you’ll need something else.

The app

• Works with the MyDyson app

Control of the Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai is via the MyDyson app, which is home to all of the company’s smart products. Once set up, the robot needs to perform a mapping run. As there’s LiDAR on board, this is mercifully quick; the old Dyson robots used to take an age to do the same job.

At the end of mapping, the app suggests a room layout. This can be wrong, but it’s easy to split or merge rooms to get a layout that matches your home.

I could add no-go and no-mop zones, set thresholds, and place furniture in rooms.

With other robot vacuums I’ve reviewed, such as Roborock and Dreame models, tapping furniture creates a quick-select cleaning zone, such as around a dining table. In the Dyson app, furniture appears on the map but can’t be used this way.

Instead, you can only clean selected rooms or a single Target area drawn as a box on the map.

Modes include Vacuum and Wash, Vacuum only, Wash only, or Vacuum then Wash. There are four vacuum power levels, including Auto, plus three hydration levels for the mop.

There’s an option to select one or two wash repetitions for the mop in Wash and Vacuum & Wash modes; if you want to mop after vacuuming, you can only choose a single pass. There’s no way to set multiple vacuum passes, and there are relatively few advanced options in the app.

Largely, that’s because the Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai is designed to be automatic. It has one of Dyson’s trademark green lights for highlighting dirt on the floor, just like you get on its cordless vacuum cleaners, such as the Dyson V16 Piston.

In addition, the cameras on the front help the robot spot stains, and target how to clean them, as well as avoiding common obstacles.

Performance

• Good power on hard floors
• Mopping struggles with very tough stains
• Edge performance could be better

Rated at 18,000Pa, the Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai is powerful, although there are flagship robots with more power. More powerful vacuum cleaners removed a bit more dust in my tests on carpet, but the Dyson still did a thorough job and you’ll only need to step in with a bit of manual maintenance every two to four weeks.

On hard floors, the Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai is as good as the competition for dust in the middle of a room, although vacuuming performance at the edge leaves tougher spills behind.

Mopping performance is good on regular messes (muddy footprints and the like), but sticky messes, such as ketchup are a bit of a challenge for it. Even after spraying some ketchup mess with kitchen cleaner, the Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai struggled to remove the mess, which is a shame. 

At its highest suction setting, I measured noise at 57.2dB, which is quiet enough to live with while it cleans.

Battery life is strong, too. Although it’s rated for 200 minutes, in practice I could clean the entire lab (roughly a floor of a house) with one vacuum pass and two mop passes on higher power, with enough charge left for spot cleaning and revisiting areas.

Final thoughts

There are some clear improvements over Dyson’s previous robot vacuums, with much better navigation and the addition of mopping, but overall suction power has taken a step back. The bigger problem is the competition.

For only a little more money, the Narwal Flow delivers stronger mopping performance, while the Roborock Saros 10 (already superseded as the flagship by the Saros 20) is significantly more flexible. Both rivals also offer more capable apps, with a wider range of cleaning modes and more advanced controls.

If the Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai were a bit cheaper or offered a few extra features, it would be far easier to recommend. As it stands, there are stronger alternatives in my guide to the best robot vacuum cleaners.

How we test

When we publish our reviews, you can rest assured that they are the result of “living with” long term tests.

Robot cleaners usually live within an ecosystem, or a range of products that – supposedly – all work in harmony. And they are designed to offer a range of different cleaning options. Therefore, it’s impossible to use a robo cleaner for a week and deliver a verdict.

Because we’re testing smart home kit all day, everyday, we know what matters and how a particular smart cleaning machine compares to alternatives that you might also be considering.

Our reviews are comprehensive, objective and fair and, of course, we are never paid directly to review a device.

Read our guide on how we test robot vacuum cleaners to learn more.

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