H.Koenig SWRC110 (robot vacuum cleaner with a microfibre mop cloth): our review

A robot can take vacuuming off your list while still leaving you with a small household job: emptying its dustbin. Here, the 500 mL capacity is a useful strength. That is a large robot dustbin, allowing longer intervals between emptying. If dust gathers around the kitchen chairs every day, the practical attraction is less frequent attention to the contents.

Would you rather spend Saturday morning emptying a robot or getting out of the house? We know our answer. The bin still needs clearing, of course, and a capacity figure cannot tell you exactly how often. A home shedding pet hair will fill it differently from a lightly used flat. What we like is the straightforward benefit: more room for collected dirt before another trip to the household bin.

The advertised 100 min battery life gives this robot a decent cleaning run before recharging. For someone hoping to reduce the vacuuming waiting after work, that is a useful starting point. It gives the machine time to contribute to the routine without making every cleaning job your responsibility.

There is a catch. Advertised runtime comes from the gentlest setting; stronger suction or mopping shortens the available run. Nor does time translate directly into a particular area of clean floor. Furniture and the work involved matter, so a house cannot be matched to a runtime figure alone.

For longer cleaning sessions, the SWRC110 is less convincing than the DJI Romo A. The DJI Romo A has higher battery life, making the DJI Romo A better suited if you want to cover the whole home in one go.

Kitchen tiles have a talent for collecting evidence of every meal. The SWRC110 combines vacuuming with a mop function, giving it another useful role when ordinary floor care keeps slipping down the list. Treat that mop as a way to dampen and wipe the floor between more thorough cleans. It does not replace the pressure and persistence you can apply by hand to a stubborn mark.

The 2 side brushes put brushes at the sides of the robot as well as its main cleaning path. That arrangement is relevant around the edges of a room, although the brush count alone cannot promise clean skirting boards. Biscuit crumbs do not read specifications.

For unfinished, waxed or poorly sealed wooden flooring, follow manufacturers’ advice and check that the surface tolerates moisture before using a mop.

A school bag beside the dining table and a charging cable trailing from the sofa can complicate an otherwise ordinary cleaning day. No-go zones give you a way to mark areas as off limits, useful when part of the room needs to stay outside the cleaning route. Before a run, follow manufacturers’ instructions and clear cables, socks and small objects from the floor.

Want some control without turning floor care into another hobby? App compatibility adds a connected option, while the boundaries give this model a practical point of appeal. Those features help make the SWRC110 well placed overall in our assessment.

The app’s precise controls are not specified: check that it supports the functions you actually want before ordering. A useful boundary and a roomy bin are tangible reasons to consider this robot; an assumed set of app extras is not.