Proscenic Q20 Plus (robot vacuum cleaner): our review

A dog can spend the afternoon asleep and still leave the sitting room looking busy. For that sort of daily upkeep, the Q20 Plus has a promising combination: an anti-tangle main brush, carpet detection and stated suction of 10000 Pa. That places its suction rating among the stronger figures advertised, with a potential advantage when hair settles into carpet.

Would you rather spend the evening picking fluff off the rug or letting a robot handle the routine collection? We like the emphasis on pets, particularly the brush design. Anti-tangle means an effort to reduce wrapped hair, though inspecting and clearing the brush remains part of ownership. The dog has already declined that responsibility.

Manufacturers measure suction differently, so the pressure figure cannot promise a clean carpet. Our overall rating is very favourable. The appeal is practical: regular help with the mess that keeps returning.

The advertised 200 min runtime gives this robot scope to work through several rooms in a long cleaning run. Think of the hallway collecting shoe grit while the dining area gathers crumbs beneath the chairs. Having time to tackle different spaces matters when you want the cleaning to fit around your working day.

That endurance comes from the gentlest setting. Stronger suction or mopping shortens the run, so the figure is no promise about how much of your house gets cleaned between charges. A demanding carpet and a lightly dusty kitchen ask different things of the battery.

In a home with shedding pets, the aim is simple: collect the loose fur before it becomes another weekend chore. Regular cleaning could stop loose dirt becoming the weekend's main event. A long runtime supports that approach, but your choice of settings still needs to match the floors. We would favour a routine built around the areas that collect dirt fastest over an expectation of maximum endurance every time.

LiDAR navigation, multi-floor mapping and no-go zones make this a robot worth considering for a house whose rooms have different jobs. You might want the kitchen included regularly while keeping a corner used for an unfinished craft project outside the cleaning area. No-go zones provide a way to set those boundaries.

Maps for different storeys are supported too. That is useful organisational flexibility for a home spread across floors, although moving the robot between them remains a household task. Mapping is about remembering spaces; it is no promise about negotiating the threshold outside the bedroom.

The specified 3D obstacle detection adds another navigation feature. For everyday preparation, follow manufacturers' advice and pick up charging cables, socks and small objects before a run. App compatibility fits that connected approach to household cleaning. For us, the useful combination is navigation that maps the rooms and boundaries you can set around the spaces you want left alone.

The auto-empty station is a substantial part of this robot's appeal. Collected dust has somewhere to go without you manually emptying the robot after every run. For a home where pet hair builds up quickly, that changes the routine from frequent bin attention to maintaining the station as well as the cleaner.

It still needs looking after. Automatic emptying does not remove brush care or the need to dispose of collected dirt. Give the station a settled position when planning where the robot will live, with room to reach it for maintenance. A convenient home for the dock matters when you want the cleaner to become part of the routine.

Before ordering, check the availability of compatible replacement bags, mop pads and brushes. Read the retailer's warranty and returns terms, and check how to contact after-sales support. These are ordinary ownership questions, but they matter when you want dependable household help rather than a search for the right spare whenever maintenance comes round.

Kitchen tiles beside a carpeted sitting room give a robot different tasks within a short distance. This model includes mopping and carpet detection, but the documentation does not explain the mopping mechanism in detail. Carpet detection alone does not establish whether the mop lifts or stays off the rug.

Are you chiefly looking for help with hair and dry crumbs, or trying to hand over the weekly floor wash? For the former, the anti-tangle brush and emptying station make a coherent package. For the latter, we would favour a robot with an explicitly described washing system. That is the buying distinction that matters here.

Keep a manual mop available for demanding kitchen marks rather than treating the mopping label as a promise of scrubbing. For unfinished, waxed or poorly sealed wooden flooring, manufacturers advise checking that the surface tolerates moisture before using a mop.