ILIFE A30 Pro (robot vacuum cleaner Mopping with LiDAR navigation): our review

Coming home from work to find yesterday's dust still waiting is a fairly poor welcome. The A30 Pro offers a useful way to organise that chore: advertised battery life of 180 min, which means a long cleaning run with scope to tackle several rooms. That gives you room to plan around the kitchen, sitting room and hallway, rather than thinking only about a quick sweep around the table.

The recommended maximum coverage of 120 m² points towards a family flat or bungalow. Keep those figures separate, though. Advertised runtime comes from the gentlest setting, and stronger suction or mopping shortens it. Maximum coverage usually allows for charging stops, rather than promising the whole floor in an uninterrupted run.

Recharge and resume is included, so a charging break need not leave the remaining rooms abandoned. We rate this model as well placed overall. Its appeal is practical: give routine dust a place in the schedule before it claims your Saturday.

A dining area scattered with crumbs after an afternoon snack needs cleaning; the corner holding an unfinished model railway probably does not. LiDAR navigation and no-go zones give the A30 Pro tools for organising that distinction. You can set boundaries around spaces you want left out of a cleaning run. That is a useful feature when a room serves several purposes.

Multi-floor mapping also makes this model relevant to a house with several storeys. Stored maps help organise different levels, although moving the robot between them remains your job. A map cannot carry anything upstairs. Nor should mapping be confused with a promise about crossing the thresholds between rooms.

Before a run, follow manufacturers' preparation advice and clear socks, charging cables and small objects from the floor. Would a quick tidy before leaving for work fit your routine? If so, these mapping features have a sensible role in keeping the cleaning organised.

The auto-empty station is the feature most likely to change the daily routine. Returning from work already brings enough small jobs: sorting dinner, opening the post and finding wherever the school jumper has gone. Giving collected dust a route out of the robot without making every return to the dock your cue to intervene is a useful convenience.

There is a catch. The onboard dustbin holds 200 mL, a small container that needs attention when pet hair accumulates. The station and the robot have separate containers, so automatic emptying does not turn the onboard bin into a larger space. For a home where hair gathers quickly, that distinction belongs near the top of your buying decision.

Plan somewhere accessible for the dock. Its footprint is not supplied, so ask the retailer for the dimensions before allocating a narrow gap beside a cupboard. A station should fit your room as comfortably as it fits your routine.

Kitchen tiles and a living room carpet ask different things of a robot. The A30 Pro includes a mop function and carpet detection, which makes both relevant to your decision. Carpet detection does not establish that the mop lifts clear of a rug. Keep that distinction in mind when planning a route through mixed flooring.

For hard floors, think of the mop as a damp wipe within the cleaning routine. Dried food around the dining table may still call for your attention; this specification gives no basis for promising the scrubbing action of mopping by hand. Before using moisture on unfinished, waxed or poorly sealed wood, follow manufacturers' advice to check that the floor can tolerate it.

What about the dog hair woven into the sitting room rug? Carpet detection alone says nothing about how thoroughly that hair will be collected. We would choose this model for its organised maintenance features, with realistic expectations about stubborn carpet debris.

Extra bedrooms and a hallway that seems to collect dust overnight make coverage worth thinking about before choosing. The Cecotec Conga Y60 Pearl has higher maximum coverage of 200 m², making it better suited to a large house. That gives a sprawling layout a clearer alternative to consider.

The Cecotec Conga Y60 Pearl also has a higher dustbin capacity of 350 mL, giving collected debris more room onboard. The Cecotec Conga Y60 Pearl has higher advertised battery life of 200 min, which offers more time for cleaning at the gentlest setting. None of that turns runtime into a promise of floor coverage per charge.

The Cecotec Conga Y60 Pearl is better rated overall, too. For the A30 Pro, the clearest case remains a manageable home where automatic emptying, room boundaries and a mop function answer your everyday needs. Think about the rooms you actually have, including the awkward stretches you would otherwise vacuum yourself.