iLife V3s Pro: Great Power and Straightforward Manual Control
The iLife V3s robotic vacuum cleaner is a low-cost Roomba’s product. It’s designed only for cleaning hard floors and very low-pile carpets. This model lacks smart features and mapping but it’s powerful enough to make the room perfectly clean.
Dimensions
This model is a low-profile device (3 inches), but the lid is slightly raised above the cabinet that adds to the Roomba about 0.3 inches. The robot is quite small (11.8 x 11.8 inches) and it’s lightweight (4.5 pounds). The dust bin is small (300ml) that requires frequent emptying (every 20 minutes on average).
Features
The iLife V3s Pro robotic vacuum is designed with the 3-stage cleaning for maximum performance. The side rotating brushes collect the dirt from the floor, deliver it to the suction tube, and then the robot sucks it into the bin.
This model does its job on the hard floors and shows great power. It clears all small and large debris no worse than the most expensive models and its edge cleaning is seamless. The robot removes a portion of dirt (approximately) on the low-pile rugs, but it can’t handle pet hair at all. On the hard floors, it copes with hair perfectly and the latter doesn’t get tangled in the suction hole.
The iLife V3s has random navigation. So, it misses spots sometimes and might pass the already clean zone several times. This product senses the stairs and doesn't fall down. The V3s also has sensors to detect obstacles.
It keeps running until it’s battery is almost completely dead. Then, it returns to the docking station. Sometimes it cannot find its way back to the home base at the first attempt and wanders a bit before figuring out the base’s placement.
The iLife V3s comes with 3 modes – whole floor, edge, and spot cleaning. It's possible to control this model via remote – to choose cleaning mode, to send the vacuum to the charging station, and direct it to a certain spot or zone in the room. There’s no opportunity to program this model since it has neither a dedicated app nor Wi-Fi capability.
The unit is claimed to run 110 minutes on a full charge, but it depends on the type of surface and the amount of dirt and debris the robot has to pick up. In my iLife V3s review, I have to say that this vacuum doesn’t come with any barriers like magnetic tape to keep it from going into restricted areas. That’s why it gets stuck quite often. When it happens, the robot starts beeping loudly to inform about the problem.
Design
This model comes without a standard brush roll but with just a 3-inch suction port instead. Its two side brushes are very long. It has a white silicone strip at the side of the white plastic cabinet beneath the infrared sensors to protect the robot from damage when it bumps into the obstacles.
The container sits in the center of the vac. There is a button on the top to click it and open the lid to remove the dustbin. The robot has two retractable wheels to provide its flawless transition from hard floor to rugs and vice versa.
There is a remote, an automatic docking charge, the V3s guide, power cable, two extra side brushes, and one cleaning brush in the package.
Conclusion
The iLife V3s Pro is a wise purchase for people on a budget that have no carpets at home. The robot’s suction is close to high-end models’ power, but it requires constant attention because of the only possible manual control. This Roomba moves under furniture easily and even a child can carry it around the house.
