I tested the world’s smallest robot vacuum cleaner – it’s powerful, practical and perfect for cosier homes

As Ideal Home's Vacuum Expert, it's literally my job to clean my home with new and innovative models that come to the market. And when news of the SwitchBot K11+ Robot Vacuum Cleaner with Mop - the world's smallest robot vacuum cleaner - landed in my inbox, I knew I had to try it out as a small home dweller.

With limited storage space for big docking stations and bots in my home, I was intrigued to see whether the compact SwitchBot K11+ could compete with the best robot vacuum cleaners out there. And you might be interested to know that it impressed me way more than I thought it would.

In a nutshell

With a docking station that’s just 24cm tall, the SwitchBot K11+ Robot Vacuum with Mop is the world’s smallest robot vacuum. And while this makes it perfect for smaller, more compact homes, I was concerned that a smaller size would limit its cleaning capabilities. However, I was pleasantly surprised after testing it at home for two weeks.

With 6,000Pa of suction power, a 4L dust bag, and an anti-tangle twin side brush that reaches deep into corners and edges, this robot vacuum and mop fits a lot into a small package. During testing, I found that it thrives best on carpets and rugs, offering a deep and impressive clean that even removed embedded pet hair from the fibres of my wool carpets. It’s also a lot more affordable than other options on the market, and the navigation system (coupled with the app) makes it fairly easy to use.

Sadly, it didn’t perform as well on my hard flooring and struggled to tackle smaller debris in one pass, and the ‘mopping’ function is essentially just a wet wipe attached to the bottom of the bot. This is incredibly basic and will disappoint you if you’re looking for a specific robot vacuum mop. If you’re primarily after a robot vacuum for its suction, though, this could be a nice little perk.

All in all, the SwitchBot K11+ is a cheap and cheerful robot vacuum that’ll get the job done in any size house thanks to its large dust capacity and 150-minute run time. But I think it’ll really thrive in smaller houses with limited floorspace for a bigger model.

Specifications

• Max. run time: 150 mins
• Suction power: 6,000Pa
• Bin volume: 4L dust bag
• Mop function: Mop with disposable cloths
• Charge time: 5 hours
• Noise levels: 45dB
• Dimensions: vacuum 24.8×24.8×9.2(cm), docking station 24×18×25(cm)
• Weight: vacuum 2.3kg, docking station 4.2kg
• Compatible with: Apple Home, Alexa, Google Home and Matter

Unboxing, setting up and first impressions

The SwitchBot K11+ Robot Vacuum Cleaner came in a very compact box, and I could instantly understand why it’s called the smallest robot vacuum cleaner in the world.

Looking at it, I couldn’t quite believe that the box housed both the robot itself and the docking station, as I’m used to lugging giant, heavy robot vacuum cleaner boxes through my doorway. But with a combined weight of less than 7kg, it was so easy to carry, and I was eager to open it up.

Everything within the box was encased in either recyclable cardboard or the sometimes-recyclable PE 04 plastic (depending on your local authority). And while the box is small, SwitchBot certainly packs a lot into it. I first removed the robot itself, then pulled out the teeny-tiny docking station - which really is small.

But I quickly realised that the SwitchBot K11+ is somewhat similar to Mary Poppins’ handbag. And while both the bot and the docking station are noticeably smaller and more compact than other models out there - see my water bottle and size 5 trainers to check it out for scale - hidden underneath the lid of the docking station was a whole host of other goodies.

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Included as standard was also a spare 4L dust bag (for reference, my top-rated robot vacuum cleaner, the Eufy Omni E25, only has a 3L dust bag capacity), two side brushes, a 30-pack of disposable mop wipes, a spare filter, and very detailed instructions. So, I instantly felt as though I had everything I needed and would need for the next few months.

With everything out of the box, I then plugged the docking station in, placed it in its new home, and popped the bot onto charge. Then it took only a few minutes to download the app and connect my new friend to it.

With this done, I could then set it on its first mapping mission, and the SwitchBot K11+ took less than 10 minutes to map the entire downstairs of my house. The process was swift and effective, and the resulting map was very accurate. As you can add up to five maps to the app with this model, I then repeated the process upstairs.

Ease of use

I won’t lie and say that the Switchbot app is the most fluid app I’ve used to control a robot vacuum cleaner, but I wouldn’t say it’s bad either. It’s fairly simple in design, allowing you to control everything you need.

You can edit and change your saved maps, set ‘no-go’ zones, create schedules so your robot vacuum can work its magic while you’re at work or even while you’re sleeping, or even set up a ‘Do Not Disturb’ schedule so it doesn’t disrupt you overnight.

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Overall, I found it did what it needed to without being overly complicated or convoluted. I wouldn’t say it’s as user-friendly as other brands - like Shark’s app, for example - but I did find that all of the controls were relatively easy to navigate throughout the testing process.

However, it’s worth noting that this robot vacuum is also smart home accessible, so you can connect it to your Amazon Alexa or Google Home (amongst others) to set up voice controls instead. It’s even one of the few robot vacuums that’s Matter-supported, if that’s what you’re into.

I personally prefer not to use any of these smart features, but I know some people who swear by voice controls for their robot vacuum cleaners.

Performance

With 6,000Pa of suction power, the SwitchBot K11+ isn’t the most powerful robot vacuum cleaner and mop I’ve ever tested, but it’s also not the weakest. So, I was curious to see how it would fare in my home, which has hard flooring and rugs downstairs and carpet upstairs.

And after using it every day for two weeks, I definitely noticed a discrepancy in how well it performed from one floor type to another. On carpets and rugs, this cute and compact robot vacuum surprised me, offering a pickup power that even managed to remove embedded pet hair from between the fibres and no speck of dirt was left untouched.

On hard flooring, though, it struggled a bit more, leaving me a little disappointed by the end result. On many occasions, I had to go back over my hard flooring with my regular vacuum because there was still obvious dirt and dust scattered around.

This was particularly apparent where my hard flooring met my rugs, as the slight lift of the robot vacuum seemed to cause much of the dust and debris to fall out of the bot's bottom. When on the rugs themselves, though, this robot vacuum really shone.

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Of course, the elephant in the room when it comes to this robot vacuum and mop is the mopping ability, which is actually unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Instead of offering permanent mop pads, you attach disposable mop wipes to the bottom of the bot, and it’ll automatically switch itself into mopping mode.

This whole process of removing the mop plate from the inside of the docking station, attaching the wipe and then putting it on the bottom of the bot is a bit of a faff and takes a lot longer than I’d like it to, and the ‘mop mode’ does essentially just drag a wet wipe along the floor. So, it’s pretty basic.

The wipe left a wet trail in its wake, and its colour showed it had picked up some residual dust and dirt from my floors, but after using it a few times, I wasn’t exactly won over and tended to avoid using it unless I had wet spills to clean up.

In terms of navigation, however, I found the SwitchBot K11+ to be fairly good. It followed a similar navigation pattern that many robot vacuums before it had followed - cleaning the perimeter of the area first, before moving into the middle in an up-and-down zig-zag motion. Because of this, I do feel like it offered an all-around clean.

However, I take how we test vacuums at Ideal Home very seriously, which is why we always put review models through more controlled tests to assess both their debris pickup power and their obstacle avoidance.

The first test was the debris test, where I threw flour, coffee grounds, cereal and pet hair on my hard flooring and assessed how well the robot vacuum sucked it up. As mentioned before, the SwitchBot K11+ struggles on hard flooring, and it left a lot of the smaller debris behind. It had no trouble with the pet hair, though. I then repeated the process on the carpet and didn’t have any problems. It picked all of the debris up in one pass and left my carpets cleaner than ever.

To test the mopping ability, I then squirted some tomato sauce onto my hard flooring and let the robot vacuum wipe it up. Despite criticising the basic mopping function, it actually cleaned all of the ketchup in one pass. So, it was surprisingly effective.

However, the unscented wipes didn’t do anything to clean up the sickly-sweet smell of the ketchup, and I was also aware that I have completely flat laminate flooring. I imagine that if I had naturally textured stone tiles, the results wouldn’t be as impressive, as the wipe wouldn’t be able to handle the natural grooves and divots.

The next test was the obstacle test, where I placed a heavy dumbbell in the robot vacuum's path to see how it would handle a disruption. And while it does have PSD side sensors to prevent too much bumpiness, the lack of AI technology meant that the SwitchBot K11+ wasn’t able to successfully spot the dumbbell before it bumped into it.

But as soon as the bumper bar touched the robot vacuum, it started to correct itself and cleaned as much of the area as it could. Now, after two weeks of testing, there are some scuffs and marks on the bumper bar - which you don’t get when you pay extra for a robot vacuum with enhanced AI obstacle avoidance.

The only other thing to note is the size of the bot itself. Sure, the docking station is incredibly compact and perfect for smaller homes, and the bot itself is also small - but it’s not exactly slim. Because of this, it knocked itself on one or two low pieces of furniture in my home. This isn’t a dealbreaker for me, but something to consider.

Cleaning and maintenance

For such a small robot vacuum cleaner, the SwitchBot K11+ holds a lot of dust. It offers a 4L antibacterial dust bag, making it the robot vacuum with the largest dust bag I’ve tested so far.

There is a slight inconsistency in capacity claims: the robot vacuum write-up says it should hold 90 days of dust, while the instruction manual says to replace the dust bag after 70 days. Nevertheless, this is still a very impressive timescale, and after two weeks of testing, I’m nowhere close to filling it up.

You can also adjust the auto-empty dust settings to suit your needs, and choose whether it empties the dust after 60 minutes, 75 minutes or 90 minutes of cleaning. This does differ from many other robot vacuums I’ve tested, as most empty themselves as soon as they get back to the dock. So, I did find myself having to force the emptying function occasionally.

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It’s worth noting that you will need to stock up on new dust bags when the two provided with the robot vacuum are full, but you can buy these from the SwitchBot website for £19.99 for a pack of 4. If we’re saying each bag can take 70 days’ worth of dust, this means it’ll cost you less than £20 every nine months or so, which I think is very affordable.

Alternatively, you could buy the K Series Replacement Kit for 1 year of use, which is £59.99 at SwitchBot. This includes a main brush, two side brushes, five dustbin filters, five dust bags, and a pack of 8 mopping wipes. As SwitchBot advises you to replace the filter every two or three months and replace the brushes every year, this seems like a good deal, too.

In terms of general, everyday maintenance, cleaning the SwitchBot K11+ is fairly straightforward. During testing, I made sure to wipe the sensors and charging contacts every so often with a clean, dry cloth, and I cleaned the front caster wheels by removing them from the robot, giving the wheel and the wheel cavity a wipe, and then reinstalling them.

How does it rate online?

Despite being a relatively new addition to the robot vacuum realm, the Switchbot K11+ is already very highly rated on Amazon. At the time of writing, there are 130 reviews with an average star rating of 4.5 out of 5.

Happy customers praise the little robot vacuum for its compact size and its surprising suction power, and love the fact that it offers a lot for a relatively small price tag. One 5-star review came from a customer who replaced their old SwitchBot K10+ with the newer model and was over the moon with the improvements.

However, some have criticised the ‘smartness’ of the robot vacuum, especially in terms of its obstacle avoidance and its mapping skills.

How does it compare to similar models?

In terms of performance, the SwitchBot K11+ is most similar to the Hoover HG2 Turbo Slim Hydro Robot Vacuum Cleaner, which I also awarded a 4-star review. The suction power of these two robot vacuums is almost identical (although the SwitchBot has an extra 1,000Pa), and I’d say that they’re very similar in terms of size, too.

But some differences may affect your buying decision. The main difference is that the SwitchBot comes with a docking station, so you don’t need to empty it as often. However, the Hoover actually uses a permanent mop pad, which makes it the better option for those with more hard floors in their home. The Hoover model is also cheaper at just £269.

It’s also worth comparing the SwitchBot K11+ to my top-rated robot vacuum cleaner and mop in my guide, the 5-star rated Eufy Robot Vacuum Omni E25. Of course, this model is significantly more expensive at £899 (when it’s not on sale for less), but it is the perfect option for someone who wants an impressive all-rounder.

It offers 20,000Pa of suction power compared to the SwitchBot’s 6,000Pa, and it comes with a rotating mop roller for sparkling clean floors. Because of this, I’d always suggest spending more if you want to use your robot vacuum cleaner at least once a day. If you only want to use it every so often and still plan on vacuuming as normal, a cheaper model like the SwitchBot will suit you better.

Verdict: Should you buy the Switchbot K11+ Robot Vacuum Cleaner with Mop?

I must admit that I wasn’t expecting to be so impressed with the SwitchBot K11+ Robot Vacuum Cleaner with Mop. Of course, as a small home dweller myself, I was enticed by the small size of the docking station and the fact that it wouldn’t take up a huge amount of floor space in a house where this is limited. But I didn’t know it would clean so impressively, either.

For a sub-£400 robot vacuum cleaner, I do think it offers a lot and would be a worthy investment for those who are new to the robot vacuum world and want to start with something a little more basic. I also think it will suit those who have more carpets than hard flooring in their homes.

If you’re looking for something with impressive obstacle avoidance and well-rounded suction power across all floor types, you might find yourself disappointed. And if you’re looking to upgrade to a much smarter, more efficient robot vacuum, I’d suggest taking the plunge and upping your budget.