Wait, You Can Use It in the Entryway or Upstairs? SwitchBot Just Created a “Portable Robot Vacuum”
Hi to everyone who spends their days cleaning up after their robot vacuums — I’m Hide, tech journalist and part-time house-husband. I brought home the SwitchBot K10+, the one everyone’s talking about for being tiny. My main robot is a NARWAL Freo, so this is my backup.
I also have two Roombas back from my parents’ place for repairs because they weren’t working right, so right now there are four robot vacuums in our 50 m² home. Add Loona, Elite Optimus Prime, and ebo, which I’ve introduced before, and I’m living a life buried in robots.
Lots of influencers are pushing the K10+ as “small, so it’s perfect for Japan!” — but there’s more to it than that. Let me explain how I realized its real strength is that you can carry it around and use it anywhere.
The K10+ is incredibly compact compared to other robot vacuums
## Small and space-saving — but that’s not all
Of course, like everyone says, small is good. At this size, even people living alone who never used a robot vacuum before are now realistic customers.
This compact next to a RoombaWhen a woman holds it, it’s easy to see how compact it isIt’s this much smaller than the earlier S1 Plus too
Not just the robot but the base station is small too, so it fits in a little spot in the washroom — handy. It can climb over steps up to 2 cm, so a door frame at the washroom entrance is no problem. And above all, it’s easy to carry around! That’s the K10+’s strength.
Multi-floor support is a big deal! The perfect robot for Japanese houses
You could carry older robots around too if you really tried. But they’re heavy, and I don’t think many people bothered carrying one upstairs just to have it clean. The K10+ breaks through that wall with its features and weight.
Small as it is, the K10+ has seriously good LiDAR mapping
It’s light, so you feel like carrying it around is no big deal — and its Multi-Floor Map feature is excellent.
Isn’t the K10+ the only one that can manage maps for multiple floors?
With it, you can manage multiple floors and areas separated by steps individually, so even when you carry it around, it cleans every corner efficiently. Amazing!
I’ve tried all kinds of robot vacuums, but I never thought to bring one down to the entryway just to clean it.
Carry it over, set it down, hit start — entryway cleanedThe entryway was such a small space that I always cleaned it by hand
But since the K10+ arrived, I’ve been leaving the entryway to it every day. It’s small, so I just carry it over and hit start, and when it’s done, I lift it back up the step and press the home button. It finds the base station on its own and starts charging. So convenient!
The top of the robot comes off, similar to ECOVACS
It even made it back when I moved the base station, which impressed me. My main robot, the Freo, has a fixed base station once it’s mapped, so if you move it, the robot can’t get home. That’s another place I could feel how good its LiDAR and sensors are.
Nothing skimped on in the other features either
Being portable is new, but the basic performance is also excellent. First, it’s super quiet! Once you use it, you won’t be able to go back to other robots.
45 dB is seriously quiet
The Freo is pretty quiet too, and the K10+ is just as quiet while still picking up dirt properly. When I ran one of the Roombas in for repair (the latest one, too... a high-end S9+...) for the first time in a while, it was so loud it startled me. Funny what you get used to...
It also empties dirt into the base station. Small as it is, it really nails the essentials. The robot’s dustbin is smaller along with its size, but if the dirt goes to the station every time, that’s no problem.
The sound of it emptying into the station is loud, as you’d expect, but you can set how long it sucks
## Even a non-vibrating mop cleans surprisingly well
And there’s more. At this size and price, it even mops. It’s cheaper than iRobot’s mopping robot, you know? And it vacuums and mops in one unit… just wonderful.
¥10,000 cheaper than a mop-only robot... seriously disruptive pricing
I know I always end up sounding like I’m bashing iRobot, but this is based on real testing. I used both the S9+ and the Braava jet for almost two years. I bought the S9+ overseas, it stopped working properly, and I bought another one in Japan. I tested it in two places: my home and my parents’ home. The result: it doesn’t clean well. It can’t recognize rooms properly so dirt gets left behind, and the brushes wear down abnormally — the wheels too.
The Braava jet couldn’t leave its station after less than a year because of worn wheels. The water sensor stopped working too, so it would say to add water even when the tank was full. It leaves streaks, and it doesn’t press the pad down hard enough, so dirt is hard to get off, and the vibration isn’t enough either.
These are plain facts. Not bashing. I tested them for years, so I want to tell readers properly.
Wheels ending up like this clearly isn’t right... Older Roombas were solid, but I have big doubts about how well recent Roombas work
The K10+’s mopping uses disposable wet wipes, which is handy, but it doesn’t vibrate and just wipes, so I figured it was a bonus feature. Surprisingly, though, it got even muddy-looking grime in the entryway pretty clean.
BeforeAfterBeforeAfter
Probably because of how good its LiDAR is, it seemed to get things clean by wiping evenly over and over. When it’s done, you just throw the wipe in the trash, so you never have to deal with a mop.
When it’s done, just throw it awayThe mopping parts can be stored under the station’s lid. Smart!
## I want to give one to my parents
It’s small and doesn’t get caught on things easily, and its LiDAR is so good that it works even with clutter around. Add mopping and multi-floor support on top of that, and it’s settled: it’s my gift for my parents’ house.
Until now there hasn’t been a robot vacuum that could efficiently clean a whole house with one unit, but this offers a new solution. What’s amazing about SwitchBot is their company culture: the S1 Plus wasn’t a big hit, but they kept developing and came out with something incredible in the second generation.
Next, if it kept this size but got half as thick, it could get under couches and TV stands, so I’m hoping for that kind of evolution!
