Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Vacuums and mops
- Compact charging station
- Turbo mode
- Mops large areas without refilling
Cons
- Not effective on mid-pile carpet
- No automatic emptying
- Doesn’t recognise carpet when mopping
Our Verdict
There are some useful features packed into Aeno’s RC2S: a large water tank for lots of mopping, controls for the basics so you don’t have to pick up a device, and plenty of app functionality. However, in other ways, it’s limited: you’ll have to tell it not to mop rooms with carpets, it can get stuck easily, and it’s limited to either mopping or vacuuming, not both simultaneously.
Smart home appliance maker Aeno offers products as diverse as sous vide and electric toothbrushes but one of its specialities is keeping your floors clean.
Its robot vacuum cleaner RC2S is one of four robot vacs offered by the brand (the RC3S has the same spec but is in black), and packs in everything you’d expect – app control, Lidar room mapping and a boosted suction mode – as well as some you might not, such as mopping and chunky wheels for climbing obstacles. Other highlights include a compact charging base that’s anything but a floor hog, and spoken alerts that tell you what it’s about to do.
Design and Build
- Low profile at 9.6cm
- Compact base
- 0.6L dustbin swaps out for 350ml mopping module
White and glossy, Aeno’s Robot Vacuum Cleaner RC2S follows a standard robot vac build in terms of its round shape, nimble weight (2.87kg) and dimensions (Dia33 x D9.6cm). Still, there are some notable design features. Flip it over and you’ll find a pair of chunky wheels with a tread, so it can climb onto rugs and carpet from hard flooring, two spinning brushes and a brush bar.
Turn it the right way again and there’s the option of manual controls courtesy of buttons: one to start or stop it cleaning, another to send it back to the base to charge. The charging dock itself is pleasingly compact, measuring H8 x W13 x D13cm, so it takes up less floor space.
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
However, it’s the mopping module that is probably of most note. It swaps in in place of the 0.6-litre dustbin to turn it from a robot vac into a robot mop, complete with a removable, washable pad. Unusually, this has a generous capacity – 350ml – giving it the potential to mop up to 150 sq m of hard flooring before needing a refill.
The charging dock itself is pleasingly compact
The level of mopping can be varied from low to high, as can the suction power, which ranges up to 2500 Pa when in Turbo mode. Another plus is the inclusion of replacement brushes, Hepa filter and a second mop pad, so you can keep cleaning when one has become dirty.
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Performance, App and Features
- App could be more user-friendly
- Voice control options
- Much stronger on hard flooring than on carpets
Being able to start and stop cleaning without a smartphone to hand is definitely a good thing with Aeno’s RC2S – because you may run into connectivity issues with the app as we did. It’ll only run using 2.5GHz, so initially rejected the combined signal from our router, and required some troubleshooting.
Once the robot vac was connected, things ran more smoothly, although not flawlessly. For example, rather than dividing a kitchen and hallway at the doorway, the mapping made the kitchen a perfect rectangle and allocated part of the kitchen space to the hall. While you can split, merge and name rooms (or run the mapping a second time to try and correct errors), there doesn’t appear to be an option to relocate the boundaries between incorrectly divided spaces.
You’ll have to dig around in the app to find the features you want as it’s not always obvious. For instance, the cleaning schedule, which you might alter semi-regularly, is hidden under settings, which isn’t a natural place to look.
Other features aren’t clearly named, such as Pin and Go, which provides a targeted metre-square clean to wherever you drop a pin on the map. It’s a handy feature but risks being ignored given that there’s no explanation of what it does. It could also be redundant as you can choose a zoned clean, which is pretty much the same other than the size of the area is flexible.
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
There was plenty to like though: the RC2S found its base straight away rather than trundling around, and you can control its direction from the app with arrow buttons if you want to send it a specific way. You can also set ‘virtual walls’ or restricted spaces if you prefer to keep it out of a space, and it’s compatible with voice control.
We tested it by vacuuming both hard and soft floors (a medium-pile carpet), as well as mopping. We used flour to represent dust and oats as particles of debris, and set it to clean the specific area twice.
You’ll have to dig around in the app to find the features you want as it’s not always obvious
On the hard floor, a small patch of flour was left behind but otherwise it had good pick-up. It was a similar result with oats: a few were flicked around but majority were picked up. It was, however, less successful on carpet.
While dust removal was initially good, flour that hadn’t been sucked up into the bin tended to drop off the brush bar back onto the carpet. Some smaller particles of oats were left behind, while again, a few dropped out.
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Mopping performance was good on recent dirt, although stuck-on food was left behind, and we had to set it not to mop the carpeted room. However, the biggest issue was that while the mop pad was attached, it was prone to getting stuck. It became stuck on a doormat more than once before we had to remove it. We were surprised that once rescued, the robot vac didn’t resume its task – something you’ll have to tell it to do from the app.
It was fairly slow to charge. You’ll need to allow five hours to charge it from flat, and although mopping uses little power, the Turbo vacuuming mode does. This is also quite noisy at around 65dB.
We found post-cleaning maintenance to be more involved than with some rivals. While the dustbin slides out to be emptied, there are no arrows showing you how to open it. And if you’re mopping, the pad must be washed and dried, and the module aired out.
Price and Availability
In the UK, the Aeno robot vacuum RC2S has an RRP of £399.99 but is generally available for less. You can buy it from Amazon for £382.82 or from Appliance House for £369. It’s not available in the US.
Robot vacuums are expensive and, for its feature set, this one is pretty well-priced. It lacks the advanced settings you’ll find on pricier models but if you have a lot of tiled or vinyl flooring, it’s an economical and easy way to keep it clean.
Not the right robot vacuum for you? Have a look at our round-up of the best robot vacuums we’ve tested for more recommendations.
Should you buy the Aeno RC2S?
Aeno’s RC2S is a robot vac of two halves. While it performs well in some areas, you’d expect a more seamless user experience and fewer compromises for its price. For example, many robot vacs aren’t great on deeper carpets, but others recognise them and ramp up the suction, and avoid getting them wet automatically. That said, if you have large areas of hard flooring, the RC2S’s targeted and scheduled cleaning could be invaluable for both spills and everyday sweeping.
