The Samsung Jetbot+ is the self-emptying version of their newest Jetbot robovac. The Jetbot+ is controlled via the Samsung SmartThings app. The design is a big departure from the now discontinued Powerbot. The design brings together a look that is reminiscent of other robovacs on the market like offerings from Roomba and Shark (among others). I have robovacs from Roomba, Neato, Shark, and Deebot so I have pretty good familiarity with them and I know what I should expect out of them.
Design and Features
The Jetbot+ departs from its predecessors D-shaped design and returns to the recognizable round robovac shape. It measures in at 13.75Ø” x 3.9”. The cleaning path (roller head width) is 6” while its side brush collects debris along the edge. The overall look of the robot can be easily described as clean and precise. The robot itself feels fairly lightweight even though it is slightly larger than some of my other robovacs. The robot design features a single edge brush that works to sweep debris to the roller. There’s only a couple of controls located on the robovac body – start/stop button, a return home button, and the main power switch. On top of the main body is the LIDAR transmitter that the vacuum uses to navigate and map your house. The docking station on the Jetbot+ incorporates a self-emptying design. It’s a taller design – similar to the Roomba i7+ that popularized this setup a few years ago. The tower that makes up the dock is a little over 20 inches tall. This taller design can impact where you locate the vacuum since it may not fit under some things. The external dustbin in the dock has a 2.5L capacity which significantly expands the somewhat small 0.3L dust compartment
This is my 5th robovac, and in my experience the app interface and workability can greatly affect your experience with the machine. I initially tried to setup the Jetbot+ with my LG V40 through the SmartThings app. I was not able to connect to the vacuum at all – I have ran into issues with this phone setting up other items, but I have always been able to connect after a little fiddling. I had to get my partner to assist via her new S22+. She was able to set it up immediately and configure it on the WiFi. Once setup in the app both of us ran into issues getting the app to communicate with the robot. I just manually started the Jetbot+ with the button on the machine, and it started mapping/vacuuming. After this run we started to get updates via the app. It was really weird – it took 2 times of running the Jetbot+ for it fully communicate with both of our phones, and even my Tab S8 Ultra. It was odd that the Samsung devices didn’t have a perfect pairing right away. Maybe updates were running in the background affected its communication?
After overcoming this hurdle, controlling the Jetbot+ is done solely through the SmartThings app. We can use it on our phones, the tablet, and even through my partner’s Galaxy Watch 4+. The controls on the watch are a lot more slimmed down, but it was fun to see. Inside the app you can configure all of your settings, label rooms on the map, set no-go, zones, and scheduling. The app also pushes notifications to give you status updates – like it being stuck, battery ran low, or it finished cleaning. You can view its location in real time, which I found to be really awesome. You can see the path it has taken and what areas are still up for cleaning. You can tell it to clean a particular room or set of rooms and it follows the instructions without issue.
Cleaning
Cleaning is easy to setup. You have 3 levels of suction – normal, smart, and max. Smart mode toggles the cleaning power depending on the surface detected – a carpeted surface we get a higher suction setting than a hard floor. There’s another 3 movement patterns to choose from where the Jetbot+ can start with the walls/perimeter and then do the middle, or save the walls for last. The final mode is a zig zig pattern that eventually covers the area. We used the smart suction mode and used the mode to clean all the area first and then do the walls. You can also choose to set the Jetbot+ to clean until it runs out of power in order to get a deeper clean. The vacuum routinely makes a stop or 2 during cleaning to empty thanks to a shedding husky. We have it on a floor with mostly hard floors, but a couple area rugs and a carpeted room. Cleaning time seems to max out at about 1.5 hours when its ran until the battery is depleted. Otherwise it takes about 50-60min to do a full clean of the floor which is about 480 ft2.
Performance wise the Jetbot+ seems to do a good job on hard floor picking up stray pet fur and dirt. It was able to pick up small rocks, and cereal crumbs. I didn’t toss a lot of larger items for it to pick up, but it seemed to be on par with my other robovacs. On carpet it again did a nice job. I didn’t notice much in the way of debris being left behind. However, it did have some issues with the debris along the wall in the carpeted room. Since the roller brush sits between the wheels it relies on the side brush to sweep things into it. Unfortunately things like pet hair and other stubborn debris aren’t easily cleaned up by the side brush on carpet. This is an issue I have found with the round robovacs where the roller brush doesn’t extend to the edge. My Neato D7 is the only robovac I have that doesn’t have this shortcoming due to its full width brush and “D” shape. The round shape also works against the robovac in corners, which is a shortcoming of any round robovac.
Maneuverability of the Jetbot+ was great. It handle small obstacles like cords and kitchen/bath rugs without any issue. I think it actually handles the bath rugs better than any of the other robovacs I have – it doesn’t seems to push them around or scrunch them up like the others, which is a relief. Object detection and avoidance was solid as well. It did a great job of navigating around small obstacles like a mechanical pencil or small toys/figurines. I can even see in the maps where it circled around the objects during its cleaning cycle. Walking around or moving things on the Jetbot+ doesn’t trip it up at all. It handled the edge of the steps without issue and had no issue crossing any thresholds or up onto the area rugs.
Other Observations
Cleaning the rollers is pretty easy to accomplish. There is a cleaning guideline that you can easily follow in order to maintain your vac. Changing the filter is also straightforward – pull out the dustbin and the paper filter is under a flap. The dustbin can be rinsed out for easy cleaning as well.
There are a couple of extra parts included – an extra side brush, an extra filter, extra dustbin bag, and magnetic boundary marker. I didn’t need to use the boundary marker, but it’s a simple and easy way to cordon off an area without having to mess with your app boundary settings.
The LIDAR works really well for mapping. By far the fastest I have ever had a robovac map my house. I was able to watch it in action by checking in on one of my home cameras at night – the nighttime infrared camera picked up the LIDAR beams as it navigated around.
I have a Google Home ecosystem setup, so it was important to me that it worked well with Google Assistant. It was very responsive to commands (once I figured out the keywords). Since my partner has invested herself in Samsung’s ecosystem with the S22+ and the Watch 4+ she was able to try out the integration with Bixby and get the most out of the SmartThings ecosystem. Both Google and Bixby worked well and provided us other avenues of controlling the Jetbot+.
Overall, I have really liked the Jetbot+. The initial impression with the app was not so great, but that could be due to my device? After the first few hours it started behaving normally and has since worked like a champ. We have had zero issues after the initial setup. Performance wise it seems to do a nice job on the hardfloors and carpeted areas. It hasn’t had any issues traversing the house, avoiding objects, or getting caught up. The app interface works well and I really appreciate the path tracking that the app displays. This is a well made device that fits in well with Samsung’s ecosystem of products.