A clever and expandable robot vacuum cleaner, the SwitchBot S10 has a self-empty station for dirt and a mopping station that automatically fills the robot’s mopping tank and drains dirty water. It’s a touch fiddly to get the two docks set up and configured, but they offer hands-free cleaning for up to two months.
Vacuuming is good, and mopping over open ground is exceptional, but edge performance lets the side down, and there are better overall robots at this – quite lofty – price.
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Automatic water and drainage -
Powerful mopping over open ground -
Decent vacuuming
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Weak edge cleaning -
Two docks adds complexity -
Expensive
SwitchBot S10: Introduction
- Type: Robot vacuum cleaner with mopping
- Docking: Dock option that plumbs in to water and wastage
- Navigation system: LiDAR
SwitchBot is a company that I have a lot of time for, creating products that are different from anyone else’s and genuinely doing things differently.
That approach certainly applies to the SwitchBot S10 robot vacuum cleaner, which has a plumbed-in docking station so it can fill and empty itself automatically.
Unlike the likes of the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra and the Yeedi Mop Station Pro, which do some of the dirty work for you by draining dirty water from the cleaner and replacing it with clean water from a tank, but still require you to empty and fill the tanks periodically, the SwitchBot S10 takes care of all your water needs.
That’s because it comes with a Water Station that, just as a dishwasher or washing machine already does in your house, hooks directly up to your cold water feed and your drains.
When it was first announced back in September last year at IFA, there was nothing quite like it on the market but Roborock now offers plumbed-in dock options with the likes of the S8 MaxV Ultra and Qrevo Slim, and other brands have also introduced it to their line-ups.
Combined with the regular self-empty station, SwitchBot says the S10 can go for two months without any manual intervention.
With add-on devices, including a humidifier and dehumidifier, this S10 is more than just a robot vacuum cleaner; it’s a helper that helps maintain indoor air quality.
At its best it’s very good, but a slightly complicated setup routine and some fiddly configuration options do hold it back slightly.
Read our full SwitchBot S10 review to find out more.
Design and components
It’s not unusual to see a robot vacuum cleaner with a self-empty and self-clean docking station, such as the Dreame L40 Ultra or Roborock Qrevo Slim. The SwitchBot S10 mixes things up by having two separate docking stations.
The main one is the self-empty station, which looks much like those from any other manufacturer.
This takes massive 4-litre bags, which are easily enough for two months’ worth of dirt, if not more. Replacements are $15 / £15 for pack of four, which works out as pretty good value.
There’s then the separate mopping station, which is designed to sit underneath a kitchen cupboard door in front of the plinth.
This docking station is plumbed in to your water supply, for fresh water and drainage, and it can be filled with detergent to boost cleaning power. There’s no need for power, as the SwitchBot S10 provides this when it docks, topping up the docking station’s battery.
Just be aware that the docking station may come with a flat battery, which prevents the robot from finding it after initial setup. I had to manually charge my mopping station via its USB-C port to get it working, which the manual doesn’t mention.
If you don’t have an easily accessible drain and water outlet, SwitchBot sells an optional add-on kit for the mopping station that adds water tanks.
At $80 / £80 this add-on is quite expensive, and it means that you end up with two bulky docks to place rather than one. If you’re not going to use the plumbed-in option, a robot that has an all-in-one dock makes a lot more sense.
As the SwitchBot S10 uses the mopping station to fill with fresh and empty dirty water, the robot can do some clever things with the optional add-ons: the humidifier and dehumidifier.
With the humidifier, the SwitchBot S10 can fill its tank up with fresh water and then automatically top up the humidifier’s tank; with the dehumidifier, the robot can empty the tank and pump the water out into via your drainage pipes.
That’s a very clever idea if you fancy either device and don’t want to have to do any manual maintenance.
The main robot vacuum cleaner is similar to many others, with a LiDAR dome on top and buttons to start a clean and return to the dock.
There’s also a camera on the front, which is used with AI to avoid common obstacles, with varying degrees of success.
Inside there’s a small bin, which can be removed so that you can clean it out and also wash the filter.
Underneath, there’s the familiar sight of a side brush and a main brush bar for agitating and removing dirt from hard floors and carpets.
Rather than microfibre mopping pads, the SwitchBot S10 has a roller. Fresh water is put onto the roller, and then a squeegee removes dirt and water and stores them in a separate tank. It’s a similar system to those used by hard floor cleaners and the Eufy Omni S1 Pro.
Here, the SwitchBot S10’s roller isn’t as wide as the S1 Pro’s, and there’s quite a gap between the roller and the edge of the robot.
When a carpet is detected, the roller can be lifted 7mm off the ground, allowing the SwitchBot S10 to pass over a short pile carpet with the danger of getting it wet.
The app
- Lots of cleaning option
- Needs careful adjustment to get the best clean
Control of the SwitchBot S10 is via the SwitchBot app, which is home to all of the company’s products, such as the SwitchBot Lock Pro.
Once detected, the robot needs to go on a mapping run to discover its surroundings, automatically putting in rooms based on where it thinks they should go.
If the robot gets things wrong, rooms can easily be split and merged, and there’s the option to set no-go zones if there are places you don’t want the SwitchBot S10 to go, and no-mop zones if you have delicate floors you don’t want to get wet.
After the mapping run, I had to draw a box around the rough location where the mopping station was, and then the SwitchBot S10 goes out to find it.
As mentioned before, make sure that the mopping station has enough power, or the S10 will fail to find it and will throw up an error.
Multiple maps are supported, but if you want the SwitchBot S10 to mop on multiple floors, you’ll need multiple mopping stations.
Before getting into cleaning, it’s worth going into the advanced settings. I found out that Reduce Collision Mode was turned on, which has the explanation: “Once turned on, your robot will avoid cleaning corners and edges in the map.”
It’s hard to think why such a mode would be useful. When I have a robot vacuum cleaner, I want it to clean everywhere.
Cleaning options include selecting one or two passes, a choice of four suction settings and two water mopping levels, and these can be set for all rooms or you can vary the settings on a room-by-room basis.
There are also options to vacuum only or vacuum and mop at the same time.
For cleaning, I could select the SwitchBot S10 to select the entire map, rooms of my choice or a zone that I drew on the map.
Performance
- Powerful vacuuming
- Deep mopping
- Edge cleaning isn’t very good
There’s 6500Pa suction power on tap, which places the SwitchBot S10 as a solid mid-range vacuum cleaner.
That shows in everyday cleaning, particularly on carpet: lighter spills and general mess are collected easily, but the robot can’t suck dirt deep out of carpet fibres.
I found mopping to be very good out in the open. The roller does a brilliant job of picking up dirt and physically removing the mess. Even the very toughest of stains, such as dried-on ketchup, were removed within four passes.
It’s edge performance that lets the side down. I found that even with the Reduced Collision Mode turned off, the SwitchBot S10 struggled to get close to skirting boards and kitchen plinths, leaving a lot of mess behind. That’s both with vacuuming and mopping, where the small roller leaves quite a big cleaning gap.
Navigation is generally very good, although I found the AI obstacle avoidance to be a bit hit and miss: the SwitchBot S10 managed to avoid my fake pet mess, but ran into a cable and got tangled.
Battery life is rated at 140-minutes on the lowest power setting, but even on higher power settings there’s enough power to coverage an average-sized floor with two passes.
I measured the SwitchBot S10 at 65.8dB, which makes it relatively quiet for a robot. That is you can clearly hear it, but the S10’s not too distracting to have running while you’re in the same room.
Final thoughts
The SwitchBot S10 is certainly different to the competition and it promises a wider hands-free future with the dehumidifier and humidifier.
It’s a decent vacuum cleaner and great mop on the open floor, but it’s not the best at edge cleaning, and having two docks rather than one isn’t necessarily that convenient. At this price, the slightly cheaper Dreame L40 Ultra is a better overall robot vacuum cleaner.
How we test
When we publish our reviews, you can rest assured that they are the result of “living with” long term tests.
Robot cleaners usually live within an ecosystem, or a range of products that – supposedly – all work in harmony. And they are designed to offer a range of different cleaning options. Therefore, it’s impossible to use a robo cleaner for a week and deliver a verdict.
Because we’re testing smart home kit all day, everyday, we know what matters and how a particular smart cleaning machine compares to alternatives that you might also be considering.
Our reviews are comprehensive, objective and fair and, of course, we are never paid directly to review a device.
Read our guide on how we test robot vacuum cleaners to learn more.
