What do you get when you combine high tech navigation and long battery life?Let me introduce the RX1 Scout, Miele’s first robotic vacuum cleaner. Miele claims that the lithium ion battery will enable this to clean for 2 hours (or 1,600 sq. ft.).The smart navigation system that consists of a camera, a gyro sensor, cliff sensors, and 7 anti-collision sensors allow this robot to clean in a predictable pattern and avoid furniture all together instead of bumping into them.Basically this combines two of the best features of its rivals – the Neato and Roomba.But it getting all these features will cost you literally as this will sell at around $500 (take note that prices will go down in the near future when newer robots come out) – a few hundred more than the top of the line Roomba 980 and Neato BotVac 80.Is it worth the extra $$$? Editor Rating Bare Floor  Carpet  Pet Hair Removal  Ease of Use  Overall  Price
First let’s talk about the navigation features. It has a number of sensors and an onboard camera to guide it around and avoid obstacles.

Its main eyes are the camera located on the top of the robot that maps the ceiling to monitor its position to make sure it does not miss spots.This camera works in combo with a gyro sensor that measures rotation to make sure that the robot goes in the right direction.To avoid colliding with objects, it has 7 anti-collision sensors around the sides.Underneath it are cliff sensors that prevent this from falling off “cliff” areas like stairs.To clean it uses a combination of two side brushes, a motorized brush and suction to pick up dirt.Take note that this isn’t a replacement for a corded vacuum, even Miele is careful to point this out.Like what I’ve said in the features section, Miele uses a myriad of sensors to help this robot navigate around different obstacles in a room.The main “eyes” is the camera on top that uses the ceiling to map its position and check if it has missed spots.A gyro sensor then makes sure that it turns in the right direction when it encounters and obstacle like a chair.

Here’s a demo how it navigates…Sorry can’t find any demo similar to this in English so this will do for now. As you can see it is pretty systematic in how it cleaned but it isn’t perfect.Out of the six tests it was able to pass 3 of them – the tests it didn’t pass was not clearing a 5 cm obstacle, it pulled the cable of a lamp and it wasn’t able to go through an aisle.aeg vacuum cleaner partsIt has 5 cleaning modes.vacuum cleaner parts little rock arAuto mode – the robot will map out the navigation on its own and clean a room or multiple rooms, up to 1,600 square feet before going back to home base for recharging.vacuum cleaner first austriaHere’s how it will work on auto mode…Corner mode – similar to the auto mode but robot will only clean corners and edges.

Spot mode – cleans a 6 square foot area, great for spot cleaning.Turbo mode – similar to the auto mode but it does it in half the time.Remote mode – allows you to control the robot like an RC car.Oh one more thing, the camera assisted navigation will not work well on poorly lit areas, you can turn off the lights but it will not be as efficient and will miss more spots.It has enough suction to clean well in hard surfaces. The main issue is if the navigation system will allow it to go pick up every bit of debris that’s scattered on the floor.In this demo, 100 grams of what looks like saw dust was scattered around a room to test if the RX1 scout would be able to pick up every gram of it…It was able to pick up 78 grams out of the 100 grams which is pretty good.The key takeaway from this test is that even with the smart navigation system, it still missed some spots in a rather empty room efficiency could be less in a room with more clutter.Here’s another test, this time 50 grams of sugar on a tiled surface…

It was able to pick up 25 grams out of the 50 and it missed most of the sugar on the upper right corner, again it missed spots.In this test, 50 grams of sugar was dumped in different areas on low/medium pile carpet to test how it performed on carpet.It was only able to pick up 20 grams out of the 50 so tells you that even with the advanced navigation it still will miss spots here and there.Take note that don’t rely on this as your primary vacuum cleaner but use it as a supplementary cleaner as it will not deep clean carpet.A demo on how it’ll pick up paper shreds…Miele says that this would have no trouble climbing a rug up to 2 centimeters thick. As for cleaning performance, don’t expect this to be a deep cleaning machine for rugs.It’ll do well to pick up surface dirt but will struggle with large and heavy debris.Here’s a surface test, the left most is a plush rug…On hard wood surfaces, it does a good job pick up loose hair scattered around.The brushes have a tendency to fling stuff around as you’ll see here…

Ok it isn’t exactly pet hair but I just wanted to show you how it did picking up hair strands.On carpet, consumers have been happy on how much pet hair it was able to pick up on carpet.Again this is by no means a deep cleaner only a maintenance in-between deep cleaning session robot vacuum.Yes it does have scheduled cleaning but it is limited, you can only be set it to automatically clean on its own at the same time every day whereas the Roomba and Neato gives you the flexibility to set it on different times each day.Miele does not specify how long it needs take to charge this but it does have an indicator light that tells you roughly how much battery is left. If light is red there is roughly 0-20% battery left, in orange it’s around 20-50% capacity, and on green it’s 50-100%.Miele does provide you with a cleaning brush to remove hair and dust bunnies off the motorized brush. The brush tool also is to be used to clean the filter and it has to be replaced every 3 months so that performance will not degrade.

Here’s another way of emptying the filter…On a full charge this should run at least 120 minutes.Miele does not specify how long the warranty is but according to an online retailer Achoo Allery, it comes with a 2 year warranty on the robot and a year for the battery, twice longer than the Roomba or Neato.A lot of the people who left reviews are Amazon Vine customers – they receive the product for free in exchange of a review.From what I’ve read this robot isn’t a deep cleaner but only a surface cleaner that would be best utilized for in-between clean ups, great to use so that dirt and dust don’t pile up. Some have complained that the suction power is weak though it is quiet, a trade off you need to consider before buying this.The navigation system while very high tech isn’t without its flaws. While it has a more predictable pattern than the Roomba, there are complaints about it getting stuck under furniture and bumping into furniture legs.It also wasn’t able to detect the presence of a cloth window shade and bumped into the glass window.

Consumers mentioned that you’ll have to clear clutter of the floor like toys and move your pets to another room or it’ll have a hard time navigating.If you’re using this to clean pet hair, make sure to clean the motorized brush so it does not clog.Overall, a lot of consumers say that this is more of a sweeper than a vacuum and while the navigation is good, there are some flaws that could be improved upon.The best deal I found online is on Amazon where this can be had for just under $500 and it comes with Free Shipping!This product would be great for people who have extra money to spare for a high tech good looking robot vacuum but you have to know the limitations of this.Even with the high tech navigation system that avoids bumping into furniture, it does miss spots here and there, more so on carpet.It is faster than a Roomba and battery lasts longer than a Neato so in these two areas so it has a leg up against in these two areas.Despite having edge cleaning mode, it won’t do as well on edges as a Neato BotVac because the motorized brush isn’t as wide and the two side brushes aren’t up to the task.