Robot vacuum decathlon: Does the Mamibot beat my ten-year-old top model?
3/9/2026
Translation: machine translated
Pictures: Michael Restin
Does my Roomba look as old as it is compared to a newer model? The Mamibot ExVac 900S does not overshadow it in every discipline – the senior model can still score points.
First of all: This is not an official robot vacuum test and my name is not Lorenz Keller. My esteemed colleague is constantly testing new products for streaks and smudges and has the corresponding expertise. If you are interested in the high-end segment and the smallest details, he is the right person to talk to – he introduces top model after top model. The latest example:
However, there is not only the cutting edge of technology, but also solid and affordable mass-market products from the mid-range. This is where I come in: I am writing from the perspective of a man who runs an electronic retirement home and still uses an iRobot from 2016.
I am interested in whether a simple, reasonably modern model beats it by a long shot and is worth switching to.
Does that work for you?
Then let's take a look together at what can be found at the very back of Lorenz's cellar (sorry for the bad pun, but it's true!). He gives me the Mamibot ExVac 900S.
The challenger:
It is a device that was not used by Lorenz due to more urgent tests. The Mamibot offers solid basic functions, has a simple mopping mode, and an extraction station. I am pitting it against my model from the Stone Age of robot vacuums. You know, the early phase when GIFs with cats riding on them were still fancy.
The old master:
Back then it was top-notch and I had the feeling that the future was beginning with this new gadget. Fascinated, I watched it drive aimlessly through the apartment. Then it became part of the furniture and did its job largely without complaint. Until today.
Maybe the Mamibot, which has a strange name and is also a good three years old, will convince me. Nevertheless, it should be able to clearly put my old master in its place in a decathlon. Both are competing for the USA, although they were in a training camp parts warehouse in China.
Discipline 1: Orienteering
My old Roomba still doesn't know its way around the apartment after all these years. It just starts driving until it crashes into an obstacle. If that takes a long time, it assumes it's a large room and drives criss-cross for longer accordingly until it declares the room clean. That still works surprisingly well; after its wanderings, coarser dirt has disappeared almost everywhere. Where it shouldn't go, I could set up the battery-operated infrared barriers called "virtual walls" if I still had them. Or just close the doors.
The Mamibot scans the apartment with its Lidar tower and all kinds of sensors. From Lorenz's tests, I know that the best devices create good maps of the surroundings in under ten minutes. The ExVac 900S takes 27 minutes on its first trip and the result does not convince me: It simply assumes a square room and leaves out some areas that it thinks are other rooms. It divides the apartment as creatively as real estate agents – they also always find half-rooms where there are none at all.
Of course, I can adjust everything in the app and improve the floor plan of the apartment. I can also send the Mamibot to specific areas, even on several floors if there were any. It would find its way around there as soon as I had adjusted and saved the map. But I would have to carry it there just like my trusty Roomba – and it is not significantly faster on site with its planned approach either. The advantages are all in the subjunctive, but it gives me more work with the app. Conclusion: No great progress, this discipline ends in a draw.
Roomba: 🥇
Mamibot: 🥇
Discipline 2: Power
The Mamibot vacuums with 4000 Pascals (Pa), which is a joke compared to the up to 42,000 Pa of current top models. Even in the price segment up to 400 francs, you can get significantly more power than the ExVac 900S can offer if you want. However, this is not solely responsible for how clean the floor is afterwards.
I cannot find a corresponding specification for the Roomba 866. It is certainly weaker and also cannot regulate the power depending on the surface. But its counter-rotating rubber rollers still do a good job. They pick up dust on hard floors and hair on carpets just as well as the Mamibot, which has a rotating brush and less direct floor contact.
In the end, the result counts – and that is equally good. In the core discipline of every cleaning robot, I would have expected significant progress, as almost a decade lies between the two devices. In practice, I hardly notice any difference.
Roomba: 🥇🥇
Mamibot: 🥇🥇
Discipline 3: Endurance
At first glance, the Mamibot has more endurance: It can clean over 200 square meters in standard mode and continue independently where it left off after charging. If I lived in Zurich in over 200 square meters without stairs, that would be useful. And I would be so rich that I would buy the robot with a robotic arm for amusement.
In my everyday life, the endurance doesn't make a big difference. My Roomba manages about 80 square meters before it goes to the charging station. Therefore, I have to give this discipline to the Mamibot in fairness. Do I have to? Wait! How do I know that it will still be running in ten years?
The Roomba does, and the battery has never weakened – unlike its mopping twin Braava 390T. That's what I call endurance that is really worth something. Point for the Roomba.
Roomba: 🥇🥇🥇
Mamibot: 🥇🥇
Discipline 4: Obstacle detection
My old Roomba goes about its business just as uncompromisingly as the Argentinians in the World Cup final. It brakes at most very slightly and crashes into the furniture with just barely acceptable force in order to slide along it as long as it can. If it could, it would go through the wall with its head.
The Mamibot, on the other hand, controls the room. It knows where the table legs are and elegantly circles them. With its Lidar tower, it is a bit higher and would just fit under my sofa – however, it thinks it's suspicious that the fabric covering on its underside is sagging a bit.
It seems to detect this and therefore simply doesn't vacuum there, even though it could. Scandal. One of the biggest advantages of a robot vacuum is gone. What use is a helper to me that sees obstacles that aren't there?
The Roomba has no fear, simply storms under the sofa and comes out again on its own in 86 percent of cases. Because there is no "can't" for it and it tries everything, it unfortunately sometimes gets stuck. I regularly lie on my stomach because of both, albeit for different reasons. Nevertheless, the Roomba takes more work off my hands – a robot that immediately turns around at supposed obstacles is of no use to me. Sorry, Mamibot.
Roomba: 🥇🥇🥇🥇
Mamibot: 🥇🥇
Discipline 5: Versatility
The Mamibot can vacuum, vacuum and mop, or just mop. For this, it drags a sad little cloth behind it, which it can moisten from a large water tank. However, the large water supply doesn't bring much, because I have to change the cloth much earlier if the floor isn't already sparkling clean anyway. Because it can't clean it itself. Since it drives simple paths with the cloth, it is more of a damp dusting and not a real added value.
I like it better that I can send it specifically to vacuum: For example, it takes care of the crumbs under the table. The Roomba, on the other hand, cannot do that. With its simple spot function, it just turns a few circles. Maybe I should buy a round table. And give the Mamibot a point for which it didn't have to shine.
Roomba: 🥇🥇🥇🥇
Mamibot: 🥇🥇🥇
Discipline 6: Climbing
Both have a similar undercarriage. They are not climbing artists and try to shake themselves over obstacles with their flexibly suspended main wheels. These must be a maximum of two centimeters high, otherwise they have no chance. Both manage tight cables or carpet edges; the Mamibot even fails a bit earlier at right-angled edges.
If the mopping cloth is also mounted, almost nothing works anymore. Since the thresholds to the rooms are too high for me, neither can clean the entire apartment in one go. If that is important to you and you have thresholds, you are equally poorly served with both devices. Classic draw.
Roomba: 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇
Mamibot: 🥇🥇🥇🥇
In this point, too, the technology is already much further along. More expensive models get over five-centimeter-high thresholds and the first ones are preparing to overcome entire stairs.
Discipline 7: Data protection
In this point, my old Roomba is unbeatable: It has no app, uses no Wi-Fi, and sends nothing outside. Nevertheless, it can be programmed like an alarm clock with a few buttons for specific cleaning times and days. That's enough for me!
Since many people feel the same way and want to keep the details of their apartment to themselves, it is clear that the senile senior takes this point. It has no idea where it is and just does its thing. Such a thing can no longer be found in newer models: "Strictly speaking, you cannot operate any current robot vacuum model without data protection concerns," writes Lorenz in this article on the topic.
This also applies to the Mamibot. I control it via the app of the same name, which knows my email address and my location. In addition, it has the (incorrect) floor plan of the apartment, knows when the robot is working, feels at home in my Wi-Fi, and sends the data to the server infrastructure of Tuya in China. Unlike many more expensive models, it is at least not equipped with cameras.
Roomba: 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇
Mamibot: 🥇🥇🥇🥇
Discipline 8: Volume
The Roomba vacuums at approximately 58 decibels (dB) at the same level all the time. In addition, it makes noise when it repeatedly thunders against furniture. The Mamibot is slightly quieter in quiet mode and avoids obstacles. In return, it turns up the suction power when needed and becomes louder on carpets, for example, until it triggers an inferno when it arrives at the docking station: The extraction station is so loud that you could imagine yourself on the airport terrace.
Luckily, I can set at what time that should happen. In addition, the Mamibot can be muted so that it does not loudly announce what it intends to do next. That is not possible with the Roomba. Start and end tones as well as error messages are always loud to hear. It cannot communicate in any other way. Point for the Mamibot.
Roomba: 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇
Mamibot: 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇
Discipline 9: Filter performance
So that the vacuumed dust does not clog the device or the lungs, the filter system is important. My old Roomba has a good Hepa filter, which unfortunately hangs in the airflow without a pre-filter and therefore clogs quickly. Coarser dirt sits in the folds and when tapping it out on the balcony, I wished for an FFP2 mask more than once. Since it is not washable, it needs to be replaced regularly – otherwise the suction power of the senior drops.
The Mamibot has a pre-filter and a washable sponge that I can clean under running water. They keep the coarsest dirt away from the Hepa filter and ensure that I have to change it much less often. Clear point for the Mamibot.
Roomba: 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇
Mamibot: 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇
Discipline 10: Charging station and power
The extraction station of the Mamibot is large; I cannot hide it under a higher cabinet like the small charging point of the Roomba. So it stands openly in the room and, according to the instructions, needs at least 50 centimeters of space all around, which I did not grant it. However, the robot also reliably found its way home in a small niche.
Since the station can neither clean mops nor change water, the tower in which the vacuum cleaner bag sits is still too big a block with too few functions for me. In addition, it draws a little more power in standby, but probably makes up for the extra consumption through its more efficient cleaning tours. Here, too, I cannot see any great progress; the duel officially ends in an embarrassing draw for the challenger who is seven years younger.
Roomba: 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇
Mamibot: 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇
Seven years younger, hardly better
For me, the Mamibot is not a sensible upgrade. It vacuums a little longer and more planned, but cannot do anything fundamentally better than my ancient model. It doesn't drive under the sofa, mops more half-heartedly than my old mopping robot Braava (RIP), and needs more space. It doesn't have any of the functions that I look at with interest in Lorenz's test reports:
- It cannot cope with long hair, which I have to remove from the roller with scissors after every vacuuming round.
- It has no mop system that really deserves the name.
- It does not clean carpets more intensively with its modest suction power than my good old Roomba does.
I now know why the Mamibot was lying at the very back of Lorenz's cellar and will continue to wait until the time has come for me to switch. There are certainly cheap devices with more functions: I find this model from the same price range, for example, much more interesting.
However, it would also fail at my sofa due to its height. There's always something. For now, the Roomba will continue to dance for me.
Michael Restin
Senior Editor
Michael.Restin@digitecgalaxus.chSimple writer and dad of two who likes to be on the move, wading through everyday family life. Juggling several balls, I'll occasionally drop one. It could be a ball, or a remark. Or both.
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