Anything but hot air: the Samsung Jet Bot Steam+

Lorenz Keller

28.8.2024

Translation: Jessica Johnson-Ferguson

Samsung’s Jet Bot Steam+ always keeps its mops clean thanks to the steam function in the robot’s base station. Does this actually work or is it just a lot of hot air? I put it through its paces.

Looking at the comparison test of the best robot vacuum cleaners I did last spring, it’s hard to believe there’s any room for further development. After all, the two leading vacuum cleaners perform independently, effectively and well. So what would you want to improve?

For its Jet Bot Combo AI Steam+ (that’s its full name), Samsung’s come up with a new feature. The mops on the robot aren’t just cleaned with warm or cold water after mopping, but with hot steam. An actual improvement or pure marketing?

Installation: quick and easy, just as it should be

The Jet Bot’s controlled via Samsung’s SmartThings app, which can also be used for washing machines, TVs or lighting. This can be an advantage if you use the app as a control centre for your smart home. However, if you just want to use it to control the robot vacuum, it sometimes involves one step more than the competition.

On the plus side, the connection to the robot and the base station is set up in a few minutes. If you don’t have a Samsung account, you’ll have to create one first, which will take a few minutes more.

Once that’s done, it’s time to tidy up your home so the robot can create a floor plan of all the rooms. It’s probably the most important step the vacuum cleaner carries out to ensure every part of your home is cleaned precisely and efficiently. To do this, the Jet Bot Combo AI Steam+ uses a lidar scanner (Light Detection and Ranging), which does a type of three-dimensional laser scan. There’s also a camera and other sensors. This technological killer combo may not be cheap, but it enables precise and fast navigation.

The Samsung only takes just under ten minutes to create the map of my 120-metre apartment. No competitor has beaten that so far. The Dreame L10s Pro Ultra Heat, for example, which performed really well in the test, took 12 minutes.

What’s more, the Jet Bot is not only fast, but also accurate. The proposed room layout is perfect in six out of seven cases. As with all other robot vacuum cleaners with this technology, the lidar scanner also detects part of the balcony through the glass doors. However, unlike many competitors, it doesn’t assign this area to a room, but realises the area’s inaccessible and only displays it in light grey.

App and operation: the biggest weakness

So far, so good. But then the first issue crops up. During the scanning process, the software combines the small bathroom with the hall. In theory, the map’s easy to edit. You can give each room a name, divide or merge rooms and enter restricted zones.

But in this case, I just can’t separate the bathroom and hall. The app seems to think the room’s too small. Even after several attempts, it doesn’t work. I’d probably have to make the robot scan everything again and hope it divides the rooms without my interference. So far, I’ve never seen a robot vacuum cleaner struggle to map my standard-sized shower room as a separate space.

The operation via the app also has other flaws. It’s unnecessarily complicated because the settings are hidden in two different places. At the top right, there’s an icon with three dots to call up various menu items. Others can be found by dragging the bar in the lower quarter of the programme upwards.

What’s also annoying is that all rooms are always selected by default. I often only want one or two rooms to be cleaned at a time, so I’d have to unclick quite a lot to do this. The competition has a more elegant solution to this, as there are usually two options to choose from: clean all rooms with one click or select the rooms individually.

In the beginning, I’m forced to click around in the settings more often than I want to. In its first attempt, the Jet Bot cleans a room not just once, but twice. When the robot starts cleaning for the third time, I realise a menu item that’s instructing it to continue cleaning until the battery’s empty is activated. That just doesn’t make sense as a default setting. As soon as I uncheck this box, the robot cleans a room once and then returns to its base station.

Navigation and cleaning: exactly as it should be

When it comes to cleaning, the Jet Bot’s pretty standard. It vacuums dust and wipes coarser dirt with a roller and side brush. Then there are two round mops that damp mop the floor.

There’s no special mode for the edges and the mops can’t extend to the side. But that doesn’t matter because the cleaning result’s good. The floor’s clean and all dirt and hair has been vacuumed up – even along the edges.

The cleaning process works with very little intervention. The robot navigates my home perfectly and doesn’t once get lost or fail to find the base station. It also recognises obstacles, avoids them and displays them in the app. This allows me to put them away later and then have those areas cleaned again with just one click. It’s a clever solution.

The fact that dirt and grime are vacuumed into a dust bag in the base station also contributes to the robot’s autonomy. With all the others, this is a noisy affair. However, this Samsung model’s still one of the quieter ones on the market. I measured 74.1 decibels. In my extensive test with four top vacuum cleaners, the range was between 72 and 78 decibels.

The suction at the base station is really thorough. When I looked at the dust container in the robot for the first time after a month of testing, there was hardly any residue to be found. So you really just have to replace the dust bag, which takes several months before it’s full.

What does the steam do?

The special feature of the Jet Bot Combo AI Steam+ is that it washes the mops in the base station with a mixture of water and steam at a temperature of 50 to 60 degrees instead of just water. Next, the pads are disinfected with 100-degree Celsius steam before being dried with air at 55 degrees.

Sure enough, this steam cleaning really makes a difference. Even after a month of continuous use, the two round mops are as clean as they were right after coming out of the washing machine. There’s also zero damp cloth odour. And even less work for me.

But all this autonomy comes at a price. I used the robot without taking care of anything. Until my nose sniffed out a problem. Sure, the mops might be nice and clean, but the waste water tank starts to smell. Because the fresh water tank (4 litres) and waste water tank (3.6 litres) are so large, I haven’t yet received a notification from the system. In other words, you should empty the waste water tank regularly, even if it’s only half full. But it only takes one smelly experience to realise that.

What’s a real drawback is that a thorough clean takes time. This makes the Samsung robot noticeably slower than the competition on large surfaces, as it needs time to clean the mops in between. At the end of its round, everything’s thoroughly cleaned and dried. The whole process can easily take an hour and a half.

Good obstacle detection, weak AI

The robot vacuum already recognised obstacles during its first scan. It also detects objects that are in the way every time it cleans. This is indicated by a symbol on the map. This allows you to clear away the obstacles and have those areas cleaned later on with one click. A really handy feature, I find.

You can even call up images of the obstacle, and the AI will tell you what you can see on them. Unfortunately, it proved mostly wrong in my test. The base of the sofa was identified as a cup; a cable as a sock. You can correct this and help the AI to become smarter. But what for? The type of obstacle has no effect on cleaning, after all. The main thing is that the robot goes around them and does this reliably. Anything that goes beyond that is just unnecessary extra frills.

Still, I wonder if the poor obstacle recognition rate’s due to the pre-production model I’ve received for testing purposes. According to feedback from Samsung, this could be the case, as they’ve achieved better results in their own tests. I’ll try it again with a production model when I get the chance, even if it won’t change my overall impression.

Obstacle recognition also includes functions such as SmartThings Pet Care or Jet Live. They allow you to use the robot to monitor your own home and pets. However, I didn’t try them out.

Nevertheless, the AI isn’t superfluous. For example, it helps the Jet Bot recognise my shower carpet, which it then only vacuums and doesn’t mop. If I had a larger carpet area, the robot would even drop its mops at its base station for that specific area and reattach them later. Another handy feature is that it automatically suggests you create a cleaning routine after setting the robot up. For example, for the robot to start cleaning as soon as you leave your home.

Incidentally, Samsung protects the robot’s data with the Knox security technology used in their smartphones. The data and connection to the cloud are encrypted, and there are also special security measures on the device itself to prevent remote camera access, for example.

In a nutshell

It’s full steam ahead with this robot

The Samsung Jet Bot Combo AI Steam+ impresses in the most key aspects. It vacuums and mops your home reliably and efficiently. The mops are cleaned with steam, which means there’s less maintenance work for you to do. The fabric mops are kept nice and clean this way. Only the tanks need to be emptied and refilled regularly.

The robot still isn’t getting top marks, because some details are flawed. The app’s unnecessarily complicated. And not all AI functions are useful. The automatic categorisation of obstacles was incorrect way too many times during the test.

At the time of the test, the premium model with all the equipment and additional steam function cost well over 1,000 francs. That’s a hefty price, but pretty common in the top category. You can save a little if you choose the Jet Bot version with steam but without AI.

Pro

• Fast and reliable navigation
• Flawless cleaning
• Low maintenance
• Large tanks
• Good obstacle and carpet detection

Contra

• Complicated menu navigation in the app
• Incorrect obstacle categorisation
• Expensive

Robot vacuum cleaners

CHF1188.–

Samsung Jet Bot Combo AI Steam+ (VR9700)

Vacuum mopping robot

7

Lorenz Keller

Senior Editor

Lorenz.Keller@digitecgalaxus.ch

Gadgets are my passion - whether you need them for the home office, for the household, for sport and pleasure or for the smart home. Or, of course, for the big hobby next to the family, namely fishing.

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