Beko VRR61414VB Laser Robot Vacuum Cleaner Review

Introduction

The Beko VRR61414VB Laser Robot Vacuum Cleaner is a bit of a throwback to the early days of robot vacuum cleaners: it’s cheap, simple and is a vacuum-only model with a bin you have to empty by itself.

It struggles with tough spills but vacuums well enough for lighter tasks, and could be a good choice for smaller homes that don’t have space for a self-empty, self-clean docking station.

Design and Features

• No self-empty, self-clean docking station
• Can be easily placed anywhere
• App connectivity

While the majority of robot vacuum cleaners I review, even budget ones such as the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Pro, have a self-empty, self-clean docking station, the Beko VRR61414VB Laser Robot Vacuum Cleaner doesn’t.

Instead, as with the Roborock Q5 Pro, this robot ships with a standard charging dock only. The advantage of this kind of setup is that you can place the docking station almost anywhere, even underneath a sofa.

Without a self-empty station it does mean that you have to empty the 0.8-litre bin that pulls out the top of the robot vacuum cleaner. It opens up easily enough for emptying and also contains a filter that needs washing every month or so.

A round robot vacuum cleaner, the Beko VRR61414VB Laser Robot Vacuum Cleaner uses LDS laser navigation with a dome located on the top.

There’s an additional sensor at the front, although this isn’t a camera, so the robot can’t spot and avoid common obstacles, such as pet mess or shoes.

Flip the robot over, and there’s a standard layout: a standard brush bar and a single side sweeper brush.

There’s no clip in the mopping pad with this robot. That’s not particularly an issue at this price, where a mopping bracket would most likely be gravity fed, dripping water onto a microfibre cloth that gets dragged around.

These types of mopping options were basic when they first appeared years ago, and aren’t very good at shifting anything other than the lightest of stains.

Shortcut buttons on the front of the robot are there to let you start and stop a clean, but you’ll only get the full functionality if you use the app.

Don’t accidentally download the Beko Robot app, as you need the HomeDirect app instead. Once installed, this takes you through connecting the robot to Wi-Fi, followed by starting a mapping run.

The maps look a little basic compared to the ones generated by the Roborock app, but Beko’s are functional enough, and you split the map into rooms. It’s also possible to set no-go zones and virtual walls if you don’t want the Beko VRR61414VB Laser Robot Vacuum Cleaner to go somewhere.

Cleaning options are straightforward, with the choice to clean everywhere, to select a room (or rooms) of your choice, or to draw a zone on the map for spot cleaning. There’s then a choice of one or two passes.

There’s then a choice of four power modes, although it most probably makes sense to use the highest power setting, as the robot’s 2000Pa suction power is a long way behind what the best robots can offer.

Performance

• Good navigation skills
• Not ideal for larger spills
• No anti-tangle brush

I set the Beko VRR61414VB Laser Robot Vacuum Cleaner off around the Trusted Reviews Home Technology Lab. General navigation was good, although I did have to fully tidy up cables and make sure no objects were on the floor, as the robot would get itself tangled.

To test cleaning performance, I set the robot to maximum suction and then gave it two passes of the lab. Starting with the carpet test, where I added a teaspoon of flour to the test rug, I found that the main mess was removed, but that quite a bit of dirt was still visible.

For lighter spills or general maintenance, the Beko VRR61414VB Laser Robot Vacuum Cleaner worked well, but you really need a more powerful robot for bigger messes.

Hard-floor cleaning, which is a lot easier, went well, and the Beko VRR61414VB Laser Robot Vacuum Cleaner managed to clean up a teaspoon of spilt flour.

I then spread a teaspoon of flour right up to the kitchen plinth. Here, the Beko VRR61414VB Laser Robot Vacuum Cleaner did a pretty good job, although it did smear quite a bit of the flour around.

Again, the performance is good enough for lighter spills, but you’ll want something with more suction power for tougher messes.

I tried the robot out with human hair. It doesn’t have an anti-tangle brush (and I wouldn’t particularly expect one at this price), so the hair all got wrapped around the brushbar. If you’ve got a home with pets or people with long hair, it may make sense to buy a more expensive model that won’t have this issue.

I measured the Beko VRR61414VB Laser Robot Vacuum Cleaner at 61.5dB, which makes it one of the quieter robot vacuum cleaners that I’ve tested, although the relatively low suction power will help account for that.

Run time is rated at up to 130 minutes on the lowest power setting. Whacking the power up, I had enough charge for two passes of the Home Tech Lab, which suggests that the Beko VRR61414VB Laser Robot Vacuum Cleaner could clean an entire home on a charge.

Should you buy it?