Mova Mobius 60 - 30 day review
After my quick unboxing of my Mova supplied robot for review, I moved the MOVA Mobius 60 to a more permanent spot and started using it every day to see how it holds up against my other robots. I’ve been comparing it mostly to my Narwal Flow and the MOVA Z60 which are two of my favorite robots I have used to date!
First thing, the dock is huge. There’s no way around that. It takes up a lot more space than a normal robot vacuum dock, so placement matters. That said, once I found a spot for it, I do think it looks pretty nice. It has more of a sleek appearance than others, I like the black a lot.
The dock is also where I have my biggest long-term concern. There is a lot going on inside it. The mop swap system, self-cleaning, tanks, detergent, drying, auto-emptying, and everything else make it impressive, but also more complicated. I do wonder how all of that will hold up over time. For now, though, the base station has been one of the best parts of using it and the day-to-day maintenance has been minimal. Once again, though I am concerned about reliability, if one small thing goes wrong with the dock and may render the whole system useless. More moving parts equals more problems.
Although the mop swap did feel like a gimmick at first, I’ve ended up liking it more than I expected. Being able to use different mop pads with the threshold crossing, it can climb over into the garage, I can have it do a deeper clean out there with separate mop pads instead of dragging all that garage dirt back through the house. That is one of those real-life use cases that makes the mop swap system feel a lot more useful than I first thought.
Compared to my Narwal Flow and MOVA Z60, the Mobius 60 has a noticeably larger dustbin, which I appreciate. The Flow has a very small dustbin. The Z60 also has a small dustbin. The Mobius is better in that area, but it is still a small robot vacuum dustbin, so it fills faster than I would like and the filter still needs to be cleaned very often. I wish the auto empty system was stronger and would keep the filter cleaner longer.
Cleaning speed is another downside. This robot cleans slowly. It is thorough, but it takes its time. This is probably going to be the biggest issue. If you have a large house, the robot will take hours as it has to recharge often and the recharge cycle is quite slow.
Where it really does well is edge and corner cleaning. The extending mop pad and extending side brush are two of my favorite parts. It gets closer into corners and along edges than a lot of other robots I have used.
The retractable lidar is also nice, but does add a long time to cleaning cycles. Since it can lower itself, it fits under furniture that a lot of taller lidar robots would not even attempt. But it only does this after cleaning the majority of the room so it adds about 30 minutes on depending how big your room is.
Another con is Price, it’s very expensive compared to some other bots - it’s on amazon for $1169!!
Navigation has been very good for me. It does not wander around confused, it does not randomly lose itself, and it has been consistent about knowing where it is. Obstacle avoidance has also been fine and compared to a lot of robots, it has handled obstacles really well.
The app has a lot of customization too. You can dial in how you want it to clean, change suction, mop settings, cleaning order, room behavior, and fine tune it depending on what your house needs. I like having that control because every room is different. Some areas need stronger vacuuming, some need more mopping, and some just need a light pass.
For mopping, I have been impressed. It lifts a good amount of dirt off the floor, and the mop pads seem to do more than just lightly drag water around. One thing I have learned from using multiple robots is that vacuuming first and then mopping works much better than doing both at the same time. That has been true for this robot, the Z60, and the Narwal Flow. When it vacuums and mops together, it is convenient, but the end result is better when the floor is vacuumed first and then mopped after.
I was also surprised that it handled high-pile carpet. I did not expect it to do as well there, but it was able to clean it without getting stuck or giving up. The brushes have also stayed tangle-free so far, which is always a plus.
Overall, the MOVA Mobius 60 feels like a very capable robot with a few clear tradeoffs. The dock is big, the system is complex, the dustbin still needs regular filter cleaning, and it cleans slowly. But the actual cleaning performance has been on par. The mopping is good, the edge cleaning is better than most, the retractable lidar helps it get under more furniture, the obstacle avoidance works well, and the dock does a lot of the daily maintenance for you!
I would not hesitate to recommend this robot to a friend or family member, something that cannot be said about all the robots I’ve used in the past!