I was never interested in a robot vacuum because they seemed more trouble than they were worth. You have to charge the thing and empty it, after all. Wouldn’t a broom and dustpan be more straightforward and save hundreds of dollars? The genius thing about the S31 is it takes care of all that maintenance itself. I set up the S31 in about 10 minutes, and from that point on, it was zipping around, vacuuming, and even zooming back to its base station when necessary for charging and emptying waste into a sealed bag. It even mops floors, as well.
Elegant Design
Out of the box, the S31 looks intimidating, especially to dust bunnies. It’s gleaming black and round, with two brushes mounted on the sides to push dirt into its path to be slurped up. On the top of the unit is a button to start cleaning, return to the base station, or do a quick clean. Setup is pretty much just plugging the Kyvol in and connecting to Wi-Fi. Packed inside the casing is a laser-guided system that allows the Kyvol S31 to map your home and navigate around obstacles. There’s also a fall sensor intended to ensure the S31 doesn’t get stuck or fall downstairs. If you prefer to manually control the unit, you can also use the included remote control or its own app. In practice, I found the Kyvol to be surprisingly good at navigating my home. It rarely bumped into walls and saw all the tough-to-reach spots to give them a good cleaning. The S31 can automatically switch between different floors, so I could send it forth to clean both my carpet and hard floors. Controlling the Kyvol with the app was simple. I set up cleaning cycles, tweaked the volume of prompts, and set up no-robot areas. I also set a cleaning schedule so the robot would clean when I wasn’t around. There’s something eerie about coming back to freshly cleaned floors after Kyvol has done its job. But once I set up a map, the Kyvol was even better at its job. It’s easy enough to do by tapping a button in the app and dragging a box to a place on the map. There’s a similar process for adding virtual walls and no-vacuum and no-cleaning zones. You can also add virtual walls so it sticks to certain areas, rather than entire rooms. The Kyvol S31’s home is its docking station. The dock is a charging base for the robot and contains a 4.3-liter dust bin that holds the dirt collected by the robot. If you’re not incredibly messy, the bag can hold up to 60 days worth of dust. To empty the bag, you just take the bag out and toss it in the trash. Simple. Once the Kyvol was finished vacuuming, I gave its mopping attachment a try. The bot comes with disposable and washable mopping pads and a water tank you can stick to the bottom of the unit. The mopping left my floors gleaming.
Dust Bunnies Beware
I’m more than satisfied with the cleaning power of the S31. It had never been clear to me before how dirty my floors were until the S31 took charge. The vacuum’s powerful suction allowed it to pull pet hair off the carpet, along with dust and various other items I didn’t examine too closely. It was a satisfying feeling watching the S31 navigate under couches and chairs, emitting a happy sucking noise. When it returned to base and emptied its contents, I saw more dust than I expected. My favorite part of the Kyvol was its spot cleaning feature, best used for cleaning a relatively small area. The robot maps the area you’ve picked out into a square, then goes over it twice for a deep clean. At nearly $500, the S31 is not a small investment, but I could see the device saving hours of labor. For users who have the cash to spend and want a nearly autonomous cleaning robot, the Kyvol is a solid choice.
