The bottom line: The iClebo Arte is a high quality robot vacuum cleaner, but we believe you can get a better one for the money.
With equal or better cleaning, more convenient features, and at least one that costs less, check out these other options:
Find out why we believe you are better off with one of the above robot vacuums by checking out this iClebo vs. Roomba Comparison and iClebo Arte Vacuum Review right here.
The iClebo Arte Robotic Vacuum Cleaner – An Award Winner
The iClebo YCR-M05-10 Arte Robotic Vacuum Cleaner received the highest rating on an evaluation carried out by Emporio, a leading German appliance magazine, which made me curious about it.
I also like that it’s marketed as “Green,” and it actually seems like the manufacturer has given thought to the environment. I believe that’s good thing, which makes the device even more appealing to me.
It is listed at about $600, and you can sometimes get it cheaper on Amazon. At this price, it does not come with HEPA filtration (which we believe is important if you suffer from allergies), but at least those filters are offered as an accessory. With the HEPA filters, the vacuum has a list price equivalent to the top-notch models. If you want to find out more about those filters, check out our 101 about robot vacuum cleaners or this link to Wikipedia.
For comparison, our entry-level recommendation from iRobot, the Roomba 650, is about $400, and our best-tested robot vacuum yet, iRobot’s Roomba 880, is about $700. Click the links to check out our reviews or iRobot’s website.
The benchmark for this vacuum is what high-end robot vacuum cleaners deliver today:
- It cleans on laminate and tile floors, hardwood, and carpets, regardless of pile height.
- Automatic Floor Surface Adjustment keeps it from getting stuck while making the transition from one floor type to the next.
- Scheduled cleaning allows programming up to seven days in advance, so it will clean the floors while you are working, sleeping, or having fun.
- Multi-room cleaning features ensure that your entire floor gets clean–not just one area or a single room.
- You can set off-limits areas where you do not want the vacuum to go.
- It docks and charges itself, so it never runs out of power.
- Cliff sensors keep your vacuum from taking a tumble down the stairs.
- All you really have to do is empty the bin, which is simple with a full bin indicator.
- It picks up pet hair as efficiently as many upright manual vacuum cleaners do.
- HEPA filters capture and hold particles as small as 0.3 microns, or a tiny fraction of the width of a human hair.
- The industry-leading manufacturer ,iRobot, provides outstanding customer support, assistance for do-it-yourself parts replacement and repairs, and a comprehensive website to answer any question you will ever have.
That’s the standard; let’s see if the iClebo Arte can keep up.
Our iClebo Arte Vacuum Review
The manufacturer, Yujin Robot Inc., has over 20 years of experience and is currently selling the iClebo Arte YCR-M05 and the iClebo Pop; the Arte is the more advanced one that we are reviewing here.
Fun fact: iClebo stands for Intelligent Cleaning Robot. Check out their website here.
To see it in action, here’s a cnet video review:
Our Results
I had it for two weeks and ran it almost daily for 10 days (Monday to Friday as a replacement for my Roomba 770) on my ground floor, about 1210 sqf, which has three rooms.
Cleaning
On average, it covers about 90% of the area. It’s great at picking up pet hair, but not good at picking up heavier debris on hardwood floors, and pretty bad with pet hair and debris on carpet.
The Arte performs decently around corners and along sideboards, but we’ve seen better results from different manufacturers.
[/li_item][li_item icon=””]Noise
This is among the quietest vacuums we have tested. In my opinion, the trouble with quiet vacuums is often that manufacturers reduce noise by reducing suction power, which greatly reduces the cleaning power. Quietness doesn’t have to be accompanied by worse cleaning results, but our experience has been that high quality vacuums that were significantly quieter than average had difficulty picking up heavier debris, especially on carpet.
Some manufacturer’s goal is to make a vacuum almost unnoticeable, and we may see that someday, but it’s not there yet. If you aren’t familiar with robot vacuums, let me tell you that the noise isn’t really a problem for any high quality model, but some people like to fuss about it anyway.[/li_item][li_item icon=””]
Efficiency
The navigation is pretty good; it does the job quite fast (with different cleaning modes available) without being “hyper-efficient.” What I mean by that is that some manufacturers seem to go crazy about making the vacuum look very intelligent, judging by the way it moves around, uses very accurate cleaning passes, and makes sure not to cover a single spot twice to get it all done as fast as possible.
While that sounds great, there is always debris that doesn’t seem to be picked up by a single sweep. You have to go over it at least twice, which you and I do too when cleaning manually already, but hyper-efficient vacuums don’t do that. These two goals, silence and overdone efficiency, when put together seem to make great cleaning results almost impossible.[/li_item][li_item icon=””]
Design
I personally like the Arte’s design, which is round like the Roombas. If you would like to check out a different appearance for some reason, check out our Neato’s XV-21 and XV Pro reviews.[/li_item][li_item icon=””]
Convenience
For testing, I set it loose in the living room. It goes over cords without any difficulty like chewing on them or getting tangled.
Its cliff sensors worked well, so you don’t have to worry about it falling down stairs.
It also comes with a charging station, which allows it to clean and recharge when necessary all by itself. This is a very convenient feature because it won’t run out of power somewhere in the house beeping or waiting to be rescued. The Arte finished cleaning my 1200 square feet before it had to recharge, so I can tell you that the battery lasts more than about two hours. Recharging also takes about two hours.
It comes with remote control, which is nice if you are into that kind of stuff. I have to admit that I am not (my Roomba 770 has one too), although it’s fun for my son. I prefer programming a robot vacuum once for daily cleaning and then forgetting about it until it lets me know that it needs cleaning.
Remote controls are very convenient if you need to program a quick cleaning for a sudden visitor, but I have mine programmed for cleaning Monday through Friday, so there’s no need to suddenly clean even when visitors come by unannounced.
The iClebo YCR-M05-10 Arte Robotic Vacuum Cleaner comes with Area Boundary Tape, which allows you to block certain areas where you don’t want it to go for some reason. Those are a real pain to me. I don’t like the way they look on the floor, and they feel like last-century technology. Maybe that’s because I am used to a different idea called Virtual Walls or Virtual Lighthouses that come with the iRobot Roombas. To check out what I am talking about, here’s a video:[/li_item][/checklist]
iClebo vs. Roomba – Which do we recommend?
Considering its list price including HEPA filters (which is a must have for me, as my daughter has light dust allergies), the Arte is more expensive than the Roomba 770 and almost the same price as the Roomba 880.
It got stuck twice on my rug, which I have to admit seems to be quite a challenge. Besides the Roomba 880, no robot vacuum has gotten up yet. The Arte got lost on its first time around and wasn’t able to return to its charger, something I haven’t experienced with any of my Roombas.
It is quieter than the Roombas and the Neatos that we have tested, which I believe may lead to the lesser cleaning results. Again, many manufacturers tout this as a good thing, but I honestly don’t get the whole point of the discussion; it’s a vacuum cleaner.
Since I am able to schedule cleaning, I set it loose when I am not at home, and with a quality product, I don’t see a reason to stick around to watch it. Rescuing it normally isn’t necessary. I schedule mine and then return to a clean home. That’s it except for emptying the bin.
You can talk about cleaning efficiency and patterns for hours, which are the reason for short or long cleaning cycles, and you may check out one of these posts Neato XV Signature Pro or Neato XV-21 if you are interested in that.
Yes, the iClebo seems to be mapping out the room and the cleaning time is short, so it all looks efficient. However, the cleaning results aren’t as good as my Roombas, both 770 and 880. At least to me, this is a cleaning product and not a beauty contest.
We ritually check reviews on Amazon if we have only tested a vacuum for a limited time, don’t own it, and therefore don’t have any experience to share on how it does on the long run. If you want to buy this vacuum, I recommend you check those reviews, what understand is that the Artes seem to have problems with quality, reliability, and support.
Bottom-line of our iClebo vs. Roomba comparison:
The iClebo Arte robotic vacuum cleaner is a high quality robot vacuum, and I will stick to my Roombas. I don’t see a reason to spend more and get less.
iRobot is the market leader for many reasons.
iRobot is a US-based and MIT-founded company, Neato Robotics, also US-based, occupies the second spot, in both market share and cleaning results. Our results with the Arte reflect that. In most comparisons available on the web, iRobot’s products are the benchmark and other products are tested against them. iRobot’s products are winning tests and design awards for many reasons, so if you want to find out all about them, please check out our in-depth article about the iRobot Roomba.
For very quick overview, Roomba currently offers three models: Roomba 650, Roomba 770, and Roomba 880.
The Roomba 650 is our entry-level recommendation and suitable for home and pet owners who do not suffer from any kind of allergy. Feel free to check out our review: iRobot Roomba 650 or watch this video:
The Roomba 770 is your choice if you have heavy-shedding pets or allergies. We recommend going with more cleaning power and HEPA filtration found in the 770 model to prevent those allergens and dust from being spilled into the air. Feel free to check out our full review of the iRobot Roomba 770 or watch this video right here:
The Roomba 880 is your choice if second best (which is already very good) is never an option for you and you want to do the best thing possible for your health and wellbeing. Feel free to check out our full review of the iRobot Roomba 880 or watch this video:
Final thoughts
My friend has had the iClebo Arte vacuum for almost a year now, and she loves it. She lives in an 860 square foot apartment with 3 rooms, hardwood floors, a low tile rug, one cat, and no kids. She runs it 3 times a week while she’s not at home. She doesn’t see any necessity for special filtration, so she uses the standard filters and vacuums without the mopping device.
I believe that’s the best possible environment for this vacuum, and the reason why she’s very happy with it. If you have two dogs and two kids in the house, one with allergies, I don’t believe it to be the best pick.
If you have to clean up a similar environment to mine with (allergic) kids and multiple pets, please check out our Roomba 770 and Roomba 880 reviews; you’ll be better off with those.
Do you own an iClebo? Please share your experience with it in the comments below.
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