The bottom line: skip the Infinuvo CleanMate QQ 2 Basic.
Save your money or buy a better vacuum.
In our opinion theses are the best Robot Vacuum Cleaners currently available:
Our #1
Simply the best you can get today.
Our #1
for pet owners & allergy sufferers.
Our #1
entry-level model.
If you want to know what we like and why we don’t recommend the Infinuvo QQ 2 CleanMate, have fun with our review and please take the time to leave a comment. We highly appreciate it.
Infinuvo CleanMate QQ 2 Basic Robotic Vacuum Cleaner
The Infinuvo CleanMate QQ 2 Basic Robotic Vacuum Cleaner is about $200, sometimes even cheaper on Amazon. To be fair, at such a low price you simply can’t expect a manufacturer to deliver a high quality robot vacuum cleaner as they couldn’t possibly cover their costs for quality components, let alone make any profit.
In our experience, the basic robotic vacuums start to be worth the purchase price around $400 with an iRobot Roomba 650, which is our recommendation on the entry-level.
I didn’t expect an Infinuvo robotic vacuum cleaner to be state of the art, so I wasn’t really searching for one to review. But a friend of mine said he liked his very much, so I borrowed it while he was on a vacation.
This review will not go into too many details on the Infinuvo CleanMate QQ 2 Basic, just enough to help you see that compared to our recommended entry-level model, the Roomba 650, why we believe you are better off saving your money by cleaning manually or buying a better vacuum.
My Friend’s Experience
My friend told me that he has owned his Infinuvo robot vacuum for almost one year. He had to get it replaced it after two months because of some technical issue, but he has been happy with it ever since.
He hasn’t changed the batteries or had any defects since the replacement. His city apartment has hardwood floors only, no carpets, little furniture, no pets and no kids.
My experiences with the Infinuvo CleanMate QQ 2
I had the Infinuvo for 2 weeks and ran 5 cleaning cycles of about 60 minutes each.
Cleaning Results
The QQ2’s cleaning abilities are limited. It hardly picks up anything heavier than pet hair and dust. It can’t even handle small debris.
Thin Carpets
Getting on a carpet is quite challenging for the Infinuvo, and it is only successful on very low profile carpet. If it manages to get on, cleaning results are poor.
An advanced model, like the iRobot Roomba, comes with automatic floor surface adjustment and easily go from one surface to another; even higher-profile carpets are not really a problem.
Thick Carpets
If the carpets are thicker, you’ll have to manually put the Infinuvo on it, as it gets stuck trying to get on by itself. You’ll have to do this several times as it doesn’t stay on the carpet until it’s completely cleaned. Cleaning results on the thicker carpet were very poor.
Best Use
I assume that the best possible environment for this Infinuvo is something like what my friend provides: a smaller apartment (it only runs about 60 minutes on each charge), no carpets, little furniture, and for those who only need light cleaning.
Setting It Up
This is an automatic vacuum, so let me tell you what that means on this entry-level vacuum. You buy it, you charge it, you set up blocked areas (if you wish), you pre-program days and times you wish it to clean, you set it loose, and from time to time you clean out its bin.
Cleaning Effectiveness
You can argue about cleaning patterns and efficiency on these vacuums for hours. (Check out my iRobot vs. Neato post.) I didn’t spend much time on trying to figure out why an Infinuvo robot vacuum cleans the way it does though, because it left out whole areas no matter which of the pre-programmed patterns I tried.
Without even covering the whole area, the overall cleaning result can never be good, so we can skip the efficiency conversation altogether.
It is not loud, and it’s okay at picking up dust and pet hair. It does not have HEPA filters to seal what it picks up. Check the link to find out more about HEPA filters.
Features
I can’t say much about the Infinuvo’s built-in UV light, which is supposed to be “killing bacteria, germs and allergens on your floor.” I checked the web on that feature and wasn’t able to find out if it really works.
I am not sure if it can run in the dark; I tried that once and couldn’t get it started.
The Infinuvo bin could be bigger to pick up more, but is easy to clean.
The Infinuvo CleanMate QQ 2 Basic doesn’t have a home charging base, which means you have to manually charge it, while the Roomba 650 does.
Convenience
The Infinuvo robot vacuum got stuck many times when I tested it, so make sure you are okay with moving a robot vacuum around manually. That alone would be a ‘no go’ for me as I have a different understanding of “automatic.”
The Infinuvo tends to eat up power cords, and items that fit under its front bumper will make it stop. It will then shut off and wait for you to come fix it. To minimize that, it’s probably a good idea to re-arrange your apartment in a way suitable for the vacuum. But even then, I would recommend you keep an eye on it and be ready to rescue it from time to time.
In my experience, the Infinuvo also gets distracted by too much furniture, which leads to its getting tangled. This is also something you should not experience with a more advanced model, as these are able to maneuver themselves very intelligently throughout most environments.
You Get What You Pay For
When you spend $200 on a robot vacuum cleaner, you’re getting a cheap vacuum that performs poorly. That’s a lot of money to spend on other products, but not on an automatic cleaning device.
With the Infinuvo robotic vacuum cleaner, you get a robot vacuum that goes around your room until it gets stuck, and it picks up some of the dirt on your floors with a lot of maintenance from you, and nothing else.
Depending on the environment, which you will probably have to adapt to the Infinuvo’s needs, it will still get stuck several times per cleaning cycle, so you’ll have to stand around and watch it. You will have to move it around manually, and if you want your floors to be cleaned really well, you would want to use a manual vacuum afterwards. In my opinion, that defeats the whole purpose of buying a robotic vacuum.
But if this whole robot vacuum experience is new to you, like it was to my friend, and you don’t experience a higher quality model, you’ll probably feel like you have entered a new level of home cleaning.
Better Features in Better Models
If you’re new to automatic vacuums, more advanced models find their way by measuring out the room, like the Neatos vacuums do, or by using Virtual Walls and Lighthouses like the iRobot Roombas.
With these models, you don’t have to try out different pre-programed settings, you simply start the vacuum and let it clean. Such a vacuum will cover almost every inch of the room, which is essential for getting a clean floor.
If you have allergies or care about germs, I’d recommend you go for HEPA filters anyway. Those have to match an industry standard for filtration and make sure that germs and allergens will be kept in a sealed filter and are not spilled into the air after being sucked up. With HEPA filters, you can rest assured that you are breathing cleaner, healthier air.
More advanced models will return to a docking station, recharge, and go back to work afterwards, which is pretty convenient and to me very much of a 21st century experience and a big step towards “automatic.”
More advanced models almost never get stuck, don’t eat up cords, and run pre-scheduled by themselves even when you are not at home, which is what I prefer. I simply love the feeling of coming home and finding the cleaning is already done, which is my understanding of a robot vacuum cleaner.
Final Thoughts
If almost $400 for our recommended entry-level model is not in your budget, I would recommend you stay with your manual vacuum because I don’t see a point in spending money on anything that only does a job half way.
Check out our review of the Roomba 650 here, get an over view of our other robot vacuum cleaner reviews, or check out more buyers reviews on the CleanMate here.
Do you own a CleanMate QQ2 BASIC? Please share your experience with it in the comments below.
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