SwitchBot K20+ Pro Patrol Kit A fun but flawed robot guard

22/10 06:15 - SwitchBot K20+ Pro Patrol Kit A fun but flawed robot guard
At a glanceExpert's Rating Pros Innovative modular design Camera delivers 3K video resolution Moves around to keep an eye on your home Cons Pricey App is cluttered and unintuitive Mobile base station can’t cross thresholds as low as 3mm Our Verdict The SwitchBot K20+ Pro Patrol Kit is such an interesting product, it’s unfortunate that it has so many downsides. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: SwitchBot K20+ Pro Patrol Kit Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket SwitchBot is known for manufacturing quirky smart home products, and its SwitchBot K20+ Pro Patrol Kit is certainly no exception. One part mini robot vacuum cleaner and mop, one part automated security guard, it promises to clean your floors while patrolling your home with an indoor security camera mounted atop a piggybacked mobile base–like a triple-decker bus. Yes, it’s a weird combo, but it works—although it won’t in every home (I’ll get to that in a bit). The bundle reviewed here includes the tiny SwitchBot K20+ Pro robot vac/mop, its self-emptying base station, a mobile dock that can host various accessories, and a SwitchBot Pan/Tilt Cam Plus 3K security camera. You’ll also need to have the $120 SwitchBot Hub 3 Matter-certified smart home hub for everything to work. Features and design The diminutive SwitchBot K20+ Pro robot vac/mop is the core of the system. It docks to a rolling platform that can support other SwitchBot modules for various tasks, ranging from the camera included in this bundle to your choice of a battery-powered cooling fan, one of two battery-powered air purifier models (both with table-top surfaces), or a telescopic smartphone/tablet stand. You’ll buy this system to have a security camera patrol your house. And patrol it will. The rolling platform can host the camera with any one of those other accessories, and they all have secure mounts. There is also, of course, a self-emptying base for the vacuum itself. SwitchBot sells a cordless stick vac, too, but it mounts to the mobile vac’s base station–taking advantage of its auto-empty feature–but the stick vac is not autonomous. Each product boasts a clean design with no sharp edges in sight for those who love rounded corners. Everything felt sturdy and polished with excellent build quality. The security camera is equally well designed. It twist-locks onto a purpose-built peg that plunges into the top of the mobile base, and it comes with a short USB-C cable for drawing power from the vacuum’s battery (an AC adapter and a longer cable are provided if you’d prefer to set up the camera somewhere other than on the mobile base). The camera can pan 360 degrees and it tilts 115 degrees, which is ideal for tracking a moving subject. The camera can host up to a 256GB microSD card (not included) for storing video recordings, or you can sign up for SwitchBot’s cloud-storage service, which also grants you access to some AI features, such as pet detection. SwitchBot’s least expensive plan costs $3.99/month or $34.99 per year for a single device. A family plan that supports up to 10 devices costs $20.99/month or $209.99/year. Setup and performance Setting up this thing is an experience–and not necessarily a pleasant one given the number of components involved. What’s more, you must also have–or acquire and set up before you set up the K20+–the SwitchBot Hub 3 (a Matter-certified, multi-function smart home hub). The SwitchBot K20+ Pro Patrol Kit cannot work without it. Fortunately, the Hub 3 itself is fairly easy to set up; just plug it in and connect it to the SwitchBot app. That’s the simplest step in the process. Next, you need to decide where to place the robot vacuum’s charging station, which must be near an electrical outlet. The mobile base docks into the charging station and the robot vacuum goes underneath, docking into the station. It’s a whole matryoshka situation, and you need to make sure the pins are aligned correctly so everything charges. At this point in the process, you can only connect the docking station to the SwitchBot app, because it will be the only component with power. To save yourself from unnecessary frustration, step away and focus on other tasks for a couple of hours. The devices won’t function properly—nor can they be added to the app—until they’re nearly fully charged. Gabriela Vatu I know we’re here to review this product’s home security element, but I must tell you that the K20+ Pro vacuum does a decent enough job. It’s super tiny and fits into places most other larger models wouldn’t, but it’s definitely not a product you’d use as your main cleaning device. There’s also a “mopping” plate you can install, but the mops in question are just glorified wet wipes that get dragged across your floor. Now, onto the important bit. The camera (along with any other K20+ accessories you add) will appear in the mobile base menu. So you must to go SwitchBot – Mobile Base – camera icon in the top right corner. This takes you to a full-screen view of the camera’s live feed, complete with an overlay of your home’s map and quick access to two-way talk or Privacy mode. There’s also the option of going through the Cameras menu that shows up on the app’s main page, but that one takes you to all the SwitchBot cameras you have before loading your desired feed. But you’re not getting this whole ensemble just for static camera images, right? If that’s all you wanted, you could just plug in the SwitchBot camera anywhere in your home. No, you’re buying this system to have a camera patrol your house. And patrol it will. From the mobile base interface, you can set up three Waypoints. Once the robot vacuum has mapped out your home, you can add these spots wherever you see fit, such as next to doors and windows in your home. Then you can just send the whole ensemble on patrol. It will go around your home, checking out all surroundings and sending push notifications when humans are detected. Gabriela Vatu The camera’s settings are quite extensive, allowing you to enable motion detection, adjust sensitivity, set up what types of notifications you want to get, and more. If you want to use the patrolling feature while you’re asleep, for instance, or when you’re at work, you can set up schedules. You can set up various other automations, too. The camera itself does a good-enough job, delivering great video resolution and clear video. Pair it up with the mobile base and you have a really cool way to keep an eye on your home when you’re on vacation, or to keep watch on your pets while you’re at work. Since it comes with two-way audio, you can chat with your pets or warn an intruder that they’ve been spotted. When you’re home and want privacy, you can instruct the camera to roll its lens back into its enclosure for instant privacy. The inevitable caveats So far, so good. Now let’s discuss the caveats, and the first one is a biggie: SwitchBot’s app is somewhat of a nightmare. It’s hard to figure out how to access features and fiddle with settings at times, and while you can set up Scenes and activate them with a single tap, the app’s user interface is hopelessly cluttered. The rolling base station element of SwitchBot K20+ Pro Patrol Kit couldn’t manage to traverse this slightly sloped transition between the author’s hardwood and tile floors. Gabriela Vatu/Foundry And then there’s the fact that the mobile base cannot manage to cross a threshold; i.e., any type of elevated transition between two floor surfaces. I had to move the vacuum’s base unit to a different location and remap the whole house because of this. The Robovac itself crosses thresholds just fine, but the mobile base simply cannot. And don’t imagine I have this giant step that must be crossed—it’s a simple baguette-type plastic thing in between the hardwood flooring in my living room to the tile flooring in my hallways and kitchen area. The transition is even rounded so it doesn’t pose a tripping hazard, but the mobile base just cannot manage to roll over it. And you can forget about expecting the mobile base to traverse plush carpeting or thick rugs–anything more than 3mm (0.12 inches) high will be insurmountable. That said, one of the other use cases SwitchBot posits for this kit is to put one of its tabletop-equipped air purifiers on the mobile base, so you can ferry things like drinking glasses from one room to another. So, you wouldn’t want the table to jiggle much in that scenario, especially with long-stemmed wine glasses on it. During my first test runs, I tried having it cross the threshold for several minutes before muttering “I’m done” and sending it back to its station. If your home has any sort of transitions between flooring, this whole SwitchBot K20+ ensemble is not for you.   Should you buy the SwitchBot K20+ Pro Patrol Kit? Well, the answer truly hinges on whether or not you have transitions between the floors in any of the rooms in your home. If you do, don’t count on the robot patrolling your entire home–you’ll be left with blind spots wherever there’s a transition–not to mention stairs. The SwitchBot K20+ Pro Patrol Kit isn’t an inexpensive security system, either. The complete rig costs $750, although you’ll find it on sale relatively often. And don’t forget to factor in the cost of the required SwitchBot Hub 3, which will cost you another is another $120 (if you don’t already have one). That’s quite a bit of money for a tiny robot vacuum and a mobile base that will carry a security camera around your home without being able to cross thresholds. To be frank, I’m a bit peeved because I really wanted to like this thing. It’s such a cool idea: One gadget that can both clean your floors and patrol your house with a security camera to show you what’s happening inside it–and warn you if it detects someone who shouldn’t be there. Genius! But its inability to cross the lowest transitions between flooring defeats its entire purpose. Perhaps a more powerful motor in the vacuum element or larger wheels on the mobile base would do the trick. But that would be a wholly different product that what’s on offer today. ...