Ultenic T10 Elite review: an affordable self-emptying option

Key Specs

Battery Capacity: 3200mAh

Charging Time: 5 hours

Self-Emptying Bin?: Yes

Number of Included Air Filters: 2

Number of Included Side Brushes: 2

Number of Included Mops: 2

App?: Yes

Remote Control?: Yes

Product Weight: 17.97lbs

Robot vacuums are a mixed bag of performance. Having tested several robot vacuums in the past, and having seen robot vacuums that leave your floor spotless, to seeing one hurdle itself down the stairs because the sensors didn’t work properly, curiosity was piqued when the Ultenic Robot Vacuum T10 Elite arrived for review.

I was particularly excited about the T10 Elite having a self-emptying bin. My current robot vacuum doesn’t, and it is a pain to manually empty. Especially considering the small size of my robot vacuum’s bin, it must be emptied often.

Aside from making floor cleaning duties virtually hands-free with a self-emptying bin, it also features a mopping setting beyond its normal vacuuming capabilities. When you consider the ability to remove pesky footprints from hardwood surfaces, as well as picking up all the dirt and dust off your floors, the Ultenic Robot Vacuum T10 Elite had all of the initial makings (at least on paper) to be a winner. Testing would help determine whether this robot vacuum was a true contender or just a paper tiger.

The T10 Elite was tested on both hardwood floors and carpet. Vacuuming and mopping testing included how well it vacuumed oats, bread crumbs, dirt, and rice. The mopping feature was also tested, removing dirty footprints from the hardwood floor.

After testing, the robot vacuum certainly has its strengths and weaknesses. The question then became – are the T10’s Elite’s weaknesses too glaring to be considered one of the best robot vacuums available?

Ultenic T10 Elite: First impressions

Out of the box, the Ultenic T10 Elite looks and even sounds exactly like the Prosenic M8 robot vacuum that I currently use. The app is also eerily similar. The T10 Elite comes with a self-emptying bin, an extra side brush, a bag for the bin, an air filter, and a mop attachment.

The side brush easily snaps onto the bottom of the robot vac, and the mop easily attaches by sliding it into the back of the vacuum. After following the prompts on the app to connect to your home WiFi network, the complete installation only takes about 10 minutes.

Once you’re ready for the initial cleaning run, I recommend following it around as it learns the map of your home - the robot vacuum tends to go into places it shouldn’t. For me, that includes the fireplace. Having experienced the initial cleaning of a robot vacuum before, I closed doors to rooms where I didn’t want the vacuum to go and barricaded the fireplace with a child gate. Of course, when your place is properly mapped after the initial cleaning, you can set boundaries for the robot vacuum to avoid during future cleanings.

The robot vac did come with a remote, but the remote doesn’t do much, and you get way more control using the app. You can’t set boundaries with the remote, for instance. Its most useful quality was to tell the robot vacuum to return home to recharge. Other than that, it's better to use the app.

The first cleaning went well. It had no problems getting over placemats or rugs in the kitchen, living room, or dining room areas. It also didn’t get stuck under the dining room table or any of our end tables, nor did it toss itself down the stairs (which I’ve seen happen before). It wasn’t until more heavy-duty cleaning opportunities were presented that the true cleaning abilities would be tested.

Ultentic T10 Elite: Price & availability

The Ultenic T10 Elite has a list price of $499.99, but at the time of this writing, it can be found on the manufacturer’s website for $299.99. It is also listed on Amazon at a 20% discount of $399.99

Score: 5/5

Ultentic T10 Elite: Design

Upon first glance, it's easy to suggest that the Ultenic T10 Elite looks like most vacuum cleaners. But when directly compared to my current robot vacuum, some minor differences potentially impact performance.

Overall, the Ultenic T10 is slightly smaller in circumference than my current robot vacuum – barely noticeable. But the biggest difference is the width of the roller (the piece that sucks debris into the vacuum). The T10 roller is less wide, providing more room for debris to miss the roller and not be vacuumed up.

The self-emptying base is a much better design than my current robot vacuum’s base. With my current robot vacuum, the vacuum has to place itself onto the base to charge. This can lead to the base being moved around and not charging properly. With the Ultenic T10, the bin/base is bigger and more sturdy. When it came time for the robot vacuum to return to the base and charge, there were never any issues.

Score: 3/5

Ultentic T10 Elite: Performance

For the first official cleaning test, oats were spread around the hardwood floor in the kitchen area. I used the “spot cleaning” function in the app to have the vacuum only clean that specified area. That and the 'room' function are helpful if you have highly trafficked areas prone to more dirt, debris, or footprints. Instead of a general clean that can take upwards of 40 minutes (depending on the size of your home), you can have the robot vac clean those spots in a few minutes.

The first thing I noticed during this testing phase is that some oats would get trapped at the edge of the mop that snaps into the back. Upon a pass through the oats, it would look like the oats were getting vacuumed up properly, but when it would go over a bump, like from the hardwood onto a rug, a small pile of the oats would come out.

I thought maybe if I removed the mop from the back of the vacuum, this would eliminate the issue. But without the mop, the vacuum would kick debris everywhere. The mop needs to be attached to have a more thorough cleaning.

For the second test, I put thinner, more sand-like bread crumbs in the same area and used the same spot clean function. The results were worse than the oat cleaning test. The suction of the vacuum isn’t strong enough to suck out the bread crumbs from the grooves of the hardwood floor. There was also a significant amount of streaking. You can see the route and where the vacuum turns based on the remnants left behind. Also, the same problem of dumping a pile of debris would happen from hardwood to a slightly more elevated surface, like a rug.

For the next test, I spread light dirt and debris from outside (some grass and leaves mixed in) and white rice (to better see) throughout my upstairs. I also took the rice and spread it out across the rug area to see how it would do on a carpeted surface. I ran the auto-clean function and let the robot make a full run throughout the house. The results weren’t terrible, but they were not great either.

The robot vacuum had a difficult time with edges, as there were still a lot of rice remnants along the baseboards in the hallways and along the edges of rugs that lay atop the hardwood floor.

Perhaps the most disappointing was the inability to vacuum the rice from the rug. The rice wasn’t ground into the rug either, but after it passed over it, most of the rice remained.

The mop function is a nice touch. You can adjust the amount of water in the app, but the default setting worked fine. I left footprints (as I often do) in the kitchen and used the mop function to remove the footprints. The mopping was the most successful aspect of the cleaning, as the footprints were gone after the cleaning.

Finally, the other major benefit I’ve alluded to is the self-emptying bin. It is so convenient for the bin to be emptied without intervention. With my current robot vac, I always leave a mess around the garbage can when I have to empty the dustbin manually. Also, your hands get dirty, and the dust particles float everywhere – it’s simply not a fun or convenient experience. If I were ever to buy a new robot vacuum, a self-emptying bin is a must.

When in operation, the T10 Elite makes out 70 decibels of noise. That’s around the same amount of noise you’d hear if you were on the highway in your car or the general rumblings of an office environment. The bin, on the other hand, is quite loud when the device self-empties. The noise level ramps up to about 87 decibels when it empties, which is closer to the equivalent of a blender turning on.

Score: 2/5

Ultentic T10 Elite: How Does it Compare?

As mentioned earlier, when the roller of the T10 Elite was compared to the Prosenic M8, the T10 was certainly less wide. Compare the T10 roller to the Samsung Jet Bot AI+ - unsurprisingly, the Samsung Jet Bot AI+ had a much better cleaning performance. The Samsung Jet Bot is also a hair quieter at 60 decibels, although the bulky design makes the Samsung robot Vac get stuck under furniture, a problem that is nonexistent with the T10.

The Shark IQ Robot could also hoover up pet hair from carpets. My dog doesn’t shed, but I would not have any faith in the T10 Ultenic to be a dog hair removal marvel, considering how poorly it picked up rice from my rug.

The Ultenic T10 charges faster than the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro and also has a self-emptying bin, something the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro lacks. Having owned (and still own) a robot vacuum that doesn't have a self-emptying bin, I would not purchase another robot vacuum without one.

Should you buy the Ultenic T10 Elite?

Buy it if...

Don’t Buy It if…

How we tested the Ultenic T10 Elite

The main testing criteria were determining how well the robot vacuum picked up bigger debris, more fine debris, and how well it performed on hardwood floors and carpets.

I did three rounds of testing on the hardwood floor. I spread oats throughout the kitchen hardwood floor for the bigger debris test, bread crumbs for the fine debris test, and dirt and rice throughout my home for the general cleaning test.

For the carpeted area testing, I sprinkled rice throughout a rugged area in my living room to see how well the robot vacuum picked up the debris from a carpeted area.

Finally, I used the mop setting on the hardwood floor to determine how well the Ultenic T10 Elite could remove footprints.