Aeno RC3S Review
A powerful mid-range robot vacuum cleaner and mop
Verdict
A powerful mid-range robot vacuum cleaner, the Aeno RC3S handled tough spills well on hard floors and carpets. Edge performance could be better, and the app could be a little more intuitive, but this is a good choice for general maintenance cleaning on a budget. Competition is tough at this level, and for a little more, you can get a self-emptying model.
Pros
- Well priced
- Powerful suction
- Customisable cleaning
Cons
- Edge cleaning could be better
- Fiddly to swap between vacuuming and mopping
Key Features
- TypeThis is a robot vacuum cleaner and mop.
- MoppingAdjustable water flow for the mop.
Introduction
Mid-range robot vacuum cleaners seem to be coming thick and fast recently, with the Aeno RC3S joining the ranks.
This robot vacuum cleaner has mop and vacuum-only modes, although switching between the two does mean switching the cartridge in the back, which is slightly fiddly.
A powerful app, even if it’s not always the most intuitive, helps make the most of the robot’s features, and it’s a capable cleaner, particularly on hard floors.
Design and features
- Round design
- Two cartridges: one for dust and one for mopping
- Smart app
Externally, the Aeno RC3S looks very similar to the majority of other robot cleaners: round in design, with a LiDAR sensor sat on top.
This particular model has three buttons on the front: a button to start/stop a clean, one to return the robot to its dock, and one for configuring Wi-Fi.
Flip the robot over, and it’s a similar story to rivals: there’s a rotating floor brush for agitating dirt on carpets and hard floors and then two side brushes for teasing dirt out at the edges of rooms.
It’s nice to see the dual brushes here, as it means that the Aeno RC3S can approach the edges of a room from any direction and still use its brushes.
The main brush bar doesn’t have anti-tangle technology, so will need long hair cutting off it using the provided tool. If you live in a house with pets or people with long hair, then an alternative cleaner that won’t get caught up with hair might be a better choice, such as the Eufy X8 Pro.
A small floor charging dock is provided. As this doesn’t have auto-empty or mop cleaning options, it’s tiny and doesn’t take up much room. In fact, you could place the dock and robot underneath low furniture if you wanted it out of sight.
Things start to get different when you look into the mopping and vacuuming options. There’s a regular pull-out dustbin and filter, with a decent 600ml capacity. This is easy to remove and empty, with the filter simple to clean.
If you want to mop, then this bin has to be removed and the water tank and mop assembly have to be inserted. The tank has a 350ml water capacity, with some space at the front for dust collection.
It’s a little annoying having to switch the entire cartridge to change mode, when most mid-range cleaners, such as the Imou RV-L11-A, stick with the same dust bin, and then have a clip-on mopping pad.
Here, the mopping pad can’t lift off the floor when carpet is detected. If you have mixed flooring types and want to handle them all in a single pass, a cleaner that can lift its mop, such as the iRobot Roomba Combo j7+ makes more sense.
The Aeno RC3S can be controlled via the Aeno app, which also houses the company’s other products, such as the Aeno Premium Eco LED Smart Heater. Technically, the robot (and Aeno’s other devices) are compatible with the Smart Life app.
From the app, the first job to do is to send the robot on a cleaning pass to generate the first map. Once this is done, rooms are automatically added to the map, although you can split and merge them to get the layout that you want. And you can add no-go and no-mop zones.
Although the app offers some powerful options, they’re not always in the most intuitive of places. For example, from the main screen I could start a clean, but not set the power or mopping level I wanted to use. Instead, these options are buried in the Settings menu.
The cleaning modes are powerful: Auto will clean everywhere; Room lets you clean the rooms you want; Zoned lets you draw a box where you want the robot to clean; and Pin and Go sends the robot to a selected location on the map to perform a quick clean around it.
By default, cleaning will use the default settings in the app, but under map management, I could change the settings for each room, adjusting the power, water level and number of passes that the robot should make. The resulting choices are shown on the robot’s home page.
Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant support are available for quickly starting or stopping a clean with your voice.
Performance
- Powerful suction
- Excellent cleaning on hard floors
- Edge performance could be better
I set the Aeno RC3S about its work in the Trusted Reviews home tech lab, starting off with my carpet test where I sprinkled a teaspoon of flour onto the floor. After a single pass of the room, the RC3S didn’t do a great job, with quite a lot of the mess left behind.
I set it on a second pass, and it did much better this time. There’s visibly some mess left behind, but the bulk of the dirt had been removed. For general day-to-day use, this vacuum cleaner will do a good job.
Next, I set it to work on the hard floor, starting with flour spread in the middle of the floor. This proved easy for the robot, easily collecting all of the dirt in one go, and I couldn’t see any trace of the mess.
For the tougher edge test, I sprinkled flour up to the kitchen plinth and then let the robot go about its business. This proved much harder for the robot, and it didn’t get very close to the edge of the room, leaving quite a mess behind.
For hard floors, then, general cleaning is good, but I would need to handle the edges of rooms manually to collect everything.
I tried out the mopping pad, too. As there’s no agitating action, I found that this cleaner was good for lighter stains, such as fresh muddy paw prints. For tougher in-ground stains, such as marks left by moving large appliances around in the test lab, the robot couldn’t shift them.
I measured the robot at 64.5dB on its maximum setting, which means that it’s loud enough to hear but not distractingly so. I found that I could have the robot on while working or cooking without it disturbing me too much.
Navigation was good. I did have to stop the robot from diving under the corner sofa in the lab: it’s tall enough at the front for the vacuum to get under, but drops at the back, trapping the cleaner. To be fair, a lot of robots struggle with this obstacle.
Battery life was good. The Aeno RC3S cleaned the entire lab on a single charge, so it will cope well enough with a floor in a standard home.
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Should you buy it?
You want a powerful, low-cost robot
With its flexible app and ability to clean bigger spills, the Aeno RC3S is a good, low-cost robot vacuum cleaner.
You want self-emptying or anti-tangle
Spend a little bit more, and you can get a robot vacuum such as Eufy X8 Pro that will self empty and won’t get wrapped in hair.
Final Thoughts
Considering its price, the Aeno RC3S is quite a powerful vacuum cleaner. Edge performance could be better, but it’s powerful on hard floors and does well on carpet, with two passes dealing well with the toughest of spills. Mopping is a little more basic, but that’s to be expected at this price.
The main issue is that for just a little more cash, the Eufy X8 Pro is available: it cleaned better in my tests, has a self-empty station and automatically detangles its brush bar. If you want something even more powerful or more flexible, check out my guide to the best robot vacuum cleaners.
How we test
Unlike other sites, we test every robot vacuum cleaner we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as our main robot vacuum cleaner for the review period
We test for at least a week
Tested with real-world dirt in real-world situations for fair comparisons with other vacuum cleaners
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FAQs
No, if you have carpet or rugs then you need to set no-mop zones. To vacuum only, you need to swap the mopping cartridge for the standard dust bin.
Full specs
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
