Dyson Spot & Scrub AI review: robot vacuums & mops with excellent obstacle avoidance & battery life
Firm’s renowned bagless cleaning technology is another huge plus point on its latest robot cleaner
Dyson Spot+Scrub AI is the firm’s first robot cleaner that vacuums and mops(Image: Dyson)
Dyson Spot+Scrub AI is the firm’s first robot cleaner that is capable of both vacuuming and mopping. It has a unique base station design with a visible dustbin that gives it a classic Dyson look.
The arrival of Spot+Scrub AI comes almost 10 years after the first Dyson robot vacuum 360 Eye went on sale in Ireland. Not long after, we had the greatly improved Dyson 360 Heurist and then in 2023 came Dyson 360 Vis which at the time was the best robot vacuum you could buy.
In recent years, however, brands such as Eufy, Roborock and Dreame – to name but a few – have stolen the march with more advanced cleaning systems that not only vacuum your carpets autonomously but mop your hard floors too.
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Dyson Spot +Scrub AI in everyday use
So for 2026, Dyson has fought back with Spot+Scrub AI, a hybrid robot vac and mop which marks a significant shift for the company by incorporating a self-cleaning heated wet roller mop, a bagless cyclonic auto-empty dock, and a combination of LiDAR and an AI camera to identify and repeatedly scrub stains.
As with all of its predecessors, the Spot+Scrub took only about five minutes to map both floors of my three-bed semi. It automatically differentiates the individual rooms on each floor.
The biggest change to the hardware on the Spot+Scrub is the base station, which gets a much larger unit to accommodate its mopping functionality. The base has three distinct cylinders. One is for clean water, one is for dirty water and a transparent one for dry debris that looks similar to the dustbin you’d see on one of the firm’s cordless vacuums.
For vacuuming, Spot+Scrub employs a bristle design and two fixed side brushes. I found the 18,000 Pa suction power on the vacuum is excellent, as you’d expect from a Dyson. It does an impressive job on the upstairs carpets. When it finishes cleaning on a floor without a base station, it returns to its starting position. I’ve got into the habit of cleaning the carpets upstairs before engaging the mopping and vacuuming downstairs which is where the base station is.
For the firm’s first attempt at autonomous mopping, Spot+Scrub AI does a consistently pleasing job on my hard floors. It uses a HD camera to inspect the surfaces, then uses AI to analyse what it sees and assess when to scrub more troublesome areas. It goes over those spots repeatedly, until the AI decides it has done enough to remove the stain. The roller mop lifts itself 10mm above carpets so the robot can clean both hard floors and carpets in a single run, and the mop extends to the side for coverage along walls.
The firm has introduced its own cleaning solution for mopping, incidentally. It costs €24.99 for 500ml.
Other Dyson Spot+Scrub AI features
You don’t need the MyDyson app for Spot+Scrub AI to work but the intuitive app is where you get to control everything to your liking including cleaning preferences, mapping and scheduling. The app is also where you’ll be able to activate any firmware updates and see reports on your robot’s cleaning. You can set the machine to vacuum only, mop only, vacuum first then mop or vacuum and mop at the same time. The latter is the mode I’ve used most often. You can also adjust the power of the vacuuming and the amount of water used for mopping. You can tweak these settings for each individual room in the home too.
Battery life is outstanding, with the firm quoting up to 200 minutes of run time from a single charge. This will obviously depend on your cleaning modes.
For testing products such as this, I intentionally dump a range of debris and foodstuffs on my floors such as rice, granola, coffee grinds and snacks along with spilling messier products such as ketchup, marmalade, coffee and red wine. And a bit of mud and occasionally some sand too. It’s all good fun, except when a robot isn’t as effective at cleaning as it should be. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case here.
The LiDAR and AI camera tech assist the obstacle avoidance of the robot which I found to be excellent during testing, during which I randomly place objects of all sizes and shapes that were not on my floors during the initial mapping.
After vacuuming, the robot returns to the base station and the auto-emptying of the bin begins. The firm has employed its cyclonic bagless technology in the Spot+Scrub AI’s auto-empty dock, delivering strong suction and efficient debris separation that reduces hair clogging and all without the need for disposable bags. After a couple of months’ use, there is no sign of moisture or damp debris in the bin, which is a positive result.
The base station also handles mop maintenance. It refills the robot’s water tank and empties the dirty tank, washes the mop at 140°F (60°C) and dries it at 113°F (45°C). You’ll probably need to empty the dirty tank every couple of days, but may not need to empty the dust bin for a couple of months. The auto-emptying of the bin and the mop drying are certainly not silent in operation, incidentally, but this is common with many robot cleaners I’ve tested. You can also fully access the clean and dirty water tanks on the robot itself, which means maintenance and troubleshooting will be easier than on robots which have sealed internal systems.
The only caveat is that at 110mm tall, the Spot+Scrub AI may not be low profile enough to travel and clean under some sofas, cupboards or cabinets. It can climb over 20mm thresholds, incidentally.
Dyson Spot+Scrub AI verdict
Dyson Spot+Scrub AI is super smooth in operation, with intelligent, measured, movement along with excellent navigation, obstacle detection and battery life.
Dyson Spot+Scrub AI pricing and availability
Dyson Spot+Scrub AI has been reduced by €200 to €999 at dyson.ie. You get a free bottle of Dyson 02 Probiotic hard floor cleaning solution worth €24.99.
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