Verefa V60 Pro Self

REVIEW – When Star Wars was released in 1977, I was in awe of the variety of robots on the Jawa Sandcrawler. I never imagined having a crew of robots to help with my household duties. Forty-five years later, my house is filled with them! Now you can have one that vacuums your house and only needs emptying once a month with the Verefa V60 Pro Self-Emptying vacuum!

The Verefa V60 Pro is an app-controlled, self-propelled, battery-powered robot vacuum cleaner capable of self-navigating during cleaning and automatically emptying into a bag in the charging base.

The Verefa V60 Pro arrived double-boxed for its shipping comfort. The box is relatively bulky.

Protective packaging prevents boo-boos.

It's wise to read the manual. Verefa's is very good

Some extra parts are included with the Verefa V60 Pro Self-Emptying Robot Vacuum.

The dust bin can be detached for cleaning and filter replacement. I liked the inclusion of the cleaning brush in a recess.

A side-sweeping brush snaps onto a spindle and does a good job of sweeping debris into the path of the vacuum aperture.

To assist with cleaning, a spinning roller brush helps to dislodge dirt, debris, and pet hair

Gutsy treads on the drive wheels give tons of traction, even over thick carpets.

The Verefa V60 Pro Self-Emptying Robot Vacuum's charging base is heavy enough to stand firm should the V60 Pro decide it wants to play "king of the hill." If you’re familiar with other robot vacuums, this can be an issue. If motion from the robot moves the base too far away from the origin, it can have problems starting navigation or returning to charge. This shouldn't be a problem with the Verefa.

Power is provided by a cord with an IBM-style plug. The excess cord can be stored onboard. I wish all floor-located appliances had this.

Battery charging connections from the base to the V60 are on spring-loaded stalks.

The battery takes about six hours to complete charging. White LEDs under the buttons pulse in process. When the batteries are nearly depleted, the LEDs change to red.

Once charging has been completed, the Verefa V60 Pro Self-Emptying Robot Vacuum can be launched with a press of the power button, but to gain full usage, installation of the app is required. The same button turns the vacuum on and off with a long press. The vacuum speaks commands so it's easy to know what it's thinking and about to do.

The app, Verefa Life, is available in the Apple App and Google Play stores.

Signing up for an account is necessary to enable the app. I had some trouble getting a response e-mail (there is a one-minute countdown each time a request for a confirmation code is requested). It took several tries to get an access code via email, but once it was received, I was able to log in immediately.

Simultaneously pressing the "Spot Cleaning" and "Recharge" buttons for three seconds resets the connections. The robot first paired with Bluetooth which worked.

For testing, I tried to manually pair the V60 Pro through the Wi-Fi configuration but was unable to get it to work. It's good that the Bluetooth pairing method functioned as it was supposed to.

With the app installed and battery charged, I sent the V60 scuttling about on its first vacuum voyage. Navigation guided the robot in relatively straight lines parallel to the walls. I liked that the vacuum's path was long, straight lines, but found that the robot repeated coverage of a few areas multiple times. As it was moving, the V60 Pro generated a map of its surroundings, and I hope that after learning more, navigation will improve. During cleaning, only once was there an issue that stopped the robot from continuing when it tried to eat an errant sock – my fault, not the robot's.

In addition to the front bumper bar, the robot is equipped with sensors to prevent it from plummeting down the stairs and around other obstacles.

After 90 minutes of running at the strongest level of suction, the V60 Pro found its way back to the base to sip electron juice. It charged for a while, then returned where it had left off. There are four levels of suction that can be selected each a little louder.

Upon redocking, suction in the base draws the objects from the vacuum through a duct and into the dust bag which takes about 15 seconds.

The bag is disposable and Verefa indicates that the bag should hold about a month's worth of captured crud. When the bag is full, an indicator will let you know it's time to replace the bag. Replacement bags are available at three for $19.99 here. The auto-empty feature can be disabled, empty after every cleaning, after cleaning twice, or after three times

Should you need to clean one particular area, spot cleaning can be used. This mode requires the vacuum to be placed at the center of the area or room and the "Spot Cleaning" button in the app, onboard the vacuum, or on the wireless remote pressed. This mode worked great for my entryway.

The wireless remote is handy. All of the Verefa V60 Pro's functions can be controlled without needing to access the app or bend down to touch the vacuum. Buttons include "auto" (for automatic navigated cleaning) "Home" (returns to the base to recharge), spot cleaning (spiral symbol), Suction level (fan icon), and a cursor pad for directing the robot to a particular dusty enclave RC car style. Zoom!

I was pleased with the amount of dust, dirt, and pet hair the V60 Pro picked up (this could have been pulled into the dirtbag, but I wanted to show what the V60 Pro is capable of picking up in a single run).

The app has some other cool features. "Auto Boost" changes the amount of suction based on the floor surface. "Do Not Disturb" prevents the robot's voice from speaking based on the settings on your phone. "Volume" sets the speaker level.

"Remote control mode" opens an on-screen keypad to steer the robot from the phone in a similar manner as the wireless remote.

"Find my robot" triggers the robot to speak, "Hi, here I am." Share robot" allows robot access by another assigned user. "Scheduled" configures the vacuum to run on a schedule on specific days.

There's also a consumables schedule, firmware update, online manual, robot information, factory restore settings, and a way to remove the robot from your account.

For giggles, I stopped the V60 Pro when far from the base, ran a spot-cleaning cycle, and pressed the button to return to recharge. I was impressed that after a while, it made its way through several rooms and found its way home. Well done. I have worked with several different brands of robotic vacuums and this is the first to be able to find its way home. Nicely done, Verefa.

The Verefa app is also Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant compatible.

No longer relegated to sci-fi films, robots have become mainstream and are great at repetitive tasks like vacuuming. I leave them to do most of my home's cleaning. Now I only need to pull another vacuum out of the closets for touch-ups. It's lovely to leave home in the morning and have the floors tidy and clean when I get home. The Verefa V60 Pro robot vacuum does a commendable job and navigates well, the 30-day dust bin emptying is glorious, and it packs a gaggle of features for a reasonable cost. Thanks, Verefa!

Price: Verefa: $259.00, $11.99 for three bagsWhere to buy: Verefa, Amazon, Bags on AmazonSource: The sample for this review was supplied by Verefa.