Vactidy Nimble T6 Review
A cheap robot vacuum cleaner that gets stuck often.
Verdict
A cheap robot vacuum cleaner, the Vactidy Nimble T6 delivered some impressive cleaning results in my tests. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it repeatedly got stuck on relatively simple obstacles, making it quite frustrating to use. If you have a simple layout, this budget cleaner might work for you; if you need something more reliable and with more features, a robot with proper navigation is a better bet.
Pros
- Cheap
- Cleans surprisingly well
- Large bin
Cons
- Gets stuck very easily
- No proper mapping
Key Features
- TypeThis is a robot vacuum cleaner only with no mapping option.
- Smart assistantsWorks with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.
Introduction
While robot vacuum cleaner prices keep on rising as the range of features increases, the Vactidy Nimble T6 is a throwback to simpler times.
Basic navigation and a very simple app come at a low price. If you’ve got a relatively flat home with a simple layout, this vacuum cleaner is a capable cleaner, but it did have a tendency to get stuck during my tests.
Design and features
- Comes with a remote control
- Very basic app
- Simple controls
Small and light, the Vactidy NimbleT6 is easily recognisable as a budget robot vacuum cleaner. That said, it’s not that different from its higher-end competition in looks. A small, round vacuum cleaner, the Vactidy Nimble T6 looks like many others from a distance.
This one is particularly simple with a button on top to start and stop a clean, and that’s it. If you want other controls, then there’s a remote control in the box, which adds manual navigation and spot cleaning into the mix. It’s potentially handy, but I found that I didn’t use this remote control and instead used the app.
Flip the Vactidy Nimble T6 over, and it’s a standard layout underneath. There’s a single brush bar for the main work, plus two side-sweeping brushes, designed to get dirt out from the edge of rooms. Having two is helpful, as the robot doesn’t have to angle itself to run down the skirting board, unlike the much more expensive Roborock S8.
The main brush bar isn’t an anti-tangle one, so the robot comes with a razor to remove any hair that will get wrapped around it.
Open the top flap and the bin can be removed for emptying. It’s a decent size, too, at 500ml. That means it can easily cope with cleaning an entire floor without you having to stop to refill.
Using the Vactidy app, the Nimble T6 can join your Wi-Fi network. Via the app, there’s control over the robot’s power mode, although this is only available once the vacuum cleaner is moving. I stuck it on its maximum power mode.
There are also controls to clean just the edge of a room, and for spot cleaning. The latter requires the robot to be moved to an area first, and then cleans around that area only.
Aside from scheduling, that’s all you get. This robot doesn’t create a map, so has no in-depth controls, such as setting no-go areas or splitting your home into rooms.
There is support for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, with simple start/stop voice commands.
Performance
- Gets stuck easily
- A capable carpet cleaner
- Good edge performance
The Vactidy Nimble T6 isn’t as smart as its competition, bumping its way around until it runs out of battery and has to return to its dock. That’s fine in principle, but I found that the Vactidy Nimble T6 wasn’t very reliable.
On its first run, it backed itself into the open doorway near a step, and then refused to budge, sitting there just spinning its wheels and brush bar.
To get it moving again, I had to help the Vactidy Nimble T6 turn. However, this caused the robot to reverse and fall off the step.
I’d like to say that this was a one-off, but it wasn’t. On the next run, the robot backed into a different doorway and got itself stuck. On being freed, from there it ran underneath my office chair and got stuck under the casters.
I felt as though I had to chase it around, freeing it from the scrapes the robot got itself into. Give me a robot with LiDAR navigation any day.
Cleaning performance is actually very good. Admittedly, the robot made multiple passes over the carpet, but it did manage to clean out my tough spill of flour.
Moving to the hard floor test showed similar results. My spill in the middle of the floor was eradicated completely.
The edge test was excellent, too: most bits of dust were gone. I’ve seen more expensive cleaners fail.
Of course, the caveat is that the Vactidy Nimble T6 took a lot longer to do this job, as it bounced around and around. A smarter vacuum cleaner knows where it is, so only covers an area once on a standard clean, with an option to cover an area twice or more for bigger spills.
Battery life is good, at 60 minutes on maximum power. At this level, the Vactidy Nimble T6 can cover a floor of a house easily enough.
I measured the Vactidy Nimble T6 at 63.6dB on maximum power, which is relatively quiet. I didn’t find the cleaner too annoying to be around while it was running.
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Should you buy it?
You have a simple layout and want a budget cleaner: This robot can clean well in the right environment, and it’s great value.
You need a more reliable cleaner: I found that this model got stuck repeatedly, and I had to chase it around. A robot with proper navigation will be more reliable.
Final Thoughts
Cheap and technically able to clean well, the Vactidy Nimble T6 can work well, although I found it needed a very clean room with few obstacles.
Placed in a moderately challenging environment, I found that the cleaner repeatedly got stuck and became frustrating to use. For me, I’d rather spend more on the Yeedi Vac Max or something else from my guide to the best robot vacuum cleaners.
How we test
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
It doesn’t map at all, so can be moved from room to room.
No, this is a vacuum-only robot.
Full specs
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.
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.
