Digital Essentials Robotic Vacuum Cleaner Review

When you imagine the discount store Five Below, you probably don’t immediately think of a robot vacuum. Or at all. Ever.

But that’s where you’re wrong. Five Below has exclusive dibs on the Digital Essentials Robotic Vacuum Cleaner (available at Five Below) . At the time of our review, this robot vacuum costs only $20, which is its major selling point. It's important to note that this robot vacuum is hard to find in-stock. For $5 more, you can buy the same vacuum, accented by color-changing LED lights, which usually more widely available.

Buy at Five Below

Buy at Five Below

We put the Five Below robot vacuum through the same tests as all our robot vacuums, just to see how it would perform, and, well, it performs about as good as you’d guess.

The Five Below robot vacuum will never compete with a Roomba. It does all right picking up crumbs off the floor, but it has two major flaws: no drop sensors and poor navigation.

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About the Digital Essentials Robotic Vacuum Cleaner

• Dimensions: 11” x 3” (W x H)
• Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Charge method: USB
• Extras: LED lights on the back

What we like

It’s the cheapest way to introduce a robot vacuum to your home

If you have pets, it can be hard to know how they’ll react to a robot vacuum. You might get a top-rated model like our favorite, the iRobot Roomba j7+ only to find that your dog hates the noise it makes and your cat is constantly clawing the charging base.

The Digital Essential is the perfect low-cost way to determine if a robot vacuum jives well with your lifestyle.

It is good at cleaning—considering how much it costs

This may not sound like a resounding reason to buy this robot vacuum, but let us explain.

During testing, we measure how much dirt a robot vacuum picks up on our robot vacuum obstacle course. The Digital Essentials picked up an average of seven grams per run. This is about 30% below what we would consider a passing grade, but all those other robot vacuums cost at least five times as much.

Come on, it costs $20

We should all be looking at saving time and money. The Digital Essentials Robotic Vacuum Cleaner allows us to do both.

What we don’t like

Its navigation spins right round, baby, right round

The Five Below robot vacuum lacks any navigational sensors, not even drop sensors. What this means is that it is prone to falling down the stairs and getting stuck on carpets—things that other robot vacuums easily avoid.

A lack of sensors also means this robot vacuum can’t orient itself, either, so sometimes it will just move around in circles for minutes at a time.

It’s flimsy

Because the Digital Essentials Robotic Vacuum Cleaner is affordable, it is no surprise that it cuts a lot of corners during the manufacturing process.

For example, it charges via a USB cable, so it can’t even plug into a wall outlet without an adapter.

The filter and dust bin all felt flimsy and poorly designed. Every time we opened the dust bin to empty it, a little bit of debris fell out. The filter was difficult to remove and seemed a little too thin.

Finally, the battery is pretty weak. This is not surprising since a quality battery is expensive. But the Digital Essential’s battery has enough power for a 30-minute runtime.

Should you buy the Digital Essentials Robotic Vacuum Cleaner?

Sure, what do you have to lose?

Even with all its flaws, it’s tough to poo-poo this robot vacuum too hard.

It only costs $20 and that’s tough to beat. After putting it through its paces in our labs, we think it lives up to its price tag. It’ll clean the floor of a small room well enough. However, you better keep it away from stairs.

If you’re looking for a robot vacuum that can clean multiple rooms, we’d suggest the Eufy 11S. It’s got a battery that’s three times as powerful and it isn’t prone to nosediving.

Digital Essentials Robotic Vacuum Cleaner

At this can't-beat price, this vacuum cleaner is a great test purchase to see if the robot vacuum life is right for you.

$20 at Five Below

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Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.