Yeedi C12 Combo Review

Introduction

As good as robot vacuum cleaners are, there are still spots they’ll miss and they can struggle with a big spill or be annoying to send to a specific area for a targeted clean. That’s why, for the time being, cordless vacuum cleaners are still needed. With the Yeedi C12 Combo, you don’t have to choose, as you get a robot vacuum cleaner and a separate cordless cleaner combined.

There are some nice touches, such as the clever storage for the cordless cleaner’s accessories, but there are too many limitations to make this a must-have.

Design and Features

• Vacuum-only robot vacuum cleaner
• Separate cordless cleaner
• Self-emptying and charging dock

The Yeedi C12 Combo isn’t the first robot vacuum cleaner and cordless vacuum that I’ve reviewed: that is the Eufy Robot Vacuum E20 3-in-1. The main difference is that the Eufy E20 contains the cordless vacuum cleaner in the robot’s body, for a more compact product.

With the Yeedi C12 Combo, the approach is different, as there’s a separate robot and a separate cordless stick vacuum cleaner. That approach has some advantages and some disadvantages.

Overall, Yeedi has done a good job making the products sit nicely together. There’s a self-empty docking station, where the dust from both the robot and the cordless cleaner go. It’s a 1.5-litre bin, and it’s bagless, so you can fill it as many times as you like without having to pay for additional bags.

The robot docks like a normal vacuum cleaner, and there’s a slot on the side for the cordless cleaner to drop into. The cordless cleaner’s charging and emptying slot is similar to those on regular cordless cleaners that have a self-empty station, such as the Shark PowerDetect Clean & Empty IP3251UKT.

As the Yeedi C12 Combo’s dock is so close to the ground, the wand has to be removed. However, Yeedi has thoughtfully provided a clip, so that the wand and floor head are stored neatly. Next to this is a storage area for the handheld tools, so they’re kept neat and out of the way.

Yeedi provides a crevice tool, a 2-in-1 tool and a motorised floor head, which is a Zero Tangle model, designed to pick up hair without getting any wrapped around it.

Flip the floor head over, and there’s a magnetic mount for the add-on mopping cloth. This uses a tank of water and a microfibre cloth to pick up dirt.

There’s no scrubbing action, as you get with a regular hard floor cleaner, so think of this add-on as a manual mop system, although one where the vacuum cleaner can run for regular dust collection.

The Yeedi C12 Combo’s cordless stick vacuum is a little more basic than others I’ve reviewed. There’s an on/off button, and a button to change vacuum power between the three modes; but there’s no clear indication as to which mode you’re in. There’s also no indicator as to how long the battery will last, which is a shame.

At just 2.76kg, the vacuum cleaner is at least light and easy to push around and the grip is quite comfortable, with the body well balanced. Certainly, cleaning up higher with the nozzle off the ground is easy.

Headlights on the front of the cleaner make it easy to see in the dark, even if they don’t highlight dirt as effectively as the laser on the Dyson Gen5detect.

The bin can be removed entirely, using the red switch under where the wand connects, which lets you manually clean out the bin and wash the filter.

For the robot, there’s a slightly more basic experience than with rival models, such as the Dreame X50 Ultra Complete. On top, the LiDAR-driven robot has buttons for spot cleaning, starting a normal clean and returning to the dock.

There’s a lift-off flap that hides access to the bin. Again, you won’t need to empty this often manually, but it’s good practice to clean out the bin under running water once a month, or so, and to wash out the filter.

Flip over the robot and there’s a standard layout, with a side brush for edge cleaning (fixed in place), and a tangle-free floor brush, which can be removed for cleaning. There’s no mopping option.

Via the Yeedi app, you can control the Yeedi C12 Combo. First, it has to perform a quick mapping run, which lets the robot learn your home’s layout. It will suggest rooms, but if it gets the wrong, you can merge and split areas.

Although a little basic, the map is clean and easy to read, and you can set no-entry areas if you find that the Yeedi C12 Combo gets stuck, such as under a sofa. Oddly, I could also set a no-mopping area, despite the robot not having a mop.

Cleaning options let you select to clean everywhere (Auto), a room or rooms of your choice, or up to five zones that you draw on the map.

There’s then a choice of four suction modes, and a choice of one or two passes, after which you can set the Yeedi C12 Combo about its job.

There’s not much in the way of advanced settings, but it’s worth turning on Auto Resume, so that the Yeedi C12 Combo can top up a battery and continue a cleaning job, and the carpet boost setting.

Performance

• Basic cordless vacuum performance
• Average robot performance
• Fiddly mopping

A three-in-one product, I started my testing with the cordless vacuum cleaner, measuring the power in AW at the handle. On its lowest power setting, I found that the vacuum cleaner produced a low 31AW. On medium, power jumped to 81AW, which is about what I’d expect for a budget cordless cleaner.

Power on maximum was 179AW, which lags behind the best in the business, such as the Shark PowerDetect Clean & Empty IP3251UKT, but is still pretty reasonable.

To see what that kind of suction power can do, I lined up a column of rice next to a tape measure, and put the Yeedi C12 Combo’s nozzle at the end. I saw that rice grains were collected from 1.5cm away, which isn’t bad: for jobs such as vacuuming out a drawer or wardrobe, the high power setting makes the task a bit quicker and easier, as the nozzle doesn’t have to be placed right on the mess.

I then moved on to my real-world tests, starting with the carpet test. For this, I added 20g of flour to the carpet, and then used the medium power mode to run backwards and forwards through the middle.

As you can see from the image, this left a clean-looking stripe through the middle, although dust collection towards the edge of the floor head was weaker than in the middle.

After completing the vacuuming to the point where the carpet looked clean (I finished up with a pass over at the highest level), I weighed the vacuum cleaner’s bin and found that 83.55% of dust had been collected, which is behind most other cordless cleaners, although better than the dust collection on the Eufy E20 3-in-1.

I then moved to the difficult edge test, adding 10g of flour right up to the skirting board. After a few passes in different directions on the highest power setting, the carpet looked clean. However, as I moved the vacuum cleaner, a lot of flour dropped out onto the floor, meaning that just 77.5% of dust was collected.

Moving to the hard floor, I added 20g of rice. This time around, the Yeedi C12 Combo did better and managed to collect 100% of the rice grains.

I tested with cat hair, combed into the carpet. I’m pleased to say that the Yeedi C12 Combo managed to collect all of this mess.

With human hair, I found that the long hairs were collected, and none got wrapped around the floor head, showing that the anti-tangle tech does work.

Next, I added the mop and tested dried-on stain removal. The coffee stain was relatively easy to get rid of, with all of the mess gone.

The same was true of the red wine stain. This needed a few good swipes backwards and forward to remove the stain, but it all lifted.

With the dried-on mud stain, I had to work quite hard to remove this. With the Yeedi C12 Combo turned on, the loose particles were collected, but the stain needed a lot of agitation to remove it.

With the ketchup stain, results weren’t so good. After a lot of effort, I collected all the mess that I could, but there were still bits of mess left behind. This mopping system is far behind what a proper hard floor cleaner can offer.

In vacuum mode, I measured battery life at 20m 33s on the medium power setting, which is a little below par; on the highest setting, there’s just seven minutes of life.

With the robot vacuum cleaner, I started out by adding flour to the test carpet, setting the Yeedi C12 Combo to maximum suction and then letting it loose around the Trusted Reviews Home Technology Lab.

Results were more in-line with budget robot vacuum cleaners, such as the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Pro, with a fair bit of missed dust; this cleaner would be better for lighter jobs.

On the hard floor, the results were better out in the open, with the Yeedi C12 Combo able to collect all of the mess on its two passes.

Edge performance wasn’t so good, with my flour swirled around, rather than being collected. This was a job that I had to finish by hand.

I also tried the Yeedi C12 Combo with human hair, and the robot managed to collect it all without leaving any strands tangled around the main brush.

Navigation is generally good with the Yeedi C12 Combo. It managed to find its way around the lab without issue, avoiding big objects. There’s no camera for dedicated obstacle avoidance, so it did run into fake pet mess, shoes and cables.

Battery life is quoted at 300 minutes in robot mode on the lowest power setting. Again, this is another robot vacuum cleaner that has enough power to deal with the floor in an average-sized-home, with two passes, and have enough left over for spot jobs.

Should you buy it?