HG4 Hydro Review: The robot vacuum that mops — but is it worth it?

Nothing beats coming home to a clean and tidy house after a long day. Now imagine achieving that feeling without having to complete your cleaning tasks alone.

That’s why investing in high quality products to improve the home cleaning routine is never a bad decision. Could the highly rated HG4 Hydro Robot Vacuum be the answer to handsfree vacuuming and mopping? As someone who finds chores a bore, I put it to the test.

HG4 Hydro robot vacuum review

Build

My initial thoughts were that the sleek design matched my black and grey style kitchen effortlessly and the long cord made it easy to pick the perfect spot for the charging dock. It is useful to note that the machine does take up quite a lot of ground space when connected to the charging dock, so this is something to be aware of if you have a more compact kitchen.

Setup

Setting up the Hoover did take time, and the process included a WiFi connection, app download, Hoover account creation and initial ‘Mapping’ phase where the unit takes itself around your home creating its cleaning area map.

Setting up a cleaning schedule was easy enough and I also dabbled with naming each room and setting up the ‘No Go’ areas. For my home, these areas where the rugs that I did not want the robot to try and mop.

Performance

Once set up and testing, I was quickly surprised by how powerful this little robot is, it targets crumbs and small debris well but also pulls up pet fur with ease, even on the lower-level settings. Power levels range from ‘Min’ to ‘Max’ and you can allocate the levels of both the Hoover and the mop functions individually. I opted to keep both on the ‘Medium’ and ‘Mid’ settings for the duration of testing. A great selling point of this particular robot is that it makes far less noise than a standard vacuum, even on the higher power levels.

On a slightly more negative note, the machine did seem to struggle with tassel rugs and often tried to churn them up thus getting itself stuck a few times. The Hoover was able to untangle itself, but it may be smart to ensure more elaborate rugs are lifted up to any avoid damage.

Usability

Emptying the tank

The machine itself is simple to empty, and the water tank is easily accessible for refilling, which I found needed to be done around twice a week with Medium/Mid settings active. There are two buttons located on the top of the unit; the ‘Power On’ button and then the ‘Home’ button which returns the Hoover to the charging dock. It is rare that you will need to utilise the Home button as the robot will take itself to the charging dock when low and if it is in the middle of a cleaning program it will resume once charged.

For those more technologically savvy users, the Hoover offers a range of personalised programs so that you can set a cleaning schedule, select the vacuum and mop power levels, choose which rooms you’d like vacuumed and even set up ‘No Go’ areas. There is even a manual feature where you can control the Hoover cleaner yourself.

Final verdict

Final verdict

I find clean floors make the biggest difference to any home and this Hoover Robot achieved the desired result with ease. The ability to tailor the programs to best suit your requirements and set up schedules means you could wake up and come home to not just vacuumed but mopped floors too. All of this while abolishing the requirement to vacuum daily seems like a big win.

Overall, I’d say if you are looking to make vacuuming and mopping tasks of the past and don’t mind a technological robot that requires a little extra practice, then I recommend giving this one a go!