Mamotion Spino E1 review: A budget pool robot that comes up short

The bot uses Bluetooth to communicate with your phone and uses 2.4GHz Wi-Fi to connect directly to your home network for over-the-air updates (but not real-time management). Setup requires connecting to a temporary network on the device and connecting it to your home network, which is a quick process that didn’t cause me any issues during setup. Firmware updates will likely be available, but note that you will need to check the device information menu for them. Mammotion does not proactively push or suggest any updates during testing, and these over-the-air updates often require multiple attempts to install successfully.

The app is certainly limited, allowing you to choose from the four standard operating modes and make some small additional tweaks, including configuring the robot’s maximum speed and choosing some experimental features. This includes a “Turbo Cleaning” mode that increases suction power at the expense of battery life, and an option to optimize the way the unit cleans steps and platforms. (Why this feature isn’t always on is a mystery.)

leaves behind

Photo: Chris Noll

During my tests, I saw fairly consistent performance results. The Spino E1 offers acceptable cleaning capabilities, although it is far from perfect. Using synthetic leaves, the unit averaged only about 80 percent cleaning rate, leaving behind a significant amount of uncollected material. This material was not only insulated in corners and steps; They were spread all over the pool. I also noted that the unit cleared steps and platforms well, but had great difficulty negotiating obstacles, especially at the waterline.

I saw similar results with organic debris, and the E1 in particular had difficulties with small particles like dirt. On one tour, the pool was best described as looking a bit like some debris had been smeared onto the pool floor rather than being sucked into the debris bin. All of this is unusual and does not indicate that the unit has coverage issues, but rather that the device may simply be underpowered.

ScreenshotSpino App via Chris Noll

Good news: The Turbo Cleaning mode available through the app was clearly more effective and surprisingly didn’t affect battery life at all. The bad news is that this option, which is still in beta, must be manually activated in the app before each run of the bot. Hopefully, Mamotion will simply make Turbo mode the default soon.

When finished, the Spino E1 climbs the pool wall and waits at the waterline to collect – at least momentarily. The problem is that the robot doesn’t send a notification via the Mammotion app to alert you when the cleaning cycle is finished, and since the robot has to turn on its propulsion jets to float, you only have a limited time (about 10 minutes) before the battery dies and the robot sinks. A hook is included in the box to aid in pole-based retrieval in this event.