After two years, Yun Whale's second sweeping and dragging robot J2 is finally on the market. As with the original product J1 two years ago when it was first released, J2 is still "well received" on major social platforms, and only some e-commerce platforms can see some real user feedback problems.
In order to share the product experience with consumers, we released an in-depth review of cloud whale J1 last year and pointed out some shortcomings of the machine. To this end, we also received a "retraction letter" from Cloud Whale, but instead of compromise, we also got the support of many fans.
As an "internet celebrity" brand, with the listing of J2, our backstage has received some users who want to see the real experience of the machine. That being the case, we bought the J2 and tested it in depth. Let's take a look at it with you, this cloud whale carefully polished product for nearly two years, has solved the previous problem and allowed users to "further liberate their hands"?
New features are more demanding on the installation environment
The biggest upgrade of Yun Whale J2 this time is to add intelligent water replacement system, which can add clean water and discharge sewage to the base station through the water supply and sewage device (additional purchase required).
Looking at the current sweeping robot industry, in addition to charging, the base station will generally add the function of cleaning the mop, and the slightly more advanced products also have the function of automatic dust collection. The automatic water change system of Cloud Whale J2 is a unique innovation.
The role of this system is not difficult to understand, you can think of it as a washing machine, water supply and sewer device can control the putting in clean water and discharging sewage, the same on the sweeper. Therefore, in the installation, the requirements for the environment are relatively high, in addition to power supply, it is also necessary to reserve two water pipes, which may be more difficult to meet for families that have been renovated.
Official installation instance
According to our understanding, many users for such products as sweepers, are generally installed in the living room or bedroom and other relatively empty environments, but these places are generally unlikely to reserve water pipes, can only access the exposed or secondary chiseled wall wiring in the later stage, there is a certain cost of decoration, and affect the appearance.
The official recommended case is to hide the water pipe by decorating the pipe, or put it under the kitchen/bathroom cabinet/washstand, so the cloud whale J2 is more suitable for users who have not yet been renovated, and reserves a place for it at the beginning of the design. How many users will change the home improvement design for the purpose of automatic water change, which is not the core function of the sweeper?
Interestingly, since the release of the Cloud Whale J2, this set of water supply and sewage devices has almost always been out of stock, so the version we reviewed is the water tank version, except for the water supply and sewer function, the other is exactly the same.
The shortcomings of the previous generation of products have not improved significantly
As for the water tank version, there are not so many requirements, and the base can be used after connecting the power supply to the network. It should be noted that cloud whale J2 can only use the 2.4G band, if your router uses the 5G band, or opens the dual frequency integration, then it is possible to fail the distribution network, many users feedback that the machine can not be networked is this reason.
Cloud Whale J2 uses the LDS laser mapping scheme, the whole process is still relatively smooth, in each room roughly "look over" can be completed. It's just that if it encounters a glass door, it will still bump into it, and the recognition ability will still improve the space.
After the map is built, Cloud Whale J2 can split and merge the map, but only supports one map, if the home is a split layer, it can only be rebuilt each time, almost no feasibility. Moreover, most similar products support designated cleaning of a certain area, and some brand models can even call the sweeper "clean here" through voice commands for accurate cleaning. However, the Cloud Whale J2 cannot achieve similar functions, and can only use "Free Cleaning" to clean the entire room.
In addition, in the APP, you can also develop cleaning tasks, such as starting the whole house cleaning at 4 pm, but because the cloud whale J2 still needs to manually replace the sweeping /mopping module, if the person is not at home, cleaning can only do half, in contrast, many similar products, almost all of them are sweeping and dragging integrated design, or more convenient.
The cleaning process of the Cloud Whale J2 is still relatively satisfactory, and the bilateral brush gathers the garbage on both sides into the middle, and then directly inhales the dust box. Since there is no middle roller brush, it is relatively less likely to wind around the hair. It's just that once it encounters an obstacle, it exposes some problems. For example, furniture such as tables, chairs, benches and other furniture at home is basically identified by collision, which is a problem in the previous generation of products, and this generation has not improved much.
Cloud Whale J2
Friendly products
In this relatively complex corner of the terrain, the cloud whale J2 even crashed directly into the screen next to it, and the force was not small, and it did not dodge at all when it touched the wire, and finally it was directly trapped. After recognizing the screen, other models at the same price will slowly pass from the side, and as for the low lamp holder, although it took a little time, it eventually broke away from the obstacle to continue working without human intervention.
Note: Cloud Whale J2 has been trapped for a long time and has not been able to get out of the trap, this video is only accelerated processing; in order to avoid advertising suspicion, the friendly brand was hidden during shooting.
In addition, we also found that cloud whale J2 will not find the base station from time to time, in the process of recharging, even if the base station is nearby, it will still circle in situ, and the error cannot be recharged.
As the most basic wayfinding function of the sweeper, the Cloud Whale J2, which was replaced in two years, did not solve the problems of obstacle avoidance and navigation, and it was always not reassuring when used. In fact, many models in the 2,000 yuan price segment on the market have AI recognition 3D obstacle avoidance, binocular visual navigation, ToF obstacle avoidance and other functions, and basically will not crash everywhere during the cleaning process, nor do they need manual intervention. In contrast, the cloud whale J2, which costs 3999, can only help it clear the obstacles before cleaning, let alone "further liberate the hands"?
Self-cleaning water leakage issues have been improved
Although the navigation and obstacle avoidance ability of the Cloud Whale J2 are still problematic, its mopping function is still worthy of recognition. Not only is there a high-speed rotating mop, but also a 10N downforce (about equal to 1kg of heavy press) is applied when mopping the floor, and the regular dry and wet garbage we tested in the home can be cleaned up, and it will not "draw a map".
Of course, there are also slot points, in addition to manually replacing the sweeping/mopping module, because the cloud whale J2 can not recognize the object in front, so when mopping the carpet will also continue to work, making a wet piece. Some similar models can automatically switch to sweeping mode after recognizing the carpet, or directly avoid it, and will not "mop" on the carpet.
So if you have a carpet at home, it is recommended to preset the mop exclusion zone after building the map, or lay the anti-collision magnetic strip at home in advance.
In addition, since the sweeper is not equipped with a water tank, the mopping function of the Cloud Whale J2 is to work after the base station wets the rag. This leads to the fact that when you just leave the base station, the rag carries a large amount of water, and there will be obvious water stains on the ground If you are more mindful of water stains, you can choose the "slightly dry" mode in the APP, but the frequency of cleaning/humidification of the sweeper back to the base station will be higher, and the cleaning efficiency will naturally be reduced.
When it comes to the automatic cleaning wipe function, the Cloud Whale J2 is also upgraded. In the previous cloud whale J1 review, we proposed that the self-cleaning function will overflow a lot of water splash, this problem has been solved on J2, the official in the cleaning rib (that is, the bottom tray) in front of the plastic strip, can effectively block the overflow of water stains. It shows that the official still saw the feedback from us and users, and made adjustments within the scope of technical capabilities.
At the same time, we also found that after self-cleaning, a large amount of foam will remain in the cleaning ribs, which is not cleaned at all, and can only wait for it to dry slowly.
To this end, cloud whale J2 is also equipped with warm air drying function, according to our actual measurements, the drying process takes about two hours, the effect is also more satisfactory. The only problem is that it cannot be turned on/off manually, it is recommended that a new switch button can be added to the APP later.
Engineer thinking should be used to solve product pain points
On the whole, Cloud Whale J2 is a product with obvious advantages and disadvantages, its mopping ability is worth affirming, even better than some of the washing machine effect, the new automatic water supply and sewer function, but also provide users with more convenience, if it is a new house that has not yet been renovated, it is indeed possible to consider targeted pipeline design.
As for the shortcomings, the wayfinding, obstacle avoidance system and the previous generation have made little progress, and most of the time it is still necessary to judge the obstacles through collisions, and in complex environments, it is even inferior to some 2,000 yuan products.
In the same price model, the advantage of Cloud Whale J2 is almost only the automatic addition of detergent and automatic water supply, the former is really useful, and the latter installation limitations are too much, most of the users who have been renovated can basically only choose the water tank version, so they cannot use this function.
In fact, at present, the mainstream brand sweeper is difficult to pull out the gap in cleaning ability, and can only seek a breakthrough in additional functions and automation. The automatic water and sewage function of Cloud Whale J2 is a good idea, but Cloud Whale does not seem to take into account the actual situation of mainstream users, which is a typical "engineer thinking". Perhaps in the future, the automatic water supply and sewage function has become the standard of the sweeper, and everyone will reserve the pipe like a washing machine when decorating, at that time, this function will really bring value to the user.
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, Cloud Whale only launches new products after two years, while other brands iterate on their products almost every year. Updates like Cloud Whale were supposed to lead to products that exceeded expectations, and J2 doesn't seem to be doing it.
Therefore, we still recommend that when Cloud Whale develops innovative functions, engineers can "open their minds", but they must also understand the actual needs and use scenarios of users, and spend more effort to improve the basic functions of the sweeper. Otherwise, don't say anything about "further free hands", or say goodbye to manual obstacle clearance, "initial hands free".