Since the outbreak of the pandemic, ever greater importance has been attached to home hygiene, and hence our reviews on smart cleaning appliances. We have reviewed products from various innovation tech brands including Xiaomi, Dreame, and Roborock. We love some of them for cutting-edge technologies and some others for user-friendliness. Today, we'll review Redroad V17, a vacuum cleaner from another emerging Chinese tech brand. Does it have what it's advertised to? How did it perform in our tests?
Here's the comprehensive introduction and test results on Redroad V17, and a clear verdict on whether you should buy it. The review is composed of 7 following sections:
Included components
Specifications
Look design
Vacuum performance
User experience
Summary of pros and cons
Recommendation index
Without further adieu, let's begin.
① Included components
The big delivery box contained a surprising variety of components. We gave our first thumb-up to the package: each part was individually supported and protected from any potential bump during delivery.
1. Main machine with the detachable battery, dust cup, and replaceable HEPA filter component
2. Motorized brush with double rollers and LED lights (4 rollers included, 2 for hard floor and 2 for carpets)
3. Flexible extension hose
4. Dusting brush (for curtains, AC outlet, furniture, etc.)
5. Motorized mite removal brush
6. Crevice nozzle with LED lights
7. 2-in-1 wide nozzle (activate the bristled brush to avoid scratches on, for example, a keyboard)
8. Foldable adapter (for vacuuming under furniture)
9. Charging & storing wall mount
10. EU wall charger
11. User manual and assembly guide
The machine is robust. But aside from the metal tube, a lot of common plastic is used. All parts can be assembled or disassembled quickly, easily, and safely. The buttons are designed red so it's easy to find even without the assembly guide.
② Specifications
Taking a little time to go over the specifications can help gain a basic understanding of the machine.
Rated power: 450W
Suction: 155AW
Vacuum: 26.5 kPa
Runtime: 60 minutes MAX
Battery capacity: 2,500mAh (detachable)
Battery voltage: 25.2V
Charging time: 3.5 hours MAX
Noise level: ~60dB (according to manufacturer)
Main machine weight: 1.62kg (according to manufacturer)
Dust cup capacity: 600ml
Filtration system: 5-stage filtration (including HEPA 12 + HEPA 13)
Some test results varied slightly from the numbers given by the manufacturer. For example, the main machine weighed 1.65kg. As for the noise, we'll cover it in detail later.
③ Look design
Redroad V17 caught our eye immediately. The red-white-silver palette is the right amount of visual attractiveness. The design is simplistic like products from Xiaomi and ROIDMI. Most of the weight lies in the main machine. It's easy to use for curtains and AC outlets. Such a design may give you a sore arm if you clean the floor for too long, but luckily, the main machine of V17 is relatively lightweight.
We love the transparent housing of the main machine. The color of the original HEPA filter cover is red. It's said that you can buy alternative colors but I haven't seen it in Redroad's online stores. I would love to know when it will be available.
④ Vacuum performance
We'll have a thorough and detailed review on this topic because it's the most important thing about a vacuum cleaner. The vacuum performance is determined mostly by:
Motor speed and suction
Brushes and air duct design
According to the specifications, Redroad is on the high-end side of the market: 120,000rmp motor speed, 450W rated power, and 155AW suction.
It also has a special double-roller brush (you can assemble any two of the 2 beater bars and 2 soft rollers as you like). There are LED lights on the main brush (but not bright enough). The air duct design is common. The 12-cone cyclonic part can separate waste from the air and drop it into the dust cup to ensure unblocked airflow and maintain high suction.
When we turned it on, the two motorized bars rolled toward each other (this is what Redroad V17 attracts me most), and sucked dust off of the covered area. Speaking of experience, vacuum cleaners of this design tend to have a higher suction efficiency. But can it reach the advertised '4X'?
[Test] We assembled 2 V-shape beater bars to clean carpets and mats. The stiff bristles on the V-shape beater bars can reach into low-pile carpets and bring out embedded waste.
Carpet test: 4.8/5
[Test] We gave a lower score to hard floor cleaning because as the 2 soft bars stick closely to the ground, it tends to push large pieces of waste forward. Of course, it wasn't fair of us to use large fruit peels here. if you don't have kids, you can ignore this problem.
Hard floor test: 4.4/5
Note: We'd like to shout out to the convenient roller disassembly design. Hit a button, and you can easily take off the part that has both rollers on it.
⑤ User experience
User experience is important because great vacuum performance alone isn't enough. For something we use on a daily basis, the most trivial details (say noise and exhaust) can have a great impact on your overall experience.
Here are four aspects based on the most asked questions.
Filtration
Filtration is important to people who use vacuum cleaners frequently, especially those with allergies to dust. Vacuum cleaners with poor filtration systems will release pollen, dust, mites, and spores that trigger allergies or respiratory diseases.
Redroad has a 5-stage filtration system (with washable filtration parts) that captures 99.97% fine dust down to 0.1μm. We noticed that there's a 12-cone cyclonic separation part, inlet H12 HEPA, and outlet H13 HEPA with activated charcoal. Yes, the outlet HEPA filter has activated charcoal to remove the smell of outflowing air. Few other vacuum cleaners have this. Redroad says it can remove smell efficiently. We were pretty much certain to prove it.
[Test] We spilled dust on the ground with smelling dog food. As we were vacuuming, we had a dust concentration detector and our noses at the outlet. (It looked silly, but we tried our best to be objective about the smell.)
The detector has an acute laser sensor to pick up the dust concentration in the air. The result was slightly above the daily household environment but still within the normal range.
Filtration: 4.7/5
There was a faint smell of the dog food at 10 centimeters from the outlet. But we could barely notice it when we vacuum normally.
Smell removal test result: 4.8/5
Noise
According to the reviews before, the tested noise level is often higher than advertised. Part of the reason is the difference between lab and household environments.
The official noise level of Redroad V17 is 60dB. But unsurprisingly, it proved a little bit higher than that in our review. We tested in two distances: 30cm and 2m. Here are the test results:
[Test]
Eco mode: 69.4dB/62.7dB
Mid mode: 71.1dB/64.9dB
Turbo mode: 75.4dB/66.7dB
Obviously, the tested results in each mode are higher than the advertised 60dB. We think Redroad can still do better here.
Noise: 4.1/5
Attachments
Attachments can help us with different tasks. Redroad V17 claims to have the most complete attachments. But whether they are all useful is yet to be proved.
[Test]
LED crevice nozzle — The LED lights are a surprise upgrade to the crevice nozzle. They allowed us to see dark corners clearly. But the nozzle itself is a little bit wide.
Dusting brush — It did a great job cleaning furniture surfaces (which I can also handle with a piece of cloth). It's also useful for curtains.
Foldable adapter — We rated it as the best attachment. You must try it if you don't want to bend over when you vacuum.
Charging and storing wall mount — It can hold all the attachments.
Others — There are also some other regular attachments that people might have different needs for.
Attachments: 4.6/5
4. Convenience
[Test] Redroad V17 is relatively light. The double-roller brush can be rotated for 360°, which makes it easy to clean under tables. With the trigger lock, you don't have to press your finger on the power button all the time.
Maneuverability: 4.8/5
5. Battery life
[Test] It can work for up to 10 minutes on the turbo mode, around an hour on the Eco mode, and 25 minutes on the middle mode. The battery life is displayed accurately on the screen, which we love.
The battery can be easily detached. You can buy an extra battery if you have a large house to clean. (It would be very helpful to have a replacement battery in the original package.)
Battery life: 4.5/5
⑥ Summary of pros and cons
Pros:
·The whole set of attachments
·Highly efficient double-roller brush
·360° rotation of the double-roller brush
·LED lights of the double-roller brush
·High suction and good vacuum performance
·Outstanding filtration (dual HEPA filters)
·Good smell removal performance
·Multifunctional wall mount (charging two batteries at a time)
·Light weight & maneuverability
·LED lights of the crevice nozzle
·Trigger lock
·Detachable battery (backup battery not available for purchase yet)
·Specific battery life
Cons
·Higher noise than claimed
·LED lights of the double-roller brush not bright enough
·Crevice nozzle a little too wide
·Common plastic quality
·Dust cup not detachable
·No replacement HEPA filters included in the original pack
·No replacement battery
·Slightly heating of the motor
⑦ Recommendation index
Here's the average of each test result:
（4.8＋4.4＋4.7＋4.8＋4.1＋4.6＋4.8＋4.5）/8＝4.5875
The low price of $269 earned it another 0.05 points. So the final recommendation index was 4.64.
Final verdict: the vacuum cleaner lives closely up to the advertisement and is recommended to buy.
Product purchase link: https://bit.ly/33ligyJ
Official website link: https://redroad.cc/
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