Editor’s Note: This product has been removed from our side-by-side comparison because it has been discontinued. You can still read our original review below, but Top Ten Reviews is no longer updating this product’s information.
The Infinuvo Hovo 780 is a peppy robotic vacuum cleaner that cleared some of the obstacles even the best robot vacuum cleaners could not. Inexplicably it got hung up on a few of the easier obstacles, but when it was in motion the Hovo had some impressive suction to offer, especially on carpeting.
This was among the best robot vacs at picking up debris on carpeting; it was second to only one on the sawdust test on carpets in our laboratory. In the home testing it stood out for its prowess on carpeting even more. It actually made the carpets look cleaner. That cannot be said of most competitors that seemed to just lightly sweep the carpeted surfaces, even when they were very good at hard surfaces. The Hovo brushes really got at the carpeting and made it look fresh.
The Infinuvo Hovo 780 is one of very few to offer a mopping feature, and that can be a helpful extra. It also has some extra vacuuming capabilities. It offers HEPA filtration and its dustbin includes a UV light designed to kill dust mites and other creeping crawlies inside its dustbin.
The display on the Hovo is a little old-fashioned compared to some but still miles ahead of the ones that only have a single light on top to let you know what is going on. The Hovo is one of the automatic vacuums that have pre-recorded messages. Those messages combined with the error codes on the digital display make the controls easy to use. When the machine stopped for an imaginary obstacle, we could at least tell why the machine thought it needed to stop.
Even the best robot vacuums are not completely self-sufficient, and this is not the best one. It's good at some things, though, including cleaning carpet. You could really tell where it had been on the carpets in our test home, and the bin was full of stuff you don't want on your carpets. The Infinuvo Hovo 780 was a bit unpredictable in its movements – it got over some huge obstacles but then caught up on some smaller ones – but when it worked it picked up a lot of messes, especially on carpeting. For the relatively low price there is a decent value with the Hovo. You just may need to be nearby while it is making its rounds.
