! f Kalorik Huvi Robot Vacuum review 10

There aren’t a lot of new features left to discover in the vacuuming world, but the Kalorik Home HUVI R1 Robot Vacuum has one suggestion: aromatherapy. The HUVI R1 features air-purifying technology with a spot for essential oils, offering a new twist to your household chore schedule.

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What’s in the box of the Kalorik Home HUVI Robot Vacuum R1?

In the box of the Kalorik Home HUVI Robot Vacuum R1, you’ll find the vacuum and a very small charging base, along with a charging adapter, manual, and cleaning tool. The HUVI comes in fairly compact packaging, which makes it great for gifting and moving.

On the underside of the HUVI R1, there is a removable brush roll and a large, bagless dustbin. The bin features a removable HEPA 13 filter and a UVC sanitizing light, and the underside of the vacuum has two attachment spots for side brushes. Four side brushes are included in the box; two for thin rugs and hard floors, and two for thick carpets.

On the side of the HUVI is something I’ve never seen before: an aroma diffuser. Also included in the box of the HUVI is a bag of aroma strips (felt pads) and a bottle of Sweet Orange essential oil.

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What are the features of the Kalorik HUVI Robot Vacuum?

The Kalorik HUVI Robot Vacuum R1 features quiet 2600 PA suction and a double-sided filter. On one side of the filter, a medical-grade HEPA 13 filter is designed to trap 99.95% of allergens. On the other, copper wire is meant to filter large particles. When this vacuum is running, UVC technology inside of the vacuum’s dust bin aids in disinfecting the contents of the dustbin to prevent viruses and bacteria from recirculating into your home.

The HUVI R1 advertises a maximum runtime of 110 minutes before it will return to its charging base, as well as Wi-Fi, Alexa, and Google Assistant compatibility. You can turn on the vacuum’s ION cleaning function to help clean the air in your home and scent the area with essential oil, and use the Kalorik Home smartphone app to set the HUVI’s suction strength (low, medium, high, or max), view past cleaning history and maps, schedule future cleanings, and modify speaker volume.

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Navigation and mapping in the HUVI

I’ve reviewed a lot of robot vacuums here at the Best Buy Blog. Back in the day, when robot vacuums were new, it was normal for them to take quite a while to clean your home. Every one used a random cleaning pattern. So, some days they might take an hour, while other days, they might take three or four.

Nowadays, vacuums usually (but not always) use a straight line cleaning method, which helps to standardize how long they take to clean. Because that’s what I’m used to, it felt a little strange that the Kalorik Home HUVI R1 still uses a randomized pattern. If it bumps into an item or surface, it will bounce against it three times to try to get through the area. And it does so pretty firmly—I have to reposition all of my lights, plants, and shelves after the HUVI vacuums, and it sometimes gets itself wedged underneath furniture. (It even managed to tip over my cat’s automatic feeder once and pop its bowl off!)

When the HUVI hits an object, or if it decides it’s been cleaning in a straight line for too long, it turns a random number of degrees and heads in that direction. This is particularly strange to me because the HUVI has the ability to create a map of your floor plan, but it doesn’t learn from those maps in future cleans.

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How long does the HUVI R1 take to vacuum?

Because the Kalorik Home HUVI robot vacuum doesn’t use directional navigation, it was difficult for me to work it into my home’s schedule. My apartment is about 700 sq ft, and most robotic cleaners take about 50 minutes to thoroughly vacuum or mop it. Some take up to two hours, but it’s rare for a robot cleaner to take that long in my home.

Despite its advertised 110-minute runtime, the Kalorik HUVI R1 vacuums in my home for a maximum of 90 minutes. After 90 minutes, it heads back to its base to charge, which takes 20-40 minutes. However, these numbers aren’t consistent from one cleaning session to the next, and they aren’t recorded accurately in the Kalorik Home app’s cleaning history.

Sometimes, the HUVI R1 will vacuum just my bedroom (where its charging base is) again and again for the full 90 minutes, and then go back to its base to charge. In the time I’ve been testing and timing it, only once has it managed to vacuum my entire 700 sq ft apartment without being repositioned. That cleaning session took 90 minutes, but what struck me as odd was that it was recorded in the app as a 33 minute, 269 sq ft cleaning session.

On average, this vacuum takes 3 hours to vacuum my home, split into two 90-minute sessions with a manual repositioning in between the sessions. If I lift the vacuum from area to area, I can cut down that time by up to half.

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How does the Kalorik Home HUVI handle rugs and cords?

The HUVI R1 gets stuck on both rugs and cords, which is not reflective of my experience with other robot vacuums. It can make it over the edge of heavy mats (like my memory foam kitchen mat) and raised edges. However, even though it comes with two different sets of edge sweepers (one for hard floors and thin area rugs, and one for thick carpets), it gets stuck on the edge of area rugs.

Because the HUVI R1 uses random path planning, it can get stuck on the same rug again and again. I lifted and repositioned it a dozen times before I gave up and rolled up all of my rugs!

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My experience with the Kalorik Home HUVI R1 Robot Vacuum

The Kalorik Home HUVI R1 Robot Vacuum offers some very unique features, but it didn’t fit my lifestyle. I like to turn my robot vacuum on right as I get into bed or as I head out the door, so a vacuum that can quickly clean without supervision is important to me. I wasn’t able to do that with the HUVI, as I could never know for certain that it would make it to every room in my home.

As someone with cat allergies and a cat, it’s also essential to me that any vacuum in my home filters effectively. The HUVI is designed to do this, with a HEPA 13 filter, UVC dustbin sanitization, and ionizer technology, but I found that it made me quite sneezy whenever I ran it without emptying the dustbin beforehand. So, especially if you have allergies, it’s important to always empty this dustbin after use.

If you don’t mind a vacuum that gets a little lost at times, the HUVI R1 is a quiet robot vacuum with unique aroma diffusing and UV-cleaning technology. It has a large dustbin, an easy-to-navigate app, and excellent battery life.

Shop the Kalorik Home HUVI R1 Robot Vacuum online at Best Buy today. 

Rae Chen
Rae Chen covers everything from handbags to speakers here on the Best Buy Plug-in Blog. They can also be found at thenotice.net, where they've been writing about beauty & wellness since 2007.

392 COMMENTS

  1. I really like the hepa filter and removable brush. I’d like to try the orange scent.

  2. I like that it has a medical-grade HEPA 13 filter is designed to trap 99.95% of allergens and I would like the sweet orange.

  3. The HEPA filter and diffuser are awesome features. I’d love to use lavender essential oils with it.

  4. The HEPA filter and long run time are great features. I would chose not to use any scents but nice option for some folks especially the peppermint.

  5. I like the Heap filter and the scent feature, what an amazing new idea! I would like to try the sweet orange scent.

  6. I like the aroma diffuser – would go with the Sweet Orange aroma. Good luck everyone!

  7. The HUVI R1 features air-purifying technology with a spot for essential oils, I love the smell of peppermint..

  8. The air-purifying technology feature is my favorite and I would really like that sweet orange scent which would be a nice fresh and sweet citrus scent breezing all through the home.

  9. I like the HEPA filters and ability to vacuum different types of carpets and hardwood floors. Sweet orange scent is fine with me.

  10. My Favourite feature is the double sided filter.
    I would use the lavender scent.

  11. I like the unique aroma diffusing and UV-cleaning technology. I enjoy a lemon scent.

  12. When this vacuum is running, UVC technology inside of the vacuum’s dust bin aids in disinfecting the contents of the dustbin to prevent viruses and bacteria from recirculating into your home. Cedar is a nice smell

  13. I like that it takes less time and doesn’t bash the furniture. I would choose the Peppermint Essentual Oil.

  14. HEPA 13 filter and a UVC sanitizing light and I would pick a lavender or peppermint essential oil

  15. The HUVI R1 features air-purifying technology with a spot for essential oils, I like a floral scent like roses.

  16. When this vacuum is running, UVC technology inside of the vacuum’s dust bin aids in disinfecting the contents of the dustbin to prevent viruses and bacteria from recirculating into your home. Cedar is a nice smell

  17. The Kalorik HUVI Robot Vacuum R1 features quiet 2600 PA suction. I love white sage

  18. My favourite feature is the bagless dustbin and I would like the sweet orange essential oil.

  19. Lavender is my favourite and I really like that is has a Hepa 13 filter and the UV technology.

  20. I like the UV-cleaning technology and the excellent battery. I would use the Sweet Orange essential oil.

  21. I like that it has brushes on both sides. I’d try lavender. This bot seams like its brainless or perhaps she got a broken unit. Still, I’d like to try it out and see if I get similar results.

  22. The diffuser is a great addition. We had one but it broke down, so getting that and a vacuum in one is a win. We have a few oils around, mostly to help clean the air (one called Purify is my favourite).

  23. I like that it takes less time and doesn’t bash the furniture. I would choose the Peppermint Essentual Oil.

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