What is better than an inexpensive cleaning robot? An inexpensive cleaning robot with a suction station! Aldi with the Medion and Lidl brand with the Silvercrest brand offer such station wagons for a combat price. If you don’t buy in the web shops, but directly at the discounter around the corner, you usually get a few euros a discount. The vacuum cleaners themselves attract with laser navigation, potpers’ detection and app control. Which is better and whether the purchase is worthwhile clarifies computer picture in this test duel.
Functions: Well equipped
The vacuum cleaners have a lot to offer for a relatively narrow price. These are the most important properties and features of the Medion X41 SW+ and the Silvercrest SSR AA1 overview:
Intelligent laser navigation
The lidar sensor in the tower on the top of both robots ensures a 360-degree view. The devices can be found well and clean the soil in all rooms. Further technology helps with orientation. For example, crash sensors protect the robos on stairs in front of it to tumble one floor lower.
No in the app? At Medion, many cleaning commands can also be regulated by remote control.
Photo: computer picture
Start and operation
This works conveniently using a cell phone app or by voice command to Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. Alternatively, press the buttons on the device for simple functions. Medion also provides a remote control.
Battery and endurance
The term for Medion is up to two and a half hours, for Silvercrest up to four hours. With a higher suction level, it drops significantly. If the juice batteries goes out, the robots automatically return to the station and later continue cleaning with full power. Patience is required for charging, the cleaning break takes up to five (Medion) or six hours (Silvercrest).
Both robots come with a dock that parks the collected dirt in a hung dust bag.
Photo: computer picture
Dimensions
The vacuum cleaners are less than ten centimeters high (Medion: 9.6 centimeters, Silvercrest: 9.8 centimeters) and have a diameter of about 35 centimeters. The devices fit under many beds, sofas and chests of drawers. The slim stations are nice and flat at a height of about 30 centimeters and also very narrow. They are smaller than a wine box.
volume
The noise level when sucking on the carpet reaches about 62 decibels, a little louder than a television in room volume. The stations briefly boom with up to 75 decibels when sucking off.
Sucking works properly
After a few rehearsals to get to know the premises, both robots had to demonstrate their suction talents. In the hardest test, the testers distributed 100 grams of dirt, consisting of 70 grams of cat litter, 20 grams of muesli and 10 grams of wood shavings. The vacuum robots had to show repeatedly how much of the mixture they collect from carpeting and tiles.
The robo of Silvercrest (in the picture) and that of Medion suck quite passable. But a few crumbs always remain.
Photo: computer picture
The suction power of both devices was quite passable in the test: With 86.7 grams, the Medion robot read a little more dirt than the Silvercrest device, which swallowed good 82 grams. There was less lying on surfaces than on the carpet edge or around table legs. Consistently conscientiously, both took care of the corners of the rooms. At least half of the 20 corn of corns laid out collected half. For a better result, the robots lack a swiveling side brush that extends into all corners.
The collected dirt ends up in a small 0.3-liter dust box inside the robot. However, the owner does not have to empty it himself – this does the station, which not only loads the battery, but also sucks on the dirt brought home and parks in the attached dust bag. At Medion it holds 2.5 liters, 3.5 liters at Silvercrest. So allergy sufferers can breathe a sigh of relief, also because there is a HEPA filter in the robos.
No brilliant performance when wiping: the medion (in the picture) pulls the plaster flap only weakly across the floor. The Silvercrest does not pursue a wet cleaning.
Photo: computer picture
Wiping: weak performance
If you have little carpet and mainly parquet or tiles at home, you need a wiping function. Many current cleaning robots are hybrid devices that also want to help with this work. Where more expensive models, thanks to the extra water tank, water pump, vibrating plate, mop or rotating wiping pads, are shattered vigorously, the medion lacks pressure on the tentatively pulled over the floor and water on the surface. There is also a lack of the Medion station of water tanks, from which the robot could refuel in between. The scrubbing causes laminate and tiles to shine, stubborn dirt and stuck dried stains, but does not remove that.
Also stupid that the Medion robot has a carpage detection that increases the suction power when driven out of the designer. However, this does not ensure that cleaning aid spares the carpet when scrubbing. And so the testers repeatedly caught the Medion with how he rolled over the fringes unabashedly when wiping or put the flokati under water. This can better use more expensive devices that put your wiping pads in the ward when sucking or automatically raise a few centimeters when driving over the carpet.
Problem zones: corners and edges
Corns and edges remain completely untouched in wet cleaning, because a swinging wiper that overcomes the last centimeters is not in the Medion vacuum cleaner. If you want nothing to mold and tend, you have to disconnect the wiping plate after the cleaning tour, wash the rag and dry them on the heating. A wellness program that flushes through the rinsing and then dries with warm air is denied the robot due to a lack of water management in the station. The Silvercrest vacuum does not have these problems, because he has nothing to do with water: he simply lacks a wiping function, so wet cleaning is not possible.
The manufacturers’ apps (Silvercrest links, Medion right) offer access to all cleaning functions and a virtual map of the rooms.
Photo: computer picture
Smart on the go? Not always
Both test candidates score with some smart functions. The devices can be set up quickly (Medion) or a little cumbersome (Silvercest) via app, they are conveniently controlled. The cleaning rides on a virtual card can be observed on the cell phone and individual rooms can be targeted; You can also regulate the cleaning power or create cleaning plans. The navigation did not seem quite as mature in the test as with the top suckers of brands such as Roborock and Dream, but the discounter robots found themselves well and did due plaster jobs without any major problems or time-consuming.
May be tidy: cables or socks brought Medion (in the picture) and Silvercrest.
Photo: computer picture
Robos job is to recognize and bypass the objects lying around. This did not always work reliably in the test: both left shoes on the left. After all, the Medion around the plastic dog pile, which the Silvercrest simply rolled over. Both test candidates always wanted to push the cell phone cable and socks through the room or incorporate themselves. Cameras sitting in the front of the device that film forward and ensure better object recognition are not on board.
Medion against Silvercrest: test conclusion and prices
At Medion (known by Aldi) and Silvercrest (Lidl) there are passable vacuum cleaners at a fair price, because both provide a compact suction station. In the test, the robots rolled through the rooms, thanks to app control and laser navigation, and sucked a lot. Small obstacles such as cables and socks, especially with the Silvercrest vacuum cleaner, skid the built-in object detection. In the medion, the wiping function hardly convinced, it is completely missing from Silvercrest.
The Silvercrest SSR AA1 is available in black for 299 euros in the Lidl web shop. It is currently on offer and costs only half, i.e. 149 euros. The X41 SW+ of the Aldi Medion brand is available in white and costs 330 euros. According to Medion, the device is not sold as Aldi action goods.
