Mova Rover X10 Review: Thorough, But Blind To Steps

Having built vacuum cleaners, floor washers and robot mowers, Mova has now moved into pool maintenance with the Rover X10. This is a high-end model with no shortage of ambition, since it sets out to clean the floor, the walls, the waterline and the surface of a pool on its own, sparing the owner a small fleet of specialised submarines in the plant room.

The robot runs on two wide tracks, uses several impellers and carries a 15,000 mAh battery. Navigation combines a camera, a laser sensor and various distance sensors. The manufacturer quotes coverage of up to 500 m² and up to six hours of running time for floor cleaning.

The Rover X10 is also distinguished by its floating AquaSonar module, which acts as a relay between the submerged robot, the Wi-Fi network and the application. It allows the robot's activity to be followed, interrupted or steered while it is still underwater, where most rivals simply lose contact.

The Rover X10 makes no attempt to be discreet. At 54 cm long, 46 cm wide and 15.8 kg, it is among the most imposing pool robots around. Its large handle allows a proper grip, but lifting it out of the water or carrying it to the plant room turns into a short weight-training session.

Mova does at least supply a charging stand that holds the robot almost upright, a position that noticeably reduces its footprint. Placing it on the stand starts charging without having to plug a cable directly into the robot.

Physical controls amount to two buttons. The first switches the robot on, the second chooses between a complete clean, the floor, the walls or the surface. An indicator light reports battery and operating status. The app remains essential for the deeper settings.

Two wide rollers, one at the front and one at the rear, brush surfaces in both directions. Two small side brushes, mounted higher up, sweep floating debris inwards when the robot is working at the surface.

The basket lifts out easily from the top. It takes a 180-micron main filter or a second textile element of 3 microns for much finer particles.

Pairing the Rover X10 with the MovaHome app over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi is straightforward, and the operation then has to be repeated for the AquaSonar. Once both devices are registered, the floating module maintains communication with the robot while it is submerged.

One problem did appear while updating the AquaSonar firmware. The process hung for around twenty minutes and needed a restart on the advice of after-sales support. Completing the update meant staying in the application and preventing the phone from going to sleep.

The app allows the zone to be selected, along with Eco, Standard or Turbo suction and the number of passes. Weekly scheduling is available. The robot can be tracked, its battery level checked, recalled to the side of the pool or driven directly using a virtual remote control.

The interface still needs work. Some translations remain in English and several explanations would benefit from more precision. Programmes cannot be combined freely either: the Global mode runs through every zone in turn, but it is not possible to request, say, the floor followed only by the surface.

Another bug surfaced when a floor-cleaning session was stopped in order to move on to the walls; what actually started was a clean of the floor edges. There is work left for Mova's engineers to do on these points in a future firmware and application update.

Pool mapping is fairly rudimentary and allows neither zone creation nor targeted cleaning. Its main use is choosing where the robot should return at the end of a cycle.

Once in the water, the Rover X10 fills gradually before descending to the bottom. It begins by exploring the outline of the pool to build its map, then starts its cleaning run. Its movements are methodical, and floor coverage proved convincing in the test pool.

Obstacle detection depends on size. A diving mask was correctly identified and the robot altered course to avoid it, while a small pair of goggles slipped under its radar. They did not immobilise the machine, but checking the pool before starting a cycle remains sensible.

The robot climbs the walls without difficulty and holds its position at the waterline.

Steps are the significant blind spot. The robot neither attempted to climb them nor tried to travel along them. Even with the shallow-water mode enabled and the robot placed directly on them, it eventually fell into the deep end. That function appears to be intended for large submerged shelves rather than a conventional staircase, and its behaviour in that kind of layout is hard to predict.

At the end of its work the Rover X10 surfaces on its own and moves to the recovery point set in the app. It can also be brought precisely to the edge with the remote control. Given its weight, not having to fish it out from the far end of the pool is far from a detail.

The Rover X10 dealt effectively with dirt deliberately placed in the test pool, collecting leaves as well as the mixture of sand and soil spread across the floor, helped by a regular trajectory and its two wide brushes.

Dual filtration is one of its main strengths. The 180-micron filter holds leaves and everyday debris, while the 3-micron element captures far finer particles. After the cycle the latter was heavily loaded with dust and sand, proof that it is not there merely to pad out the specification.

The walls are covered properly and the waterline gets regular passes. That is useful for lifting recent light deposits, although marks that have stuck fast will still need cleaning by hand.

Surface cleaning is more convincing. The small side brushes and the flows produced by the impellers direct leaves towards the robot's intake, so it can finish a cycle by collecting floating material and reduce the need for a net.

Reaching the basket poses no difficulty. Pressing the top catch opens the lid and releases the whole assembly. Leaves come out quickly and the various parts can then be rinsed with a hose.

The basket housing was not perfectly sealed when opened, however. A few leaves had passed the rubber gasket, which suggests very fine particles could also be returned to the pool. That is a pity given the fineness claimed for the additional filter, which nonetheless retained most of the sand and dust.

Cleaning the 3-micron textile filter takes patience. Particles work their way into the fibres and the hose has to be used persistently to restore a clean surface. The design does not look built to last indefinitely and will probably need replacing after a certain number of cycles; at the time of testing, that consumable was not on sale on Mova's website.

The 15,000 mAh battery is quoted for up to six hours of floor cleaning, endurance aimed at very large pools or at complete programmes combining several zones. For a family pool, the battery should not be the first limiting factor. A full recharge takes around 6 hours 30 minutes.

The AquaSonar has to be charged separately with its own adapter. The application shows its battery level along with the water temperature, which is also displayed on the module itself, so it doubles as a pool thermometer.

The Rover X10's main rival, the Beatbot Sora 70, has the advantage of handling steps better, but it does without the very practical docking stand. For something simpler while keeping strong filtration, the Aiper Scuba X1 uses a 3-micron MicroMesh filter to good effect.