INTRODUCTION
Proscenic Washvac F20 is part of that category of products that promises to vacuum, wash and dry with a single device, after having previously used Tinneco Floor One S3 and Dreame H11 Max I will try to describe how this F20 goes and in what it improves or not the category.
PACKAGING
Proscenic has never hidden that it is part of the economic segment of the market and this is reflected not only in the price and in the materials as we will see later, already in the simple packaging and certainly not designed to strike or give the idea of a premium product, inside we still find all the parts well protected and placed in an orderly manner, the package contains:
- Machine body and relative handle to be inserted
- Multifunctional charging base with power supply
- Bottle of detergent
- Brush for cleaning the tank and suction duct
- Battery
- Additional HEPA filter and roller brush
- Instruction manual
DESIGN AND MATERIALS
The design is the classic one of these products with the dirty water tank positioned in front and the narrower and longer clean water tank positioned behind, the tanks are both 1 liter and I think they are among the largest in the category but despite this the F20 maintains a rather slim and pleasant appearance in line with the aesthetics to which the brand has accustomed us, the color which approaches a gunmetal gray gives a sober and elegant touch, the separate dual display is also beautiful, always clearly visible and which provides all the necessary information. In the handle, which is easily gripped, we find three keys (from the top self-cleaning key, function key and power key) while under the display in the rear area there is the recess for placing the battery. If the design is certainly appreciable, the quality of the assemblies and materials is a little less so, the assemblies especially that of the handle are a bit creaky and the plastics are cheap and quite thin, this is especially noticeable in the tanks which, although well designed give the idea of having to be handled with great care, the rather slender dimensions of 25.4×27.9×114.3 cm are combined with a weight that is close to 5kg, a well-balanced weight in any case and which is partly supported by the motorized brush which helps to make the F20 flow smoothly.
FEATURES AND USE
Small premise for those unfamiliar with these devices, they are basically vacuum cleaners which, however, use a self-cleaning rotating brush and two tanks to suck up crumbs and hair, wash the floor with clean water (and if necessary the detergent) and suck up the dirty water in excess, this allows, unlike a vacuum cleaner and a mop, as well as saving time, the possibility of separating clean and dirty water and leaving a slightly damp floor that dries more quickly.
On paper, the F20 presented itself with rather unusual and sci-fi characteristics for the price range and for the market in general, the replaceable battery is a significant plus which, together with the 1-litre tanks, potentially give an autonomy unknown to the competitors, the two tanks also have two particular characteristics, the dirty water one integrates a grid that separates solid dirt from the liquid one for better disposal, while the clean water one integrates a device capable of electrolyze the water, improving the disinfectant capacity of the solution. The base is among the best designed that I have ever seen, in addition to serving as in the competition to recharge the device, allow self-cleaning and contain the accessories it has a couple of considerable goodies, the first is that it integrates the drying function of the roller brush with attached antibacterial UV LED light, the second is that it can house and recharge a second battery.
The F20 declares an autonomy that varies from 20 to 45 minutes according to the operating mode, in my use I can say that it is difficult to exceed 35 minutes even with the power always at minimum but it still remains an excellent autonomy and there is the possibility of having a second charged battery always available. Where it is not surprising is the declared suction power of 15000Pa which, although it is more than sufficient to suck up liquids and leave the floor almost dry, shows its side a bit when it comes to vacuuming solid residues, especially considering that in SMART mode (I’ll talk more about it forward) the sensor is lazy in increasing the power and you find yourself in the presence of very dirty floors using often it in maximum mode by dropping the autonomy to 15/18 minutes. Another feature is the edgeless brush on both sides, this allows us to get flush with the wall and leave less than 1cm of unwashed area.
The F20 has an acceptable noise, in the videos the smartphone amplifies the noise a little but this settles down at around 55.3 decibels on average and even in MAX mode it hardly exceeds 63 decibels
The F20 features 4 modes of operation:
- SMART automatic main mode which should in theory increase the suction power automatically thanks to a dirt sensor, in practice I can say that the sensor is very lazy to increase the power and you end up with the power always at minimum and only in rare cases the sensor manages to increase the power, for now it can be considered a minimum mode in the hope that the company, if possible, will intervene with a firmware update to better calibrate the sensor itself.
- MAX mode in which the F20 unleashes all the power of the brushless motor and at the same time also increases the distribution of water, to be used in the presence of very dirty floors, with animal hair, crumbs, etc.
- DISINFECTION mode that electrolyses the water present in the clean water tank, improving the cleaning and disinfectant power, after activating this mode and electrolysing the water it is possible to switch to any other mode, a function that I use often and which I find effective.
- LIQUID ABSORPTION mode in which the F20 vacuums only without wetting the roller, useful if you want to vacuum liquids that have spilled on the floor or if you want to use the device on very delicate wooden floors.
After use, it is placed on the base where, by pressing the appropriate button, self-cleaning (with or without electrolysis) is started, which is automatically followed by drying and UV sterilization, this is deactivated automatically by removing the F20 or manually holding down the self-cleaning button for 5 seconds, the self-cleaning is effective in cleaning the internal parts and the suction ducts but a little less in cleaning the brush and the brush cover where a little hair and dirt often remain, according to my opinion due to the lack of a row of teeth like on my previous H11 MAX which can better clean the brush from residues and animal hair. Although the drying and sterilization functions are quite effective, as with any other wet dry vacuum cleaner, I recommend regular cleaning and maintenance.
CONNECTIVITY AND APPLICATION
The F20 is equipped with bluetooth and wifi (2.4ghz only) and pairing with the application is simple and intuitive, just hold down the power button for 5 seconds to start pairing, bring the smartphone close to the F20 which will be detected thanks to bluetooth and click on the corresponding icon to start the guided pairing process, the only drawback of the wifi is the less than excellent reception which often causes the F20 to disconnect from the app when I put it in a closet and close the door or move it too far away from the router. The application is really well done and give all the essential information, status of the F20, consumption (estimated) of consumables, usage statistics and the possibility of setting audio language and volume (language change and deactivation of the voice output are also possible manually via the button on the back of the device), the possibility of OTA firmware updates is not taken for granted, thanks to which operation can be refined and bugs corrected, they have already solved a bug at launch which kept charging the battery even when it was at 100% and which I hope it will also serve to better calibrate the dirt sensor in future updates.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
The overall performance of the F20 and the cleaning quality is really good despite the uninspiring motor power which makes you incline to use it spent in MAX mode rather than the lazy SMART mode, the very soft brush does not easily remove the most stubborn stains but together with the ability to leave the floor almost dry make it a bomb on parquet and more delicate floors, I feel overall very satisfied with the product that offers unique features and gems for the price paid, a product that with some improvements can easily aim to be a “flagship killer” for product categories such as the new Tineco Floor One S5 Pro2, the new S7 or the Dreame H12 Pro which offer similar characteristics and better care of materials and packaging but at a price in some cases almost doubled and none of these offers equally large containers and the possibility of a replaceable battery, at a price of 280 euros (promotion price at the launch at which I bought it) I feel like recommending it, at 330 euros (price at which it is usually found) you will be the one to draw your own conclusions hoping that my review will help.
PRO
- price
- performance on parquet and delicate floors
- edgeless brush
- electrolysis of water
- drying and UV sterilization
- replaceable battery
- 1LT tanks
- application and OTA firmware updates
CONS
- suction power
- lazy dirt sensor
- quality of materials
- difficulty removing stubborn stains
- the brush self-cleaning system can be improved
RATING 4 OUT OF 5
