MOVA starts Black Friday early with robot vacuums from $699 in Australia
MOVA's early Black Friday sale cuts its S70 and E50 robot vacuums to $699 to $1,499 at JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman and The Good Guys until 2 December.
By Laurence Deer
Images: MOVA.
If a robot vacuum has been on your list for a while, you’ve probably noticed the prices jump around so much that the “sale” sticker means little. MOVA has started its Black Friday sale three weeks early, and this time the numbers are worth a look.
From 5 November to 2 December, MOVA has cut six robot vacuums from its S70 and E50 ranges to between $699 and $1,499 at JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys, Harvey Norman, Amazon and its own online store.
What’s on sale
MOVA’s sale prices are:
- S70 Pro Roller: $999 at JB Hi-Fi and The Good Guys
- S70 Ultra Roller: $1,099 at Harvey Norman and MOVA’s store
- S70 Roller: $799 at Harvey Norman and MOVA’s store
- E50 Pro Ultra: $799 at The Good Guys and MOVA’s store
- E50 Ultra: $699 at Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi online, Amazon and MOVA’s store
- V70 Ultra Pure Black: $1,499, in stores only at Harvey Norman
MOVA says that’s up to 60% off its recommended prices. It quotes 28,000 to 32,000Pa of suction across the S70 models, and the S70 Pro Roller and E50 Pro Ultra docks wash the mop with 100°C water. The three Roller models use a roller-style mop that MOVA says rinses itself with fresh water as it goes, rather than the pair of spinning pads most robots use.
Our take
The S70 Pro Roller is the one to look at. It was $986 at JB Hi-Fi and $995 at The Good Guys when we checked on the morning of 5 November, so the sale price is live. For that you get the roller mop and a dock that washes it with hot water. The Dreame L40 Ultra VE, a spinning-pad robot we rate in our robot vacuum guide, was $898 at Bing Lee the same morning. So the MOVA costs about $90 more for a mop that should keep floors cleaner between washes, if it works as MOVA says. Owner scores are good but thin: 4.8 out of 5 from 12 owners at The Good Guys.
Ignore the RRPs. Robot vacuums rarely sell at their recommended price for long, so “save $1,300” says more about the RRP than the deal. The fair test is what similar robots cost today. On that test the S70 Pro Roller and the $795 E50 Pro Ultra at The Good Guys look sharp, but not unheard of.
At the cheap end, you can spend less. Our value pick, MOVA’s own E40 Ultra, was $544 at The Good Guys on 1 November. It doesn’t have the hot-water mop washing, but if you mostly need the floors vacuumed, it does that for $155 less than the E50 Ultra’s sale price.
Why it matters right now
Black Friday is on 27 November, and MOVA’s sale runs past Cyber Monday to 2 December. MOVA says more deals on robot mowers, pool cleaners and window cleaners start on 12 November. There’s no rush: MOVA says these prices run to 2 December, and other brands’ Black Friday prices are still to come. Our deals page tracks price drops on the robots we cover.
Check the price at the till. When we checked on 5 November, JB Hi-Fi still had the E50 Ultra at $1,499, not $699, and we couldn’t read Harvey Norman’s prices.
We haven’t used any of these robots ourselves. The suction figures and mop claims are MOVA’s. All six come with what MOVA says is a three-year warranty on the main unit.
Who should buy, and who should wait
Buy the S70 Pro Roller if you have mostly hard floors, pets or kids, and want the mopping to be more than an afterthought. At under $1,000 it costs about the same as a good spinning-pad robot.
Wait if you want the cheapest robot that empties itself. Our budget picks cost less, and other brands’ Black Friday prices are still to come. If pet hair is the main job, compare our pet vacuum guide first.