eufy RoboVac L35 Hybrid Robot Vacuum and Mop with 3,200Pa
eufy RoboVac L35 Hybrid Robot Vacuum and Mop with 3,200Pa Ultra Strong Suction, iPath Laser Navigation, Multi Floor Mapping, Controllable Water Tank,Advanced App Control
From the brand
| Weight: | 4 kg |
| Dimensions: | 35 x 35 x 10 cm; 4 Kilograms |
| Brand: | eufy |
| Model: | T2194 |
| Colour: | Black |
| Dimensions: | 35 x 35 x 10 cm; 4 Kilograms |
Good if you have reasonable clear rooms with furniture that is high enough for it to pass under to keep on top of cleaning. I have a couple of items of furniture too low for it to fit under but low enough for it to try and it gets stuck so I block them off with towels as the magnetic strip don’t work.
This product is fantastic. Prior to use give the carpets a good hoover with a standard 230V hoover then all you need to do is set up this device to hoover every 2/3 days or whatever you like.
It is very quiet and non problematic I have it set up to start at 7am and have never been woken by i
I was worried because for the first time ever I had to use an app but needs must, and with a bit of thought, experiment and perseverance, I managed it (I am an oldie) hooray. The machine spoke to me at the appropriate times as it set itself up, but I didn’t hear clearly as I am deaf as well. After a few moments radio silence, carefully, and with great trepidation, I switched it on and off it went. Under the radiator and the sofa, bumping gently into my furniture and climbing onto and over my rug. It was being pretty efficient at getting up crumbs and debris from my carpet, the little brushes sweeping them under it for removal.
I should have bought the emptying station while I was at it, now remedied, so that bending down to pick it up and getting the debris out is delayed! (Less strain on a diffy back)
Now, after a few days, I am very enamoured of my robot vac, probably because as a child owning real robot was an impossible sounding achievment. But on the realistic side, my Eurovac G40 is an immensely useful tool.
A friend swears by hers, so we bought one. It’s perfect on our open plan wood floor downstairs. We are amazed at the cracking job it does daily, keeping the dust down and removing general day to day debris. So we decided to give it a go upstairs on the carpet. Wow! You wouldn’t believe how much it picked up. All I did was carry it upstairs and press play, leaving it to its own devices knowing it won’t fall down the stairs.
It cleans downstairs daily on a pre programmed timer, and upstairs three or four times a week.
We are very happy with it, money well spent.
Ps. When I empty it, I use a 1″ brush to clean the dirt box and the filter. Then I simply put it on the floor and press home, and it finds its own way to the charging point.
Been using the eufy robot vac for a few months now an It certainly does the job. Altho I am tempted to upgrade to the self emptying dock as when the collection chamber starts to get full it tends to leave a trail of debris its dropped so sometimes I have to restart the clean halfway through coz it doesn’t have a notification for when it’s full or if it does its never been able to hold enough to set the vac full notification off. Either way it’s a minor inconvience at most. As cleaning wise it’s pretty good.
I have had a few comical fails where the spin brush has got stuck under a carpet an come off so I’ve had to search the house a few times for it after noticing it’s dropped it lol and sometimes it just pushes the charging station across the floor instead of docking but that’s easily remedied by attaching the plastic floor pad that comes with it.
Over all tho I love it. It certainly helps me out around the house which, with 2 large dogs an a cat that sheds all year round, makes this robot vac worth it’s weight in gold to me lol.
Original review
This seemed to be the perfect replacement for my old Roomba and it is much lower in height. But it has to be connected to the wifi in order to work and my wifi is 5GHz or 2.4GHz and it smartly chooses which is the best one to use for the device.
However no matter what I tried this Eufi would not connect to the my wifi. So I had to send it back.
Disappointing as all the Eufi vacuums are wifi and I don’t trust that any will work now. So will be steering clear of them from now on.
Updated
After my initial review above. Eufy customer services contacted me to find out if they could help with the wifi issues. They were very helpful. Eventually I worked out how to turn off the SmartConnect function on my NetGear router.
Once I did this the Eufy hoover connected straight away. I could then turn SmartConnect back on and it stayed connected.
As you can see from the photo the Eufy is not much smaller in diameter to the Roomba 650 (caveat in all this review, the 650 is old so not really a fair comparison). Though the diameter is roughly the same, the Eufy is marginally lower in height and this makes a big difference as it fits under all the cupboards and the coffee table in our house. The Roomba did not.
I thought the Internet connectivity for the Eufy was a bit of a gimmick – after all why do you need an internet connected hoover? But it turns out it is fairly useful. I like the fact it maps out the rooms it vacuums, the ability to set schedules easily, amend the suction power for each of the scheduled cleans, the ability to start / stop / send it back to charge remotely and gets updated firmware. It is also possible to steer the vacuum from the app – I did this once when it couldn’t find its way back to the dock (lazy, I know, as I could have just picked it up).
The Eufy is quiet, really quiet. Not just the suction motor, but the drive motors and the general movement across the floor. The Roomba rumbles across the floor which can be heard on the floor below (as we have wooden floors). The Eufy makes no movement noise. I have had to check the app before to make sure it had actually cleaned as I was upstairs working and did not hear it at all. This is a real strong point for Eufy.
The app sends push notifications (if you allow) that tell you if it’s stuck, lost, being picked up. So it’s chatty.
It also has a “Find my RoboVac” in the app. I’ve not used this yet but I can see it could be useful. Though I don’t have a big house I have on occasion had to hunt for the Roomba when it’s got stuck. So this could be useful. Eufy, draws a map of the area it’s hoovering in real time so you can always use that to find it if it is stuck.
The return to charge point is much more effective on the Eufy as it marks on the map it’s charge point, then draws the room and obstacles as it goes. So when it finishes or needs to recharge it goes directly there rather than hoping it passes the beam from the docking station (as the Roomba has to do). If you put the Eufy on a different floor to its charge point, it will note it’s start point and return there when it is done.
Some minor niggles with the Eufy:
1. It doesn’t have a carry handle – the Roomba does.
2. Emptying the bin is fiddly and the instructions aren’t clear which big you have to lift. Once you know, you know but it took a few attempts to work it out
This is not meant to be a Roomba v Eufy comparison as my Roomba is at least 8 years old. However new Roomba’s are far more expensive and, in my opinion, the Eufy is much better value. Am a definite convert to Eufy.
Out of the packaging, it was pretty easy to set up. It initially took a few goes to connect to our WiFi, but finally sorted itself out when I left it sitting beside the router (there’s been no issues with WiFi range since). Once connected, we integrated it with Alexa (this model doesn’t appear to be compatible with Google Home as of yet so worth considering if you use Google’s smart home), set a place for the dock charging station to live and it was good to go.
So far it looks to be doing a really good job, tackling all sorts of surfaces while picking up most things being thrown at it (not literally, we’re not that messy). It has three power modes – low power, IQ Boost, and a higher power mode – we usually leave it in IQ Boost where it determines how much power it hoovers up with based on the scenario, and it appears to be more than up to the job! The sensors work really well in terms of navigating across the floor so you’ll rarely find it bumping it’s way into things to try and find it’s way around, instead relying on the sensors to change direction before hitting the skirting. It also has had no trouble changing from surfaces and has effortlessly transferred from hardwood floor to tiles and back again. Our kitchen also has a deep pile rug which it seems to know to avoid, which is great as it saves us having to use the included boundary strips here, and can save them for elsewhere.
Battery life is quoted at up to 100 minutes, but on IQ Boost mode, we have guesstimated it’s probably closer to 80-90 minutes which is grand. It’s very quiet as it goes about it’s business so this is more than worth the 10 less minutes battery life than quoted. Which brings me to my next point…
Once the battery is low enough, provided the charging station is accessible, the 30C will slowly make its way back to it automatically, and start charging so it’s ready to go again. This is a great feature I was initially skeptical of, but it works so well, and really helps with the overall integration of smart features. Because of this, it allows us to set cleaning schedules throughout the day, knowing that it will recharge itself before going out again at the next scheduled time. The app makes it easy to set cleaning schedules and also allows you to send it out to clean remotely. The app has a remote control, and the device comes with a physical one too, but to be honest we haven’t really used them as the automation is so well set up with it.
Included in the box were some spare brushes, manuals and magnetic boundary strips – these can be set up in areas of the house where you don’t want the 30C to clean up, so they could be placed across doorways, carpets/rugs/cables or just certain areas of the house. As previously mentioned, we had planned to put it around a deep pile rug for fear of it getting caught in it, but it seems to know to avoid this already somehow which is great and means we can use the strips elsewhere.
I would definitely recommend this for anyone looking for their first robot vacuum or if their current one isn’t up to the task. Even at it’s normal price at the moment, it’s worth every penny and has saved us so much time having to vacuum.
Right, now that I have your attention, read on dear reader. I bought this product, as I felt that it would help kill two birds with one stone as it were (no birds were harmed in the writing of this review). I could get the hoovering done, whilst working on the rest of the housework.
The RoboVac is as relatively as compact as it can be, and is very thorough in its cleaning. Contained within the packaging, is the RoboVac itself (obviously), two boundary strips, replacement brushes, and replacement filter, a home charing station, and a remote control. The boundary strips are perfect for placing across areas you don’t want the vac to go, the replacement brushes are ideal for when your brushes need replacing, same with the filter really. The remote can be used to send it to do automated cleaning, or you can control it manually, either way the option is there.
To get started, you’ll need to make sure you download the Eufy app. You’ll need that to set it up, and be able to control it from your phone too. Also, if you have an Echo device, you can get the Eufy skill, and link your accounts to control it using Alexa. I found the set up process to be very quick and easy. A very straightforward process, that should even be idiot proof. Within minutes I had R2D2 up and running, and gliding about the house doing the cleaning.
Upon putting my RoboVac together, I was faced with a slight issue, that being that the clip on the dust collector tray was broken. It had arrived like this. Whilst the product still worked ok, it had the ability to get worse due to how it was broken, and require replacing. Worried that I would have to send the whole thing back, and await the arrival of another, whole new product, I was put in contact with ANKER who produce this product, and supplied it through Amazon. To my amazement, they didn’t require anything to be sent back, and very swiftly arranged a replacement part, all they needed were some brief details of the fault, and some pictures of it. Within 24 hours of me contacting them, they had responded, and were arranging a replacement part be dispatched out to me. It has since arrived, and works perfectly. I have no doubt that this was an isolated issue, and was resolved very quickly and very professionally. It is for this reason, that I have not deducted a star for this.
The product itself, well, it sucks, but in a good way. It sucks how it is meant to suck, it gets up all the dust and dirt that it needs to. I know that’s quite a sweeping statement (it does that too), but I was surprised at how much such a small and compact RoboVac can pick up, and how dirty the floor actually was, genuinely doesn’t look that bad at all. The RoboVac does well at learning its surroundings, and will cover the whole floor, it even manages to get into corners. It has sensors all around which prevent it from crashing into things, and also keeps it away from the edge of the stairs, so that it doesn’t take a tumble.
I am pleased that I have made the investment in this product, and it is a product I would recommend if you are looking to purchase one of these. If you have a dog, however, a couple of tips, get your dog used to it, otherwise you may find your dog chasing it around trying to attack it, or running away from it. Also make sure that your dog hasn’t left a little surprise anywhere before activating it, otherwise you may find that you have some lovely brown smears across your floor.
One other thing, before I go, the RoboVac can be given a name on the app, and I am torn with what to call it. R2D2 is clearly an option as a Star Wars fan, and I know someone else has called theirs Meryl Sweep, I’m kinda liking Dusty Springclean to be honest…
Seriously, if you are looking for one of these, I highly recommend.
I live alone in a fairly large house (3 Bed detached). I’m a typical male in my mid twenties and although I always like to keep on top of my cleaning, I have recently decided that life is too short to be cleaning all the time. I decided to explore a number of “Smart” cleaning robots to help out with my daily chores.
Review:
I watched numerous videos and read lots of reviews about robotic vacuum cleaners. The Eufy 30C consistently came out as one of the best.
Navigation:
I was sceptical at how well this device would clean given that it uses random navigation and simply “bumps” around. I did debate about purchasing a significantly more expensive device that is laser guided. These devices are normally 300+ and boast about the fact they will clean in uniform lines etc.
My concerns were completely unjustified, this device seems to do a very good job indeed just by bumping around. It appears to have some sensors built into it as it rarely bumps into things, often changing its path just before it hits an object/wall.
Cleaning:
I had previously used a combination of a Dyson Kinetic Big Ball and a Dyson Animal Handheld. I probably hoovered once a week as my lifestyle generates little mess.
I was absolutely mortified at how much dirt this device collects on a daily basis. I have uploaded a number of photos of just how full the dust bin gets on a daily basis.
My carpets now visually look cleaner then ever before and on the second day of use, I actually came downstairs in the morning and simply said “wow” while in disbelief at how clean the carpets looked.
App:
The App is simplistic and straightforward. It appears to be very stable on my iPhone X running the latest iOS. In the app, you can control the robot with a digital remote, set cleaning schedules and summon it to do various tasks (edge clean, general clean etc.).
I have found the best function is that it enables you to set cleaning schedules and allows the robot to send you notifications when it is stuck etc. The app also allows you to launch a clean outside of the schedule when you are away from home.
Docking Station:
The instruction manual states that it must be in an open environment with some 3ft clear either side. I have not found this to be the case and the robot happily finds its way back to underneath the sofa every day to charge out of sight.
It can sometimes be painful watching the device try to workout how to get home as it changes direction trying to find the path with the strongest signal. My advice is to take a blind eye to it and let it get on with it, it always gets there in the end.
Overall:
I would really recommend this device, you will never look back. The fact is this device has transformed my cleaning routine. I do not think I will ever use a traditional hoover again and I’m already considering getting another one for upstairs.
I have gone from vacuuming once a week, to everyday without having to lift a finger. The devices bin is always full after each clean.
Yes, of course this device sometimes gets stuck resulting in the need to be rescued but it saves me so much time in the long run, I really don’t mind.
Eufy is part of Anker who are known for quality products and I have to say well done to the team at Anker/Eufy, you have simply done it again.
However, it wasn’t completely a impulse buy, I first spent a number of hours on the internet, researching Eufy, and looking at all the alternatives – of which there are quite a lot, I was surprised to see. I watched many of the you tube reviews, again on this and the others, and time and time again, the Eufy 30c came out doing really well. So I ordered it!
When it arrived, it was well packed, and came with some spare filters and brushes – so you don’t have to worry about that when you order. I subsequently looked on Amazon, and there are filter and brush kits readily available, so that’s good too. He (lol) had some charge in the battery already, but I did put him on the base and allowed a full charge before using. This didn’t take as long as I thought it was going to, but as I say, it already had some charge in the battery.
Whilst it was charging I downloaded the app on my tablet and also my phone, and that was all very quick and easy. Very straight forward if you are not that comfortable with tech.
When it was ready, I pressed the auto mode button in the app – and he was off ! I believe he has 9 infrared detectors and the bumper on the front to help him find his way, and avoid obstacles. On IQ Boost the suction motor adjusts itself depending on what surface he is on, so on a stone tiled floor, he is nice and quiet, and really not that noticeable. On thicker carpet, or rugs, he may increase his suction, which raises the noise level, but nowhere near like a regular vacuum cleaner. The suction power is surprisingly strong, and coupled with the underside rotating brush, he picks up pretty much everything. I really like the two front brushes which pick up everything and shoot it into the path of the underside sucker – very efficient!
We are not untidy people and tend to vacuum probably every other day, as we have cats and dogs – but since having Eufy, we have not had to get the regular cleaner out. In his app, you can schedule when he cleans, and we have him set for each work day morning at 06:00, and 07:00 at the weekend. He wakes up at the set time and off he goes, running for about an hour and 20 minutes before, dropping into low power mode and heading home. Our house is a quite large, 4 bed, detached, and he is keeping on top of the cleaning really well. As he lives downstairs, which is where his charging point is, we will often carry him upstairs and let him loose up there too.
As he is very low, he will clean under cupboards and in particular – beds! The underside of our beds have never been so dust free! The downside it though, until he gets on top of those generally unseen areas, you do have to empty him quite a lot. He has a 0.6 litre capacity bin, which is very easy to empty and keep clean. You will be amazed at just how much he picks up! Worth a mention as well, is the fact he has special sensors underneath which detect drop-offs, like the top of the stairs. They work well, he gets to the edge and just simply turns around.
So, there must be some negatives – you must be thinking? Well, the only one I can really talk about is the way in which he finds his way around. I must say that this isn’t a game changer for me, I knew it when I purchased, and its not that big a deal. But, he finds his way around randomly. So each time he detects an object which makes him change direction, he will simply, turn and go. I don’t think that there is any thought to it. What do I mean by that? Well, the more expensive robot vacs have proper mapping technology. So they map out each room, and learn the layout of your house – and this makes the finding of the charge point a much more efficient process – as the device ‘knows’ where to return to straight away. With Eufy, when he drops to low power mode, he has to continue his random was around the house until he detects the signal from the charge base, and that seems to be a line-of-sight affair. We have found him flat on occasion having not managed to find his way back before the battery has given out. But it really is no big deal as 9 times out of 10 he makes it back home.
The other issue, I’m led to believe, with not having the mapping, is it apparently makes him less efficient when cleaning. As with mapping the device knows where it has been, so doesn’t do it again. With random, he cleans everything a number of times. Does this bother me, or cause any issues? Absolutely not. I don’t know how the software works, but he cleans everywhere, very well, and as I say, 9/10 makes it back to his charging base without any help.
What else can I say about our Eufy? Well, he fully integrates with Alexa, which was very easy to setup, so we do voice control him, sending him home for example, when we think he has cleaned enough, which he will often do in our large house, before his battery is flat.
Finally his aesthetics. He looks great! Really modern & high-tech. Sleek back finish, and a high gloss, glass top, with his blue power light, and wi-fi indicator.
In conclusion: Would I recommend getting one? You bet I would! Its funny as friends who come around often start chuckling about getting a robot vac, as they know what I’m like with my tech. But that is until they see him in action! Then they all want to take him home! Also if you are a little older and maybe have to rely on some help around the house, this would be perfect for you.
I have been using Robovac for over a month now and can honestly say this is the best gadget I have ever purchased at this price. On the price front, when you see this on Sale – pick it up, I paid 169 and that now feels like such a bargain.
The first few days I used it while I was around, just to get an idea of where it might struggle, for example I have a TV stand that is just the right height from the ground that Robo can get itself stuck. This was the only place it seemed to happen so fixed this by just putting something underneath that would trigger its sensors to back off. The robovac comes with Magnetic tape that can be used to block off areas, but I was reluctant to use this and to be honest have not found a need. My reluctance is due to not knowing what effect it would have to nearby electronic devices and as the kids leave their gadgets all over the place I was hesitant to leave such highly magnetic tape around.
After a couple of days I setup the schedule using the App for it to start cleaning at 5am every morning. What impresses me the most is that when I get up 9.5 times out of 10 its back on its charging station and you are left with clean floors. Very occasionally it will get stuck – but most of the time that due to human error – e.g. accidently leaving a cable on the ground or toys that it gets caught up on.
Now I have found poor Robovac in a poor state a couple of time, its guts spewed out across the ground after coming across a pile of toys that were not cleared away. However these events actually make me far more impressed with the machine as each time that happened it was obvious that the primary elements – the side brushes and the main brush appear to be designed to come off when the going gets tough rather than stay firmly attached until a motor burns out. The other time was when a cable managed to get so tangled up in the wheel I could not untangle it – however just removing four screws allowed me to pull the whole wheel out and untangle it – that’s great design.
My first impressions were in awe at just how much dust and dirt this was picking up. Now we were not daily hoovering people, working couple with kids meant it was a once a week job. Vobovac does not get bored and just happily keeps going until its full or needs charging and so the cleaning experience is incredible, day after day how it manages to find so much dirt and dust to pick up amazes me.
We have a mixture of low pile rugs, wooden floors and tiles – all of which it has dealt with without issue. The one problem it does have is in the bathroom where we have small light bathroom rugs which are not stuck down so it pushes those out of the way rather than going over them, but that is a minor issue and I would be surprised if any Robot Vacuum could deal with those better. Given its quite low, especially compared to other Robot Vacs its surprisingly good at getting under beds, tables and wardrobes etc – so the rooms are cleaner than ever with those hard to reach spots taken care of.
Other reviewers have said not to pay attention to its cleaning as its very random and you would wonder what it’s doing and in a way yes- its path can make little sense but it really gets the job done so you just don’t worry about it.
I was surprised recently to find out it has a light, never normally up a night when its on so was shocked when I saw a light moving around the room, its a nice feature.
The drop sensors work great, whenever it does upstairs it will get to the top of the staircase, peek over and quickly double back.
You will find that it needs to be emptied on a daily basis, this is easy through and the main roller is easy to remove to untangle any hair that has built up.
Are there any negatives – sure no device is perfect.
Charging times are quite long, I think its around 5 hours. Not generally a problem but I do like to set the vac lose on the upstairs once its recharged.
It needs to learn to take alternative route decisions a bit quicker, sometimes you will find it getting stuck and trying far to many times to get out in the same direction when it should try to back up, turn and find another way out sooner – its seems a bit too stubborn in that regard.
The drop sensors can be fooled by dark shadows, so it will think the shadow is a ledge and keep backing away from it.
It might do better with more sensors, you can see that they work a lot of the time to back it off before it bumps into something, but it still bumps quite often – not really an issue but occasionally it has managed to move furniture around so more sensors should work better.
Overall this is one brilliant machine, I find very little to fault and the floors have never looked so clean.
I honestly can’t see the point in paying hundreds more of a Robot Vacuum when the Robovac is this good at the price. Highly recommended.
My first impression of the device were very strong and not long after unboxing it it was working it’s away around each room that I placed it in with very impressive results, collecting more dust than I thought was present in the room. The device is more than capable of working its way around a room, collecting dust from edges and corners in way that by looking at it you wouldn’t think possible. Eventually, and this is really testament to its partial success, you will find that the return of dust to the dust compartment lessens with each use and that is really simply because you have less dust in the house which is after all the job of this device, so far so good.
The device is provided with an app that enables you to control the way it moves and to also set a schedule however it can be quite tricky to know where to place it and on what schedule to run it and you either find yourself moving up and down flights of stairs too frequently for it be described as “zero effort from you.” as the marketing of the product suggests or that it can be tricky to make sure that the floor is free of all clutter in order for it to run as efficiently as you need it to in order to achieve an effective result.
The issue of efficiency is also compounded by the lack of sophistication in the units intelligence which leads to what can seem like a poor performance in battery life. Currently a 5 hour charge is giving me about 20 mins of maximum performance when considering how little intelligence is actually in use can often times not be enough of a duration to achieve an effective clean. You can run this on a lower setting for a longer duration giving me approximate 35 mins use for a 5 hour charge.
What you will find in this respect is that the unit will tend to go over the same patches again sand again during the same routine, and as well as that you will also find that it has what I believe to be a completely unintended bias towards the light meaning that you if you have parts of rooms that are brighter than others or you have any white furniture, the 30C will spend most of times heading these areas again and again. It can start to become very frustrating watching it make the same mistakes over and over and to say that the included boundary stops give you “worry free cleaning” may be accurate to a point but is not really a true reflection of the reality when using the device as you end up either having to leave large magnetic metal like strip in a position within a room which frankly looks ugly or you have to keep moving the strip around to which part of a room(s) the device wants to head to next. That said the sensor in the device which determines is direction and also its boundary can be very effective at times, as the device will sometimes recognise that it’s about to collide with something and it adjusts its direction before doing so, not every time however but it also does a great job at not falling down stairs, a point at which the thing appears to look more sentient than it actually is. However, the device will also quite frequently stop during its operation for one reason or another, most commonly as something gets stuck in it’s brushes, this can be especially frustrating as not only does the current job not complete without intervention it also makes a quite horrific incessant beeping noise for a period as well as it also alerting you on the app too, all of which is completely unnecessary and totally unavoidable in so far as I have experienced.
I am led to believe that some of these issue have been resolved with some of the more expensive models and my experience with this particular model has been positive enough to make me consider an upgrade however, the expense does appear to increase quite rapidly the higher up you look and because of that I would want to ensure that no only does a more expensive model resolve the issue I have had with the device but that it also does not introduce any more issues.
Overall, the 30C is a good product. It cleans well, is very easy to use once you find a way to integrate its operation into a routine that works for you it verges on being an essential item that every home should have. I don’t believe that you could ever replace your main vacuum with one of these entirely in a house, though it could be possible in a an apartment as this device will not clean stairs and upholstery and it will obviously not climb stairs. I’ve given it four stars as it has actually exceeded my expectation in may respects though if I could give half stars I would actually settle on 3.5 stars, simply because the lack of intelligence in the unit and/or the app does reveal some of the weaknesses of this particular model, to the point where I can see a lot of people not really using it as much as they had probaly hoped.
If you are thinking about getting one of these devices I would strongly suggest looking at what the more recent models can offer and for how much and if it seems that the price of those models in prohibitive, think carefully about whether it’s best to settle for the 30C or whether it’s better to hold out.
To find out Read on….. this is genuine review from a guy who hardly writes reviews…..
Worked out the box by following the very simple easy to read ‘quick guide’ ….. in essence you plug in the base station against a wall in a clear space , take out two foam packing plugs, remove the sticker over the on/off switch, put batteries in the remote and off he goes.
Eufy needs 2m straight ahead of him, and 1m to the side of the base station. But I can only get 1m on one side and about 500mm on the other with 2m in front and he finds his way back to bed without any problem.
The guidance system works well and all
Modes seem sensible and work well, as does the WiFi, phone App, and remote. All basically plug and play and I am 53 yr old techphobe. It was easy, and done in a few mins, and he was cleaning our floor.
The collection box needs to be emptied regularly, for us this is every day with three teenagers, three cats two dogs and a lively outdoor life. Teenagers and dogs soon ignored our new robot, but our cats are still wary and staying out of its way.
Suction and cleaning power. We swept the floor just before Eufy arrived, and he came three weeks early, so we did not have a dirty floor….. he effectively was tried out on a visually clean floor…. how wrong we were.
If I knew how to add a photo you would be amazed as were we. The volume of dog and cat hair and fine dust was amazing after just the fun of trying out the different functions. After the 1am full clean the collection box was FULL! Even after a sweep and 30mins clean while testing Eufy out.
The edge function is good, as are all the functions. On standard setting Eufy is quiet, really quiet, not as noisy as our dishwasher and much quieter than our washing machine. The noise does not really change when put on the middle vacuum setting; on the Max setting noise is about same as our new Shark vacuum, which is quiet for a vacuum….. it is quiet.
Do not leave this review thinking of the single problem I found this morning. I set Eufy off on the 30min quick clean setting while I made coffee, just to see how much more dirt he could find. He didn’t appear for a while, so I looked behind our kitchen counter and he was stuck (Mating) on our bar stool, which has a wide sloping base and single post holding the seat. It seems if he comes at the post straight on he can’t get away, just keeps bumping into the post at top of wide ramped base. If he clips the base he just powers on over (as he does with edges of the rug, door strip etc…. Eufy takes the rough with the smooth no problem). With ALL other furniture, even the sleeping dog, Eufy just finds a way around.
I have not used the customer support yet but If they are as good as Eufy is they will be great. If you are looking for a RoboVac, this one works out if the box and you don’t need a computer degree to get him off and sucking!!!
Graeme and Sam
Update – a couple of weeks in, and Eufy has just become part of our life. Floors are clean, just clean all the time. Even the large rug by the back door that used to be covered in god hair at end of each day, and hard to clean. Now it’s just clean.
The lack of dog and cat hair on the floor means SO much less on our cloths. We get about half a box of hair and dirt each morning now, and floor is clean clean clean. I put chairs up before bed so Eufy has a more clear run, but if I forget, it’s still clean in the morning.
This robo-vac simply works as it says straight out of the box. If you want one get this one.
Graeme and Sam.
It is easy to setup, the included remote is essentially redundant as app control is easy and the robot can be activated remotely (outside your LAN).
We have a large ground floor with carpets and hard floors. The vacuum does a good job at keeping the floor clean, but we have found that it is best to close off some rooms each time as its random strategy means there is a lot of repeat cleaning of certain areas. The more rooms it needs to clean the more likely you are to have missed spots. 3 large rooms seems to work well. As soon as you add in rooms, particularly small rooms (like a toilet) then the vacuum ends up spending a disproportionate amount of its battery in this area. I did a test in standard mode, with our large ground floor which has lounge, entrance hall, playroom, study and large kitchen the Robovac will miss 25% of the test piles of dirt I left and these were left in easily accessible places. It needs mapping to cover this type of area.
The standard mode uses less power than the boostiq mode and seems to clean well enough, assuming you restrict it to 3 rooms.
The vacuum is good at avoiding collisions if there is a flat surface approaching, however more likely to collide with anything that is narrow like a table leg or horizontal low shelf. The front bumper seems robust enough to take this and last.
The Robovac has a problem when it turns a corner through a doorway that has a small step (13mm), it gets stuck trying to turn and climb the transition, eventually it figures out that it is stuck but this can take a minute or two, again wasting battery.
The dust box is easy to remove and empty.
The brush is reasonably easy to clean with the included tool or rubbing your hand back and forth along the bristles to loosen any adherent fluff. There is some advice on replacement of filters in the manual. One of the filters is not washable whereas on the latest model (15C max) the filter is washable.
The vacuum is quiet even in max mode but still probably too loud for nighttime use unless the are to be vacuumed is far from bedrooms.
It always seems to find its way back to charge even when you think it’s not going to make it or starts doing something repetitive like circling a piece of furniture (it seems to try to find home by following an edge) The manual recommends a large clear “landing area” in front of the base but I have found that isn’t actually necessary – we have the base in a narrow recess and the vacuum always finds its way back. I think there just needs to be a reasonably clear area directly in front of the base.
Problems:
Sunlight – if there is sunlight shining on the floor this confuses the drop sensors, the vacuum tries to back away but we have found that it will often conclude that it cannot move and stop, a message is sent that the drop sensors may be dirty. It is possible to restart vacuuming remotely when this happens but obviously you need to wait until the sunlight has disappeared.
Very bright LED. When charged there is a bright LED on top of the vacuum, it isn’t possible to dim this or turn it off. It is bright enough to illuminate our entrance hall, too bright for a bedroom.
Too random for large areas.
It is very inefficient and therefore there needs to be some control over where you allow it to roam by closing off rooms and/or moving objects, for example it can waste a lot of energy under a table with chairs, best to move the chairs out or put them onto the table before a clean. The boundary tape that is included can be used but this needs to be stuck to the floor and is therefore permanent and not really practical for us. It is about 2 cm wide and black so you couldn’t really stick it anywhere other than perhaps a door frame, it is really a primitive method to cordon off areas. I think for large multi room areas you need a vacuum with mapping that improves efficiency and allows you to direct the vacuum to a single or a group of rooms. This would obviously lead to a increased price but definitely worth it for large areas with multiple rooms and/or obstacles. There is an online article suggesting that Eufy will be releasing a model with mapping later this year (2019) – Eufy tell me this will be around the end of July 2019. There are other brands that have mid price vacuums with mapping (Roborock) or much higher priced vacuums with mapping (iRobot).
Support is responsive, at least with advice and they are receptive to feedback.
Overall I would recommend getting one even though not perfect it will definitely save you time and it’s fun to have.
I did consider returning to Roomba after that experience, but the price and reviews of this Eufy made me go for it instead.
It is much more efficient than my Eventer, and probably also than the quite ageing Roomba at the end. So it works well for me.. It is reasonably silent when running, although it is still noticeable, so try not to be in the room when it runs and do remember it runs for more than an hour, not just the 5 minutes it’ll take yourself to hoover a room. But this one does it every day automatically (if you configure it)! Do you? I certainly don’t! Once a fortnight perhaps. I just don’t like to hoover! And yes you need another hoover too, but more or less only for emergencies, like the other day when I dropped an open container with flour on the floor. No robot could have fixed that. Even my hoover had a problem with that and needed extensive cleaning afterwards. But I sense I’m going out on limb here! 🙂 But day to day it works very well keeping the dust level low on my mainly low pile carpets and an area with hard floor.
It is app connected, not that I especially need it, but it adds to the geekyness for those that like it. The app is easy to use, but what you are not told before you buy (or it may be in the small print), is that the robot only runs on 2.4GHz band wifi. My wifi is a combined 2.4 and 5GHZ router with the connected devices automatically using the 5GHz band if they can, so that is what my phone used. When setting up, the app could detect the robot, but it couldn’t configure it, before I found out how to separate the two bands on my router and then connect my phone to the 2.4GHz band. Not a big issue if you have some insight into this, but my router is from a mainstream IP provider, so it can easily be the case for many others, who hasn’t necessarily the skills to deal with this. And it means that all my devices now have to run on the 2.4GHz band, as I have a lot of communication from my phone to most of them that relies on them being on the same wifi.
Without wifi connection and the app this robot cannot be scheduled! My old Roomba could be scheduled using the buttons on the robot itself. The Eventer could be scheduled from the remote. The Eufy can only be scheduled through the app!
I’m not into voice operation so I do not have either Alexa or Google Assistant, so I cannot comment on how well integrated this is.
I’ve always used virtual walls/borders to prevent my robots from straying into other rooms. I want my scheduled clean to take place in the main living, eating and cooking room, where I also have some pet chipmunks that adds quite a lot to the dust level, whereas the need for hoovering in the rest of my flat is much less and can be done by moving the robot there once in a while manually. This robot doesn’t come with a virtual wall/border, instead it comes with some magnetic strip, that you can put on the floor to limit where it goes. It works well, but I would prefer the other solution, although I also can see how you can make more flexible and versatile borders with these strips, if you have the need. I just don’t have that need. Ideally, it should come with a zone planner, like many robot movers do these days! There might already be a robotic hoover out there that does this, but then it’s probably not in the price bracket where I looked.
They mention it has 1500 Pa suction compared to 1300 for their previous model. How much of a difference that makes, I am not sure. It’s a bit like is 20mb better than 12mb for your phone camera? The answer is – it depends. For my old roomba the suction level wasn’t even publicized, but it still made a magnificent job, until it died of old age. But it did have a very clever set of counterrotating brushes, that is very efficient for picking up larger debris sizes. Something that I think Eufy should adopt.
Conclusion: It is a very well made robot and it works very well. Yes I have listed a number of issues with it, but they are not big issues, and some of it is just my personal preferences and I certainly can recommend it to someone looking for a capable robot with a lower price tag than the main brands usually have.