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Eufy RoboVac X8
MSRP $599.00
“The Eufy RoboVac X8 brings a feature-laden companion app to the desk, however the vacuum disappoints in a number of elementary methods.”
Execs
Highly effective suction
A stable companion app
Nice battery life
Cons
Messy vacuuming and glitchy efficiency
Poor object avoidance
Cumbersome design
On the dear facet
In relation to sensible home equipment, robotic vacuums have managed to stand up and dominate. It’s not an undesirable invasion although, as nothing beats an automatic cleansing assistant that hovers round your private home, scooping up particles on a pre-determined schedule. One of the best robotic vacs use superior laser-scanning tech to construct blueprints of your private home, maps that the vac will reference when going about its cleansing route, and maps you may entry within the vac’s companion app. Different options, like object-avoidance and voice assistant controls, are pretty customary lately, too.
There’s no scarcity of sensible house manufacturers touting “the most effective” robotic vacs in the marketplace, which may make the shopping for course of a tough one. Eufy, a sub-label of mother or father firm Anker, is a prolific producer of a few of at the moment’s main sensible tech — from cameras to well being screens. Going up in opposition to the hordes of robotic vac makers, Eufy’s all-new RoboVac X8 is hailed as one of many firm’s premiere vacs. Is it definitely worth the funding? We obtained our fingers on a check unit and have a lot to say about it.
Unboxing
The RoboVac X8 is packaged with a handful of necessities to get you began. Within the field, you’ll discover the X8 itself (with the side-sweeping brush already hooked up), the charging dock with energy cable, an additional filter, and an additional side-sweep brush, together with a person handbook.
In contrast to different robotic vacs in the marketplace, the X8 doesn’t include a dual-purpose cost dock/mud collector. Which means that you’ll have to maintain tabs on the vac’s dustbin so you may manually empty it when it’s full. To be trustworthy, these towering canisters is usually a actual eyesore, relying on the house décor you must pair it with. So for me, it wasn’t a significant deal that the X8 wasn’t packaged with one.
The X8 itself is about 4 inches tall (factoring within the top-mounted lidar scanner) with a 13-inch diameter. The vac’s black casing is a reasonably low-key aesthetic that can do nicely in most properties. Branding for the vac’s Twin Turbine characteristic is positioned proper on prime of the vac — a black label with a blue stripe to the left and a purple one to the proper.
The 600-milliliter mud field incorporates a purple lock tab that you just push down on to drag the tank out. The washable filter is positioned proper contained in the mud field. To entry it, simply pull on each side of the tank and it’ll open up clam-shell model. Flipping the vac over, you’ll discover a centralized rolling brush, two beefy tumbler wheels, a front-facing, surface-adaptive wheel, and a single side-sweeping brush (detachable).
The charging dock doesn’t take up a lot actual property — though you’ll need to allocate a good quantity of house for the X8’s docking course of. Each time I might ship my check unit house for a recharge, the vac wanted a very good quantity of house to comfortably waltz round earlier than docking (type of just like the canine that should spin a number of instances earlier than touchdown within the doggie-bed).
Setup
As soon as your X8 is out of the field, the very first thing you’ll need to do is obtain the EufyHome app (for iOS and Android units). When you launch the app, EufyHome will request entry to your system’s Bluetooth to have the ability to detect your vacuum. After a number of seconds, it is best to see your X8 pop up within the listing of accessible units. Choose it, enter your relevant Wi-Fi data (the X8 solely works with 2.4GHz community bands), and look forward to the vac to connect with your community.
Do observe that you just’ll have to put aside at the very least an hour or so for the X8 to get charged sufficient to operate. My check unit wouldn’t register my Wi-Fi till it had docked for a short time. As soon as every little thing is reside, you’ll be prompted by the app to ship your vac off on its first cleansing. Throughout this preliminary run, the lidar (gentle detection and ranging) and different image-mapping options will likely be actively working, making a cleansing map of your private home for each you and the vacuum to reference.
Efficiency
The RoboVac X8 comes loaded with a number of cleansing options. Chief amongst them is the much-advertised Twin-Turbine Expertise. Every turbine brings 2,000pa of suction to the equation, making for a vacuum expertise that’s double the ability of many competing bots. The Extremely-Pack Mud Compression characteristic is a stable consideration for a vac with no auto-empty canister/cost dock. Basically, the entire particles that the X8 pulls in is closely pressurized, decreasing tank quantity by as much as 127%. Mixed with clever lidar mapping and shut to a few hours on a single cost, this could make for an unimaginable cleansing expertise … proper?
Not precisely. The RoboVac X8 lived in my house for a number of weeks. By means of the various cleansing rounds I put it by, I discovered the general efficiency to be fairly common — possibly even lower than common in some situations. Let’s begin with the highest slice of bread within the praise sandwich.
Each time the sweeper would encounter the oats, it will whip them into cracks and crevices that the vac would by no means navigate to.
The Twin-Turbine Expertise pushes the vac to some spectacular ranges. Going over carpeting, the X8 obtained deep into the fibers, pulling up dust, hair, and different particles that wasn’t seen on the floor. With BoostIQ enabled, the vac additionally did an excellent job of routinely adjusting suction when transferring from carpeting to tile and hardwood surfaces. Set to Pure (the default soft-suction setting), the vac is pretty quiet, though the amount rapidly will increase when transferring to the following suction degree. Extra on that beneath.
Collision avoidance
Now let’s transfer to the meat of the sandwich the place I shall complain. I’ve examined another vacs (and owned a number of fashions) that had fairly lackluster object avoidance. This, mixed with heavy collisions into the un-avoided obstacles, made for a nerve-wracking expertise each time I’d let the vacs free. Sadly, I discovered the Eufy to be no totally different. On the one hand, the X8 did an okay job of not slamming into furnishings when it encountered a chair or ottoman, however there by no means appeared to be an lively effort on the vac’s half to truly keep away from the impediment. A number of instances I needed to bounce in to rescue the vac from underneath a chair or between two objects, which requires you to manually resume its cleansing cycle each time.
Moreover, the side-sweeping brush proved to be nightmarish when laying down check oatmeal on my kitchen’s laminate floor. Each time the sweeper would encounter the oats, it will whip them into cracks and crevices that the vac would by no means navigate to. I needed to pull out my cordless hand vac to scrub these messes later. There have been additionally a number of instances the place the X8 would merely cease and fail to pair with the house map it had created. After a number of moments of buffering it will come again on-line, nevertheless it was unusual to stroll by and see it stumped.
Out of complaining and into the underside slice of bread. Totally charged, my X8 by no means wanted a recharge throughout a full clear of my residence. It might cowl all the floor-plan in lower than an hour (1,300 sq. ft), with solely minimal human babysitting required throughout operation.
Software program
The EufyHome app is your go-to useful resource for all X8 preferences and customizations. As soon as the vac’s lidar sensors go to work, an in depth map of your private home will likely be out there for viewing on the Dwelling Display screen. From right here, you’ll be capable of observe your vac’s progress and battery life because it cleans the house, label rooms, ship the vac off to spot-clean sure areas, and modify suction energy.
If there are sections of the house you need the X8 to stray away from, you may faucet Edit Map after which designate a number of No-Go Zones for the vac to keep away from.
For suction, you’ll have the choice to maneuver between 4 totally different presets (Pure, Energy, Turbo, and Max), with Pure (the softest setting) being the default. You’ll additionally be capable of toggle BoostIQ on/off. That is the X8’s potential to routinely modify suction primarily based on the floor it’s vacuuming over.
A number of helpful options are tucked away in a near-missable, separate Settings menu. To entry, you’ll have to faucet the gear icon within the top-right nook of the Dwelling Display screen. Right here you’ll discover choices for creating vacuuming schedules, a cleansing historical past report, and map administration instruments. My considering is that the scheduling characteristic must be a quick-tap button on the app’s essential display screen.
The scheduling characteristic must be a quick-tap button on the app’s essential display screen.
Visually, I additionally wasn’t the largest fan of the super-dark overlay that dominates the primary map display screen. It might sound nit-picky, however contemplating the EufyHome app’s different sub-menus are bright-white, the X8’s black backdrop made navigating to sure options just a little tough — at the very least for me.
Worth and guarantee
You could find the Eufy RoboVac X8 on sale for $599 by Eufy’s web site. Much like different Eufy merchandise, the X8 additionally comes with a 30-day money-back assure, in addition to a one-year restricted guarantee.
Alternatively, there’s additionally the Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid, which tacks on the operate of a mopper. For the additional $50 value, it actually looks like an added worth given its 2-in-1 vacuum and mop capabilities.
Our take
I can’t actively sing the praises of the RoboVac X8. Sure, it’s obtained an excellent app and the promise of highly effective and clever cleansing applied sciences to get your own home spotless. In my private expertise, the X8 usually made extra work for me, requiring a number of rescues and resets, with a handful of glitches thrown in from time to time, too.
Is there a greater different?
Sure, a number of. From Roomba’s total lineup to competitively priced vacs from Roborock and Neato, there are many robotic vacuums that can get your own home clear with out as many hiccups alongside the best way. Some that come to thoughts across the value vary embody the iRobot Roomba i3 Plus with its self-emptying dock and environment friendly cleansing, in addition to the Roborock S7 with its sonic mopping motion.
How lengthy will it final?
My guess is that the Eufy RoboVac X8 will final for a number of years. The outer shell is well-protected, the app looks like it can efficiently keep up-to-date, and with the choice to switch the primary brush-head and side-sweepers, it looks like there will likely be loads of assist from Eufy’s finish. It does include a one-year restricted guarantee that protects it from defects from the date of buy.
Must you purchase it?
It’s not a complete dud by any means, however your cash is best spent elsewhere.
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