Tag Archives: Collisions

Eufy RoboVac X8

RRP $ 599.00

"The Eufy RoboVac X8 brings a feature-rich companion app to the table, but the vacuum cleaner disappoints on some fundamental points."

advantages

• Strong suction power

• A solid companion app

• Great battery life

disadvantage

• Messy vacuuming and poor performance

• Bad object avoidance

• Bulky design

• On the expensive side

When it comes to smart home appliances, robotic vacuums have managed to rise and dominate. It's not an unwanted invasion, however, as nothing beats an automatic cleaning assistant that floats around your house picking up dirt on a set schedule. The best robotic vacuums use advanced laser scanning technology to create blueprints of your home, maps that the vacuum cleaner references in its cleaning route, and maps that you can access in the vacuum cleaner's companion app. Other features like object avoidance and voice assistant control are also pretty standard these days.

There is no shortage of smart home brands offering "the best" vacuum robots on the market, which can make the buying process difficult. Eufy, a sub-label of parent company Anker, is a prolific manufacturer of some of today's leading smart tech – from cameras to health monitors. Eufy's brand new RoboVac X8 competes against the hordes of robotic vacuums and is hailed as one of the company's first vacuums. Is it worth the investment? We got our hands on a test device and can say a lot about it.

unpacking

the RoboVac X8 is packed with a handful of essentials to get you started. In the box you will find the X8 itself (with the side brush already attached), the charging station with power cord, an additional filter and an additional side brush as well as an instruction manual.

Unlike other robotic vacuum cleaners on the market, the X8 does not come with a dual-purpose charging station / dust collector. This means that you need to keep an eye on the vacuum cleaner's trash can so that you can manually empty it when it is full. To be honest, these towering canisters can be a real eyesore depending on the home decor you have to pair them with. So to me it wasn't a big deal that the X8 didn't come boxed with one.

The X8 itself is about 4 inches tall (including the top-mounted lidar scanner) by 13 inches in diameter. The vacuum cleaner's black body is a fairly low-key aesthetic that works well in most homes. The branding for the twin turbine function of the vacuum cleaner is located directly above the vacuum cleaner – a black label with a blue stripe on the left and a red one on the right.

The 600 milliliter dust box has a purple locking tab that you push down to pull out the tank. The washable filter is located directly in the dust box. To access it, just pull on either side of the tank and it will open in a clam-shell style. When you turn the vacuum cleaner you will find a central roller brush, two sturdy drum wheels, a forward facing surface adaptive wheel and a single side brush (detachable).

The charging station doesn't take up much space – although you'll want to allocate enough space for the X8's docking process. Whenever I sent my test unit home to charge, the nipple needed a lot of space to comfortably dance around before docking (like the dog who has to turn a few times before landing in the dog bed).

Put up

Once your X8 is ready to use, the first thing you should do is download the EufyHome app (for iOS and Android devices). As soon as you start the app, EufyHome requests access to your device's bluetooth in order to be able to recognize your vacuum cleaner. After a few seconds, your X8 should appear in the list of available devices. Select it, enter your applicable Wi-Fi information (the X8 only works on 2.4 GHz network bands) and wait for the vacuum cleaner to connect to your network.

Note that you will need to set aside at least an hour or so for the X8 to have enough charge to function. My test device only registered my WiFi after it was docked for a while. Once everything is live, the app will prompt you to send your vacuum cleaner for the first cleaning. During this first pass, the lidar (light detection and distance measurement) and other image mapping functions are actively operated and create a cleaning map of your house that you and the vacuum cleaner can access.

power

The RoboVac X8 is equipped with several cleaning functions. First and foremost is the much-advertised twin turbine technology. Each turbine brings 2,000 Pa of suction into the equation, creating a vacuum experience that is twice as powerful as many competing bots. The ultra-pack dust compression feature is a solid consideration for a vacuum cleaner without an automatically empty canister / charging station. Essentially, all of the dirt the X8 draws in is heavily pressurized, reducing tank volume by up to 127%. Combined with intelligent lidar mapping and nearly three hours on a single charge, this should result in an incredible cleaning experience … right?

Not exactly. The RoboVac X8 lived at my house for several weeks. With the many rounds of cleaning I went through, I found the overall performance to be pretty average – in some cases below average. Let's start with the top slice of bread in the compliment sandwich.

Whenever the sweeper came across the oat, it whipped it into cracks and crevices that the vacuum cleaner would never navigate to.

The twin turbine technology brings the vacuum cleaner to impressive levels. When crossing the carpet, the X8 penetrated deep into the fibers, pulling up dirt, hair and other debris that was not visible on the surface. With BoostIQ activated, the vacuum cleaner also did an excellent job of automatically adjusting the suction power when switching from carpeted floors to tile and hardwood surfaces. When set to Pure (the default setting for soft suction), the vacuum cleaner is quite quiet, although the volume increases quickly when you switch to the next suction level. More on this below.

Collision avoidance

Now, let's get to the meat of the sandwich, where I'll complain. I've tested (and owned a couple of models) a few other vacs that had pretty lackluster object avoidance. This, combined with severe collisions with the inevitable obstacles, made for a nerve-wracking experience when I let go of the suction cups. Unfortunately, I found the Eufy no different. On the one hand, the X8 did a fine job of not slamming into furniture when bumped into a chair or ottoman, but there never seemed to be any active effort on the part of the vacuum cleaner to actually avoid the obstruction. Several times I had to jump in to save the vacuum cleaner from under a chair or between two items, which requires you to manually continue the cleaning cycle each time.

Also, the side sweeping brush turned out to be a nightmare when I put test oatmeal on the laminate surface of my kitchen. Whenever the sweeper came across the oat, it whipped it into cracks and crevices that the vacuum cleaner would never navigate to. I had to pull out my cordless handheld vacuum to clean up this clutter later. There have also been a few instances where the X8 would simply stop and not pair with the home map it created. It would come back online after a few moments of buffering, but it was strange walking by and watching it stumble.

Out of the lawsuit and into the bottom slice of bread. My X8 was fully charged and never needed to be charged during a complete cleaning of my home. It would cover the entire floor plan in under an hour (1,300 square feet) with minimal human babysitting required during operation.

software

The EufyHome app is your point of contact for all X8 settings and adjustments. Once the vacuum cleaner's lidar sensors are working, a detailed map of your home will be available for viewing on the home screen. From here you can track the progress and battery life of your vacuum cleaner while it cleans the house, labels rooms, sends the vacuum cleaner to clean specific areas and regulates the suction power.

If you want the X8 to move away from certain areas of the house, tap Edit Map and set one or more restricted areas that you want the vacuum cleaner to avoid.

When vacuuming, you have the option of switching between four different presets (Pure, Power, Turbo and Max), with Pure (the softest setting) being the default setting. You can also turn BoostIQ on and off. This is the X8's ability to automatically adjust suction based on the surface it is vacuuming over.

Several useful functions are housed in an almost invisible separate settings menu. To access it, you need to tap the gear icon in the top right corner of the home screen. Here you'll find options to create vacuum schedules, a cleaning history report, and card management tools. In my opinion, the scheduling feature should be a quick tip button on the main screen of the app.

The scheduling function should be a quick tip button on the main screen of the app.

Visually, I wasn't the biggest fan of the super dark overlay that dominates the main map screen, either. It may sound fussy, but considering the other submenus on the EufyHome app are bright white, the X8's black background made navigating to certain functions a bit difficult – at least for me.

Price and guarantee

You will find the Eufy RoboVac X8 on sale for $ 599 via the Eufy website. Similar to other Eufy products, the X8 comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee and a one-year limited warranty.

Alternatively, there is also the Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybridwhich is linked to the function of a wiper. For the added $ 50 cost, it certainly seems like some added value given its 2-in-1 vacuum and mopping capabilities.

Our opinion

I cannot actively sing the praises of the RoboVac X8. Yes, it has a great app and the promise of powerful and smart cleaning technologies to keep your home pristine. In my personal experience, the X8 has often done more of my work for me and required multiple rescues and resets, with a handful of glitches thrown in every now and then.

Is there a better alternative?

Yes, several. From Roomba's entire range to affordable vacuum cleaners from Roborock and Neato, there are plenty of robotic vacuum cleaners that can clean your house without so many hiccups. In the price range, I think of the iRobot Roomba i3 Plus with its self-emptying dock and efficient cleaning as well as the Roborock S7 with its acoustic wiping function.

How long it will take?

I suspect the Eufy RoboVac X8 will last for several years. The outer shell is well protected, the app seems to stay updated successfully, and with the option to replace the main brush head and side brushes, there seems to be a lot of support from Eufy. It comes with a one-year limited warranty that protects it from defects from the date of purchase.

Should you buy it?

It's by no means a total dud, but your money is better off elsewhere.

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