eufy [BoostIQ] RoboVac 30C Vacuum (Open Box)

This (really long) review is for the Eufy 11S Max robot vacuum (Robovac). Please note “Max” vs regular 11S. They may look the same; but the Max uses a different filter and has the higher 2000pa suction. Otherwise the functions and options (other than suction choices) are the same. I've used the 11S Max for the last month on my low pile carpet (about 80% of the roaming area) with the rest being tile or linoleum flooring. It has been quite fascinating to watch so I've actually put about 85-90 charge cycles on the unit over the last month (yes, three times a day on most days and it's still finding more dirt/dust than I would expect). Right up front, I'd definitely buy another when it comes time to replace this one. After comparing how I vacuum my flooring, especially to pick up my biggest carpet enemy; short stray bits of dried grass stems, the “random” wandering of this vacuum model made more sense to me than the other fancier choices. Most vacs do a good job with dust, dirt, sand, cheerios, etc. but these stem pieces are only picked up by a vacuum when it comes at the stem with the brush roller pretty much parallel to the stem. That means random directions will more likely get these pesky problems than an organized back & forth cleaning approach. Granted it may take a few cleaning cycles or several passes over the same area during one cycle; but since the Robovac has completed its first 5-6 cycles I rarely find them anymore or if I do spot one it's not for very long. Robovac is a big time saver as well as an energy saver for me. I would use my canister vacuum about an hour each week for routine cleaning and once a month for 2+ hours to do a more thorough cleaning. A watt-hour meter indicated that my canister vacuum used 5-6 kw-hr of electricity each month. Robovac uses about 12 watts continuously for about 4 hours when charging (surprisingly less than the 5-6 hrs listed in the manual; but it is brand new). Once the battery is charged, the power consumption drops to about ½ watt. When Robovac is away cleaning, the charging base uses just ¼ watt for the homing beacon. So if used just once a day; Robovac would only use about 60 watts per day. That means once-a-day cleaning would only use 1.8 Kw-hr energy per month. By letting Robovac take over the regular weekly cleaning with once a day operation (or less), I'm able to cut my electric bill by an easy 3-4 kw-hr/month. With that said, there are a few things that I think need improved: First, there should be an interlock on the dust bin – Robovac will merrily go off about it's scheduled cleaning cycle without the bin installed! So if removed for emptying; don't forget to re-install the bin before the next scheduled operation. Plus, I noticed on a couple occasions, that I wasn't paying attention and I left one corner was about 1/8” out from fully inserted. Not sure if that will cause suction leaks; but you need to make sure the bin is completely inserted. Second, you can't select “max” (or any power level) when using the remote to manually clean an area. It appears to only operate on “standard” suction with manual operation (i.e., when Robovac is not running a regular cleaning mode and you chose to override it's direction). In addition, if you select the remotes' edge or spot cleaning modes it will automatically go to “max” power for the duration of that mode and you can't choose IQBoost or standard power level on those selections. Third, I don't know why the 20 minutes for edge cleaning or 30 minutes for quick cleaning was selected. Robovac can make it about 60-70% around my home in the 20 minutes of edge cleaning. If edge cleaning mode was permitted to run until it made a trip all way around and back to the charging station where it could dock to finish that mode would work better. An alternate solution would be if I could set the cycle time for edge cleaning and quick cleaning modes. Plus I'd like having an option for it to simply stop when the time is up rather than automatically returning to the base. When I want just one room cleaned; I'll set Robovac to auto or quick mode in that room, then close the door or put down a barrier, and return later to stop it manually and take it back to the charging base. If I don't return in a timely manner Robovac will be trying to locate the charging base and running the battery down. Fourth, Robovac cleans edges using only its right side pretty much all of the time. It would be helpful to have it randomly choose using either the right or left side whenever edge cleaning. I watched it edge clean a carpet/wall area three times going only in a counterclockwise direction (right side) and it still didn't pick up all the dust bunnies. I used manual control with it hugging the wall on its left side and it picked them up with no problem. Also, be aware that manual operation, when Robovac is not already working in a selected cleaning mode (overriding current movement), only works while the remote buttons are pressed. Robovac stops all functions shortly after a button is released when used manually. Fifth, I really don't need to run Robovac on a daily schedule – there should be a weekly scheduling capability even for the least expensive robot vacuums. It shouldn't be that difficult or expensive to update this model to correct this issue. Even if it's the same set cleaning time, every day for the selected days; just give me the ability to schedule cleaning cycles one to seven times a week. Sixth, when the battery runs low, Robovac can take forever, if it makes it back at all, to the charging base. I will routinely go looking for it if I haven't seen it return within 10-15 minutes after the approximate cleaning time has passed. The age-old solution for solving a maze (your home from Robovacs' perspective) is to constantly follow along obstacles using just one side (Robovac does recognize when it's circling something like a coffee table and adjusts accordingly after a 360 degree rotation). This method is how Robovac tries getting closer to the charging station when it's more than about 15ft away and not in line-of-sight (the charging base emits an infrared signal for homing action – make sure you keep Robovacs' bumper and the base clean). Sometimes Robovac occasionally gets diverted or the software tells it to try something different) and it will go off in another (often wrong) direction (extremely frustrating!). I highly recommend observing Robovac perform it's return operation from various areas in your home. I ended up placing a 2x4 along the end legs of my sofa as Robovac was consistently going along the side skirt, under the skirt at front of the sofa, then around the front leg exiting the side of the skirt, and then heading straight across the room. It would then go thru three other rooms and come back to the sofa again. The 2x4 forced Robovac to continue edging under the sofa, along the back wall, and out the other end which has an end table that mimics the 2x4 at the opposite end. Before using the 2x4, Robovac took well over an hour to get back to the charging base (it eventually changes up it's routine, usually after three tries) and required 5 hrs to recharge. With the 2x4, Robovac has been able to get back from the far end of my house to the charging base in under 20 minutes very consistently. While the ability to improve Robovacs' return mode is really limited to what you can do, the key point I'm making here is that the battery will always give you more charge cycles (longer life) before needing replacement if you can get Robovac back to the charging base as soon possible. Seventh, pay attention to the thin rubber wiping strip on the brush guard. After 60+ cycles I noticed the ends of the thin rubber strip (about 1/16” of it's height) were tearing away. I believe this was most likely due to moving back and forth over edging from tile/linoleum to carpet or maybe due to the floor mounted furnace registers in my home. I simply trimmed the torn bits off to keep them from getting caught by the brush. After about 100 cycles I noted the rest of the 1/16” strip was now gone. This impacts the tile/linoleum cleaning far more than carpet; but it is something to watch for. I highly recommend checking the rubber strip during brush cleaning and purchasing a brush guard replacement as part of a maintenance set. Hopefully the manufacturer will improve the thickness or type of material used to prevent or at least reduce this problem occurring in the future. Next, a few helpful hints I've learned or didn't find in the owner's manual: The “bowl” shape on top of the charging base with the white LED is just right to hold the remote control, button-side up. However, I prefer to turn remote controls' button-side down to keep them cleaner so it's up to you if you use it or not. I've had a few occasions when Robovac actually bumped into the charging base so it was no longer sitting square against the wall. This will impact it's ability to find the base when the battery is low. I took a used rectangular-shaped one quart motor oil bottle from my recycling bin, cleaned it thoroughly, and filled it with sand. It's now a 3-4lb weight sitting on top of the charging base. I haven't had the base re-positioned since adding the weight. Normally Robovac does a good job avoiding the charging base; but not always. Robovac “parks” about 1/2” away from the charging base tower. If you are careful, you can swipe a cloth over the bumper sensors to clean off any surface dust that has collected (always seems to be some); however, be careful as Robovac might activate while you are doing this. You might also get a solid red indicator without any beeps. This error isn't described in the manual; but I've found if I just lift Robovac off the charging base for few seconds and then replace it, it will change back to the charging orange color. (I suspect the solid red indicates a sensor error) It's also quite easy to remove/replace the dust bin during charging. Unfortunately you will need to flip Robovac on it's back to remove/clean the side and roller brushes as well as the bottom IR sensors and charging contacts, so remember to turn Robovac off with the topside button before doing this or get used to it trying to start up while you are cleaning it. Also make sure the blue/orange indicator light is on when you reposition it on the base. Sometimes Robovac will remain off rather than return to charging mode. After two or three cleaning cycles I'll do a regular check on the all the brushes and swap left and right side brushes when they are re-installed; seems to straighten and make them work a little better, maybe last longer too. Oddly the remote control spot clean button symbol and the manual indicate a clockwise spiral for the cleaning operation; but when I've selected it, Robovac has always used a counterclockwise rotation. If the side brushes happen to “hang up” on something, Robovac will stop spinning them while it maneuvers around the obstacle and then restart the brushes when it thinks it is clear. Don't assume there's a problem when you see this unless Robovac beeps and the indicator turns red. The flat handle end of a spoon or fork works great for prying the filter free from the bin for cleaning. Every time I have tried using my fingers; it pops out tossing dust/lint everywhere. The IQBoost mode doesn't seem to change going from hard flooring to low pile carpet or vice versa in my home. I think this is because the low pile carpet just doesn't cause enough “drag” for it to recognize that it could adjust the suction level. (I'm still not clear as to whether there's just two suction levels or if Robovac can vary linearly between the two) While the manual indicates a 40 min run time in “max” mode with medium nap carpet, I'm obtaining about 60 minutes with my low nap carpet. I do find the “max” mode clearly picks up more dust. I ran Robovac 20+ times on IQ mode before switching to “max” for its scheduled operation. The filter has clearly shown a thicker layer of accumulation on the filter. When “max” mode is set as default you will occasionally hear the vacuum whining noise change briefly. Best I can figure is it's a software glitch where the IQBoost code tries to adjust the suction level; but then resets it to max. I normally hear this shortly after Robovac goes from one flooring type to another. It also occurs shortly after it starts it's routine. Robovac does not communicate back to the remote. So if for instance, you press edge cleaning and Robovac doesn't get the message, the remote will show it should be performing edge cleaning even though it's not. Similar situation when Robovac is recharging or is returning to recharge; the remote will still show it's in the selected cleaning mode rather than the “charging” icon. You simply have to pay attention that Robovac has recognized your command by a “beep”. I found using the basketball nozzle with my Ryobi P737 inflator does an excellent job cleaning the filter. It takes only a couple minutes to clean both the filter and the bin (outdoors of course!). The original filter has been cleaned well over 100 times now and other than being a little dingy it's still working great. This should help stretch the recommended replacement interval to more than 2 months compared to the recommended “tapping it” to clean. Do not use the “canned” compressed air as I frequently find it wets surfaces during extended spraying and the Robovac filter is a paper element. If you have a sofa, chair, etc, with stiff or heavy cloth skirting down to the floor; I suggest safety pinning up at least a foot or two of the skirting on an open side. When or if Robovac switches to using the proximity mode for cleaning AFTER it gets under the furniture, the skirt will appear like a wall and it will keep running around underneath the furniture until it switches to a collision mode where the weight of the skirt generally will not trip the bumper sensors and stop it from escaping. I'm glad I've used Robovac during the daytime so I could track it down and figure out what trouble it got into during its normal operation or when I expected it to be back at the charging base. The alarm beep sounds can easily be missed when it's far away from you. Plus, when it powers down after getting stuck can make it lot more challenging to find! It's a lot easier to locate when the vacuum sound is still going or even if it's just the quieter wheel motors running it around looking for the charging base. To wrap up my review. I've found Robovac to be a well built, nicely designed, and quite durable robot vacuum. The $160 price I paid is quite reasonable with excellent cleaning ability (given it has about 1/10 the suction of a typical canister vac). It has good battery run times (my mixed flooring on IQ mode lets Robovac run about 80-85 minutes before recharging), and it is a wonderful time and energy saver. If you've been thinking about a robot vacuum without all the extras (or just don't like vacuuming), the Eufy 11S Max is a great choice.