When you think about keeping your house clean, there are some modern conveniences that make life significantly easier. While you don't NEED a dishwasher, it sure is easier to rinse your dishes and put them in a device that does a pretty good job cleaning and sterilizing them. Robot vacuums are not really a need but they really free up time to do other things like play video games. Back in 2015 I got my wife one of the iRobot Roomba vacuums designed specifically for pet hair. I loved that vacuum. Unfortunately they don't last forever.
Several weeks ago the vacuum stopped charging itself. It had started to exhibit other problems and so I figured it was time to replace it instead of getting replacement parts. My son has purchased several Eufy vacuums and so my wife replaced our Roomba 655 with the Eufy Robovac 11S Max. She only paid around $200 vs. the $350 I paid for the Roomba that I got from Costco. I figured I would post my comparison between these two robot vacuums.
The price of the Eufy is very attractive. You can almost get 2 for the same price as the Roomba and who wouldn't want a robot vacuum for each level of the house? Yes the Eufy is less expensive but how does it compare to the original standard? Frankly the Eufy is not nearly as good as the Roomba. There are some things that are better but the Roomba generally seems to be a better device.
The first thing I noticed about the Eufy is that my wife has it set to run daily instead of twice a week. When it runs that often, I am probably more aware of its defects as it always seems to be getting itself stuck behind a table in the living room or too far from its home base to return and charge itself. I'll be down in my office and hear it start beeping. I'll run upstairs and have to rescue it. The Roomba had similar problems but not nearly as often. I'm seeing this particular issue 45-50% of the time. The Roomba was probably only 5-10%.
You may not mind having to rescue your vacuum and it really isn't that big of a hassle to me. So how does it clean? I'm afraid I'm split on the answer to this. My experience is that the Eufy is better at picking up dust but the Roomba is better at picking up pet hair. I am always the one that empties the dust bin on both devices. I liked the Roomba's fur balls but don't remember much dust. The Eufy constantly has a thick dust blanket up against the filter and hair needs to be untangled from the roller brush.
The real test of the Eufy robot vacuum came the other day when my wife used the living room floor to cut out fabric for a large sewing project. She didn't worry about cleaning up all of the stray bits of thread because she knew the vacuum would take care of it the next day. Unfortunately the Eufy only got about 75% of the stray string. I had to go back through and handpick the thread off the floor. It didn't take more than 30 seconds but the Roomba did a much better job.
Unfortunately we have not had the Eufy very long and so I can't comment on how long it will last. If I get 6 years out of it then I will be very satisfied. My overall impression is that it is a good device and while I need to rescue it every other day, I don't mind as the cost savings make it an attractive alternative to the Roomba. If someone was to give me a choice of either one for free, I'd go for the Roomba.
