![eufy Robot Vacuum Cleaner [BoostIQ] RoboVac 30C, Wi-Fi, Super-Thin, 1500Pa Suction, Boundary Strips Included, Quiet, Self-Charging Robotic Vacuum, Cleans Hard Floors to Medium-Pile Carpets (Renewed)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71qeXDbFk2L._AC_SS450_.jpg)
Do you know what felt like a great idea at the time? Buying a load of plush, medium pile carpet for my new home 18-months ago. "You should go for this one," the carpet salesman said while demonstrating more types of piles than a proctologist handbook. "It's nice and thick so won't wear down, and your cats will love it on their feet." Sold!
Fast-forward to today and life is an endless fight against the tyranny of pet hair. In the red corner: 2 malting cats (one of them black..the carpet we choose was cream *sigh*) and a new addition to the household - a 36kg white retriever that sheds a puppy's worth of hair whenever it blinks. In the blue corner: me and my partner, two mere mortals pushed to the brink of insanity by a constant need for hour-long, sweat-inducing vac sessions if we want our home to look half decent for guests or just, you know, walk from 1 room to the next without our feet looking bushier than a hippy's nether regions afterwards.
Step in the Robovac 30C, an instant game-changer and a seriously cool addition to our smart tech arsenal. A friend suggested I look into robovacs after he picked one up (the 11C model) and said it was doing a great job on his wooden floors. I was skeptical it'd work for us, given our mix of laminate, the aforementioned thick carpet and 3 shedding pets, but it looked like Eufy had a solid customer service record and Amazon do too; so figured I'd be able to return it if it didn't do the job required. A couple of hours research into the various models and companies on the market later, I'd actually settled on buying the new Eufy 15C Max model set to launch on Prime Day, only to find my 2nd choice model (this one) was heavily reduced on Prime Day itself - so switched my mind at the last minute to trying the less powerful but better priced Eufy 30C.
Once it arrived, 2 quick minutes of set up - attach the brushes, plug in the charging bay - and it was put straight to work on its first cleaning job. The task: a laminate dining room with chairs and table, a tiled kitchen with a 0.7" lip climb to access, a fully carpeted medium pile living room, and a laminate entrance hall with low pile rug.
I followed it around, oddly fascinated and amused at how it was bumping around like a drunken idiot, sometimes spending 5 mins on a tiny area as it rebounded back and forth before finally finding its way out and scurrying away onto the next area. Despite the navigation being random (more expensive models allow you to accurately map your home) it was eventually getting everywhere, finding every nook and cranny even in my pretty tightly stuffed home. However, 20 minutes in I noticed something alarming - it had just ridden over the same bit of fluff 3 times and failed to pick it up. "Bah!" I thought, "perhaps this battle is too a big burden for a robovac to bear." Stopping the machine manually I decided to flip it over to see if it had actually picked anything up, hoping I hadn't just wasted 20 minutes and £180 on watching a Dalek bump into my furniture for nothing...
HOLY CRAP ON A CRACKER! This thing is impressive! The dustbin was packed to the brink already, chock full of pet hair and an alarming amount of dust & debris. The brush itself was also entangled in a web of hair, which will have hampered its effectiveness and be the reason it wasn't picking up that offending tuft of fluff. It had done a far better job than I realised it was doing, and this was only around 1/4 of the 30C's full cleaning cycle. I also realised at this point that it was set to low power mode, rather than BoostIQ which can smartly increase/decrease the power based on the type of floor it's on. A quick clear out and setting change and it was off again at full power, this time inhaling the offending fluff with ease.
Full disclosure: I hadn't vacuumed my home for 3 days prior to the 30C arriving, which translates to around 3-million years in dog hair time. I knew in my heart of hearts I'd set it a huge task and really didn't expect it to gather much of anything given how trodden into the carpet the pet hair would be at this point. 20 minutes into the 2nd cycle, I checked on the 30C again and it was completely full again!
Anybody with a brain in their nut is going to realise a robovac won't replace a full power vacuum cleaner, so at this point I decided the 30C had passed its stress test and it was only fair to do a regular powered vacuum clean on the carpet - I would then have the 30C patrolling once or twice per day for surface hairs before they get deeply trodden. Ideally, this would mean the much maligned daily task of me vacuuming would be reduced to something like once per week, saving me around 4-5 hours of sweaty effort per week if I want constantly clean carpets. So, after a full clean using the Henry hoover and pulling up all the pet hair I could, I waited a few hours for the 30C to charge and then set it off again to see how it did with just a "surface" clean expected of it..
EVEN MORE CRAP ON A CRACKER! Despite me having full-power vac'd just a few hours prior, the 30C still managed to fill its bin with tons of pet hair, dust and little bits of grit and debris. No way had this much built up in such a short time...right? Either I missed a few spots that the Robovac's low profile was able to reach or I had seriously underestimated its power (or it was secretly stuffing its own bin with a stash of rubbish it keeps aside in order to look impressive, but they're not that smart...yet..)
3 days later and the 30C is absolutely bossing the house's hair busting. If you have pets and carpet, you'll know that all you have to do is lightly brush your carpet with your hand and a pile of hair appears. Not anymore, not in this house. The robovac is on it! I have it set to run a full cycle in the morning before I get up, and run another one later in the day if it's particularly warm and malty weather. It's early days, but so far so brilliant and I'm pleased I didn't go for one of the much more expensive pet hair dedicated robovacs, as this is doing a pretty damn good job at a fraction of the price. My home is looking generally tidier than ever too, as you have to put a bit of thought and prep into your cabling and floor layout to ensure the robovac can run on its own without getting caught on anything.
The Eufy Home app adds a nice way to control the 30C from anywhere at any time, even when out of the house. I have to admit I got a little over excited when I checked the app while I was out and saw Alfred (I named it Alfred, because Batman) was "cleaning", then checked it later and it was "charging". The robot had sorted out the house while I was out and about and found its way home to charge again. If that isn't living the modern day dream, I don't know what is. The Alexa integration is cool too, allowing you to start, stop and dock the cleaner using voice control.
Nothing is perfect, and there is one issue I have with the 30C - its low power trek to find the charging bay when it's finished cleaning. When cleaning normally, if the robovac gets stuck or struggles with a bump it seems able to manoeuvre itself out of trouble through a mix of turning and increasing speed. Very effective. However it does not do this when in low-power home seeking mode. Due to the randomness of the navigation, this means if it tries to enter/exit my kitchen in low power mode it gets stuck on the lip between the kitchen and dining room. This has only happened once so far but I can see it happening again. Not much of an issue though, it beeps to let you know its stuck and having to pick it up every now and again is a damn sight easier than manually vacuuming.
Perhaps one day I'll get hold of the 15C Max to see what difference the extra 500pa of power makes; but for now the 30C is doing the job and is probably my favourite piece of smart home tech.
| Product Dimensions | 32.5 x 32.5 x 7.25 cm; 2.7 Kilograms |
|---|---|
| Form Factor | Robotic |
| Batteries required | Yes |
| Item weight | 5.95 Pounds |
