Eufy Omni S1 Pro Robot Vacuum Cleaner Doesn’t Live up to the Hype
Eufy is a company that generally makes products that I really like. They make some of the best security cameras in the industry, so much so that after testing many brands, I install Eufy Solocams in my home. Anker, their parent company, makes some of my favorite power supplies , and I love my Eufy doorbell. Like many smart technology companies, they also make vacuum cleaners.
The Eufy Robot Vacuum Omni S1 Pro is interesting in many ways. Even though Eufy is a well-established brand that has produced and marketed many products, including other robot vacuum cleaners , for this model they returned to Kickstarter, where their goal was blown out of the water in a matter of hours. Secondly, instead of the compact tower design that almost all companies have chosen for robot vacuum cleaners recently, the S1 has a giant, retro-style tower look. However, despite my brand loyalty, interesting design and decent vacuum performance, I think the Omni S1 Pro isn’t a good buy – there’s a gap between the robot Euphie thinks they’ve built and the one I tested. The S1 is currently priced at $999 on Kickstarter, but will be available for retail purchase later this spring or early summer for a much higher price.
Unique design, but no unique features.
Typically, robot vacuums and mops now come with a stand and tower that will fill in clean water, drain dirty water, vacuum, and clean the mop. These towers can’t be ignored due to their size, but brands usually try to make them versatile enough to blend in with the landscape of the room around them. Eufy went a different route with the S1. The tower is tall enough that you could mistake it for a vacuum cleaner, and it has the word “MACH” written on the front, which is also the name of the app. Made from molded clear black plastic, the tower’s contents are hidden, but only slightly. While it’s probably made from the same materials as other brands that are also molded plastic, the clear plastic sometimes looks cheap. Despite its vertical size, the tower does not take up much less horizontal space than other robots. The footprint is about the same, but you won’t be able to hide it under tables and counters as easily.
The robot itself is similar to many other modern robot vacuums, with a roller, rotating sweeping brushes and mop brushes – and to its credit, Eufy ships the S1 Pro with plenty of spare parts, including extra rollers, brushes and filters. But Eufy is marketing this robot as a premium floor robot at a higher price. In robot marketing, you often see words like “revolutionary.” In fact, the marketing materials used to say, “The world’s first robotic floor cleaner with an all-in-one station,” until I asked how it was different from other robotic floor cleaners, since those are pretty common now. The language disappeared from Kickstarter, but remains on the Eufy site . The problem is that it’s not groundbreaking: while this robot was being developed, floor cleaning robots had become commonplace and the technology had surpassed what this robot offered, with other brands offering retractable brushes and mops, built-in video, voice assistants and direct connection to water. lines. While the S1 includes a lot of the features I like in other robots—like a spot for cleaning solution built into the tower and an easy way to split and merge rooms in the app—most other premium robots have this too.
Easy installation and well designed application.
Most robots are ready to work right out of the box, and the S1 is no different. Once unboxed, it was simply a matter of filling it with water and inserting a few brushes into the right spots. Many robot mop combinations allow you to add cleaning solution to clean water, but recently models like Roborock have added a cleaning solution compartment to the dock so you always have the right amount. As I mentioned, the Eufy includes this feature, but it relies on an Eufy cleaning solution in a sealed bottle that you install – to replace it you’ll have to buy more from Eufy, while other models let you choose whatever solution you want want to. use. The MACH app is separate from the Eufy Clean app, and I previously talked about how each of the Eufy products uses different apps (Clean, Security, Pet, etc.), so this was just another addition to the group. However, it is a good app and has the same user interface as most brands. The map is created using LiDAR when the robot first exits, and can then be divided into rooms, dividing and merging spaces as you like and naming them. Of all the robots I tested, the S1 mapped space better than any other (and I had six or seven robots that mapped the same space).
One aspect I really liked was that you can set cleaning preferences on a per-room basis rather than per run, and you can also set room priority rather than letting the robot decide. If you want to clean the kitchen floor several times but the hallway only once, you can do that and tell the bot to always clean the bathroom last. The app has schedules and the same general settings you’d expect, including the remote control. The app is missing two features that I see on many robots these days: “attach and go” or “spot cleaning” and built-in video. While I don’t think video is such a useful feature, other models still have it. The Pin and Go feature is actually very useful: you can simply put a mark on the map and the robot will specifically clean that spot.
S1 is just ok
S1 works well as a floor cleaner. Here’s what I thought of the Eufy X10 Pro Omni, which I reviewed a few months ago. He picked up a lot of debris from the floor, but after three passes through my kitchen, he didn’t notice the intentionally left onion skins in a dead spot on the floor. S1 is not pressed against the wall; it lacks the extendable arms that other models now offer. As a mop, it certainly cleaned up spills from the surface, but the rotating brushes didn’t cut into the dirt at all, leaving the white tiles looking dirty. For 11 trips, I would let the Eufy run on its highest settings, with maximum suction and scrubbing, going through each space twice. In each case, I then asked my Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra to do one run and could watch it capture everything the S1 missed. This happened again and again.
Bottom line: there are better robots for this price
Earlier this week, I spoke with Eric Willins, head of global communications at Anker, about the launch of the S1 and why they chose Kickstarter. I appreciated how proud the Anker team was of the way Eufy encourages innovation by operating as an incubator where at least half of the employees are dedicated to research and development. When teams come up with great concepts, crowdfunding allows Eufy to find innovative ways to market those products. One of the reasons they like crowdfunding for products like the S1 is that it creates a long pipeline of feedback from enthusiasts and backers, which Willins says tends to heavily influence products before launch.
To be clear: Eufy doesn’t make bad robot vacuums; they work fine. But they seem to only work well, not great. The S1 is positioned as a premium robot vacuum, but at its current price of $999, I think you can do better with the Roborock S8 Pro for the same price. When the S1 hits full retail price in the $1,000 range, I think you’ll be better off with the $1,799 Roborock S8 Maxv Ultra . I’m also looking forward to Switchbot’s new S10 ; If I were buying a robot vacuum right now, I’d wait until it went on sale since Switchbot has made a really great vacuum before .