Eufy Robovac 20 Review – A Quality Alternative?

Last Updated on October 9th, 2019 by Natalia Bickell

Roomba is probably the most well-known brand of robot vacuums.  Roombas deliver a very efficient clean and often have the latest technologies factored in.  However, these perks do come with a higher price tag compared to other brands as Roombas can cost a hefty sum, depending on the model.

So, what if you are looking for an efficient robot vacuum that does the job well yet do not really care too much about the latest technologies like Wi-Fi connectivity or mobile app to control the robot vacuum? You really don’t need to look that far as there is an assortment of budget robot vacuums available.

One of these budget-friendly but capable robot vacuums is the Eufy Robovac 20.

Initial Key Specs Discussion

The Eufy Robovac 20 comes from a company that is relatively new to the home robotics space, one of the many to pop up in the wake of successful products like the Roomba.

Design.  There are several buttons on top of the Eufy Robovac 20.  The control buttons allow you to start or stop cleaning.  If you want a quiet clean rather than an intensive one, you can turn off the suction fan.  Meanwhile, pressing the home button would send the robot vacuum back to its charging station, and pressing the clock button would allow you to set the cleaning time.  Turning on the collision avoidance function will tell the robot vacuum to avoid any obstacle.

It is also very low in profile, measuring only 8 cm or 3.15 inches tall.  That means that it can get under more furniture than other robot vacuums available in the market, including the Roomba.

You can find the dust collector at the side of the robot vacuum, along with the vents and the release button.  Also found along the side are the charging socket and the bumper.

3-point cleaning.  The Eufy Robovac 20 uses a rolling brush, side brushes and a particularly powerful suction to help clean your floors.  The 3-point system can easily agitate dust and debris and then sucks them all in.

Lithium ion battery.  The robot vacuum runs on a rechargeable 6700 mAh lithium ion battery that allows it to clean for more than three hours before needing to be recharged.  That also means that the robot vacuum can easily clean your house on a single charge.

Remote control.  The Eufy Robovac 20 comes with a separate remote control that allows you to operate it easily.  With this remote control, you can turn the robot vacuum on or off, tell it to start or stop cleaning, return to charging base, select the cleansing time, select the cleaning mode, turn the suction fan on or off, or to start spot cleaning.  You can also use the remote control to tell your robot vacuum where to go.

HEPA-style filter.  The dustbin uses a HEPA-style filter that can trap anywhere from 80% to 95% of air pollutants.

 

Cleaning modes.  You can use six cleaning modes with the Eufy Robovac 20.  The “Auto” cleaning mode tells the robot vacuum to compute the size of the room and come up with an efficient cleaning path for the job.  The Eufy Robovac 20 will cycle through different cleaning modes automatically in order to clean the room thoroughly.

“Free” cleaning is a random cleaning mode.  The robot vacuum would clean until it hits a wall or some other obstacle and then it will go off in a random direction.  Meanwhile, in “Spot” cleaning, the robot vacuum goes round and round in a spiral path.  This mode is particularly useful for small spills that you want to thoroughly clean.

“Edge” cleaning tells the robot vacuum to detect walls and move alongside it.  The robot vacuum moves in a slower pace to ensure that corners and wall edges (where more dust and debris gather) are clean!  Then you have the “Zigzag” cleaning mode that tells the robot vacuum to move in a zigzag pattern to clean a spot, and “Polygon” cleaning, which makes your robot vacuum go in a pentagon-shaped pattern to clean a particular spot.

Remote Control Option.  Additionally, you can choose manual cleaning using the remote control.

Sonic wall.  The sonic wall will bar the Eufy Robovac 20 from entering certain areas.  This will help you keep the robot vacuum inside a particular room, or even protect certain areas where you do not want the robot vacuum to go into.

Things to Like About Eufy Robovac

• Value Proposition: For its very low price, you get efficient cleaning with its 3-point cleaning system that uses the rolling brush, side brushes and powerful suction.  This is similar to the cleaning technology that you see on more expensive robot vacuums such as the 800 series Roombas.
• Lithium Ion Battery + Different Modes: It also features a long-lasting lithium-ion battery, a remote control, and a wide variety of cleaning modes for just about any of your cleaning needs.
• Interesting Manual Mode: What ’s more, you can supervise the vacuuming with the manual mode, making it possible for you to direct the robot vacuum where you want it to go.
• Has a Virtual Wall System: In addition, it is one of the few budget robot vacuums that come with its own sonic wall.

What’s in the box

Each Eufy Robovac 20 package includes:

• The Eufy Robovac 20 robot vacuum
• Charging base
• Sonic wall
• Remote control
• Power adapter
• 2 spare side brushes
• Spare HEPA-style filter
• Cleaning brush
• Brush cleaning tool
• Owner’s manual

What could be better

• Timer is a Bit Odd: Timer information is displayed in numbers, but since it allows only two digits, you would have to multiply the numbers you see there by 10.  For instance, if it displays 02, that means that cleaning would go for 20 minutes, or if it displays 18, then that means 180 minutes.
• Non-Intuitive Cleaning Codes: The codes do not stop there; there are different cleaning modes and these are designated by six different codes.  “A” means automatic cleaning, “1” for free cleaning, “2” for spot cleaning, “3” for edge cleaning, “4” for zigzag cleaning, and “5” for polygon cleaning. It may not really take much to memorize the codes, but it can be quite confusing especially for new users.  It would have been better if they included a display that could accommodate words instead of numeric codes.
• Inaccessible Main Power Switch: In addition, the Eufy Robovac 20’s main power switch is located at the bottom, making it quite inaccessible.  To turn your robot vacuum on, you would need to pick it up and turn it over.  Plus, since it is located at the bottom, it can be dirty to touch.
• Remote Without Display is Not Super Useful: And while the Eufy Robovac 20 has a remote control, you still have to check the robot vacuum itself in order to see if you have pressed the right button.  For instance, while you can choose cleaning modes on the remote control, you would still need to look at the vacuuming unit to see if you selected the correct cleaning mode.  It would have been better to have a similar display on the remote control itself, because that way, you do not have to get close to the robot vacuum.  Another minus point is that you cannot use the remote control to schedule your cleaning.  You would need to schedule it on the robot vacuum itself.
• Random Cleaning Mode Doesn’t Guarantee Full Coverage: Moreover, in the free cleaning mode, the path of the robot vacuum is totally random and will not guarantee a thorough or efficient clean.  The robot vacuums work like those bump and go toy cars and can easily miss dirty spots.
• Significant Maintenance Required: There are also a lot of parts that you need to clean periodically in order to ensure your Eufy Robovac 20’s optimum performance.  These include the dust collector and the filter, the rolling brush, the charging pins, the sensors, and the side brushes.  This means that maintaining the Eufy Robovac 20 can be quite a hassle.
• Not a True HEPA Filter: Lastly, the robot vacuum uses a HEPA-style filter, not a true HEPA filter.  A Roomba 980 uses true HEPA filter and is able to trap 99.97% of  small particles, dust and allergens.

So What Are the Alternatives to Eufy Robovac?

When it comes to budget vacuums, there are other brands that give the Eufy Robovac 20 some degree of competition.  The first brand that comes to mind is iLIFE, which has two models – the iLIFE A4s and the iLIFE A6 – that offer somewhat similar technologies that you see on Eufy’s budget robot vacuum, including scheduling features, cliff sensors, 3-step cleaning system, and others.

Here’s a table comparing the Eufy Robovac 20 and the two iLIFE models:

Eufy vs Close Competitors

	Eufy Robovac 20	iLIFE A4s	iLIFE A6
List Price	Check here for latest	Check here for latest	Check here for latest
Scheduling	Yes	Yes	Yes
Self charging	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cliff sensors	Yes	Yes	Yes
3-step cleaning system	Yes	Yes	Yes
Virtual Wall	Yes	No	Yes
Maximum run time	360 mins.	140 mins.	160 mins.
Cleans all floor types	Yes	Yes	Yes
Color	Titanium gray	Titanium gray	Piano Black

Last word on the Eufy Robovac 20

There are a lot of good things that you could say about the Eufy Robovac 20, from its outstanding set of features and technologies, its superior battery run time, to its virtual wall, all for a price tag that is much lower than the cheapest Roomba (see the Roomba 650 here) available in the market.

True, there is quite a long list of things that could have been made better, but these are not really deal breakers.  You would probably get used to them or learn to shrug them off.

Its predecessor, Eufy Robovac 11, is still one of the most recommended budget vacuums around, garnering top points for its technology and cleaning performance.  There is no reason to think that the Eufy Robovac 20 is any different.

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