Back in 2021, I reviewed the Eufy RoboVac 30C (affiliate link) vacuum cleaner. I’d owned the device for three months by then. Enough time for it to chew up some socks, cables and shoelaces. In between all that, it did some vacuuming!
So I thought I’d re-visit the blog, and figure out if it’s still a decent device, three years after initially buying it.
We named him Harvey.
Harvey the cleaner, after the character played by Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction.
App or Remote
In the review, I detailed the Eufy app I used on an Android device. I now have the same app on my Apple iPhone 13 Mini. The experience is the same on both platforms, unsurprisingly. Scheduling turning Harvey on and off, and manually sending him home is about all you likely need.
They also supplied a remote control, which is handy if your phone isn’t nearby, or for anyone who doesn’t have the app, or just doesn’t want to install it. Here’s a photo of the remote. I add that because we lost it, and this is all we have left of the remote. Memories…
No idea where that went. Maybe Harvey ate it as a protest.
Maintenance
We empty “Harvey’s bum” mostly daily but sometimes forget. He has a couple of filters that need regular cleaning. Typically, we do that when emptying him, but that’s not always the case, and that seems fine.
Harvey gets dusty on top, too. So we periodically wipe him down all over. I wonder if we should get a robot cleaner for the robot cleaner. Who guards the guards cleans the cleaners?
We have replaced the rotating brushes with a new set I bought online. Sometimes the brushes “pop” off the bottom and must be re-attached. Finding where Harvey has deposited them around the house is a fun, ad-hoc side quest I enjoy.
Horace Harvey and the spiders
Another fun mini-game is finding Harvey when he goes AWOL. At the end of his cleaning session, when power is low, he attempts to find his way back to base, to recharge. Mostly Harvey is successful in this endeavour. Sometimes, however, he gets lost. Indeed, just today, I found him battling a maze of identical chair legs in the dining room.
Basically, if you have a low-down, dusty space that a chomnky cat could get in, Harvey can do it too, and will!
Battery life
I don’t have good data for how long Harvey’s rechargeable battery lasts. I know what time he starts cleaning because it’s scheduled in the app. If I’m around often hear the ‘beep’ when he’s finished and docked back to his base.
I have a vague recollection from when we first got him that it was around 1.5 hours between start and finish. Now it seems nearer 1 hour 20 minutes. Still a good bit of life left in Harvey yet!
Holiday for Harvey
Sometimes, we have to unplug and move Harvey. At Christmas time, we (perhaps inexplicably) have a tree in the house. It is often placed where Harvey lives, so he gets evicted into a cupboard for a good rest, as there’s no other place for him.
While he’s on a break, we resort back to using our terrible Dyson vacuum (which I hate for many reasons).
Once his winter hibernation is over, we clean him up, and put him back to work. A month off for good behaviour is reasonable compensation for our cleaner.
Conclusion
After three years of automating away the task of cleaning cat hair and human skin to a robot, I’d recommend getting one. That presumes you have the house/floor/furniture/space arrangement that fits having one, of course.
As a human, you also need a little discipline to pick stuff up off the floor. ThinkPad charging leads are very tasty to robot vacuum cleaners!
The “Next generation” ones even have a mop to wash the floor and a docking station with clean and dirty water resovoirs! What will the robot overlords come up with next?