Eufy Robovac X8 Hybrid Review - Robot Son vs. Fur Daughter

I'm blessed to have two wonderful children in my life. Billie, my fur daughter. She's a bouncy boisterous kelpie cross border collie who may be a kangaroo in disguise. And Dustin, my robot son. He's a Eufy Robovac X8 Hybrid that just goes and goes. 

In some ways, it's a symbiotic little family. Billie makes a mess. Dustin cleans it up.

There's just one problem: Billie is absolutely terrified of Dustin.

Maybe it's because Dustin is able to suck up 57.6% more pet hair when combined to a single turbine robot vacuum, or maybe it's because Billie has to be the loudest creature in the house at all times.

In order for Dustin to clean the house, I need to pop Billie in the office with me and close the door. Otherwise, she'll quite literally spend the entire 50 or so minutes her brother takes to clean the house barking at him.

Billie is not a fan of Dustin 🙁 pic.twitter.com/jDqdb70jB7

— Alex Choros (@a_choros) November 24, 2021

In a way, this is an accurate representation of being the father to a robot son. 

Dustin may be pretty smart for a robot vacuum cleaner, but he still needs a bit of help from time to time. You need to set him up for success by ensuring there's nothing on the floor that can trip him up. While he can make it over gentle inclines and bumps himself, he's gotten stuck on branches that Billie's brought in from the yard and clothes pegs she's chewed up. Dustin needs saving from a jam about every third clean.

For a reliably spotless house, lifting up chairs and stools off the floor also helps. Dustin isn't a set-and-forget kind of child, but at the least, he does an impeccable job of cleaning up Billie's fur. Even if I have no way of knowing whether it's exactly 57.6% more.

A (mostly) clever cookie

One of Dustin's other standout skills is mapping. When Dustin first ran, he drew a digital map of the whole house. As such, he can spot clean a certain room instead of doing the entire house every time, and respects boundaries and doesn't go into rooms you don't want him to. If you've got multiple stories, you can even save a different map for each floor.

Dustin's initial map was more than good enough, but it wasn't 100% perfect. He decided that the area around my drum kit in the spare room was a different room entirely. He also had trouble working out what room the corridor belongs to, splitting part of it between the living room and the office. You can manually edit the map using the Eufy app, but this process can be a bit finicky, and there's no easy undo option if you split the rooms the wrong way.

While Dustin's maps are solid, he isn't as versed in object detection. On paper, Dustin should be able to avoid obstacles in his path, but this is a bit hit and miss. Sometimes Dustin will swerve to avoid me, sometimes he'll try and run over my foot. He also can't identify specific objects, as with some smarter robot vacuum cleaners. As such, he's very prone to vacuum over cords, including his own.

Multiskilled, kinda  

For vacuuming, the lack of object detection honestly doesn't make too much of a difference. Other than when Dustin tries to unplug his charger. It's a much bigger issue when it comes to mopping. As a Eufy Robovax X8 Hybrid, Dustin also comes with a mop attachment, and can even vacuum and mop at the same time. He just can't tell the difference between floorboards and carpet, or even rugs.

Trying to get Dustin to both mop and clean the entire house then becomes a far trickier process, where I need to tell him to go through the carpeted areas first, then put on the mop attachment and do the rest of the house. Just like a puppy, it's a bit of work.

Dustin's mopping isn't quite as good as his vacuuming. It's only a gentle mop, and is unlikely to get out any tough stains. The upshot is the floor is never too wet after, and any carpets he accidentally wanders on to are unlikely to get damaged.

The trade-off for opting for a hybrid Dustin over the standard Eufy X8 model is a smaller 400ml dust bin. The standard Eufy Robovac X8 has a larger 600ml container. In practice, this meant I needed to empty Dustin after every single use. For reference, Dustin's been cleaning roughly 40 square meters. If the place was larger, there's every chance he'd need his dust bin emptied mid-clean.

Boundless energy and barks

One thing Billie and Dustin have in common is boundless energy. In the same way that Billie can still muster the enthusiasm to play catch after a long walk, Dustin just doesn't stop cleaning. His battery is rated for three hours per charge. When cleaning, Dustin's only ever taken about 50 minutes.

Similarly, Dustin isn't great with words, but instead of barks, he communicates mostly with cheery beeps and a gentle whir. On the default setting, Dustin is quiet as a mouse, but ramping up suction increases the volume rapidly. On max, there's no way I can watch TV with Dustin in the same room. For the most part, Dustin's default quiet setting has been more than enough to keep the house tidy, however.

While Dustin isn't very talkative, you can interface with him the Eufy companion app, which you'll use for setup. There's also support for Google Assistant and Alexa integration, which is a lot more fun. Alternatively, you can even just press the button on top of Dustin if you don't feel like getting out your phone, and you're not the smart speaker type.

Eufy Robovac X8 Hybrid - Final Thoughts

At $1,299, adopting your own Dustin is on the more premium side for a robot vacuum cleaner. Your money gets you great cleaning performance, an excellent battery, and some pretty reasonable smarts with features like zoning and spot cleaning.

It's just a shame the lack of proper object detection means the mopping functionality becomes a bit tricky if you have a mix of floorboards or tiles and carpets. If that's you, I'd step down to the standard Eufy Robovac X8 over the hybrid model, save yourself $200, and get a larger bin.

Even if you don't have carpets, I'd be considering the standard model over the Hybrid, given how so-so the mopping is.

Either way, Dustin does a great job of keeping my place clean, even though his sister clearly wants to be an only child. Maybe a bit of sibling rivalry isn't too steep a price to pay for furless floors.

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