We are spoiled for choice when it comes to technology of every kind, but I really think we’ve missed highlighting just how well the home cleaning robot market has progressed and the value it adds to our lives. For the last few weeks I’ve been trying out the Eufy X9 Pro – the company’s latest and greatest.
You’ll find the eufy X9 Pro at JB HiFi for $1,499 ($1,299 at the time of publishing) which puts it in a premium space – no question.
This is more than just a vacuum, this has a full cleaning station as a base, which is all about making the mopping experience better.
But, I will say from the outset, as someone spoiled for robots over recent years, the lack of an “auto empty” within that station is a bummer. I love that it cleans the mopping pads, but give me a station that also empties out the dust bin any day. So, leaving that aside, as a consideration you have to take into account – it’s a cracking little unit.
Setup via the eufy Clean app is pretty good. While most models require you to pick them from a list, the X9 Pro emits a Bluetooth signal the app picks up so pairing is a tap and go.
After that, Eugene (Eugene the Eufy – get it?), headed out for a “quick map”. This is rather random, but you can tell through the combination of sensors and cameras it’s also doing something intentional.
Blasting through the rooms looking around, it creates a very workable map of your home, which you can then split into rooms and add any boundaries to. This allows you to then pick rooms to clean, and not worry about shutting doors by using virtual boundaries as no-go zones.
For it’s first clean, I noted in the glare of the sunlight on my hard wood floors that it was getting a full 100% coverage on it’s back and forth path. A set of wheel tracks the only evidence of the robot’s presence.
Like the Ecovacs X1 Omni I’ve been using for some time, the Eufy X9 Pro heads back to base frequently, despite being just part way through a clean, to wash the mopping pads. This means you’re getting a clean mop on the floor more often than not.
Washing station isn’t too loud, and the clean and dirty water tanks are easy to handle.
Setting off for a spot clean of a specific zone (around the kitchen prep area after some baking and lunch making), it made light work of the task.
More importantly for me, Eugene the X9 Pro is doing a great job navigating the dining room with all the chairs down. It’s a fundamental thing for me that the robot can do it’s job without us having to do too much prep.
Likewise, the X9 pro identified a tea towel left on the floor and rather than sucking it up and failing, simply navigated around it.
What I can’t test, but is a key feature of the X9 pro, is the Auto-lift mopping pads. I have hard floors only, so no carpet to worry about, however the Eufy X9 Pro will lift the mopping pads by 12mm to avoid carpets in a multi-surface home.
5,500 Pa suction is great, there’s a lot of debris in the dust bin each time, and it’s not too bad on noise levels when running too.
$1,499 is a hefty price for a robot vacuum. But for this level of obstacle avoidance, the auto-lifting mops and the self-cleaning mopping, it’s probably spot on the ballpark. A potential buyer should look at comparative options like the Ecovacs X1 Turbo, which has a much stronger design for the modern home, but lacks only the auto-lifting mops.
My first experience with Eufy Clean, and it’s a good one.
The Eufy X9 Pro is a sleek, powerful, smart robot vacuum that delivers for those with a combination of hard and carpet floors.
