This robot vacuum is a gamechanger for parents and pet owners – and it’s currently on sale
The gadget has become a huge asset in the daily battle against dirt and debris
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Your support makes all the difference.As the owner of a trusty and powerful corded Shark vacuum, I never understood the hype surrounding robot vacuum cleaners – an automatic vacuum cleaner that uses sensors and motors to clean the floor for you, just like something out of a 1950s sci-fi movie. My Shark model (£179, Amazon.co.uk) reaches under the sofa just fine, and I thought a robot docking station would look unsightly on show all the time. Plus, the automated vacuums are expensive. My mind was made up… but that all changed when I became a parent.
One of the (not so) interesting things about becoming a parent is that, suddenly, you find yourself playing a never-ending game of cleaning catch-up. From the aftermath of mealtimes and snack debris to fragments of Play-Doh scattered all over the floor, the untidiness is seemingly never-ending – just as you clean one room, you’ll turn around to find an even bigger mess in another. When you add a supremely fluffy cat into the mix, maintaining a clean house started to feel like an impossible task.
With maximum dirt and the minimum amount of time to clean, I knew it was time to call in the recruits. Enter the eufy X8 robot vacuum, aka, Rob (yes, we’ve named it). After months of daily use, life before Rob feels like a distant, dirty memory. The eufy X8 has made an incredible difference to our daily lives, sweeping in at the tap of a button to eradicate clumps of cat fur and wipe out the trail of crumbs that surround my grubby 17-month-old, so I can get on with better things or, let’s face it, do other chores for which (selfishly) the tech gods are yet to invent a robot to carry out.
If you’re a parent (pet or otherwise), don’t have much time on your hands or simply loathe vacuuming, a robovac is a game-changer and the Eufy X8 is, in my opinion, up there as one of the best. Keep reading to find out why I love this nifty robo-helper so much.
Eufy robovac X8: Was £399, now £259, Amazon.co.uk
In a family home, it’s pretty much a given that your floors will always be covered in something, whether that’s debris, crumbs or pet hair. But that’s where the Eufy X8 comes in.
Designed to take care of the cleaning for you, the robovac packs a punch, with twin-turbine technology that gives it some serious suction power (two times 2,000Pa to be precise) which I’ve found strong enough to tackle even large bits of debris. Built with “BoostIQ”, the X8 can smoothly transition over different surfaces (it moves from kitchen tiles to carpeted hallway with ease) and automatically increases suction power, where necessary, to ensure a satisfyingly clean home. Alternatively, you can change the suction power manually, using the Eufy app – there are four levels to choose from: pure, power, turbo and max.
Speaking of which, the app is one of my favourite things about this robot vacuum, as it puts you in charge. You can select individual rooms to clean, highlight no-go zones, view a map of your home and even see where the X8 has cleaned in real-time. Plus, you can also set up regular cleaning schedules to fit around your life, which, for me, is when the little one goes to bed. Despite being so powerful, the X8 is surprisingly quiet when operating, and manages to swerve obstacles, such as chairs or toys, that are left in its way.
Read more: Best robot vacuum cleaners
Owing to their small size, one of my initial concerns when considering a robot vacuum was if I’d have to empty it all the time but this hasn’t proved to be an issue with the X8. Of course, this will depend on how much debris there is to collect in your home, but I find that the dirt packs so tightly into the dust box, I can easily send it around our home every day for more than a week without having to empty it.
There’s no doubt Eufy’s X8 has made my cleaning chores much simpler. It’s one less job I need to do and, as a busy parent, it has become a huge asset in the daily battle against dirt and debris.
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