Eufy S1 Pro review

Eufy Omni S1 Pro: Introduction

• Type: Vacuum and mopping
• Docking: Water refill and dust collection dock, with mop cleaning and drying
• Navigation system: LiDAR and 3D Matrix Eye

We’ve had mopping robots for years, but until now, with the Eufy S1 Pro, we’ve not one that apes the way a traditional hard floor cleaner works.

Rather than using mopping pads that end up with dirt stuck to them, the Eufy S1 Pro uses a roller, which is continuously dosed with water, to pick up dirt and deposit them in the dirty water tank.

As a mop, it’s fantastically good, removing stains that other robots struggle with and even competes with the likes of the Ecovacs Deebot T20 Omni and the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra, arguably the two top dogs in the robo cleaning world.

It’s a decent vacuum cleaner, too, although it does struggle a little with edges.

Read on for my full Eufy S1 Pro review…

Design and components

• Roller mopping system
• Ozone water cleaning
• Heated drying

It’s refreshing to see something different, and the Eufy S1 Pro is the first robot vacuum cleaner / mop I’ve seen to use a mopping roller rather than some kind of microfibre pad. That changes the game for mopping in a couple of ways.

First, the roller is huge, running almost the full width of the robot’s body. That’s a lot of floor contact, giving the Eufy S1 Pro a wide cleaning path. As with a standard hard floor cleaner, like the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine, that roller is dosed with fresh water constantly.

As the roller rotates, it picks up dirt, and then the dirty water and any solids are dumped out into the reservoir in the robot.

Thanks to this action, the S1 Pro can mop for longer without having to have its roller cleaned, and it doesn’t move dirt from one area to another.

That does mean a little bit more maintenance. At least once a week, the dirty water tank should be removed, and rinsed out; there’s also a tray where the larger bits of debris are collected, which should also be cleaned.

That’s not to say that there’s a lot of maintenance with this cleaner. Its floor brush is designed to avoid getting hair wrapped around it. It works, too: some hair gets caught at the end of the roller, but it’s a quick job to free it.

The S1 Pro will largely operate without interaction, thanks to the self-empty, self-cleaning docking station. This charging dock is tall and bold-looking, with a clear 3-litre water tank dominating the front.

I like the clear tank, as it’s easier to see when it needs refilling, and you can also watch the ozone creation process. Electrolysing the water, the station sterilises the tank, for a more hygienic clean. It’s the same technology that the company used in its Mach V1 Ultra floor cleaner.

There’s an option to add detergent, with the docking station taking 600ml bottles of the company’s own Hard Floor Cleaner.

This detergent is automatically mixed at the correct ratios when the robot docks to refill with water.

Dirty water is removed from the vacuum cleaner, and from the base of the station after the rollers have been cleaned, and sucked into the 2 litre tank at the back. Once this is full, it should be cleaned out and, ideally, washed to prevent odour build-up.

As well as cleaning the rollers, the docking station uses hot air to dry the roller, rotating at frequent intervals to get a full dry. There’s a spare roller in the box, which is handy for when you want to give one roller a deeper clean in the sink.

Regular dust is removed from the vacuum cleaner and taken into a 2.5-litre bag on the station. Eufy says that this bag should hold about two months’ worth of dirt. There’s a small bin on the vacuum cleaner itself, which holds a filter, which can be removed and cleaned if it gets clogged.

There’s a handy LCD screen on top of the docking station, which tells you when maintenance jobs need to be performed, such as emptying the dirty water tank.

It even shows a little animation of what you need to do.

Shortcut buttons on the top of the robot and the docking station let you start and stop a clean without having to reach for the app.

Features

• 3D Matrix Eye avoids obstacles
• 8,000pa suction

The Eufy S1 Pro’s 3D Matrix Eye system uses a camera, sensors and AI to automatically avoid obstacles, such as shoes, cables and the like.

I found that it would skirt around any cat food bowls on the floor while remaining close to them.

While it’s still useful to move some objects for a deep clean (I put chairs on the table once a week to get a thorough clean), the Eufy S1 Pro will go about its business without any need for intervention.

At times, the S1 Pro can be a little overcautious. I have a pet cubbyhole with a tray holding food and water bowls, but the robot seems a little intimidated by this and won’t get close to it. Picking the tray up lets the robot get into the area for a deep clean.

8,000pa suction power puts this vacuum cleaner towards the top of the suction power list, just slightly behind the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra. With carpet detection boosting power automatically, the S1 Pro will pick up almost everything in its path, on hard floors and carpets.

Dual side brushes tease out dirt from the sides of rooms, but this robot can’t quite get into corners for a full clean.

Mopping

• Deep mopping
• Removes tough stains
• Can’t quite reach the edges

I’ve not tested a robot that can mop as well as the Eufy S1 Pro. As it went about its business, I could see the clean path that its mop trailed as it went to work.

Throughout a cleaning session, that roller remains spotless, and the cleaning ability is the same from start to finish.

What’s particularly noticeable about this mop is that I’ve not had to get out a normal hard floor cleaner at all while using the Eufy S1 Pro. Typically, I find that a robot mop is good for maintenance cleaning, but every couple of weeks I’d need to get the full floor mop out to give a deeper clean.

The S1 Pro easily handled muddy paw prints, spills from cooking, and even tough dried-on cat food stains. It really is quite brilliant.

The slight downside is that the roller doesn’t stretch fully from edge to edge, so the Eufy S1 Pro can’t quite get to the edges of rooms like the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra can. It does mean some manual tidy-up around the edges of the room with a cloth.

I think that’s a fair trade-off if you have a house that needs deep mopping, as I do, thanks to the cats coming in and out and making a mess of the kitchen floor.

That roller can lift 12mm off the ground, which is enough to avoid wetting most short pile carpets or rugs. If you’ve got deeper pile carpets, then an alternative robot, such as the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra (20mm lift) or iRobot Roomba Combo J7+ (the mop lifts completely out of the way) may make more sense.

Apps and voice assistants

The app covers all the basics. As I had an early version of the robot, I used the Mach app; the retail version of the product will use the Eufy app. Both apps provide similar features.

Eufy gets all of the basics right. When first connected, a short mapping run is required. As the Eufy S1 Pro uses LiDAR, maps are quick to generate and only take a short run. At the end of the run, a map is generated in the app, with rooms automatically placed.

Rooms can be split or merged if the mapping process has got things wrong, and named for convenience. There’s also the usual options for virtual boundaries, no-go and no-mop zones. All of which can be useful if you’ve got a delicate bit of flooring or a low bit of furniture that might confuse the robot.

From the app, you can start a clean of the entire home, your selection of rooms or of a zone that you draw on the floor.

Cleans can include vacuuming and mopping or just vacuuming, and there’s control over the suction power and amount of water used. Up to two cleaning passes can be made, too.

When mopping, the robot will return to the dock after it has covered 45m2 of flooring to wash the roller and prime it for more cleans.

That level of cleaning means far fewer trips to the dock than with rivals, which must fully clean microfibre pads to keep up cleaning performance.

Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant support are available with voice commands to start or stop a clean.

Battery life and maintenance

There’s a 4600mAh battery inside, which lasts for 170-minutes with mopping and suction set to standard mode. Even boosting these to the higher settings means that there’s plenty of power to cover a large area.

Even if you go nuts and put the robot on two passes, and want to clean multiple times per day, the Eufy S1 Pro can return to the dock to top up its battery part way through a clean if required.

While maintenance is largely carried out by the dock, the debris tray and dirty water tank in the robot should be washed out regularly (once a week seems about right).

While you’re doing that, it’s worth rinsing the debris tray in the docking station to stop it getting clogged, although the robot will warn you if that happens.

Once a month, giving the robot’s sensors a wipe is a good idea. And, the app will tell you when it’s time to check and change the brushes.

Final thoughts

It’s all a question of what you want from a robot vacuum cleaner and mop. If your primary concern is deep mopping of large expanses of hard floors, then the Eufy  S1 Pro is hard to beat. Its roller and dirt removal system proved far effective at deep stains, beating all other robots that I’ve tested before.

However, if it’s a combination of vacuuming, mopping and edge performance that you care about, the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra is more accomplished and more flexible.

How we test

When we publish our reviews, you can rest assured that they are the result of “living with” long term tests.

Robot cleaners usually live within an ecosystem, or a range of products that – supposedly – all work in harmony. And they are designed to offer a range of different cleaning options. Therefore, it’s impossible to use a robo cleaner for a week and deliver a verdict.

Because we’re testing smart home kit all day, everyday, we know what matters and how a particular smart cleaning machine compares to alternatives that you might also be considering.

Our reviews are comprehensive, objective and fair and, of course, we are never paid directly to review a device.

Read our guide on how we test robot vacuum cleaners to learn more.

FAQs

Eufy S1 Pro: Specifications