eufy by Anker BoostIQ RoboVac 11S review – how to use it?

eufy by Anker BoostIQ RoboVac 11S sucks up dirt and dust with 1300Pa of suction for a spotless clean you can see and feel. It combines a dual-layer filter and one high-performance filter to achieve a clean home. Multiple cleaning modes and a pre-set vacuuming time ensure an effortless, thorough clean while you do other things or nothing at all. Is it worth buying for you? Reveal the value of this in eufy by Anker BoostIQ RoboVac 11S review.

Pros & Cons – eufy by Anker BoostIQ RoboVac 11S

PROS

• Affordable.
• Compact.
• Quiet.
• Strong cleaning performance.
• Good battery life.

CONS

• No virtual barriers or app control.
• Limited scheduling options.

In the box

In the box, you also get a charging dock, a power adapter, two AAA batteries for the remote, a cleaning tool, two spare side brushes, and two spare filters.

• eufy RoboVac 11s vacuum
• Charging dock
• Charging cable
• Pre-filter
• 2x set of high-performance and foam filters
• 4x side brushes
• Brushroll
• Brushroll guard
• Dirt compartment
• Remote (with 2x AAA batteries)
• 5x zip ties
• Cleaning tool
• User guide

Specifications – eufy by Anker BoostIQ RoboVac 11S

• 1300 Pa suction power (with Pascal Pressure Units, high numbers indicate better suction)
• 0.6L dust capture capacity
• 55dB noise level for quiet operation (comparable to a microwave)
• Works on hard floors to medium-pile carpets
• Dimensions 12.8 by 12.8 by 2.8 inches
• Mop/Vacuum Hybrid No
• Scheduling Yes
• Virtual Walls No
• Remote Control Yes
• Phone Control No
• 100-minute runtime
• Multiple cleaning modes for different surface types
• 12-month warranty
• Remote control

Price

If you don’t need phone or voice control, the $220 Eufy RoboVac 11s is a very good choice for the price. Its small form factor, powerful suction, quiet operation, and solid battery life make it a no-brainer for anyone with lots of low-profile furniture. For everyone else, however, the Ecovacs Deebot N79S is a slightly better bet. For just $10 more, it offers app control, better scheduling options, and Amazon Alexa compatibility, making it our Editors’ Choice for affordable robot vacuums.

Compare eufy by Anker BoostIQ RoboVac 11S vs eufy RoboVac 11+

eufy by Anker BoostIQ RoboVac 11S review

Build

The 11S has a decent build quality and it pretty much has the exact same design as the eufy RoboVac 30C. It’s mainly plastic, with a matte finish underneath and a glossy coating on top. The two wheels are rubber and feel durable. 

Design

The RoboVac 11s looks very similar to the original RoboVac 11. Its circular body is darker in color, which makes the Eufy logo at the bottom slightly less noticeable. It’s also smaller, measuring 12.8 inches in diameter and 2.8 inches tall, compared with the original’s 13.0-inch diameter and 3.0-inch height. That’s one of the slimmest profiles we’ve seen in a robot vacuum, rendering it it ideal for getting under low-clearance couches, coffee tables, and other furniture.

Brush

The RoboVac 11S has one roller brush that’s a combo of bristles and rubber fins, but that single brush got the job done. A tri-spoked side brush sits on either side of the 11S, just in front of the two beefy, rubber wheels. At the front of the vacuum is a small, swivelling roller wheel that’s similar to what you find on the Roomba 690 and the Shark Ion Robot.

Screen

The left side of the screen tells you the current cleaning mode, while the right side is divided into thirds. The top tells you the time, the middle indicates suction power, and the bottom shows when your cleaning schedule is set. The buttons below are all labeled with icons, while a key on the opposite side provides a more detailed explanation of what they do.

Suction

It has a 1300 Pa suction power rating. Pa stands for Pascal Pressure Unit, and the higher the number is, the better the suction power. Compared to what’s out on the market, the RoboVac 11S doesn’t have the strongest suction power, but it’s more than enough for picking up dust, pet dander, cereal, and other common floor pollutants.

BoostIQ and suction power

When you first start the RoboVac 11S, it will be on BoostIQ by default. This is an auto-adjusting suction feature. More suction the thicker the carpet. Less for hard floors. You can turn this off and choose a specific amount of suction if you’re not seeing the results you want.

The edge clean feature works well for capturing those dust bunnies that hang out at the baseboards. However, the round shape doesn’t allow the RoboVac to reach corners as well as some of the square models. The brushes that sweep out in front of it help with that somewhat, but they have to be aimed directly into the corner to clean it thoroughly.

Dustbin

The 0.6-liter dust box where the 11S stores the debris it picks up is comparable to that of others units and has always proved big enough for us. 

Drop sensor

The vacuum will automatically determine whether an obstacle can be rolled over or not. When it detects a possibility of falling, the 11S will tuck tail and run away, resuming its vacuuming tasks elsewhere.

Remote

The accompanying physical remote control has a monochrome display that includes a clock and indicators for the current cleaning mode and suction level, as well as the RoboVac’s cleaning schedule if you’ve set one. 

Battery life

Battery life is solid, too. In tests, I got up to 100 minutes on a single charge, which should be sufficient for cleaning most apartments, and single floors of a house. The amazing RoboVac 11S comes with a high-capacity Li-Ion battery that allows for up to 100 minutes of cleaning time before needing to recharge. On a single charge, this robot can thoroughly sweep your floor in its entirety, possibly even before the battery runs out.

Charging base

Just like other, more expensive models, the vacuum returns to its charging base when it’s nearly out of power, it detects edges and obstacles so it won’t fall down stairs, dent walls, or run over oes), and it can be programmed to clean at specific times.

Noise

Its quiet operation is also a factor. This vacuum goes grumbling around at just 55 decibels, which is quieter than many robotic vacuums and is about as loud as the hum of a refrigerator or microwave.  

eufy by Anker BoostIQ RoboVac 11S Setup and usage

To prepare the 11s for cleaning, you must first attach two of its side brushes. These snap onto two studs at the front of the vacuum with little effort. Then turn it on—the switch has been moved from the side to the bottom of the vac—and place it on the charging pins of its dock. Eufy says its high-capacity Li-ion battery will deliver up to 100 minutes of cleaning on a full charge.

Four Cleaning Modes

The 11S comes with four different cleaning modes that you can select using the handy remote control. The first mode is default cleaning which commands the robot to do a random sweep of your home until its batteries run out.

The second mode is edge cleaning. This mode makes the 11S prioritize cleaning the edges of a room. A lot of dust and other floor pollutants find their way to the sides and corners of a room, and this second mode clears them right up.

The third mode is spot cleaning. This mode makes the robot move in a spiral motion in a particular area of your home. When it reaches the center of the spiral, it’ll go straight to default mode and clean everywhere else.

The fourth mode is “Single Room”. As the name suggests, when this mode is active, the RoboVac 11S will clean one room only. Say you want the robot to clean your room but not your roommate’s. With the 11S, you have that option.

Scheduling

You can schedule cleanings to start automatically at a certain time each day, so you don’t necessarily need to be home to initiate one. Just set the start time using the remote control’s scheduling function. Note, however, that you can’t set different cleaning times for different days. Once you schedule a start time, that’s it for every day of the week.

eufy by Anker BoostIQ RoboVac 11S performance review

The 11s is also good at maneuvering across different types of flooring. It easily managed transitions between carpet and vinyl, and had no problems with raised edges. And while no vacuum is truly silent, the 11s is as quiet as they come. It’s barely noticeable when you’re in the same room, and if you have the TV on or music playing, you probably won’t hear it at all.

The RoboVac 11S also had penchant for catching on rug corners if they weren’t perfectly flat on the ground. Though the bot cleaned our thin, flat-woven dining room rug well, one corner of the rug got caught in the space between the side brush and the vacuum more than once.

Test Results: Great for cereal, but not the fastest

The RoboVac 11s was also good at picking up kitty litter (90 percent average) on hardwood and carpet, but it didn’t fare as well with dog hair, picking up an average of 67.5 percent. The Shark Ion (88 percent) and Roomba 690 (73.3 percent) performed much better. Plus, the 11S caught much of the dog hair in its wheels and brushes during the hardwood and carpet tests.

In the controlled environment of our test lab, the Eufy RoboVac 11S performed admirably, picking up 100 percent of Cheerios on both hardwood and carpet surfaces. This result was on a par with those of the similarly priced Shark Ion Robot and Roomba 690.

On average, the RoboVac 11S took 1 hour and 18 minutes to clean our test-space floors, making it much slower than the Shark Ion (1:02) and the 690 (1:12).

Alternate of eufy by Anker BoostIQ RoboVac 11S

The iRobot Roomba i3 isn’t as quick or clever or controllable as the Roborock, but it still works well in bigger homes and is otherwise simpler, more durable, and better at cleaning most rugs. The i3 is built on the same sturdy, long-lasting base as the cheaper Roomba models but adds more suction and tangle-resistant brushes for a boost in cleaning power. Extra sensors and processing also help it reliably clean large (or small) spaces in a (mostly) predictable, orderly pattern. Another neat option: The Roomba i3+ package can automatically empty any debris it picks up into its charging dock, which you’ll have to empty only once every month or two—it actually works, and it’s handy.

iRobot sells a few similar models that are worth considering, too, including models from the older Roomba 900 series and the higher-end Roomba i7. But the i3 (at $400 or less) is usually the best value for your money these days.

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