Eufy Omni S1 Pro robot vacuum review: Advanced hygiene, powerful cleaning

Busy homes are like sandbars. Stick with me here — the waters off many coastlines are known for churning up ever-evolving terrains of sandbars. Through a complex machine of tides and currents, these mini sandy islands can crop up overnight and last for months or weeks. Or just for a few days. They can grow, shrink, and change shape so quickly that human discovery of the sandbars doesn’t occur.

The topography of a busy household is equally as unstable. To navigate my home is to tread carefully; the landscape of Legos, marooned shoes, and abandoned pet toys is constantly changing. This explains my long history of robotic vacuum failures. No robot vacuum I’ve tried over the years could navigate our busy space with reliability or accuracy. I’ve found them stalled with wires snarled up in their underbelly, beached on a stray toy, or, in one awful instance, katunk-katunk-katunking its way down the stairs after failing to detect a ledge.

Enter Eufy’s new Omni S1 Pro. This robotic vacuum-mop hybrid looks powerful and intelligent — all the things my previous vacuums claimed to be and decidedly weren’t. But at $1,500, Eufy’s new vac is not your mother’s Roomba from 10 years ago, so let’s find out if this robot is worth its sizable investment.

Price, availability, and specs

The Eufy Omni S1 Pro’s MSRP is $1,499, but it’s still not on shelves. Eufy first ran a Kickstarter campaign for the vacuum, which finished in April. The brand says Kickstarter orders will be fulfilled throughout May and June.

Eufy tells Android Police that stateside shoppers who missed the Kickstarter window can order an Omni S1 Pro from their US storefront starting June 29. While Eufy robot vacuums are sold through retailers like Amazon and Best Buy, the Omni S1 Pro looks to be a brand exclusive for the time being. If you’re looking for something cheaper, we also know a thing or two about budget robot vacuums.

What’s good about the Eufy Omni S1 Pro?

Ozone water for heightened mop cleanliness

Eufy’s new robot vacuum has some unique features that proved highly refined and reliable during testing. For one, the S1 Pro’s LiDAR system — the lasers responsible for helping the vacuum navigate your home and detect obstacles — is hidden instead of being a piece that juts up from the vacuum. The lower profile helps the vacuum slip under low ledges and even clean underneath furniture. The battery life is also decent, at around 170 minutes total, and the vacuum will resume its cleaning routine after charging from where it stopped if it needs to charge mid-route.

Here’s the Eufy Omni S1 Pro’s biggest advantage: rather than slathering up your floor with a sodden mophead, the S1 Pro constantly rinses and refreshes its mophead with clean water. The vacuum douses the mop with clean water and scrapes it down after every full mop rotation. With this capability, the vacuum leaves the last square foot of your floor just as clean as the first when mopping.

Plus, Eufy continues its trend of using ozone water for extra-hygienic mop brush cleaning when the vacuum docks, something I appreciated in earlier Eufy vacs. Being someone who struggles to accept the possibility of robotic vacuums/mops ever holding a candle to some good old human-powered cleaning, I find Eufy’s extra attention to cleanliness commendable.

Speed is a nice perk, too. The S1 Pro looks like a speedy little beetle zipping around your house. It’s quite fast, especially when vacuuming only, covering about 450 square feet in just 40 minutes. When I opened access to another room and added mopping into the Eufy’s daily routine, it cleaned 670 square feet in about 75 minutes. Despite its hastiness, the Omni S1 Pro is far from sloppy. Even on thick rugs, carpeted rooms, and hardwood, I found this vacuum to be thorough and consistent in its cleaning, with mopping especially. It left no streakiness or horrid clumps of wet cat fur when transitioning from hardwood to carpet (yes, it’s happened).

Further, the S1 Pro’s AI obstacle detection is immaculate, capable of noticing obstructions as small as 2 square centimeters. Whether it’s a phone charger I left plugged in by the couch or an intricate standoff between Marvel action figures my five-year-old abandoned on the floor, the S1 Pro will not only navigate around new obstacles with its advanced detection system, but it’ll also give you a little icon on the map — like a plug-in to indicate wires, or what looks on feet on a scale to indicate a person sitting at a chair — representing said obstacle. It’s like an extra reminder to pick our stuff up, so thanks, Eufy.

At 8,000Pa, the suction power of the Omni S1 Pro is highly competitive. It’s not the strongest of what we’ve tested — right now, that distinction belongs to the Roborock S8 Max V Ultra — but it makes light work of dry messes on hard floors like dirt and crumbs and is also more than capable of extracting pet hair and debris from even longer-pile carpets. I have one extra-shaggy rug in my house that’s resisted cleaning from any vacuum to date, and while it wasn’t a clean sweep, the Omni S1 Pro’s attempt at getting the crud out of that rug was more effective than any competitor so far.

The Mach app, where remote control of the S1 Pro lives, is fantastic. Here, view the vacuum’s detailed map of its surroundings, designate rooms and no-mop zones, set automated schedules, and change the vacuum’s suction power.

A huge perk is being able to order your S1 Pro’s routine by the room; for example, I prefer mine to mop my office first so it’s dry by the time I start work for the day and to mop the bathroom last for sanitary reasons. A touch screen on the docking station also offers some of these simple controls.

What’s bad about the Eufy Omni S1 Pro?

Expect noisiness and tallness and general in-your-face-ness

You’ll definitely hear it when the Omni S1 Pro docks to discard dust and clean and dry its roller. It’s not unbearable, but it’s loud enough that if the docking station is near your desk or living area, you’ll be aware of the humming the entire time. My Omni S1 Pro took a very long time to dry its mop, about four to five hours, so getting used to that noise was a must.

The vacuum itself won’t establish a reputation for being quiet, either. It has several suction power modes, and at the two highest modes, the Omni S1 Pro is so loud that focusing on any other sound source is impossible. Its low-power/quiet mode is decent, but not whisper-silent.

And lastly, the docking station’s profile is not inconspicuous. While plenty slender to slip into corners or between furniture, its height means it’ll stand out like a sore thumb in many instances. It’s taller than the docking station of most other vacuums we’ve reviewed, including the comparable Deebot X2 Omni.

Should you buy it?

If you have the budget and the hardwood floors to justify it

There’s a lot to love about the Omni S1 Pro. I wouldn’t call it groundbreaking, as Eufy describes it on their website, especially since we are seeing similar robovacs with extending side brushes to scrub baseboards or offering permanent plumbing hookups to fill and drain water tanks. But it’s effective, powerful, and low-maintenance. Despite running a vacuum and mop cycle three days per week, I only have to refill the clean water tank about once every 10 days, and the dirty water tank only needs to be emptied about once every two weeks. (I wouldn’t recommend letting dirty water sit for that long, though.)

However, this vacuum is expensive, and I don’t love that you’re forced to use Eufy’s cleaning solution. Even though one bottle of solution covers nearly 12,500 square feet, it’s one more thing to subscribe to buying. I also don’t understand the need for a Kickstarter campaign when Eufy’s already established a long reputation for generally well-received vacuums. Coming out of the gate with widespread availability would’ve probably given the Omni S1 Pro an advantage over competitors that beat it to the finish line, such as the ones from Roborock and Deebot.

Its noisy operation is something to get used to. But I can look past the humming, gurgling, and chirping if my hardwood floors never looked more pristine and polished. The Eufy Omni S1 Pro is worth every penny for its effectiveness and consistency in cleaning. That’s assuming you have enough space to accommodate its docking station and are upgrading from something much more archaic — if you’re moving unilaterally from one high-end robot vacuum to this one, you might not be as impressed.