Eureka's new flagship robo-cleaner goes to impressive lengths to look after itself, automating as much of its maintenance as possible so you don't need to. We've been living with this plucky robot for a few months now.
Cleaning one's own floors seems like a terribly 20th-century way to spend one's time, and the age of the robo-vac has well and truly dawned over the last few years, with nearly 30% of US homes either using or considering a robot vacuum back in 2022, according to Interpret.
Of course, the promise of perfectly clean floors with zero effort is still a long way off – they often need rescuing, for example – but that doesn't mean today's robot vacuums aren't worth their weight in gold.
Eureka's new J20 promises to take more day-to-day maintenance out of your hands, thanks to the following features:
- A new RollRenew belt-mop design, which puts 17 N of force into the floor while continually cycling fresh water to clean itself
- Automatic mop washing and blow-drying at the base station
- Automatic emptying of vacuum dust and dirty mop water at the base station
- Automatic refilling of clean water and detergent (bottles of which are expected to last around three months)
Beyond that, it's a premium-grade robo-vac offering up to 8,000 Pa of suction – which is on the higher end of what's available out there, with many top-shelf robots claiming to be "powerful" while maxing out closer to 2,000 Pa.
It comes with a fairly chunky base station, as you'd expect considering all the jobs it takes on, and it's designed to move intelligently between hard floors and carpets, avoiding obstacles and mapping out its environment using LiDAR and "enhanced sensors." Its beefy 6,400-mAh battery promises up to 180 minutes of operation, enough to clean up to a 400 sq m (4,300 sq ft) home in a single charge.
So how does it go?
I've been very impressed, particularly since a couple of software updates that have addressed some early concerns. For reference, my house represents a true torture test for robo-vacuums, a large, heavily carpeted floor plan with a six year-old and a 10-year old on constant duty making sure every horizontal surface is an absolute disaster at all times.
The J20's mopping abilities are thus only showcased in the kitchen and bathroom at my place. But this is enough to make a call on. In "sweep before mop" mode, it tidies up the best it can, then gets to work mopping. The RollRenew roller-mop is turned over regularly as it cleans, running through a scraper to squeeze out dirty water, with clean water and detergent being sprayed on.
The result: hard floors look absolutely great once it's done. We have had no complaints in this regard; it's easy to grab the Eureka app and send the J20 to work on a particular room or area if there's been a spill, and it does a bang-up job, before returning to base, where the clean water is refilled, the dirty water is sucked out, new detergent is added if necessary, and the wet mop roller is pampered with a luxurious session on the blow-dryer.
As for vacuuming? Well, I certainly can't fault this thing's can-do enthusiasm and "let me at 'em" attitude. Presented with a relatively clear floor, which is rare around these parts, it does an absolutely stellar job, its little rotating side brush poking out to meet the wall and explore the odd nook or cranny. Once its internal canister is full up, the J20 dutifully heads back to base, where a mighty noise indicates the dust canister has been sucked clean.
On the other hand, it's not particularly quiet as it gets around the carpets. Well, not with suction jacked up to maximum levels the way I run all vacuums. You can choose your own adventure there.
And it does frequently need assistance, because its obstacle avoidance systems don't seem to view mess on the floor as an obstacle. As I write, the J20 has mounted a loose bass drum pedal that was sitting on the floor behind me in my office, and it's complaining that it's beached. I've seen this thing attempt to gobble t-shirts, underpants, pencils, sandals and all sorts of other small items with varying degrees of success, usually ending up requiring a roller-brush removal and manual clean.
Indeed, all intelligent sensors aside, it does a fair bit of navigation by banging its head into things. On one notable occasion, it knocked over a headless Ibanez guitar I'd rested against a desk, then drove triumphantly up on top of it and somehow pushed it halfway out the door before sending me a particularly thrilling "your robot is suspended in mid-air" message and shutting down.
Its biggest issue around our house, though, is with charging cables. If you leave a charging cable – or even an extension lead in some cases – on the floor, the J20 will attempt to eat it with no lack of gusto. Usually, it only gets as far as wrapping the cable around its roller brush like so much loose hair, but once or twice it's yanked shorter cables clean out of their USB sockets and gobbled them completely.
In terms of other complaints, well, English clearly isn't the J20's first language, and some of the voice prompts are a bit wacky. My favorite is when it resumes cleaning, and says "resumé cleaning" as if it's erasing lines off its CV.
The battery life is indeed impressive, and the app isn't bad – although I do wonder why you need to go enable a setting like "adaptive carpet avoidance" that feels like it should be a default. And when there's enough junk on the floor, which is sadly all too often around here, the J20 frequently gives up on trying to locate itself in this disaster zone and tells you it's got no idea where it is or what it's supposed to be doing.
Oh, and while it'll happily clean away until it detects your dust bag or dirty water canister are full, I'd say this: if you're mopping up organic materials like fruit juice spills or whatnot, you'll want to empty that water canister quick smart; I left it alone for a few weeks at one point and something went rotten in there, making it super gross and stanky to clean out.
So yes, the J20 remains quite "hands on" for a labor-saving robot in some ways – even if it does cut out a lot of the routine pre- and post-clean rigmarole that many robo-vacs require. But don't let that give you the impression it's no good; all annoyances aside, I'm absolutely in love with this plucky little jigger, which gives my family and I a compelling reason to get junk off the floor (lest it be eaten), and which routinely makes my home about the tidiest it's been in a long while.
It cleans in a methodical and thorough manner, it's easy to lock off from areas you don't want it exploring, and while it does get stuck and need assistance from time to time, it's certainly not alone in that regard!
It retails at US$1,099.99 – up there with the highly-regarded Roomba S9+ and the Dyson 360 Vis Nav – but for US buyers, Eureka's got a coupon up at the moment for an instant US$260 off, taking the price down to a much friendlier US$840.
That's still a chunk of change for a vacuum, but if you're willing and able to go there, the Eureka J20 rapidly won my heart once I'd got it set up, and through several months of heavy torment it's proven powerful, resilient and clever enough to make itself indispensable. Thumbs up!
Product page: Eureka J20
