Can a £1,599 robot vacuum really cope with family life?

RRP at time of testing: £1,599 | Check price at eufy or Argos

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My verdict

Daily crumbs are a given in my house. Toast under the dining table. Cereal scattered across the kitchen floor. Muddy paw prints by the French doors. Unidentified fluff that appears five minutes after you’ve vacuumed, making you question every life choice that led you to children, pets, carpets and any lingering hope of having standards.

So when the eufy Omni S2 Robot Vacuum and Mop arrived on my doorstep, promising powerful suction, mopping, self-emptying, self-cleaning and more smart features than my first car, I was more than ready for it.

This isn’t a budget robot vacuum that tootles around while you make a brew. At £1,599, it’s a serious splurge. It also needs proper floor space and quite a bit of financial justification. The base station is bulky, the tech is impressive and, once I had a working model, it became genuinely useful in our family routine.

The box is large and heavy - I needed help from DH to unbox it

Would I recommend it? Yes, but only for families with the space and budget. After a month of testing, I’d say it’s best suited to larger households that want daily crumbs, dog hair, mud and general family debris dealt with while they get on with something else.

In our house, that “something else” is usually getting the children to bed, sorting school bags, putting washing on, hunting for a lost water bottle or standing in the kitchen trying to make homemade bread and butter. I run the Omni S2 once a day in the evening, usually when the children are almost asleep, and it makes a visible difference.

Our house is about 90% carpet, so this wasn’t an easy test. Only the kitchen and bathrooms are laminate. We also have two young children, two little white dogs and my own hair, which seems to shed at the same rate as a labrador. The eufy had crumbs, mud, dog hair, dust, cereal, rice and bathroom mess to deal with. Once the faulty first model was replaced, it handled most of it brilliantly.

It isn’t perfect. It’s big. It gets loud. It’s a faff if you forget to empty the dirty water tank and it costs a staggering amount of money. But it has saved me time and cut down my manual vacuuming to around once a month, not including stairs, edges and deeper cleaning. For the right household, that’s a pretty big deal.

How I’ve tested the eufy Omni S2

I tested the eufy Omni S2 for over a month in our family home. It was meant to be a shorter-term review because it’s a new launch, but the first model we were sent had technical issues, so testing took longer than planned. With a new model like this, teething problems aren’t a huge shock. I’d have been more than a bit miffed if I’d paid for it myself, though.

Our home is mostly carpet, with laminate in the kitchen and bathrooms. We have an open-plan living space with a dining table, kitchen island and sofa all in one room, so the vacuum had plenty of furniture legs, corners and family clutter to navigate.

Our dog enjoys following it around - sometimes putting his soft ball on top of it 

On a good day, our floors are tidy and shoes are in the basket by the door. On a stay-at-home day, the floor becomes a race track, a lava game, a dance floor, a stage and occasionally a scene from Toy Story. The eufy had to cope with both versions of the house.

Once the replacement model arrived, I used it daily, usually in the evening. I tested it on crumbs, cereal, pet hair, sofa feathers, muddy paw prints, general dust and the sort of sticky bathroom mess that anyone with little boys will understand.

What’s in the box and how big is the base station?

The first thing to know is that the eufy Omni S2 is huge. The base station is large and, in our fairly average-sized living space, it stood out clearly next to the piano.

Admittedly, our piano is second-hand and very old, so the very modern robot vacuum station looked like it had arrived from the future and parked next to a village hall raffle prize. But still. It is not discreet.

The base station needs a good chunk of floor space. We do have room for it, but my husband wasn’t thrilled about another bulky thing taking up space in the living area. To be fair to him, he had a point. This isn’t one for a small hallway, narrow kitchen corner or anyone already quietly seething about the amount of stuff family life seems to generate.

There are various components that you have to put together during setup 

How easy is the eufy Omni S2 to set up?

Setup takes around 10 to 15 minutes, and it isn’t a quick plug-in-and-go job. You need to download the eufy app, unbox the components, work out where everything goes, plug in the base station, give the robot time to charge and then send it off to map your home.

The instructions are clear enough, but I’ve tested similar robot vacuums before, including the Dreame X50 Ultra, so I had a rough idea of what I was doing. A first-time robot vacuum user could find it a tad intimidating at first.

The first model we received also gave us an instant warning that the base station power input didn’t match the model’s requirements. Cue panic from both me and my husband as we tried the base station in various plug sockets around the house, at one point standing it on the kitchen counter as if that might help. I even cross-checked the wattage with our Ninja Dual air fryer.

After a few quick emails with eufy customer service, the issue was flagged as a fault with the model I’d been sent. To eufy’s credit, the service team arranged a return quickly, sent a replacement and the new model has worked as expected ever since.

Still, it was the first time I’ve argued with a eufy. People argue with Alexa all the time, but this felt new.

Instructions are included and pretty easy to follow

Is the eufy app easy to use for scheduling and room cleaning?

Yes. Once everything was set up, the app was easy and straightforward to use.

You can personalise suction power for each room, area or zone, which was useful in our house because we have so much carpet. I set the living space and hallway to high suction, then used medium suction in the children’s rooms, kitchen and bathrooms.

It took a couple of runs to get the mapping right. The boys’ bedrooms, which are downstairs, needed a bit of manual fixing, and at one point the app thought the sofa was the kitchen island. The bathroom also confused it at first, but I eventually locked it in there and let it work things out. Which, now I write it down, sounds more dramatic than it was.

After that, the app was simple to manage. Scheduling, room selection and cleaning modes were easy once I’d corrected the map. I also trusted it enough to run without much supervision, although most of the time it cleaned in the evening while we were still at home.

How well does the eufy Omni S2 clean carpets, crumbs and pet hair?

Once we had the working model, we started to notice a real difference in the house. I ran it once a day at the end of the day and it hoovered up crumbs, dust and general family muck with ease.

It handled cereal, rice and larger crumbs on the kitchen floor well, including the fallout from breakfast favourites like Weetabix and toast. On carpet, the suction was strong enough to make a visible difference. There’s also something deeply satisfying about seeing fresh vacuum lines in the pile. You don’t get quite the same smug little thrill from a hard floor.

Pet hair and general fluff were mostly handled well, although feathers from our sofa pillows needed a bit of encouragement. In fairness, they had worked their way into the carpet pile, so I blame the carpet as much as the vacuum.

The Omni S2 is on par with our usual plug-in Hoover model for daily carpet cleaning. I’d say it got around 95% of debris out of the carpet, with the odd feather being its main defeat.

The vacuum is heavy in its own right

Can the eufy Omni S2 replace a normal vacuum cleaner?

No, not completely. This is where we all need to be honest with ourselves. Robot vacuum cleaners are very clever, and this one is more powerful than most, but they still don’t replace a manual vacuum for every job.

The eufy Omni S2 is excellent for daily upkeep. It means I only need to use my main vacuum around once a month for a deeper clean, which is a win in my book. But you still need a proper vacuum for edges, corners and crevices. Despite all the extending arms, smart navigation and fancy robot skills, there are places it can’t reach. Plus, I’m yet to see a robot vacuum that can climb up and down the stairs.

If your home has lots of carpet, that matters. It will keep things looking and feeling cleaner day to day, but I wouldn’t expect it to banish the big vacuum to the garage forever.

How good is the eufy Omni S2 at mopping bathrooms and kitchen floors?

The mopping was impressive. The biggest test in our house was the bathroom because I have two little boys with terrible aim. Let’s just say the mop had to deal with sticky, smelly mess, and it handled both fresh and dried-on marks with ease.

It also coped well with muddy paw prints and kitchen splashes. The floor was left nicely damp rather than wet, although the dogs occasionally followed behind it and added fresh paw prints, which felt a bit rude.

The mop cleans itself mid-cycle when switching between carpeted areas and hard floors, and again at the end of a clean. The mop drying process takes a fair while and is noisier than I’d like, but the cleaning itself was effective.

You can also manually empty the vacuum if it’s time for a deeper clean

I also tried the detergent and fragrance system. I was hesitant because one of our dogs is sensitive and has seizures, so we try to reduce her exposure to chemicals where possible. We gave it a go and it has been fine so far, although I can’t say for sure whether the house smells better. The fragrance isn’t overpowering, and I wouldn’t say it transformed the house into a spa. But it did help the robot feel fresher while it was running.

The roller mop also stayed cleaner than I expected. eufy says the Omni S2 uses ozonated water, 1.5kg of downward pressure and 360 RPM rotation, while the mop cleans itself in real time as it moves. In normal-person terms, it isn’t just dragging the same grubby mop pad around the kitchen. It’s rinsing and scrubbing as it goes, then returning to the dock to be washed with 70°C hot water and dried with hot air.

After a month of use, the mop roller didn’t smell stale or look as grim as I’d feared, which is reassuring when you’re asking it to deal with bathroom floors, muddy paw prints and kitchen spills.

How well does it navigate toys, shoes, dog bowls and open-plan spaces?

Navigation was good, but not flawless. Our downstairs is fairly open-plan, which suits this kind of robot vacuum well. It managed the kitchen island, dining table, sofa and general family layout without much drama. It was also good at avoiding things left on the floor, including shoes, dog toys and dirty underpants from where our DC have just dropped them and carried on.

The biggest bumps came from trying to navigate under the dining table between all the chair legs. It coped, but you could tell it had to work for it.

The best thing about having a robot vacuum is that it encourages everyone to tidy before it starts. We now have a family warning that the robot is going on, so floors need to be clear. The threat of losing LEGO to the vacuum is arguably one of the more effective parenting strategies I’ve tried.

It mapped the house about 80% accurately at first and needed manual correction. Once sorted, it was reliable.

We had errors from the start of testing but eufy were quick to send out a new model

How easy is it to empty and maintain?

The base station does a lot for you, but it isn’t entirely hands-off. During testing, I didn’t need to empty the dust bag, which was impressive. The dirty water tank, however, needs emptying weekly. I originally left it for a couple of weeks and then discovered the error of my ways because the water stank. Note to self: empty it once a week.

The tanks, brushes, mop roller and other removable parts are easy enough to access and replace. I’ve found that with most eufy robot vacuums I’ve tried, and this one was no different.

The auto-emptying is loud. The mop drying process is also loud and takes a while. It isn’t unbearable, but it is noticeable, especially if the base station lives in your main living space.

Is the eufy Omni S2 good quality?

Yes. It feels bulky, premium and sturdy, which it should at this price. None of the parts felt flimsy during testing. The robot, base station, tanks and accessories all felt well made, and I didn’t notice leaks, scratches, clogging or hair tangles during the review period.

Of course, a month is still relatively early days for a product this expensive, so long-term durability would need more time. But from the testing period, it felt like something built for frequent use in a family home.

Is the eufy Omni S2 versatile enough for different homes?

For our home, yes. It handled both carpet and laminate well, although we only have two main floor types, so I can’t comment on how it performs across every possible surface.

It worked brilliantly in our open-plan downstairs layout and was especially useful for maintenance cleans in high-traffic areas. I only used it downstairs because there is no way I was carrying the thing up and down the stairs. I’d be too scared of dropping it, and my back is not available for that sort of nonsense.

For larger homes with plenty of downstairs floor space, it makes sense. For smaller homes, flats or very cluttered layouts, the bulky base station and price will be harder to justify.

It didn’t have any issues navigating its way around our busy family home

Is the eufy Omni S2 good value for money?

There’s no denying that at £1,599, the eufy Omni S2 is a massive splurge for a family. There’s just no getting around that. But you are paying for a lot of tech: strong suction, smart mapping, mopping, self-emptying, mop cleaning, mop drying and a base station that takes on a fair bit of the faff.

If you use it daily in a larger home, especially one with children, pets and open-plan living, then yes, it can be worth the money. It has saved me time and kept our floors consistently cleaner with much less effort from me.

It’s also worth noting that eufy offers a two-year warranty on the Omni S2, which is reassuring and longer than the one-year warranty listed for some comparable models. That said, at this price, I’d still like eufy to go further. When you’re spending £1,599 on a robot vacuum and mop, especially one with a large self-cleaning base station, water tanks, moving mop parts and plenty of clever tech inside, an extended warranty would make the purchase feel easier to justify, IMO.

Would I buy it with my own money? I’d have to justify the cost to my husband, and I’d absolutely be looking for a deal during a retail event like Prime Day or Black Friday.

So yes, it is good value for the technology. But it’s still a huge purchase, and not one I’d recommend lightly.

Final verdict: should you buy the eufy Omni S2 Robot Vacuum & Mop?

Buy it if you have a larger family home, a busy daily routine, pets, children, open-plan floors and the budget for a premium robot vacuum that keeps on top of the mess.

Avoid it if you live in a smaller home, don’t have space for the bulky base station, hate noisy cleaning docks or can’t justify spending £1,599 on floorcare.

It travels across carpets and hardwood floors with ease

For us, once the faulty first model was replaced, the eufy Omni S2 proved its worth. My husband was initially disgruntled about the size and the space it took up, but eventually admitted defeat once I proved it was useful. Which, frankly, is as close to a standing ovation as a robot vacuum is likely to get in our house.

About the author

Rebecca Roberts is a writer, editor and content marketing expert hailing from Leeds. Here at Mumsnet, she commissions, writes and edits to bring parents content designed to make life easier. Having birthed two DC just 15 months apart, she knows all too well how stressful it can be to keep your home clean and tidy when you’re managing a busy household. So, she’s fully invested in finding the best products for families and has tested alternative vacuums like the eufy BoostIQ RoboVac 15C Max and the VAX Blade 4 Pet & Car Vacuum Cleaner. 

Beyond her role as an editor here at Mumsnet, Rebecca can be found balancing life as a working mum of two toddlers and when she’s not at her desk, you’ll likely find her at a local playgroup, in a nearby coffee shop or walking the dog.

About Mumsnet Reviews

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All prices are correct at the time of writing

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