I tested the eufy Robot Vacuum 3-in-1 E20 and am impressed – it's light, compact, and perfect for small homes

If your home is small but you want a combination vacuum with a robot for hands-off convenience, and a light but powerful cordless and handheld, the eufy E20 may well be the answer.

This offering has the benefits of eufy's superior object collision avoidance technology and delightfully easy setup, something we are currently seeing newer, more expensive robot vacuums regularly fail on. It also delivers a powerful self-emptying cordless that converts into a handheld vacuum at the click of a button.

The robot's reduced suction power makes it one of the weaker eufy robots I've tried, especially when compared to the best robot vacuums. However, the compact, lightweight cordless fared brilliantly on carpeted stairs, hard floors, and carpet, whilst the handheld sucked up pet hair from upholstered sofas with ease.

One-minute verdict

If you're looking for the ease of a cordless and handheld vacuum combined with the automation of a robot vacuum in one compact unit, and will use this for top-up or light floor cleaning, this is a worthy investment.

The eufy 3-in-1 E20 comes in at around a third of the cost of our best-in-class robot vacuum (the eufy Omni S1 Pro, and fits in the mid-range of the average best cordless vacuum price.

I have thoroughly tested multiple eufy robots in my home for more than six months and they have remained extremely reliable and unproblematic, making them my favorite robot vacuum brand. I have two others in my home that have reduced over 90% of my canister use.

This combination eufy E20 vacuum will pick up all visible debris in stick mode, and sucks up a lot of pet hair, too. The robot does a good job of light daily cleaning but does not match the more powerful robots in eufy's range, and cannot do the work of a powerful cordless or canister vacuum.

eufy E20: Specifications

eufy E20: Setup

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Truly! I simply took it out of the box, plugged it into the wall and added it to my eufy cleaning app. Setup took less than 10 minutes, the robot came with 40% charge, and it boosted up to full within 60 minutes. Full charging from flat will take 2.5 hours, according the the manufacturer.

It come with a dustbag, extra cleaning arms, filters and the handheld and stick attachments.

The robot also connects easily via Bluetooth, once you have allowed the app access to your home's wifi network.

To use it in stick vacuum mode, simply press the red 'release' button on the robot vacuum housing, and click the compact motor and canister to the cordless stick and floorhead. To use it as a handheld, release the stick and add the handheld attachment.

To first run the E20's robot, I used the eufy app to instruct it to map the floor. It did so in less than 10 minutes (500 square feet) and then it was ready to go for cleaning.

I have tested multiple eufy robots, as well as SwitchBot robots cleaners and combination vacuums, and hands down, eufy wins every single time for ease of setup. The others can be temperamental, and the instructions baffling and stressful. The issue is currently ongoing with a new Roomba vacuum in testing with our team, for example.

If you ever buy a eufy second-hand, you won't even need the instructions as it's that intuitive to set up.

The 28 lbs package was as secure and compact as possible, with the elements able to be easily recycled.

I am chronically ill and prone to injury from a connective tissue disorder so I did not lift the box, but my husband did with ease. Each element could be pulled out for easy unpacking without too much grip strength required.

eufy E20: Design and features

The eufy robot vacuum 3-in-1 E20 is truly versatile. During the course of testing this combo in my home for two months, I found it tackled carpets, hardloors, sofas, upholstery and everything in between with ease. It was useful when trying to keep my house with cats clean.

The floorhead for the cordless has anti-hair wrap technology and the base unit has a feature to remove any that does get caught. The unit fared better than most, but as the brushroll has bristles, I still had to cut out some of my long hair from it once a month. It doesn't allow much to wrap however, and certainly no pet hair, meaning functionally, there wasn't any impact on the cleaning power.

The cordless and robot both moved easily between floor types, and the latter did not get bamboozled by oddly-shaped deep-pile rugs, though it went for a prolonged spin a couple of times around my vanity table's legs before sorting itself out.

The robot has not bumped into anything, and navigates reactively around my stubborn cats who will not move for it. The robot automatically adjusts suction and navigation when there is debris on the floor, otherwise, the suction mode remains at the level you have set it.

The stick vacuum mode does not adjust its suction automatically, but the combined power and mode button is right where your thumb naturally sits as you hold it, making it easy to switch between modes as needed.

Unlike many of the best Dyson vacuums, you do not have to keep your finger on the button for the eufy E20's cordless vacuum to operate continuously. Unlike the SwitchBot combination vacuum which you have to hold like a pipe, this has an ergonomic handle so you don’t fatigue from holding it.

As I have two cats, I have been using the eufy E20 every other day in my home, and found it to be particularly good on the stairs. The floorhead is nine inches wide, making it easy to glide across the full depth of your stairs.

The cordless unit only weighs 5lbs, and means even I can use it. I have a painful genetic disorder that leads to easy injury and dislocations. My wrists hurt and I have tendons bulging there so I haven't historically been able to cope with the weight of the average cordless, which can be up to 8lbs. It might not sound a lot but for anyone with grip issues or joint point, it will certainly make a difference.

The eufy E20 uses its AeroTurbo™ Five-Stage Filtration to capture up to 99.7% of particles as small as 0.3 microns, including bacteria, pollen, mites, hair, and even fleas.

The best vacuums with HEPA filters, great for allergies, are widely known as the industry's best as they capture up to 99.9% of particles, whilst non-HEPA vacuums vary wildly, and the capture rates are rarely shared on the latter.

The E20 base charging station is very compact and fits in my tiny upstairs hallway, right next to the stairs and in between two internal doors with no problem. I stubbed my toe on it once, but other than that, it's not obstructive!

Keep in mind that for the auto-emptying, the robot will move forward off the base, turn 180 degrees, and dock on the canister side. This means you will need adequate clearance in the front, around 3-4 feet, for this function. Some other eufy robots with stations like this need clearance on either side, but this one is fine without.

The base station has a dust bag in it, which the robot automatically empties into, meaning you don't have to come into contact with any allergens like you would for a bin design, such as Dyson that requires you to manually empty it, sending a plume of dust into your face despite your best work to avoid it.

The unit does not come with the wall holder for the cordless stick section, or anywhere to put the handheld brushhead, and it will cost

What is the eufy E20 like to use?

This combination vacuum is easy to use, great for everyday cleaning, and perfect for small homes. It's not loud, has lots of great features on the app to help you get the type of clean you need, including eco, standard, turbo and max suction modes.

You can also run the clean once or twice, add a specific zone to clean, or pick a room or the entire house.

The cordless is so light and comfortable to hold, the robot has brilliant object avoidance and identifies furniture and other elements in the room such as a corner with lots of charging cables to keep updating its maps in a super smart way.

When there is a spill on the floor, it detects it and doubles back or goes in different directions to avoid kicking debris out.

I vacuumed my velvet sofas with the handheld mode, using the extendable brushhead it comes with, and found it was able to pick up all normal crumbs and debris, as well as 90 per cent of the cat hair on the sofa.

The operation level of noise is comfortable, but the automatic dust collection is loud enough to make you briefly cringe. It registers on the Decibel X app as 75-79, which is the same as a regular vacuum or a drill.

The Deep Dust Collection is the same level of noise, but in multiple runs over a minute.

eufy E20: Pantry tests

I ran the various pantry tests devised by our expert home tech editor Dan Fauzi, who has spent more than 200 hours testing vacuums for Homes & Gardens. These tests allow us to objectively measure the cleaning performance of the eufy E20 and other vacuums, using pantry staples as a proxy for everyday debris, and compare this performance to others.

I ran these pantry tests using the stick and robot, on both carpets and my linoleum hard floors.

For the flour and sugar test, I used a combined spoonful, as in the past, the filters of eufy robot vacuums became clogged if I use a cup worth, and their engineers have told me this amount of powdery debris can damage the motor of a robot vacuum. A cup of flour also isn't representative of day to day dust volumes.

Flour and sugar are a good proxy for dust and dead skin, just some of the common messes found on floors in the average home. Flour is also an excellent visual test, allowing me to spot any leftovers on the floor or in the vacuum's parts.

For the cereal and lentil test, I used green lentils and puffed rice cereal to emulate large debris. In the past we have used harder cereals like Cheerios, but I find the rice puffs are good for identifying any vacuums that crush debris before vacuuming it up.

• Flour and sugar test on carpet: the robot managed about a third of it, even on max suction, and left a lot of debris on the floor. When I converted to stick, it sucked up all of it in two passes, which was impressive and rivalled cordless Dyson or Shark performance.
• Flour and sugar test on hard floors: the robot struggled again to collect all of it, but fared 50 per cent better than on carpet, even though I had to run suction to max mode. There was a little flour and sugar pushed into the grooves of the flooring. The cordless had no problem collecting it all up, including the grooves, on two passes on standard mode. In turbo or max mode, the stick picked it all up on one pass.
• One cup of cereal and lentils on carpet: in robot standard suction mode, it collected 90 per cent of both the rice and lentils. On turbo, one level down from max, it managed all but two of the green lentils, and all of the cereal. It did not crush anym and turn down the brushroll speed to avoid flicking the debris out. The spinning cleaning arm helped during this test to keep the debris where it had been dropped, and therefore did not widen the field of debris during vacuuming. It smartly rotated in a circle over the debris-heavy areas, combining the power of the cleaning arm, suction and brushroll to pick up as much as possible. The cordless vacuum mode of the eufy E20 made light work of collecting all the debris in two passes on standard mode, and one pass in turbo mode. Eco didn't collect everything, and max was not required.
• One cup of cereal and lentils on hard floors: it perfect much the same with large debris as it did on carpet, but did ping a couple of cereal pieces a bit further away. It collected them before returning to base.

Eufy E20 on Pet hair

I have two cats who are in currently in full spring shedding mode. They also love grooming themselves and sleeping on the stairs and on the hallway upstairs, so I used the E20 stick on the carpeted stairs and hallway, and the robot on the other side of the hallway.

I was impressed at how much cat hair the stick pulled up on the stairs and hallway. The dust bin is transparent, as you can see above, so you can spot how much hair is in there at any time.

I used a handheld pet hair scraping tool on the carpet afterwards, and there was still cat hair left, but more so where the baseboards met the carpet whether you vacuum backwards and forwards to the baseboard, or run your hoover along it. The same thing happens on the stairs meaning debris right up at the edge might not be picked up.

eufy E20 attachments

I then used the handheld E20 mode with the attachments to clean my baseboards, where it easily picked up the embarrassing layer of fluff I had ignored for some time.

Downstairs, I used the attachment on the handheld for my velvet sofas. In the middle section where the seat cushions meet and a large seam runs down, is where my cats like to groom themselves and nap, usually leaving the crevice-filled area covered in fur.

The attachment with bristles picked up 90 per cent of the pet hair, but visibly left some behind. This was, from what I observed, because the attachment has soft bristles that allow the attachment to break full suction on the surface. I took the fluffy head off and the attachment and it collected any leftover pet hair.

The bristled head was great for vacuuming dust off surfaces such as nightstands, windowsills and baseboards, collecting all of it in one pass, without scratching anything.

eufy E20: Cleaning & maintenance

As mentioned earlier, the robot empties itself and you can trigger a Deep Dust Collection when needed. I've used that function twice as the usual collection is more than enough to clean the vacuum.

This is the same for the handheld and stick as you have to place the motor and canister in the robot vacuum housing to charge it. I like that on the app you can set times for the automatic dust collection to run or not run.

I used this feature so it didn't make a loud dust-collecting noise past my daughter's bedtime. If vacuuming after this time, it completes the collection operation the next morning, when you prompt it or when it detects the canister is full enough during normal collecting hours.

No dust or debris comes out, which is one way vacuums can help with allergies. It's all collected in a dust bag in the station, which promises up to 75 days of continuous collection before it needs replacing.

There have only been two blockages in the robot's brushroll during two months of testing in my home. One was a necklace in my daughter's room, and the other was a plastic covered metal tie.

Both times the app alerted me to the blockage, paused cleaning and gave me a step-by-step of how to clear it, though I didn't follow them as the robot is very intuitive to take apart and put back together.

I haven't yet needed to replace the vacuum bag. The filters are replacable. Both are provided with the initial purchase and more are available to buy on the eufy site.

How does the eufy E20 compare?

The E20 costs $649.99 at full price and is available at eufy currently with a $250 discount, which you copy a code for on site and apply to the checkout.

You also buy it with an accessory kit for $592.98, that gives you two extra filters, two spinning arms, a guard, three dust bags and an extra brushroll. This is the one I have and I think it's worth it to have what you need for easy maintenance. The $250 is applicable for this too.

The price point is cheaper than the SwitchBot K10 Pro Combi (usually $799.99, but currently on offer with $400 off on site), but the latter has proven glitchy for our team's testing for setup, mapping and longevity.

The eufy Robot Vacuum Omni S1 Pro is an elite robot vacuum with mopping function and typically costs $1499.99, though we've seen it discounted by around $500 in sales.

It doesn't have any handheld functionality but, it's excellent, enormously reducing canister vacuum usage, making it absolutely worth the spend. However, it's a bulkier base unit and cannot be used as a stick vacuum like the E20.

Should you buy the E20?

After thouroughly testing the eufy E20 in my home, I am giving it 4 stars out of 5 because it has one major drawback, and that is the cleaning power of the robot vacuum. However, it's worth noting if you spot some debris, the easy stick conversion makes light work of picking up the remainder so it's not a dealbreaker for me, but it might be for you.

This vacuum is however especially good for small homes, so you can enjoy a robot, cordless and hanheld without needing to find space to store all three separate cleaning tools.

The base unit footprint is small, too. With its extensive battery life and rapid charging, it still works for a larger home as an add-on combination vacuum for light clean-ups.

How we test vacuums

At Homes & Gardens, we have a dedicated and thorough procedure of how we test vacuums.

I tested for two months in my home, across carpeted and hard floors, using the robot, handheld and stick functions and running daily cleaning and maintenance alongside our objective pantry tests.

If the eufy Robot vacuum 3-in-1 isn't quite right for you, and you're looking for great cleaning power on a budget, consider one of the best Dyson alternatives.