This twin-turbine robot vacuum is a steal at $400 with a Memorial Day deal

What’s the deal? 

Amazon is offering the Eufy X8 Pro for 38% off its regular price, dropping the robot vacuum to $400. 

ZDNET’s key takeaways 

• The Eufy X8 Pro is a two-in-one robot vacuum and mop in the midrange market. 
• It’s the industry’s first vacuum to feature dual TurboCyclone Suction units to clean different surface types effectively.
• Eufy’s Pro-Detangle feature was less effective in my house, which is full of dogs and cats.

Cleaning pet hair is something I struggle with in my home. It’s on my floors, my couches, my clothes, and even my dining room table. And the only way I’ve found even remotely to keep up with it is by running a robot vacuum every day because who has the time to run a handheld vacuum daily? 

If you do, you have my respect. Truly. That’s to say, when the Eufy X8 Pro showed up on my doorstep with the promise of being the pet hair cleaning expert; I immediately put it to work.

Also: The best robot vacuums for pet hair you can buy

The Eufy X8 Pro claims to have an active detangling roller brush meant to prevent itself from clogging up pet hair. The company also says this is the first vacuum to feature dual TurboCyclone Suction motors (two fans that run at 4,000Pa). To test the claims, I gave the vacuum the entirety of my home for a month. Let’s talk about how it did. 

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The Eufy X8 Pro has several distinctive features, including a dual TurboCyclone Suction, which is an industry first. The X8 Pro has two 4,000Pa vacuum motors that vacuum up every little bit of dirt and debris scattered throughout the home. With four different suction levels — quiet, standard, turbo, and max — I found that my carpets and rugs generally come out with beautiful carpet lines and are hair-free after cleanings. When the robot detects softer surfaces, the BoostIQ feature kicks in, ramping up the suction power to lift all the dirt and debris out of the carpet.

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When cleaning the rest of my home, sections of which are tiled, I found that the X8 Pro could get a little carried away with its side brush. Occasionally, instead of the brush kicking the dirt and debris into the brush roller, it would fling the pieces elsewhere, sometimes where the vacuum had already cleaned. This seemed to happen more with debris like stray cat litter and pieces of dirt rather than pet hair or dust bunnies. This isn’t a big deal if you’re running the X8 Pro daily, but you might be disappointed in the cleaning capabilities if you’re hoping for this to clean everything up on a single run. 

The Eufy X8 Pro is a two-in-one machine, but the mopping functionality is best described as just a wet pad to get dust off your floor rather than deep-cleaning. I’ve never been a fan of this wet mop head mechanic because it often builds up dirty water and uses that to drag along the floors. 

If you don’t have kids or pets who shuffle around the house, the wet pad may tickle your fancy, but my home has all of those things, so a true mopping feature is a must-have for me. Here’s a great list of two-in-one machines that will do your floors justice.

Review: Roomba Combo J7+: A 2-in-1 robot vacuum done (almost) right

Despite that, the Eufy X8 Pro is an intelligent robot vacuum that uses iPath Laser Navigation to clean in neat, consistent rows. It mapped my home’s layout quickly and efficiently and even attempted to divide the space into areas that it thought were different rooms. 

Both of these features worked well and made the app very straightforward to understand. However, one downfall with the X8 Pro is the lack of object avoidance. I was in trouble if I didn’t pick up the cords, toys, and stuffed animals before the Eufy did its thing. For some people, this isn’t an issue (myself included) on certain days. Sometimes I have my life together and my floors look clean and pristine, but that’s usually not the case. I lost a lamp cord and a baby toy to the X8 Pro, which was unfortunate.

Also: This robot vacuum mop combo has a brilliant self-cleaning feature I didn’t know I needed

Lastly, Eufy says the X8 Pro will keep its rollers tangle-free, a bold claim considering how difficult it can be to manage through strings of pet hair. But between my own long hair and the fur from my German Shepherd, German Shorthaired Pointer, and cat, robot vacuum rollers are often clogged when they make their way into my home. Unfortunately, the Eufy X8 Pro had a similar ending; after every clean, I had to unclog the rollers manually.

ZDNET’s buying advice

The question now is, who should buy this robot vacuum? After weeks of testing, my consensus is that for soft surfaces like carpets and rugs, the Eufy X8 Pro is an amazing cleaner, especially for the mid-range price point. And really, it does a great job on my tile flooring, too, even with the occasional mishap from the side brush. Don’t buy into the Pro-Detangle Comb marketing, especially if you have several furry friends around the house.