Eufy RoboVac G30 Edge robot vacuum review

Among the best robot vacuums, Eufy may not have the marketing pizzaz of Roomba or Shark, but its line of robot vacuums have consistently been strong cleaners that perform nearly as well as their higher-priced competitors. Eufy’s newest robot vacuum, the RoboVac G30 Edge, is yet another such product.

Priced at $349, the RoboVac G30 can map its surroundings and is paired with an updated app that’s pleasant to use and more intuitive than previous iterations. But does the Eufy RoboVac G30 Edge have what it takes to be one of the best robot vacuums?

Eufy RoboVac G30 Edge: Price and availability

The Eufy RoboVac G30 Edge went on sale on Amazon in July 2020 for $369. A very similar model, the RoboVac G30, was released at the same time for $319. The G30 Edge model includes support for magnetic boundary strips, which helps keep robot vacuums from straying into unwanted areas, but aren’t especially attractive. Two strips are included with the G30 Edge.

Eufy RoboVac G30 Edge: Design

Eufy’s robot vacuums have always had a distinct, mostly refined look and that hasn’t changed with the RoboVac G30 Edge: shiny black plastic around the edges, blue accents on the dustbin and blue lights up top. The G30 Edge greatly tones down the Tron-look of its predecessor, the RoboVac 30C, with subtle bronze concentric circles radiating out from the center of the top of the vac. A Wi-Fi indicator light sits above three physical buttons: a play/pause button that looks borrowed from a CD player; a recharge button to dock it; and a spot cleaning button.

The Eufy RoboVac G30 Edge is identical in size to its siblings, the RoboVac 11s and the RoboVac 30C. It’s a mere 12.8 inches in diameter and 2.85 inches high, making it an inch shorter than the Neato D4. It will also glide under more low clearance furniture than the 3.4-inch Shark Ion R85. 

Flip the vac over and you’ll find a small roller brush set between two rubberized wheels. The rubber and bristle combo roller on the RoboVac G30 Edge is identical to that on the RoboVac 30C and the 11s. The bristles are thick; we had a much harder time removing dog hair from it than we did the thinner bristles on the Neato D4. A tri-spoked spinning brush sits at the top left corner of the G30 Edge. A path-tracking sensor sits on the upper right corner.

Unfortunately, the dustbin on the Eufy RoboVac G30 Edge is also identical to the bin on the RoboVac 30C and 11s. It pops open way too easily, and more than once we sent dust particles flying everywhere on our way to the trash bin.

Eufy RoboVac G30 Edge: Setup & App

One of the biggest advantages of the Eufy RoboVac G30 Edge is its app, EufyHome (Android and iOS). The app has been massively updated from when we used it with the RoboVac 30C and it’s impressive. For starters, setting up the Eufy RoboVac G30 Edge was a breeze. Following the directions on the app, our iPhone 11 Pro quickly connected to the bot.

The EufyHome app has straightforward controls placed on the lower third of the home page. From here you can start a cleaning, choose the suction power, recharge the bot, initiate spot cleaning, set up a schedule, and view cleaning history. There’s an animation that plays when the bot is running, along with a running timer, square footage cleaned, and battery level. Though unnecessary, the animation is cute and adds personality. Hey, if I can name my bot Vacky McVacface, why shouldn’t Eufy add a little whimsy, too?

Eufy placed its newest feature, mapping, in the lower right corner of the animation. Tapping on the icon displays the most recent map in a pop-up screen. The map shows the location of the vacuum and the dock, with the square footage cleaned and run time above it. You can zoom in on the map… and that’s it. There’s no virtual boundaries or rooms to be set. The map just exists. So why include mapping capability? The idea is that once the robot creates a map, it’s able to complete future cleanings more quickly and more thoroughly because it knows where it’s going.

While the G30 Edge is cleaning, a white dot representing the vacuum moves around the screen, creating a map as it goes. This could be useful when you’re not home and the vac gets stuck somewhere. Like the Neato D4, the Eufy RoboVac G30 Edge can only hold one map in its memory at a time. 

Tapping the Settings menu on the EufyHome app reveals several additional features. First, you can share control of the bot with friends or family members who have the EufyHome app installed. Another feature, “Find My Robot,” causes the bot to play a loud tune until it’s located, helpful if it gets stuck under a couch. There’s also manual controls, which gives the user complete control over the G30 Edge’s movements forward, left and right. You have to hold down the virtual buttons on the phone in order to keep the vacuum moving, but it’s a fun way to chase the dog.

Under Settings, you’ll also find Auto-return cleaning. Should the G30 Edge run out of power before its job is complete, it will recharge itself on the dock, then head off to finish the job. The G30 Edge is rated for 110 minutes of runtime, which we found to be adequate for cleaning the first floor of our house, but it’s a nice feature to have for larger homes.

Eufy RoboVac G30 Edge: Performance

Is this thing on? That was our first impression of the Eufy RoboVac G30 Edge. I dropped a peanut in front of the bot to check if its suction was active. Indeed it was; it’s just an exceptionally quiet cleaner. I was able to hold a conversation at normal volume the entire time the G30 Edge was running. It was a very pleasant change from the Neato D4 and the achingly loud iRobot Roomba s9.

Watching the RoboVac G30 Edge clean, it’s obvious that Eufy has done its homework. The scattershot cleaning patterns of the RoboVac 11s and 30C have given way to an orderly back and forth pattern. It was more reminiscent of the Neato D4 and higher-end robots like the iRobot Roomba s9. While we appreciated its methodical cleaning approach, we noticed that it still seemed to clean a few areas with more gusto than others. For example, it spent a lot of time vacuuming around one chair in our living room, but gave the area around our kitchen table a mere once-over before calling it done.

Though we greatly enjoyed the Eufy G30 Edge’s quiet demeanor, we wish its performance in our lab tests was better. The G30 Edge was a middling cleaner, earning an overall pick up average of 88.94%, which is lower than both the Shark Ion R85 and the budget-friendly iLife V3s Pro. However, it did beat its sibling, the RoboVac 30C, and the Neato D4 ever so slightly.

It should be noted that the G30 and the D4 were tested in a different space than the R85 and 30C; we will update these figures once we’ve had a chance to re-test the R85. 

*Similar test performed in a smaller 5 x 5-foot area.

If your home is primarily hardwood floors and cat free, the Eufy RoboVac G30 Edge might just be the robot vacuum you’ve been waiting for. The bot picked up 97.4% of the Cheerios spilled on our test area-- normally an excellent result-- but just shy of the perfect scores obtained by the Shark Ion R85 and the Eufy RoboVac 11s and 30C. But what impressed us most is how the G30 Edge didn’t crush or pulverize the cereal as it vacuumed. Most of the Cheerios were undamaged when we opened the dustbin. 

We were also impressed by the G30 Edge’s performance with pet hair on bare floors. The vacuum collected 96.5% of the dog hair on hardwood, though a fair amount of hair was wrapped around the roller brush. Even still, it picked up more than the Neato D4 (93%) and the Shark Ion R85 (77.5%).

Like many of the robot vacuums we’ve tested, the Eufy RoboVac G30 Edge picked up 100% of the Cheerios we dropped on carpet. Unfortunately, its cleaning of smaller particles wasn’t as good. Kitty litter was particularly challenging for the vac as it only picked up 72.6% on carpet, falling below the RoboVac 11s (85%) and 30C (82.6%). It was nearly 20 percentage points below our current favorite, the Shark Ion R85. 

The RoboVac G30 Edge’s pet hair performance on carpet also elicited a “woof.” It picked up 78% of the Golden Retriever hair strewn on the soft surface, 6 points below the Neato D4 and 20 points below the Shark Ion R85.

Eufy RoboVac G30 Edge: Verdict

There is a lot to like about the Eufy RoboVac G30 Edge. It’s quiet, it’s compact and its accompanying app is easy to use and full of options. At less than $300, the G30 Edge is cheaper, quieter and more attractive than the $429 Neato D4, but it lacks the latter’s ability to create virtual no-go zones and excellent edge cleaning. The G30 Edge also adds basic mapping and a slew of other “nice to have, but not critical” features that are superior to the $349 Shark Ion R85, which is why it’s one of the best cheap robot vacuums. The G30 Edge is a bit more fun to use—which isn’t something you can often say about the chore of vacuuming.