eufy S11 Infinity, Cordless Stick Vac

Read on for more details, but the TL:DR(too long: didn’t read) is that it doesn’t suck well, it is difficult to empty, it jams constantly, battery life seems poor, ergonomics seem poor, and overall fit and finish makes this unpleasant to use. I would buy another robovac from eufy, but will never buy another handheld from them and I think it is too late to get my money back. That being said if I can get my money back I would love my money back. Please give me my money back. At the time of purchase I paid $169.99. I need to preface this review so you know what I’m working with: I have 4 cats and 2 dogs. I have hard flooring all throughout my house, no carpeting. I know it’s a lot of hair but dangit, other vacuums have held up. I bought the eufy l70 hybrid when it came out and was very, very happy with it. It makes me happy to watch it work and I love it. Then a year later I got tired of vacuuming my upstairs so I bought the eufy X8 and that one had even more features that made it an excellent product. Neither were perfect, but are the best for the price. I thought at first glance that I liked this product when it arrived, but soon discovered that nearly everything about it is annoying, doesn’t hold up to use, and is poorly designed. Let’s start at the wall mount and work through it all; Flimsy, poorly thought out, it actually holds all the accessories but only just and the charger is not built in… Which brings me to the charger; I thought this would have a leg up on the dyson I had because it came with 2 (WOW) batteries! Turns out that if I leave it plugged into the vacuum and charging, the battery is dead within minutes of using it, if I charge the spare battery then it does marginally better. Battery life was better than the dyson is now (5 + years of use) but when they were new there was no comparison on high suction. The dyson wall charger is just excellent, it comes in the box as a separate charger and wall mount but the instructions have you shove the plug into a spring loaded hinged contraption inside the wall mount that makes it so the charging cable is built into the dock where you store it. Every time you take it off the wall it’s fully charged! Brilliant! Speaking of the suction power levels… This device is set to medium by default, which sounds ok if you haven’t had the displeasure of trying to use it on pet hair. Every. Time. You. Want. To. Change. The. Suction. You have to push the button. It makes me feel like you felt reading the last line. If you take your finger off the trigger, you have to push it again. There is no way to change this default. The low setting is completely useless, the medium setting is still useless, and the high setting actually pushes debris into the vacuum chamber sometimes… Moving down the device, lets talk about the vacuum chamber I have three specific complaints, all of which are crucial to use the thing; 1.) Jamming during use This vacuum jams almost constantly. I am not being hyperbolic, I cannot clean one whole room in my house without having to clear a jam. On the dyson, the vacuum tube and chamber almost never clogs unless you push it way too hard. On the eufy s11 HomeVac when trying to suck up hair using any attachment, even the hair attachment it clogs immediately. Nearly. Every. Time. This happens even if the tank is fully empty to start with. I have NEVER been able to fill it because it jams before I get that far. Speaking of capacity, you’ll never want more space on this model because it jams. It’s a moot point. It seems like they made every part of the plumbing on this device too small, and/or the motor is underpowered to pull dust into the chamber. 2.) How to empty it Every time I empty it, the hair, dust, and dirt springs out and apart flinging debris in a lovely messy spiral flying everywhere except the trash can. On a dyson, you pull one lever upward and the waste drops out of the bottom into the trash, then you push it back together and you’re ready to suck. On the eufy s11 HomeVac when you want to empty it you must first find a place to put the vacuum if you didn’t install the wall mount directly over the garbage, then you have to fully remove the chamber from the device with the trash button. At this point half the time the internal filter falls out. Then you walk to the garbage and according to eufy you can push a button to drop the bottom and waste out…but… You can’t do that. It doesn’t work. Ever. Maybe if your house is full of only sand or finely crushed cornflakes this would work? But, with hair, it packs in tightly into the first 2 inches of the chamber and you must separate the chamber into two pieces with a twist that throws all the things you vacuumed onto your floor and sometimes into your face… the only fix I have for this is to have someone standing with a second vacuum to catch the debris but that is not cost effective. 3.) How unjam it If it jams, when it jams, it will jam… you will never not jam this vacuum if you have hair in your house. So… to unjam, sometimes it gets stuck in the chamber, most of the time it gets stuck in the tube that is built into the handle/motor part of the vacuum before the chamber. When it jams like this you have to find a stick or stick like object to jam through the jammed stuff. Then the vacuum will not suck through this tube until you put the chamber back on, so to test it you have to put it fully back together and if it’s still jammed you get to do it again. Finally, accessories On paper, the accessories sound fine, you get a narrow nozzle, a wide brush, a narrow brush, a medium hard nozzle with bristles, a long hard extension tube, and a useless bendy tube as well as a spare battery. All the sucking attachments feel cheap, none of them click into the vacuum very well and they sometimes fall out if they aren’t fully seated, none of them quite feel like they fit the device right. I called the bendy tube useless because you have to hold the trigger the entire time you want suction and a bendy tube is made to be twisted and held independent from the awkwardly weighted and ungainly body of the vacuum so you have to hold the vacuum close to your chest and aim the bendy tube separately and it’s an ergonomic nightmare to try and use this way. My final thoughts; I am honestly shocked that my robovac and this vacuum are made by the same company because they feel worlds apart. There is no meaningful comparison to be made. The robovac works and this Eufy s11 HomeVac simply doesn’t. It doesn’t suck. It just…sucks.