Eureka attacks the top of the range sector with a robot that is complete in every aspect and with the first self-cleaning system on the market for the base that also removes solid residues.
As an introduction, it is necessary to make a small historical note because few, especially in Europe, know that Eureka is one of the historic vacuum cleaner brands together with brands like Vorwerk; founded in 1909, it was one of the first vacuum cleaner manufacturers in North America, owned by Electrolux until 1974 when it was acquired by Midea, so even if you have heard little about it, it is not a new emerging company but a brand with more than 100 years of history behind it.
At IFA 2024 in Berlin, Eureka amazed everyone by presenting not only its first real top of the range robot vacuum cleaner but one of the most powerful, technological and innovative robots on the market. The J15 Pro Ultra is not simply an incremental improvement over the J12 as is typically the case in the industry but has such a massive amount of innovations that it competes with and in some respects even surpasses many flagships from other brands. Eureka’s slogan “literally everything you want from a flagship” is not, as we will see, just marketing.
UNBOXING AND BUILD QUALITY
J15 Pro Ultra is sold in two colors, black and white, in the package we find everything needed to put the robot into operation, however there are no spare parts or a test pack of detergent. The quality of the materials is good, everything has a decent weight and gives the impression of a solid and well-built product, excellent assembly and no noise or creaking was detected when handling the various doors, filter box, tank etc. all the parts are well engineered.
TECHNOLOGIES AND INNOVATIONS
The Base
I’ll start right away with the only thing that the base doesn’t do, which is to automatically dose the detergent, this action is still up to the user and if we want to be picky, the 4-liter water tanks for clean water and 3.4-liter for dirty water are slightly undersized, the dimensions of the base are 395*458*468 mm.
The automatic station empties the dust into the 3-liter bag, fills the robot with water, washes the mops with hot water up to 75 degrees and dries them with hot air at 55 degrees, it also boasts one of the best self-cleaning systems I’ve tested to date.
Looking at the mop washing tray that is completely removable and easy to maintain as all the parts are removable and washable, I was impressed by the engineers’ ability to create a system that is almost completely maintenance-free and at the same time simple and efficient. During the cleaning of the mops, two rotating systems with 3 arms take care of scraping all the water and dirt, driven by the rotation of the mops themselves, and convey them towards a whirlpool that takes care of improving the suction of the dirty water and, thanks to a mesh filter, of retaining all the solid particles of dirt. These residues, once dried, will be sucked into the bag after drying. This is a feature that I am seeing for the first time and that really extends the maintenance times of the washing plate, which in fact for the first time really cleans itself of both liquid and solid residues. I can say that the base, if it were not for the lack of an automatic detergent dispenser and the possibility of connecting to the water system, would really be one of the first true hands-free bases.
The Robot
The robot has a square shape with very rounded edges, it measures 354*355*117mm. It reaches the impressive power of 16200PA thanks also to a new brushless motor with aluminum fans, this power is not only among the highest on the market (surpassed only by the 18500PA of the Qrevo Curv) but it is even more impressive when you consider that many common corded and cordless vacuum cleaners from the same company do not reach such suction powers. The robot is not equipped with an extendable side brush like the latest top models of the competition but its square shape helps it to better fit into corners while still ensuring good coverage.
However, suction power is not everything, you also need a brush capable of collecting and conveying dirt effectively without getting caught in hair and Eureka has an answer for this too with FlexyRazor™️ technology. Every time the robot returns to the base after completing the vacuuming, a brush cleaning phase is started, thanks to two rows of 4mm blades that move 400 times per minute positioned inside the seat of the brush itself.
The suction performance is in my opinion excellent and reflects the characteristics indicated by Eureka, excellent also the cleaning of carpets thanks to the mixed bristle and rubber brush, the anti-tangle technology does its job very well and with an Akita Shepperd and 3 cats that go in and out of the house I have never had to remove a single hair from the brush, the noise however is not the lowest, I imagine it is not easy to silence all those PA but it could certainly be soundproofed better.
Like every top of the range, the washing aspect has not been overlooked, the two rotating mops apply a constant pressure of 7N and the cleaning of the edges is guaranteed by the ScrubExtend™️ system which allows the right mop to extend while maintaining the 7N, furthermore this technology prevents the extendable arm from hitting the furniture and at the same time damaging the mechanism, using the friction generated during washing to extend and retract the mop keeping it as close as possible to the edges and furniture, the excellent construction quality of the mop supports with a shock-absorbing rubber edge also helps.
Eureka has conducted numerous durability and effectiveness tests on all the parts subject to wear and on the efficiency of the implemented technologies, for example the ScrubExtend™️ system has been subjected to over 100,000 extension tests which correspond to approximately 36 months of intensive daily use.
A few personal considerations on this aspect, the robot washes the floors and mops like a top of the range but compared to all it manages to keep the base clean for much longer, in fact the maintenance and cleaning that I usually do to all my robots every 7/10 days has turned out to be almost superfluous in its case.
NAVIGATION AND EFFICIENCY
The mapping of the environments is very consistent with the actual environment, sometimes as in other robots ghost zones are created but Eureka has reported that it is implementing a function to be able to eliminate or hide them. The navigation is excellent and the algorithm is efficient, in suction mode it took 76 minutes to vacuum 67 square meters with an efficiency of about 1.13 minutes per square meter.
The 5200mAh battery is well managed and managed to cover the 130 square meters of my ground floor with still residual charge. In fact, the only flaw is represented by the high water consumption and the slightly undersized tanks that require being filled and emptied frequently and often you will find yourself with a wash paused waiting to refill the water.
APPLICATION AND AI
App
By opening the Eureka app you will find yourself in front of a complete and user-friendly app, you can create up to 3 maps and customize them in every aspect, dividing the rooms, renaming them, choosing the positioning of the furniture and the material of the floor. There are customizable shortcuts, you can set many options such as the behavior of the robot on carpets, improved cleaning of edges, corners, spaces under furniture and around the furniture itself such as table and chair legs. You can set the effectiveness of the hair removal system from the brush and how many times to perform the self-emptying of the dust, there is also an intelligent mode that empties the container several times, useful in the presence of animals that shed a lot of hair and a comfort mode that reduces the noise of the self-emptying but also slightly its efficiency; every how many square meters to return to the base to wash the mops, the washing mode on 3 levels of efficiency and whether to use cold, hot or very hot water, you can choose how many washes the mop should self-clean. Of course, all the settings that are common to all robots are present, such as the ability to set prohibited areas and virtual walls, schedule cleaning, see data on cleaning already done, the menu to check the wear of consumables, the do not disturb mode, firmware update, manuals, and not to be underestimated a well-structured feedback section that I recommend using as Eureka has proven to be very attentive to the feedback received from users.
There are 6 cleaning modes: vacuuming, washing, vacuuming and washing, vacuuming and then washing, custom which allows you to choose different settings for each room, and finally the smart mode which takes care of automatically managing cleaning, the smart mode is not selectable in the cleaning schedule and it would be convenient to be able to also use custom shortcuts in the schedule, Eureka is working on these last two aspects and they will probably be added soon together with other improvements.
An aspect that definitely needs improvement regarding the app are the sporadic slowdowns and the slowness in updating the robot’s patterns in real time and the division of the environments.
AI
With J15 Eureka has also introduced a video camera with two LEDs for use in dark environments and an AI still in full development called IntelliView™️, although it has found that the quality of the video camera is not very high, these additions have opened the doors to many advanced features such as video surveillance, which does not have the video quality of competitors but has the TÜV certification for privacy and data protection, a very important aspect.
Capable of recognizing and undertaking dynamic strategies to avoid more than 150 obstacles, the already very advanced AI does not stop there, in fact it is able to recognize whether the dirt on the floor is dry or if there are liquids, in the presence of wet dirt it uses a particular cleaning strategy. Instead of using the roller brush, which would transport the wet debris into the dust container causing the formation of lumps, the J15 Pro Ultra rotates its body to give priority to cleaning with mops, furthermore the FlexiRise™️ technology allows the robot to lift the roller brush intelligently; This combination of AI and advanced technology ensures a clean and efficient cleaning process, preventing the robot from getting dirty or creating a mess. If the stain is dry and stubborn, the robot returns to the base to wash the mops and performs another specific wash. IntelliView™️ also optimizes the speed of the side brush if it detects the presence of large quantities of dry dirt in order to avoid spreading it around. Furthermore, by combining a carpet detection sensor and a video camera, the AI is able to recognize carpets with good precision and lifts the mops by 12mm.
The AI also takes care of smartly undertaking optimal cleaning and washing strategies by cross-referencing parameters such as the type of room, the material of the floor, the weather reports in the area and how much time has passed since the last cleaning.
Although the amount of functions and innovations is remarkable, many aspects of the algorithm and AI still need to be improved, sometimes it happened that the cables were not correctly avoided and the stain recognition function detected some false positives or did not detect the stain.
THE GOOD
- The self-cleaning system of the base is among the best tested
- The 16200PA ensure excellent suction performance
- Complete and well-structured app
- Excellent washing performance
- The anti-tangle system works very well and is adaptable to different scenarios
THE BAD
- Undersized tanks and high water consumption
- The AI is promising but still needs a lot of work
- It is not among the quietest robots
- Low video quality in video surveillance mode
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
The Eureka J15 Pro Ultra already proves to be one of the most promising high-end robots at launch, if Eureka will be able to file down the small defects and develop the AI properly to effectively exploit the many features offered, it could turn out to be an unexpected best buy also given the competitive price. The self-cleaning capacity of the base is impressive and would deserve larger tanks or a kit for water connection as some competitors already offer, and why not an automatic detergent distribution system.
Eureka has taken an important step towards a hands-free system with its self-cleaning system and the excellent anti-tangle system and it is certainly a direction that should be followed with its next top of the range.
NonSoloRobot™️
Eureka Community Italia
LINK AMAZON
eureka site
