The new Eufy C28 is the most budget-friendly roller mop robot vacuum. I tried it against the top 2 in its class.

We're in the year of the roller mop robot vacuum. While the dual rotating mopping pad setup was heavily favored for most of 2025, the whole industry is doubling down on the roller's heavy-duty spill cleanup in 2026. The thing is, roller mop vacuums haven't been a chill purchase so far. Most take up a lot of floor space and cost $1,000 or more. As the robot vacuum pipeline goes, a need quickly arose for the premium roller mop feature to be condensed into a more budget-friendly and space-friendly package. That's where the Eufy C28 comes in — I've been testing it at home against the other top robot vacuums of the past year, including high-end roller mops like the Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller and the Roborock Qrevo Curv 2 Flow.

What's special about the Eufy C28?

The Eufy C28 is the most affordable mainstream roller mop robot vacuum we've seen so far. Its official MSRP of $799.99 is already lower than the regular asking price of others in this category, but its special $599.99 launch price is unprecedentedly cheap for the budding roller mop category. The cutback on price also comes with a cutback in suction power: The Eufy C28 has 15,000 Pa compared to the 30,000+ Pa models coming out of CES 2026.

The C28's compactness is also a huge selling point for consumers shopping for small spaces. The dock takes up far less room than most docks of the other best robot vacuum and mop combos that wash and dry their own mopping pads. (The new Roborock Qrevo Curv 2 Flow's dock is a similar size, but it's a few hundred dollars more expensive.) This size comparison immediately had me thinking back to all of my smushed NYC apartments. The Eufy C28 is the rare compact robot vacuum that would have been a realistic squeeze.

Is the Eufy C28 good at mopping?

When it comes to big spills and dried stains, the Eufy C28 is easily the most efficient robot mop in the $600 to $800 price range I've ever tested. It even held its own against the Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller and Roborock Qrevo Curv 2 Flow.

Dust pickup has been one of the two overarching advantages of all of the roller mop robot vacuums I've tested so far, and the Eufy C28's roller has been leaving my tile and hardwood floors speck-free. The radius around a litter box is the ultimate dry debris test for a robot vacuum's mopping skills — especially the Litter-Robot in my kitchen, which uses tiny brown litter that blends in with the brown wooden floor. Instead of trying to eyeball, the Dyson PencilVac's laser set up such a clear before-and-after montage of the C28's mastery of dust and dirt.

Kitty litter dust is so fine and clingy that a vacuum alone often can't lift the particles. But a wet pressurized roller mop coming through is the closest you'll get to a person's hand wiping with a wet towel. The C28's roller measures almost 11 inches long, so it covers a lot of ground in one pass, too. That perfectly polished trail tells me that the Eufy C28 would be a great robot vacuum for pet hair on hard floors.

The Eufy C28 has also been doing a solid job of sopping up a variety of liquid spills, from wine and orange juice to ranch and conditioner that exploded on my bathroom floor. The C28 handily wiped up spilled wine and all chunks of spilled salsa on its first attempt (I just know even the best spinning mopping pads would have spattered some peppers around). I sent it back for a second pass to absorb the faint liquid-y streak left at the site of the splatter, but I wouldn't even compare that "smearing" to the foot-long smear of assorted condiments that other robot mops have left in my kitchen. Roller mop robot vacuums rinse themselves as they're mopping to prevent gunking up the rest of the floor — Eufy says its HydroJet system cleans itself nine times per second.

But I'm most surprised about the fact that the Eufy C28 doesn't completely flop along edges. Its roller mop doesn't extend out from under the vacuum like the Roborock Qrevo Curv 2 Flow's does, but the C28's square-shaped body has successfully made the bot more wall-friendly (and I've seen some robot vacs with flat sides that still cut corners). It might miss the first corner of the cleaning session while it gets its bearings, or if the flat edge is only a foot or two long. But overall, the Eufy C28 has skimmed walls, closed closet doors, and right up against our shoes near the front door.

Is the Eufy C28 good on carpet?

For having half the suction power of the most powerful robot vacuums in 2026, the Eufy C28 has proven to be pretty potent on the various rugs in my apartment. Its 15,000 Pa was potent enough to clear a mess of spilled catnip and crushed potato chips from my tufted living room rug, leaving no visible crumbs behind. The lint roller test afterward only revealed a few minuscule catnip flakes and some light cat hair and fuzzies.

I probably wouldn't classify the Eufy C28 as one of the absolute best robot vacuums for pet hair on carpet, but it could reliably keep up with surface-level shedding from a pet or two if you run it every day. Case in point: I gathered a big handful of lint from the dryer and dragged it all over the plush rug in the hallway, making sure to press the gray fluff into the furs. The C28 left that white rug virtually spotless.

The Eufy C28 didn't just give up on debris lingering around rug edges, either, and that's the last rug-related win I expected from the budget vacuum. Here's what I've gathered: What the C28 lacks in technical suction power, it makes up for by taking its damn time. My number one tip to make any robot vacuum work better is to simply make every cleaning session a twofer — any robot vac is bound to miss some spots the first time around. And the Eufy C28 takes that second pass seriously.

After the standard "edges first, center last" sweep of session number one, the C28 goes back with a whole new game plan. Its cleaning path will often be perpendicular to what it did the first time, and every few seconds, it fully pauses to spin in a circle over the same spot to uproot the real stubborn stuff. This strategy worked wonders when straddling the rug and wood floor.

Factors I'm keeping an eye on

Competition from Dreame and Roborock aside, the Eufy C28's spotlight gets stolen a little bit by the unassuming Eufy E28. I personally don't think enough people know about this model from April 2025. The E28 is a roller mop robot vacuum mop combo that comes with a portable carpet cleaner built into the self-empty dock, and its 20,000 Pa of suction power slightly surpasses the C28's 15,000 Pa. It's more expensive than the C28 if they're both at full price, but the E28 is almost always on sale for $699.99 — just $100 more than the C28's $599.99 sale price at launch. Though the C28's edge scrubbing feels more evolved this year, the Eufy E28 could be an easier sell to pet parents in carpeted homes.

While I have no concerns with the Eufy C28's overall smart mapping accuracy, its actual driving is a little bit wobbly. Literally. The best way I can describe it is the shaky steering of a kid who's riding without training wheels for the first time. The swiveling could cause it to miss some crumbs around the outskirts of the room (when it's really just supposed to be driving in a straight line). It was swerving enough to get itself wedged between my kitchen rug and dishwasher for almost a minute before ramming its way out. And that doesn't feel like an obstacle avoidance issue, since the C28 has been pretty perceptive otherwise. Its 4.5-inch build just isn't slim enough to safely scoot under most dishwashers or low-clearance furniture and cabinets.

The Eufy C28 is also one of the louder robot vacuums I've tested in the past year. The blaring roar of its max suction mode is somehow more intense than that of robot vacuums with twice the power. But the C28's auto-empty whoosh is the real jump scare — I haven't needed to plug my ears like that since the Roomba j7+ in 2021.