- EUFY and DREAME both announced vacuum cleaners in IFA
- The EuFy Marwalker and Dreame Cyber X both use independent arms and roller tracks to scale the steps
- EUFY will be on sale “next year”, but Drene’s is at the concept stadium
You wait for years for a vacuum of the robot which can mount the stairs, then two come immediately. There are a lot of new cool Robovacs that make their debut at IFA, but none is as exciting as the Dreame Cyber X and Eufy Marwalker.
One of the biggest problems with robot vacuum cleaners is their inability to move without helping between the floors. Even the best robot vacuums today can only clean only one story of your home at the same time – which puts an important ceiling on the real autonomous that it can be. Of course, you can transport your bot between the floors, but once it has done, you will have to bring it back to load (and perhaps also empty its tank and clean its tamper pads), which means that you must present throughout the cleaning process.
All this could be about to change, with two main Robovac brands which reveal the bots which can cross complete flights of steps: the Eufy Marwalker and Dreame Cyber X. I saw the two in action at IFA 2025, and for me, there is a clear winner.
Regarding design, the concepts are very similar. The two have four independently moving arms which turn to shake up the Robovac on the first step, then traces of rollers which guide it (or increase) the flight in a controlled manner. In both cases, the arms are not attached to the robot itself, but are part of a distinct module in which the robot docks.
This acts like a small Robovac transport pocket to transport the bot on the stairs and place it on its new floor (the two brands say that their bots can identify the type of staircase – those who go up straight, those who turn halfway, etc.). He will then leave the pocket to clean up.
At first, I was disappointed that the arms were not on the robot itself. In this sense, it is not Really A Robovac climbing staircase. However, the advantage here is that the staircase module could probably be associated with a range of different robots, rather than being linked to only one.
Regarding design, the biggest difference is that the tracks on EUFY Marswalker are just on the main part of the climbing module, while on the Cyber X DREAME, they also operate over the entire length of the arms. The advantage of Dreame’s approach is that it could be slightly safer.
However, after seeing the two in action, Eufy is the bot that I would choose. He climbed the stairs from top to bottom and with more confidence, and got up / down on the first step much faster. (The Dreame model approached this initial challenge at the speed of a geriatric turtle.)
Overall, the EUFY model seemed much more complete than Dreame – at least, on the basis of what I saw. EUFY had his own load quay for the staircase module, which he maneuvered on the one he had placed from the bot. I am also told that this bot will be put on sale “next year”.
On the other hand, the dream effort is always at the concept stage. No sign of a load quay and we had to wait ~ 10 minutes for it to be rested ” before he could embark on any race.
You can see the EUFY in action below, but beware that there is a very off-putting Stroboscopic lighting in this video.
In the past year, we have seen more and more robots that can fall back on particularly high pieces of parts (perhaps the most notable example is the ultra-complete Drene X50 with its small feet, but many brands have explored this problem). This represents something quite different, however, and if it works reliably, will be a major breakthrough in the robot emptiness technology.
