Fixing the Eufy Robovac S11 - Bumper Stuck Error

Over a year ago my partner and I invested in a Eufy Robovac S11, basic robot vacuum, primarily to clean up the living room as we get a lot of mess from the cat and catbox (as well as ourselves).

The robot vaccuum is relatively dumb. It has a hard time finding its way back to the battery charger, requires that the floor be clear of all cords and strings (ex. shoe laces, thin powercords, cat toys) and it spends a lot of time bumping into things.

It was working ok, but then it had a problem where the bumper was stuck all of the time. We hit it to try and free the bumper. Cleaned it thoroughly (took it apart, blasted it with air, used a sponge, etc). I searched for solutions online using Google, Amazon questions, and Eufy support. NOTHING worked!

Ultimately I stumbled upon the answer when re-assembling the bumper. There is a plastic semi-circular piece that fits on the bottom of the bumper. If you screw in the screws normally (eg screw until they are tight), the bumper is stuck. My solution was to only screw in the outer two screws partially. I completely omit the inner screws. There is a fine balance between screwing these two outer screws in far enough so that the bumper doesn't fall off, and if you go too far the bumper will be "stuck".

I spent hours on this. So hopefully this helps someone! If this works for the next year, I'll be very happy. I'm skeptical that this Robovac was worth it as if we'd have spent about as much time actually using a broom to clean our place as supervising it, cleaning it, emptying it and recharging it - we'd have done about the same amount of cleaning.