In the not so distant past I spent an obscene amount of time trying to figure out which robot vacuum would work for us. All of our home is wood floors with some rugs. We have two pit mix rescues who have husky and lab in them so they are shedding like crazy. When we open the windows to let the fresh air in, little doggy tumbleweeds form and float around the floors.

We had a cheap robot vacuum that we purchased off of Amazon for about 6 months. Since it was our first one, I didn't have much to go on. After 3 weeks of this RoboRock I can guarantee you that there is a lot that separates the cheap from the expensive. The cheap one was clunky, had to be emptied multiple times during a cleaning. Suction was not good and the routes it took never made sense, missing many areas of the floor. Let's delve into the RoboRock.

First Impressions are everything. The box was heavy. Assembly was pretty straight forward and the quick start guide is well put together. The machine was definitely not the cheap plastic our other was made out of. I could already tell the build quality of the Roborock is solid.

The self emptying tower fits nice against the wall. The bag inside is a reusable cloth bag. The hole to empty the bag is a bit small but I understand why it is. If you have dog hair, you will need to fish some of it out with your finger. It takes quite a few cleanings before you need to empty it.

First operation: make sure you set up your rooms like they will be when the robot is cleaning. This helps it create the best routes. Speaking of routes; the technology behind this machines allows it to hit every spot almost the same way every time. Keep in mind; it does have a level of obstacle avoidance that will alter its routes. It took about 30 minutes to map our home.

APP and Operation - The app is awesome. You can select individual rooms to clean. This is called spot cleaning. You can start it from your cell phone. You can set different suction powers and even a deep clean mode. We have not used that yet. The self emptying is nice; it is loud but only for a short while. Probably less than 30 seconds. This machine has yet to get stuck anywhere. The old one got stuck all the time.

I know the price seems high but you are getting an awesome little machine and from all my research; this was the one to take a chance with. I am glad we did. We run it at night and in the morning; the dog hair is up and the floors look great. We have not used the mopping feature yet. If you can swing it; buy this vacuum. We have named our Thelma.

Changing my 1 star review to a 5 star because not only is the vacuum amazing, but so is the customer service! I reached out regarding the issue(see below) and customer support immediately responded. I sent over proof of my purchase and the pictures like they asked and they emailed back right away and told me to send the vacuum back with the shipping label they provided and they'd send me a new one. I sent it back and within a week I had a brand new model delivered. It works amazing. I have 3 kids, a dog, and 2 cats. I am having knee surgery which will have me non weight bearing for 6 weeks, so it was imperative to have a vacuum that would be able to keep up with the floors while I am unable to. The suction is phenomenal, it goes around any obstacles, and I love that it has the 3d map right on your phone. I would highly recommend this company and vacuum!

I have not used this product yet, but I am giving it 1 star because it was just delivered 20min ago and when I opened the vacuum and turned it over there's dirt and hair all over the bottom and white scuff marks on the side. It's clearly refurbished and I paid for a brand new one. Extremely disappointed as I am having knee surgery and this was going to be a huge tool in helping me keep my floors clean since I won't be able to get around.

Update....i became the meme.

Went to the gym and ran the vacuum while I was out.....and the vacuum ran over dog poop, smeared it all throughout the house, smooshed it into two rugs, and got stuck on a thicker rug soaking it in watered down dog poop. I went to try to clean the vacuum only to find you can't clean the dog poop out of the wheels.....

I've dropped this to a one star as it was in effective and clogged regularly with dog hair and ultimatum was unserviceable. Now and expensive contribution to a landfill.

I really wanted to love this...

For a 1,700 sq foot house, the vacuum needs to stop to charge to do the full job. My house is 90% hardwood floors with a few area rugs and door matts. And yes, I have a Fox Red Lab (that sheds....).

The good-

The mapping feature is great and easy to use. It allows you to set the floor type by room so you can vacuum one room and mop another with is a great feature. Given my 4yr old love to run his toy trucks through the house, this has been pretty sturdy with him as well as running into my puppy.

The rough-

The vacuum struggles with the pet hair and often clogs both the device as well as the narrow floor adapter that it dumps debris into.

This device is relatively loud if you are home when it is running. And for a 1,700 square foot house, it takes a couple hours to make its rounds.

Unfortunately, the device isn't very sensitive to change in surfaces. I have found I have to pick up area rugs and door matts prior to running or it will get stuck. And it often get's stuck between furniture and walls.

Overall, for the price, it is a little expensive given the challenges I have run into with it.

Overall:

I purchased the Roborock Q8 Max+ robot on January 10, 2024. It is worth every damn penny. It is a huge accessibility feature in my home (I have never been the type to manually vacuum as frequently as the robot vacuum is scheduled to vacuum - I would do once a month at most). I would recommend this vacuum to anyone looking for a smart vacuum. Could it be smarter? Absolutely - Robrock has since come out with newer vacuums that can allegedly detect and avoid pets.

My house also smells much fresher since getting the vacuum - likely because anything that will generate a lingering scent is getting vacuumed up.

The Roborock Q8 Max+ is my second robot vacuum cleaner. My first robot vacuum cleaner was an iRobot j7+. The Roborock will clean up over twice the amount of space as the iRobot did in half the time (Roborock: 301 sq. ft in 37 minutes vs. iRobot: 188 sq. ft. in an hour and 18 minutes). I have included the mapping time for both the iRobot (the grey and green map) and the Roborock map (black background, multicolored rooms) for comparison. The comparison is "same day" - iRobot did its cleaning in the morning, and Roborock did its first "whole house" clean that same evening (the day I got it).

Unlike the iRobot, the Roborock Q8 Max+ rarely gets stuck. The times the Roborock *has* gotten stuck have been due to finding cords on the ground and attempting to eat them (the Roborock has yet to destroy a cord). The Roborock is also incredibly accurate at letting me know exactly where it has gotten stuck, so unlike the iRobot, it does not sit in "time out" for an extended period of time. Sure, the iRobot was better at avoiding cords, but honestly, those don't move around in the house much, and it's not a huge deal to move them out of the Roborock's pathing as needed (especially since the Roborock is so predictable about where it goes - there is no 'move the cords every day/every so often because it keeps finding them').

Things Roborock has tried to eat:

- a small mouse cat toy (toy got stuck between the rollers, vacuum kept on keeping on - I manually made it stop so I could take the toy out - I could tell by the sound something janky was happening)

- a small remote control for a standing fan (honestly - saved me the trouble of finding the 'lost' remote)

- A single HDMI cord (it was unsuccessful enough that it stopped vacuuming to talk to me and ask for help -also my own fault, cord was lying on the floor all tempting like)

- 3 cords simultaneously - an HDMI cord, and two USB cords (it was unsuccessful enough that it stopped vacuuming to talk to me and ask for help)

- a medium sock cat toy (it was unsuccessful enough that it stopped vacuuming to talk to me and ask for help)

It has not destroyed any of the cords it has tried to eat, which has been my #1 fear with robot vacuums, as I have heard (never tested myself) manual vacuums can absolutely destroy power cords. The robot trying to eat cords and cat toys is why this gets a '4 stars' from me - in the robot's defense, it does not have a physical camera to be able to 'see' the cords (and thus avoid them).

Suction Power:

I have no idea what "5500Pa High Power Suction" even means, but I can tell you - when I tell it to go over the living room floor 3 times on Maximum power, it does a fantastic job at cleaning up the crumbs I want it to. I only need to tell it to perform this cleaning method once. With the iRobot, I had to tell it to go over certain areas twice multiple times before it would pick up everything I wanted it to pick up. I have never felt the need to pull out my stick vacuum cleaner to supplement the Roborock's cleaning (whereas I did feel the need to do so with the iRobot).

I do have throw rugs in my bathroom, and the Roborock does just fine with those (or it did until I put objects from the shower onto the rug and took my sweet time removing them - those objects confused the robot and caused it to get stuck).

Mopping:

I have not tried the mop feature/functionality yet. I'll update this review when I eventually get around to it. I primarily purchased this robot for the vacuum functionality.

Alexa Integration:

While I am all for a smart home, I don't believe in integrating individual objects (vacuums, the Nest Thermostat, utilizing Alexa for individual Hue Lights, etc.) with my Amazon Alexa device. I cannot speak to how good or bad this robot is at Alexa Integration.

Maps:

The roborock has done an amazing job at mapping out my house. It took it roughly three runs to get the total vacuum-able space of the house mapped out - the first run was absolutely "good enough, run the robot for real" level of mapping, the second two was refining that map. The 'edit map' feature did come in handy - Roborock thought I had 13 rooms initially due to layout of furniture, but I was able to swiftly edit the rooms to be more accurate.

The Roborock is good at proposing and respecting accepted "no go" zones (iRobot ignored those a couple of times. iRobot also took an entire week to map out the full bathroom. Roborock got that correct the first try). I have never zone'd the Roborock for specific areas to target cleaning - I would rather have the Roborock clean the entire room rather than "just in front of the oven." I do also set the cleaning schedule for Roborock to an excessive "twice daily" - I live alone with three cats. Twice daily is absolutely overkill, I just enjoy making a robot perform work for me.

Roborock can easily run in the dark or in the light (iRobot would add excess rooms where they do not exist when it tried to run while there was not enough light available). It will also let you know where it thinks there is an elevated threshold it needs to remember to watch for in the future (I had a coat rack base it tried to vacuum over repeatedly - never truly got stuck, but it obviously struggled a bit, and it was smart enough to ask me to put in a 'high threshold' zone to avoid trying to vacuum while going over the coat rack base).

Pets:

This Roborock version does not avoid pets. I have a senior girl kitty who seemingly "enjoys" playing "chicken" with the iRobot ("I am old. I am tired. You aren't going to force me to move...oh, maybe you are. Ugh.") and losing. The Robodock is louder perhaps than the iRobot was, however, it is also far more predictable with the path it takes in rooms, allowing the cats to easily stay out of its way. The predictability of pathing has also lessened the stress of the cats as well - they have never loved either robot vacuum, but they haven't hated them, either. They do seem to prefer tolerating the Roborock vacuum, as they can predict where in the house it will go, and how it will navigate. I have noticed the cats will move towards the front of the house while the robot cleans the back of the house and vice versa. With iRobot, since the navigation was more "willy nilly" it was not uncommon to find a cat trying to dash out of the way of the robot, whereas with the Roborock, they are able to determine how they'd prefer to avoid the robot on their own terms ahead of time, and do not seem to be caught by surprise as to where the Roborock is going/coming from.

Self-Emptying Bin:

The Roborock has only ever emptied its bin after completing cleaning the full 301 sq. ft cleaning - iRobot needed to empty its bin multiple times. Again, I clean twice daily, so mileage on this feature may vary, but it does add to the 'predictability' factor of the robot for me (and more importantly - for the cats).

Battery Life:

No complaints here - after running for 37 minutes on the "whole house" clean, the battery level goes down to 56%. I have each room set up to utilize a different level of suctioning - Roborock is also good at guessing which rooms are more "high traffic" (based on room names, I imagine) and making its own suction level suggestions. I promptly ignored those suggestions and gave it my own custom input - I have been very happy with the results.

Roborock App:

I speak fluent user interface technology. The Roborock app was neither incredibly intuitive to me, nor did it have a steep learning curve. I feel the app is as complex as you would expect from a vacuum that has so many different features (mopping, suction level, room variance, the ability to edit maps, etc.). I will also say for myself, it's not a huge deal to get used to how the app works. Once I finished setting up the map and what suction I wanted where, I haven't had to go back and revisit those features, so trying to learn to memorize how to modify the map or suction isn't a goal that was needed. As far as making the robot do individual runs, the app is intuitive enough for that (Enter > choose the "rooms" option on the bottom > select the specific room(s) you want to target > select how many passes you'd like the robot to take > Optionally select the section level > hit the 'clean' button > Enjoy the sensation of having a robot clean up after you/your family).

I’ve been through every Robovac since they were released. The Roborock S5 has been our longest lasting of them all, so I decided to ease into the self-emptying vacs with the price of the Q8 Max. With my wife’s 5 dogs, we’re trying to keep the hair & dust reduced with continuous vacuuming of our 3/4” white oak floors. So far I’m amazed.

Since I ordered it last week we have been running our 5 other vacs from of various ages and brands as much as possible as well as sweeping & mopping the floors daily. During initial charging and setup, 3 different robovacs were run until dead but emptied every 10 minutes.

The Q8 Max quickly mapped the house, then ran a Turbo cycle through most of the house. I’m embarrassed to say what it picked up but it was a lot.

I terminated its cleaning after a while and it found the dock easily and emptied itself well.

Tomorrow will be more vacuuming and eventually some mopping. I’m sure some others have shortcomings and benefits, but after a trial run I am SO happy with the extremely good results. I will update.

UPDATE: After 6+ weeks running 14+ scheduled cycles per week, zero hang ups, zero problems, clean floors! The large 2.5L bags are great for larger homes as the regular 1L bag lasted ~2 weeks with the dirt & hair from 5 dogs, a 17 year old plus his endless stream of friends in a 4400 sqft house.

I just ordered another Q8Max+ and a Q Revo, plus a Q8Max+ for our daughter as a gift. We have 4400sqft of space we frequent, plus a sunken game room, bathroom, and hallway we don’t use often. I ordered another because I’d feel crazy if I didn’t get more after the price drop as pleased as I am with the initial unit.

During the work week the Q8Max+ vacuums and sometimes dry mops from 7am-1pm. I may be wrong but I think this and most other units I have owned do best on dog hair by doing its initial pass on Balanced (low) or Turbo (medium) power vacuum setting, then a final pass on Max. So it runs this cycle during the week: double pass on balanced, charge and empty. Double pass on Max, charge and empty all while we’re at work.

On weekends it runs all night everywhere but bedrooms and never wakes us.

We use the mop as needed, which works better than expected with the Roborock cleaning solution. I ordered the Q Revo for its mopping function which REALLY works with the spinning microfiber heads. After the Q8Max+ units dry vacuum everything in the morning, the Q Revo runs on medium vac with the highest mopping settings.

The floors have never been more clean after a week, but it’s overkill TBH. Just the Q8Max+ is plenty.

I’m a nerdy, clean freak dentist who loves gadgets. I got the Q Revo to test for my dental office. I am going to build an army of Roborocks to vacuum, mop & disinfect the floors during lunch but I can’t decide which units I will use…

We have carpet and hardwood floors and this does well on both. Putting the dock together and setting up the vacuum is pretty easy.

On hardwood I would give this an 8/10 of picking things up, occasionally it knocks stuff out of the way with the side brush and misses picking it up, multiple passes would probably resolve this though.

On carpets this thing is amazing, solid 10/10. With the suction and two rollers it seems to pick up everything so far.

After setting up vacuum in the roborock app you can integrate it into Google home and with Alexa for voice control which is a plus.

It maps pretty well but I will say make sure you map everything you want to clean on the first mapping run. If you have a door closed and try to add it later it can be a bit of a pain. You can name rooms for use with your voice assistants as well as set up no mop zones for areas with rugs or carpet.

The vacuum is pretty quiet on hard surfaces on normal settings, it's a bit louder on carpet but still not as loud as old push vacuums

First I want to recognize that this robot vacuum performed amazingly for the first 6 months of usage. Unfortunately beyond that point the thing refuses to run without erroring out. I have replaced the filters and reattached the dustbin along with unsticking the bumper so many times based on its prompts through the app, to try appeasing this thing but nothing seems to work. I have kept it clean, removed any trapped debris and wiped the sensors down routinely. For the amount of money spent on this, I would expect a few years of use but we haven’t even gotten 1yr.

Simple set up, easy to use app. I have all hard wood floors that are a pain to keep the dust/fur bunnies down, especially with pets. I like that I can program it to clean on a schedule and control which rooms are cleaned. This handy when you need to eliminate a cluttered room from the schedule, but still clean the bulk of your living area. You can even set a one-time manual clean of a specific room. When it docks it self-empties the robot, I did not know this at first because I was never around when it finished. The app will tell you if there is an issue, like getting stuck or something tangled in the wheels. It's a scary-smart little bugger. The dog and cat hate it.

Tengo poco tiempo usando este producto pero ha funcionado excelente, el trapeado deja un poco que desear pero aun así la recomiendo ampliamente.

Llevamos una semana con la aspiradora y ha sido un cambio total en el tema de la limpieza de nuestro departamento.

Tiene suficiente potencia de succión, hasta ahorita no la hemos probado al máximo por que no hace falta.

El sistema para hacer el rapeo de tu casa y dividir las áreas realmente es muy práctico.

Se puede programar sin mayor problema la limpieza por zonas o toda tu casa, y hacer múltiples horarios.

Todos los días nuestra casa es aspirada y trapeada.

El robot requiere poca supervisión, solito hace todo.

Y el sistema para trapear si funciona pese a su tamaño, si se siente la diferencia en los pisos.

Creo que el precio es justo por lo que recibes.

Por último, la app es muy fácil de usar y no requiere mucho esfuerzo.

Barre muy bien, muy buena succión, trapea regular y aveces requiere 2 pasadas para que quede mejor, el mapeo es bueno, la estación de carga aguanta bastante polvo, evita bien ña mayoría de obstáculos, la aplicación es buena solo que necesitas leer con cuidado las instrucciones por que no era compatible la contraseña del wifi con caracteres especiales ni con wifi 5 solo con 2.4

La verdad es que falta mejoras en el producto para cumplir con lo que promete

Los.pisos quedan opacos

Y se averió muy pronto, se quebró el.soporte de los rodillos cuando el.mismo robot se sube a su base y se le dificulta y esta intentándolo una y otra vez, acabo de comprarlo, espero tenga solución