Every company within the robotic vacuum industry wants to be king, but most of them don’t get much further than copying one another. Usually relying on basic suction levels, maybe some simple mopping features, and many of them moving away from lidar for more affordable alternatives. But if you want to be king, you have to take risks to wear that crown. Something Roborock seems to be pushing hard for when it comes to its flagship creation.
Its Pro Ultra series is a king within its own product ecosystem, and the new Roborock S8 Pro Ultra robot vacuum (releasing next month) looks to be the king over all vacuum ecosystems in the market. It is a product that cuts no corners, isn’t shy to pile on the features, and delivers well on its promises.
At first, it looks like any other robot vacuum flagship that comes with a docking station that does more than charge. These docking stations are nothing new as they have been around for a number of years now. Usually sporting the ability to empty out the dust collection bin within the little vacuum so you aren’t having to manually empty it as much (emptying the main bin from time to time instead of the vacuum after every clean).
It comes in two colors, black and white (with a little black included). Because when it comes to something like a robot vacuum, life only needs to be in black and white. It’s all about its ability to do its job and not how pretty it looks while it is doing it.
Looks can be deceiving though when it comes to looking like anything else. Looking at the top of the docking station, you start to realize how much more complicated (for it, not you) it really is. It isn’t just a dust collection center for the vacuum. No, it is much more than this.
Looking at the above image, you can see that there are three different bins tucked away into the docking station (referred to as “the RockDock Ultra”).
The first two on the left are for handling the water within the vacuum. The one in the middle is for adding fresh water. It can hold a lot, therefore it should be able to last a long time before having to refill it again. In fact, it can hold enough water to mop up to 3230 sqft worth of space. You can divide from there depending on how much real space you actually have to determine how often you need to refill it.
The one on the left, is for dirty water (which can also hold a lot, so you don’t have to empty that often). Between these two containers, it will refresh the water within the vacuum each time (or multiple times during a clean) and dump all of the dirty/used water into the dirty water bin.
With these images, you can get a better idea of how much volume these bins really are capable of holding. Making for a user-friendly experience. Since the less you have to interact with the robot, the better it is at doing its job while you are able to focus on more important tasks.
Removing the two water bins and the dust bin cover, you can easily see how everything works. A simple yet complex system of flushing water between the two bins and the robot, as well as a 2.5 liter bag-driven dust collection system that can hold a lot more than the 350ml dust collection bin within the robot.
The latter part of it is where it becomes a little more familiar with most of the other docking stations out there that offer to do more than just charge the robot. Instead of having to empty the robot’s collection bin after every clean, the bag can store up to 7 weeks worth of dust collection. Of course, if you don’t have the robot clean daily (let’s say you only trigger or schedule its clean once a week), it will last even longer than that.
The only downside of using this approach for a robot vacuum, is now you have a bag you have to replace when its full, vs the plastic bin within the robot that only has a filter that needs replacing from time to time. Now you have a filter within the vacuum and the bag within the RockDock Ultra station.
Thankfully, these bags aren’t really that bad when it comes to price. Sure, if you bought the brand-name option, it might be a tad costly overtime, but there are so many generic alternatives for a reasonable price that it makes it all worth it.
The RockDock Ultra station does more than just empty and replenish the robot though. It also cleans the robot’s parts and pieces (like the mop), and dries it off at the end of the clean as well. It’s an auto-everything robot vacuum.
You can see the red and black roller system in the above image. This rolls/slides back and forth underneath the robot while it is docked, cleaning the mop in the process. It then hits it with air to dry everything off at the end, while it collects (sucks) all of the dust out of the robot via the vent to the right.
The spout can be seen in the center, which plugs into the robot while docked and handles exchanging the water out between the two bins above.
Then it cleans out the bottom/collection area of the dock so you don’t have to both much with that either. All-in-all, the RockDock Ultra is quite the docking system (I feel like it is worth a review on its own).
Then, there is the robot. I’d say it is the most important piece of the puzzle, but it’s kind of only half, thanks to the complexity of the docking station. It really is a mutual relationship with one not being able to deliver without the other.
At first, the robot also looks a lot like any other robot vacuum. At least, any vacuum that support LDS (LiDAR/laser) mapping. Only it moves beyond this by also using camera technology for visual mapping and object recognition as well. Bringing all of this together for an accurate mapping experience that is spot-on and allows it to pinpoint various obstacles within the map along the way.
It includes all of the obstacles that it avoided during its clean, on the map. It can identify multiple types of objects and this allows you to get a better idea of how your home environment affects the robot’s ability to clean (how complicated the environment is).
And like most robots, it can break the map into rooms so you can clean everything, or simply tell it to clean a specific room within the map. Only, automatically sections everything out into rooms on its own during its first clean. Which is something only a small handful of models are capable of (at least with accuracy).
Looking back at object recognition, we were able to see various types of objects it is capable of identifying. Obviously, this isn’t all-inclusive as we don’t know what that list is, but I am sure other common objects would make the list. The company says it currently identifies 42 different types of specific objects, and some examples have been given, such as cords, power strips, shoes, weight scales, pedestals, fabrics (clothes), and pet waste.
In our experience (seen in the above image), it was able to recognize cords, as well as a few other objects, including rubber (fake) poop we placed on the ground that it seemed to identify just fine (and no, it didn’t run into or drive over it during its clean). That one can be seen toward the middle-right of the map above. It also plopped a cone on the map in a few places which is what it uses for misc obstacles it doesn’t know how to define. In one case, it was a small box we randomly placed on the ground, the other was a hand weight.
Moving back to the vacuum (we’ll cover the app in more detail in a moment), you can see what else sets it apart from the others by turning it over. The bottom side contains a dual-roller system that is said to be able to collect much more efficiently than a normal roller.
Roborock calls this the DuoRoller Riser Brush (say that fast enough and someone would think you are speaking German) because it not only has two rollers but it also rises in certain conditions. This is so that it isn’t being used or in the way during a mop-only mode and so that it doesn’t drag around as it returns to the docking station after a clean.
The same thing applies to the mop pad. In this model, the mop pad is not part of an attachment that slides on and off. It remains on the robot at all times so that it is one less thing you have to bother yourself with. Instead of you having to remove it when you don’t want to mop, it simply lifts the mop up and out of the way. This is also something it does when it transitions to carpeted surfaces so that it doesn’t get your carpet wet (or on its way back to the dock, same as the rollers).
In addition to this, the mop pad moves back in forth using sonic vibrations similar to your typical electric Philips toothbrush, moving up to 3000 times per minute. Allowing it to provide a better clean to your hard surface floors. This is referred to by the company as the “VibraRinse 2.0 Mopping system”.
It also has a “Quiet Mopping” mode that reduces the amount of noise being made by the vacuum, in case someone is sleeping in the home. It may not be as effective in this mode, but at least you can get some clean time in regardless.
The App
It comes with an app that feels pretty much “all-inclusive” when it comes to the typical features mixed with all of the speciality features this model has to offer. Some of those typical features include being able to watch the robot live on the map, receive notifications when it gets stuck or has any other concerns, manage rooms and zones for isolating your cleaning experience when needed, managing no-go zones, tracking your battery and accessory life, and more.
You can schedule cleanings or even have it follow certain routines (like “after meals”). You can even remotely control is via an on-screen joystick. As well as by using your voice via your favorite voice/digital assistants (ie, Google Assistant, or Amazon Alexa).
It goes beyond these items by allowing you to control some of the special features, such as the lifting of the mop or rollers, how often it goes back to clean the mop, or how long it spends drying itself. You can manage its intensity levels for carpet and hard surfaces, and how well it manages obstacles (including letting it know if you have pets or not).
The robot will even suggest no-go zones where it thinks it can become trapped or caught up on something. This helps keep it out of trouble and reduce user interaction even more.
When it comes to obstacles, not only does the app overlay them across the map, but it will also tell you the exact percentage of its confidence level of that identification. If it thinks it sees a cable, it will say something like Cable: 87%. You can then click on it and tell it to ignore this obstacle if you think it is in error.
Performance
Are we still talking about this vacuum? I feel like this story goes on forever. I guess it is just that cool. And so far, it really is. We have been pretty impressed with its overall performance and how friendly everything is. We have seen some of the best performance in its duties compared to other models we have come across (and there has been a lot) and it has (thus far) required very little interaction outside of what has been needed to write this article (keeping an eye on what it does, where it goes, and everything in between).
In most cases, you can pretty much set everything up and forget about it. Simply emptying the dirty water bin, refilling the clean water bin, and swapping out the dust bag, once in a while. The majority of the time, the robot is completely self-contained and self-managing. It will let you know if it needs you for anything.
It cleans with 6000Pa of force, which covers all types of floors and conditions. It won’t exactly live up to the performance of a full-size/powered manual vacuum solution, but it comes pretty close for basic daily/weekly needs. You may hardly ever have to break out the “real” vacuum. Although, with this model, it comes pretty close to the real thing. Where most other robot vacuums are only good for the lightest of jobs.
We also noticed that it doesn’t leave water behind. In fact, we didn’t even think it was mopping at first. That maybe it wasn’t filling with water properly or maybe it wasn’t ejecting its water on the floor as it cleans. However, after a few cleans, we lifted the dirty water bin and found that it definitely contained contents from those cleans. We had it in the middle option for water consumption in the settings and it simply didn’t leave any water waste behind. It seems to only use what it needs. Which is good since these vacuums can only carry so much (200ml per trip with this robot).
Not only did it leave freshly vacuumed carpets behind, but it also resulted in clean tile surfaces outside of a few tougher spots that some manual elbow grease was needed to get clean them up. That wasn’t surprising since this would be the same with any robotic mopping solution. However, we feel we that the result was much more effective (less tougher spots to double back and manually mop). The floor looked pretty good after it has done its job.
We will continue using it through time and if anything else surprises us or we feel there is anything else important to touch on that we missed, we will make sure to follow up with an update.
Our Conclusion
Overall, the user-friendliness and experience is amazing. The performance of the vacuum is spot-on as it both vacuums and mops quite well. That sonic mopping approach seems to gain it some added bonus point and the lifting of the parts and pieces so you don’t make a mess as it moves back to the dock or across other surfaces can really make a difference.
Like any vacuum, it has accessories that need to be swapped out at times, but some of them (like any other vacuum) can experience prolonged life spans if you rinse or tap out the contents (ie, filter) so they can be used a little longer. There are also generic options to help make the experience more affordable.
The app, vacuum, and charging station are littered with options to help keep you out of the mix as much as possible. Allowing you to focus on anything else. This is a big win as it tips the balance between usefulness and gimmicks. This little robot really does carry its own weight around the house, and it can do it within large amounts of space.
When it comes to the price, this is absolutely one of the most expensive robot vacuums that money can buy. You’ll be looking at upwards to around $1,600 per our talks with Roborock at CES 2023 in January (the previous generation model, which is also one step down from this is $1,400 currently). Either way, it is expensive. So this is something to keep in mind as it isn’t for all household budgets. But it will definitely lead the way for models in the future. With options trickling down to more affordable models eventually (like any other technology). Although we don’t have the exact price just yet, it is set to launch next month (April).
Now, come up with a robot vacuum that can also maneuver up and down stairs to access multiple floors or sections on its own and my mind will be utterly blown. We are likely a long way from this, but if its possible, I’m sure Roborock will figure it out.
| Our Rating | MSRP Price* $1,600 |
*Average price is based on the time this article was published
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Specifications:
- Battery Capacity: 5200mAh
- Runtime: Up to 180 min (depending on settings)
- Rated Power: 69W
- Dustbin Volume: 350ml (Robot)
- Water Tank Capacity: 200ml (Robot)
- Suction: 6000Pa
- Dimensions
- Robot: 350*353*96.5mm
- Dock: 426*514*450mm
- Auto Mop Washing
- Auto Mop Drying
- Auto Tank Refilling
- Auto Dust Emptying
- High-speed sonic mopping
- Automatic mop lifting
- Automatic brush lifting
- Ultrasonic carpet sensing
- Obstacle Avoidance
- Electric water tank
- Adaptive Route Algorithm
- Selective Room Cleaning
- LDS Laser Navigation
- Inertial Navigation
- High Precision Map
- Multi-Level/Floor Map Support
- Zone Cleanup
- Real-Time Robot Location
- App Control
- Voice Control
- Wi-Fi Connectivity
Are you a manufacturer or distributor that would like us to test something out for review? Contact us and we can let you know where to send the product and we will try it out.
