Roborock S8+ Robot Vacuum and Mop

I’ve been meaning to write this for some time. This unit replaced an iRobot Roomba S9 which we had for years. Life with the S9 required constant attention to bail it out of the various problems it would get itself into. I had no idea what was possible until the Roborock S8 joined the family.

This unit operates at a PhD level compared to its competition. It almost NEVER gets stuck and we have what I would consider a fairly complex and challenging robot vacuum environment. Hardwood, rugs, carpet, all with tricky furniture placements and obstacles. The S8 navigates like a pro. Additionally it cleans very effectively. Max suction is intense. Mopping is about what you’d expect.

The one single detractor I would call out is the S8’s inability to detect when it’s onboard bin is full and thus return to dock to empty itself. It always empties after a session but has no onboard sensor to detect a full-bin status. This results in the user having to estimate how many rooms it can clean before requiring manual intervention to send it home to empty. I handle this but doing “selective room cleaning”, choosing 3-4 rooms at a time. The Roomba had this feature a long time ago so I was quite surprised to find the S8 did not given the sophistication of its capabilities otherwise.

Consumables: With the Roomba, I was facing worn out rollers and brushes in the first month of use! To their credit, Roomba replaced a couple sets on warranty but ultimately I was faced with the choice of shelling out for Roomba’s horribly overpriced replacement parts or purchasing lackluster replicas on Amazon. With the S8, I am still on the original equipment 6 months later with no sign of immanent failure. Moreover, the HEPA filters on the S8 are washable thus far more sustainable.

Overall, I could not recommend this unit more highly. Buy it for the vacuuming and consider the mopping a side benefit. We have two always-shedding dogs, two teenagers and really difficult environment but the Roborock crushes it earning a “Doctorate of Automated Vacuuming”.

Roborock S8+ initial review is very good. While pricey, it is still less expensive than some of the more famous cleaning robots. The reviews, support, and customer satisfaction with Roborock are significantly higher than more expensive robot vacuums with fewer problem reviews, so I got this one. Thanks to everyone in previous reviews that recommended updating the software while it was getting the initial charge. That was very helpful, and gave time to review the features while it updated and charged. Mine updated the firmware/software 4 o 5 times before finishing. The updates completed in about 30 minutes, and I also downloaded the app.

The previous vacuum was inexpensive and not very smart. It would rarely find the dock and constantly got stuck. With its lidar sensor, this ROBOROCK S8+ finds it’s dock every time. I have asthma and a lot of allergies. The main reason for getting this vacuum was to have it run when I wasn’t in the house and automatically dump without touching the dust bin. I can’t take any of the dust that vacuums put into the air during use. We also have a lot of long pet hair from a constantly shedding German Shepherd. Sorry I don’t have pictures of the very LONG dog hair that was constantly collecting on the floor in dog hair islands that would move around like big dust bunnies. Since using the ROBOROCK S8+, those are all gone. This robot is AMAZING for cleaning up all that dog hair and keeping the floor dust free.

I haven’t used very many features yet, such as no go zones. I just leave all the doors open in our single floor residence. I pushed the on button and it took off, mapping the house and cleaning. I have it set for vacuum only with balanced suction. It gives an amazing number of options for type of cleaning and setting up cleaning schedules. They recommend 3 regular vacuums before using the mop feature. The little manual packaged with the robot is minimal. There is a great online page that covers the features and use. The app is one of the most useful product apps I’ve ever seen. So many options for creating different schedules to vac, vac and mop, and more. It has a DND do not disturb feature so it won’t run when you are sleeping. That time is adjustable based on when you sleep, or you can disable it if you don’t care when the vacuum runs. you can start it manually by pushing the power button, or start it from the app on your phone, or it can run off of schedules you program. I’m just using a once per day cleaning for now. The biggest part of this is keeping the daily dirt, pet hair, and dust cleaned up while I’m out of the house.

The volume isn’t bad at all. It’s much quieter than handheld vacuums, although it is VERY loud when it self dumps into the bag. It did put dust into the air when dumping, so I’m careful to stay out now until after it dumps. When it returns to the dock after cleaning, it dumps. It will also return to the dock if it gets full while cleaning, dump, and then resume cleaning. The bag is another great feature. It’s a simple matter to switch out the full bag for an empty. I’m not sure how long it will take to fill the bag, but it’s a huge convenience feature since I don’t have to empty the dust bin on the robot after each use, or like the old robot during use. If the battery gets low during cleaning, it will go back and recharge, then continue cleaning until finished. In my case the battery charge still showed 77% on the app after a full cleaning of my house.

The dogs are afraid of the robot while it’s running, just like they are afraid of the handheld vacuums. They hide in a different room while it is cleaning. The ROBOROCK S8+ is very gentle, and did not disturb the dog water or food dishes on the floor. I kept the power cords out of the way from computers and things in use, but otherwise, it cleaned around shoes and furniture, going partially under the sofa and bed. The is a spot clean feature which gets it to clean a small area thoroughly.

A real time map display shows on the phone app while Rosey is cleaning. (yes, we named it Rosey the Robot after the maid on the Jetsons cartoon series) The map can be used to set no go zones. It’s an amazing map that shows everywhere Rosey cleaned or could not reach. The app also gives tips about cleaning the rollers and other features as needed.

I’ve only have it for 5 days, so I will update this review as I use more features or have issues. I’m looking forward to setting up the water tank and mopping, since that will help even more with my allergies and asthma. I’m so happy with the hands free features that keep me away from dust, dirt and hair!

*This review is for the S8 Plus variation, so I can’t comment on the auto cleaning/drying aspects of the Pro Ultra variation*

I had been eagerly awaiting the Roborock S8 for quite a while now and was excited to finally receive it. Immediately upon delivery I carefully unboxed it and got it set up, closely following the quic start guide despite everything being pretty self explanatory.

The navigation/laser mapping proved to be very smooth and accurate. Unfortunately that’s where my positive remarks begin and end.

I have all hardwood floors in my house, and a litter box that my cat loves to use to fling cat litter everywhere when exiting. Of all of the cat litter that was there when the vacuum session began, at least 50% of it remained after the cleaning finished. The battery was at 76% when it finished, so I know it wasn’t a battery issue. I also turned the setting to max power after witnessing it not lock up cat litter that it drove directly over, then used the remote control (via the Roborock App) to “drive” the robot back over the cat litter. On the 3rd pass it did finally pick up additional litter, it 50%+ still remained, so I just gave up.

I got the S8 because of the dual brush heads and the insanely strong suction power, thinking cat litter and the like stood no chance against said sucking power.

As Dwight Schrute would say: “FALSE!”

Hopefully the S7 MaxV will go on sale soon since the new generation is out. I have been a LONG time customer of Roborock, with this being my 5th unit (two S6 Max and 2 S6 Pure), and until now all of my Roborock reviews had been 5-stars – l this is the first review I have ever given that was less than 5. Super disappointing.

This has been the most amazing unit for cleaning our floors. Five times 10 stars all the way. However just 5 months in, it starts to malfunction. Took us almost 2 hours with customer service to get through and take video for them. We agree to just get the replavement part and fix it vs returning it. Their customer service still has not actually shipped the part and we have received 3 emails that they are closing the issue as complete. Working over 2 decades for investigations of surgical complaints, I see that their service is padding their numbers. And here we are, almost $900 unit DOA and their customer service saying that the issue is closed.

Purchased the S8+ because the consensus was the dual rollers were better for households with pets, and can confirm it does a GREAT job with carpets and pet hair.

Unfortunately, the Auto Empty Dock does not have enough power even on MAX settings to consistently pull that hair from the dustbin.

I thought perhaps I had missed a sticker or something that was preventing a good seal when it docked but no, and other’s have reported the same issue.

I wanna love it but unfortunately I’ll be returning the S8+ as this was a big reason for my purchase.

We tried the Shark Duo: cleans great, but it wouldn’t cross carpet to mop a hard floor, and after 5 months in the same house, it still got lost/stuck. Tried the iRobot roomba J7+. Great ai, never got lost/stuck: but mopping was terrible: streaked and incomplete coverage. This Roborock has best app, great navigation, but default vacuum/mop leaves streaking too. But this unit has a way around that: use vacuum only mode first, then use mop only mode, intense scrubbing and overlap mop pattern. The overlap mop pattern is only available in mop only mode, not in the default vacuum and mop mode.

I purchased this with a lot of skepticism. Our kitchen has hardwood with an island and chairs plus a table and chairs….so there are a lot of legs! We have a dog and the hair is a major problem. The first time I turned it loose I was not impressed but realized afterwards that it was “learning” the room. After a couple of runs it had the entire floor mapped and becomes more efficient. It does a great job on the hardwood with the dog hair. It does lack a bit in tight areas and corners but that’s to be expected IMO. It transitions to carpet with no problem leaving the room with the carpet striped from its back and forth vacuuming. It increases the suction power automatically when transitioning to carpet. The “mopping” does really well also for a robot….again far from perfect but pretty darn good for what it is. Corners and tight places are mops nemesis.
I’d like to give it 5 stars but in my opinion there is no way possible for a robot, ANY robot like this to do a perfect job of mopping and vacuuming. I’m very glad I bought it however because it does a great job of giving our floor a “quickie”. The noise is not bad at all. I actually thought it would be louder. Do I recommend? Yes. Would I but this one again? Yes. A bit pricey but to me it’s worth it. There is a bit of prepping to do before unleashing the robot. Picking up the dog toys, shoes, loose cords, clothes and things like that will help make a flawless run. Mine has never gotten stuck or lost its mapping….so far. I usually will prep and leave for work and turn it loose. When I come home is all clean! Nice! With the app you can make changes to the map the robot made of the rooms. For example: you can make no go zones such as keeping away from closet entry’s or anything else you know it may get tangled in. My couch plugs in because it has power folding foot rests and I didn’t want the robot to get tangled up in the cord so I programmed a no go zone underneath it. If your on the fence about getting one, go for it. I recommend spending the money to get a “smarter” robot rather than the 3-500$ ones. The self emptying feature is also worth it and I recommend getting one with it.

They lie about the poop avoidance ability. I came home from work to find that the Roborock S8+ ran over dog poop and smeared it all over the house. I have spent close to 4 hours cleaning my house and that isn’t considering the fact that the Roborock is caked in poop

I absolutely love my new Roborock S8+! I feel I needed to review this particular model since I haven’t seen too many reviews yet.

This robot vac has made my evening routine so easy. I don’t have the energy to do a quick sweep before bed anymore, but all my kids leave crumbs and dried playdoh everywhere. The floors would be a disaster if I didn’t have this vac/mop. Now my floors feel so clean every morning, I could cry. One thing I do notice is that it has a hard time getting bits from corners, but I can live with picking that up as long as the rest of my floors are clean.

Its mapping capabilities are phenomenonal. It avoids dolls, cords, pillows on the floor with ease and even recognizes furniture that isn’t where it’s supposed to be on the map. It hasn’t run into anything since we first set it up – a huge difference from my older vac from a different brand. I love being able to see where it is on the app, but I know if I leave it alone I won’t wake up to it stuck under the couch. It has always found its way back to its dock by morning.

The self-emptying feature is a dream, as I was constantly emptying my other vac. I love the mopping feature, and notice that it does in fact lift up over my low pile rugs and does not get them wet. As for the suction, I’m really pleased with how clean and crumb-free my low pile rugs are after being vaccuumed. I might still have to do a deep clean once in a while (maybe), but it’s fantastic for daily maintenance!

One other thing I enjoy about this vac is that it’s so easy to take apart to clean. I don’t remember how I cleaned my old one, but I do remember hating it. I noticed that there was a noise coming from the Roborock, like something had gotten stuck. All I had to do was pinch a clasp to open a compartment and lift the rollers. Any hair that had gotten rolled up on the ends of the rollers were easy to slide off of a removable part. The culprit of the noise was under the rollers, and ended up being a dice from my kids’ board game, so you now it can pick up some bigger bits.

I’m extremely pleased with this purchase, and can’t recommend it enough!

Ok – brief update 3 months now since the purchase: I love that vacuum! Now where I understand most of the app and the abilities of this robot (it took a while, seems I am not the sharpest blade in the cabinet) – I am so impressed.

We use it right now at a house we will move into soon. We are already bringing boxes in, which are sitting on the floor and occasionally some furniture. So the obstacles are constantly changing. The robot is quite excellent in recognizing new items, large or small on its once programmed in map and navigating as much floor as possible while avoiding the new items.

We also have a dog and sometimes already friends over with dogs. The vacuum gets most of the dog hair out of the carpets nicely (can’t see much of it even when looking for it, lying on my belly on the floor). Sometimes I have to set it on the high suction setting and then it gets visibly (visible in the dust bin only) a lot more out.

The mop function similarly – after we had guests I set it on the “high” water dispensing. Also nice – I can just set the rooms up with whatever they usually need, like the living room gets the high vacuum setting and the kitchen the high water mop setting. It automatically applies those.

Oh – one more thing – since the documentation said one can not use any cleaning fluids but should only use water – I found the Roborock cleaning fluid which is labeled to work with all Roborock vacuums. And used it – hopefully this won’t do any damage. But I do mix sessions with just water in (non chlorinated water, I’d think the regular chlorinated tap water might be more corrosive). So far so good.

Overall – I don’t want to live without this vacuum any more 🙂

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Update from the first review:

Initially I was a bit miffed because the vacuum can only connect to a 2.4GHz router signal but not the 5GHz, or one of the new ones where the router selects this automatically. I had the latter and had to purchase a new router. Ok.

Now the robot works and is very impressive. It took a while to figure the app out, some clicks are not as intuitive as one would hope and there are not easy written instructions (did not want to watch YouTube videos, who has the time for that?).

Anyways – I got it after a few wrong attempts. The app has everything one needs and allows to remotely steer the robot to do the cleaning or let it clean on a schedule.

Once can also set the strength of the vacuuming and amount of water used for mopping – it all works as advertised.

It cleans very nicely and the room even looks clean afterwards. It self empties and also empties upon request in the app. It all works. Hopefully for a long time – I love the machine!