Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra Is the Best Robot Vacuum Cleaner I’ve Tested

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The Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra ($1,799.99, available in April) is a big name, but this iteration of the S8 line deserves every syllable. Roborock’s new flagship kept everything I loved about the S8 and added a voice assistant, improved the cleaning base, increased suction, and gave the brushes retractable arms to reach the edges of the room. As a result, the S8 line remains my favorite robot vacuum cleaner and the best.

Better concealed water tanks and an additional tank for cleaning solution.

This version of the S8 is not fundamentally different from the S8 that I reviewed earlier . The tower is durable, although smaller than the latest Eufy or Ecovacs vacuums. The important difference here is that the S8 is now available with a regular base, which has tanks for clean and dirty water, or with an R&D (flush and drain) version, which has a very small base but connects directly to the water supply. so that it can fill and drain on its own. For this review, we tested the regular base.

Roborock offers the S8 in black or white, with the same matte and glossy plastic parts on the base and robot. Tanks are now more hidden within the base rather than being part of the architecture. From the front you only see a solid panel, but the tanks are still easily accessible from the top of the unit. In fact, the front of the device is held in place magnetically and is removable so you can access the vacuum bag behind it, as well as another new feature – a cleaning solution-only reservoir. I liked this feature; this meant I didn’t have to add it to the water every time I topped up. The robot itself looks like previous Roborock models – the updates are only noticeable if you turn the robot over.

Easy setup and integration

I’ve never had any problems connecting and setting up Roborock models; They come assembled right out of the box, and connecting the device is as easy as pressing a few buttons. The device will tell you which setup step it is in and the app will guide you as well. As with previous floor robots from this brand, during testing I never had any problems with the machine turning off. I easily connected the vacuum to Google Home, and Roborock also works with Apple Homekit and Alexa. Like the Q Revo I reviewed earlier this week, the S8 MaxV Ultra comes with the Rocky voice assistant. As I noted earlier, the voice assistant is a fun addition that works, but has a very limited vocabulary and list of commands. Once you learn the exact phrase you need, you can ask the bot to clean a specific room, the entire house, or return to base, catching its attention with the “Hey Rocky” call. Supposedly you can ask Rocky to make the robot come to you and clean up where you are, but all my tests failed – the robot flew past where I was standing. future.

Exceptional vacuum power

The previous S8 model earned my respect for the way it excelled at both mopping and vacuuming. Typically floor robots only excel in one area, for example the Switchbot K10+ is a great vacuum cleaner but a poor mop. Like its predecessor, the S8 MaxV Ultra excels at cleaning deep-pile carpets—so much so that it leaves the signature marks that a good vacuum cleaner leaves behind. That’s true for the S8 Pro Ultra as well, but the MaxV Ultra nearly doubles the suction power from 6,000 Pa to 10,000 Pa, one of the highest in the industry, and you’ll notice the difference. From time to time I could hear something rattling in the S8 while it was vacuuming, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing – it means the bot won’t keep cutting itself off and it can handle something extraneous and continue working. Sometimes I was called to clean the rollers, but that’s to be expected. This happened even less with this model than with the previous S8.

On hard floors and carpets, the S8 MaxV Ultra continues to impress. In the latest models, the brushes, which almost every floor robot has, are equipped with extendable arms (Roborock calls them “flexible arms”) so that they can shoot from under the robot, getting into corners, under kicks, and under nearby objects. This is a huge step forward because it allows robots to cling to a wall, whereas previously a few inches along the wall would have been a blind spot. It was fascinating to watch the brushes rise up to collect debris.

Improved cleaning performance

While the S8 is an exceptional vacuum cleaner, there are other good robot vacuums on the market, but Roborock has the best robotic floor cleaners on the market. There are always dirty paw prints and stains of unknown origin on my floor. My kitchen floor is often a battleground of dried peanut butter or dog toy yogurt. Equipped with a mop head that continuously rinses and then rinses with clean hot water as the robot moves, the S8 tackles even the toughest floor stains. Sometimes an extra pass was needed, but the job got done. This mop pad has also been improved: it is now larger and flares out a bit to reach edge to edge. The Q Revo MaxV has rotating brushes instead of a mop pad, and they can extend far away from the robot. I expected them to perform better than a mop, but the S8 continues to surprise me. The mop head vibrates to remove dirt and stains. As with the Q Revo, you’ll need to use the manual controls from time to time, but this will happen less frequently with the S8.

How to choose Roborock models

The Q Revo is a very competent and reliable floor robot that costs significantly less at $1,199. However, I believe the S8 offers additional amenities and features. If you could connect it directly to the water supply, the S8 would be a no-brainer. Even without this feature, the extra suction power makes a difference, and while it may seem small, the cleaning solution reservoir is a really handy addition that improves the mop’s performance. The Q Revo has rotating brushes rather than a mopping pad, but both extend to the wall. Only the S8 features high-speed sonic cleaning that helps remove stains and debris from your floors. You’ll be happy with the Q Revo, but there’s a reason the S8 is Roborock’s flagship.

Other robot vacuum cleaners worth considering:

The app remains easy to use

The Roborock app remains easy to use and offers at least as many features as any other bot I’ve found without being overwhelming. You can simply let the robot clean the entire house each time, but it’s pretty easy to edit maps and customize rooms and zones so you can clean specific areas instead. Choose between four intensity levels for mopping and vacuuming, although the only reason to use less than the maximum level is noise: while it’s not loud (67 decibels), you won’t want to use the Zoom with the S8 running under your feet. You can set schedules and get very satisfying progress reports. The S8 MaxV Ultra has a remote control feature that I really like, and it adds built-in video to the floor robot.

Bottom line: There’s a reason this is a flagship model.

I firmly believe that robots are one way to equalize the burden of housework in the future, but this is only true if the robots are actually good at working autonomously. Over the past two years, I’ve seen floor robots take giant strides toward this goal, and while even the best of them require intervention from time to time, Roborock’s robots require it less. The S8 MaxV Ultra is the most durable vacuum and mop combination on the market right now, with exceptional performance in both areas and the ability to keep working even if a small problem arises later, like cleaning the rollers. This cleaning power has truly become limitless, bringing you one step closer to never having to mop or vacuum again. The app and integration with most voice assistants and multi-system hubs means you can easily get the robot to do what you want, and Rocky’s built-in voice assistant can only get better. $1,799 is a lot to spend on a vacuum cleaner, but the S8 is a vacuum and mop that’s always there for you, and it’s reliable. If you can afford it, it’s a fair price for a competent home helper. The S8 MaxV Ultra will go on sale in early April.

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