Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra Review
Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra is a flagship model with all the features you need to keep your house clean and germ-free. It comes with great suction power for better cleaning and is equipped with ReactiveAI 2.0 for smart obstacle avoidance. S8 MaxV Ultra is the most expensive ($1800) robot vacuum we have on the market right now. Read our detailed review to see if its worth the price or not.
PROS:
- Great suction power
- Uses LiDAR and stereo cameras for better mapping and obstacle detection.
- An automatic mop-washing system.
- Set specific zones to clean, set intensity, and control mopping water levels using their app.
- Compatible with Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri.
CONS:
- Most expensive robot vacuum
- Larger in size
- Noisy operation
What’s inside the Box?
Inside the box, you will find the robot vacuum itself with mop cloth, dual rollers, and a spinning brush preinstalled. Its charging dock comes packaged with its own components, including a clean water tank, dirty water tank, cleaning solution cartridge, and disposable dust bag. A small cleaning tool is also included for maintaining or cleaning the main brush and filters, and you’ll also find a side brush for cleaning edges and corners. The box also includes a docking base with a power cable in it. The last thing it contains is a user manual and a quick start guide for setup and troubleshooting.
Vacuum Features
For vacuuming, the S8 MaxV Ultra has an extending side-sweeping brush called the FlexiArm, designed to easily clean corners. These arms extend when it detects corners or low areas under furniture. With these arms, it moves waste toward dual roller brushes. It collects hair, dust, and debris and stores them in its dustbin. Once the dustbin is full, it self-empties it into a big dustbin at the base. This robot vacuum is intelligent; it performs multiple passes in messier areas.
It uses ultrasound to detect carpet. With the help of this, it can increase suction power on carpet for better cleaning. And lift mop pads when on carpet.
Mop Features
The S8 MaxV has an improved vibrating mopping system along with three water outlets and a side mop to help it with the stains. Roborock uses VibraRise 3.0 technology for mopping. With the help of this technology, S8 MaxV Ultra scrubs the floor 4,000 times per minute to make sure a clean floor. When cleaning carpet, the mop lifts up to 20mm above the ground, allowing vacuuming and mopping at the same time without causing unwanted dampness.
In my testing, with the help of the side mop, I was able to get close to the baseboards and furniture, which is great. However, if you have quarter-round moldings, then the mop will ride up on as you can see in the image below.
Dock Features
Dock is where your robot rests and charges itself. The dock comes with two detachable water tanks—one for clean water and another for dirty. The clean water tank automatically fills the robot vacuum with clean water, and when it finishes mopping and comes back at the dock, it discharges the used water into the dirty water tank.
There is another dock that’s directly connected to the water line. This removed the need for filling and draining the dock’s water tanks. This sounds really nice, but it can cause trouble for some people as it would limit your options in terms of where you can place the dock in your home.
The clean water tank in the dock has a capacity of 4L. This water in the dock is also used to wash the mop pads when the robot is done cleaning. It also disinfects the mop pad and removes stains using hot water. After washing the mop, it uses heated air to dry the mop pad to prevent mold and odors.
The dock also has a big dust bag that can hold dust and debris, making sure that you don’t need to change it for at least 7 weeks.
Intelligence Features
S8 MaxV Ultra uses Reactive AI 2.0 for avoiding obstacles. This uses 3D structured light and an RGB camera to identify room types. With the help of this technology, the S8 MaxV Ultra can identify objects like cables, pet waste, and kid’s toys. It can also detect mirrors, so it doesn’t get confused.
This robot vacuum can also recognize dust and then adapt its cleaning mode based on the amount of dust or mess. For example, if the mess feels difficult to clean, the robot vacuum will increase suction power or switch to mop-only mode for stubborn stains.
It can also scan your home using LiDAR Navigation to find an ideal cleaning route. This will help the robot vacuum to complete its cleaning process faster. It can create maps of different levels in your homes if you’d like to move the robot across different floors.
App Features
The Roborock’s app is great. I really appreciate the number of controls it offers. With the help of the app, you can mark things on your map. You can mention No-Go Zone for your robot vacuum as well.
If you made a mess and need to clean it, you can just mark the area on the map and send the robot to it. Or you can use the voice command “come here,” and it will look for you and clean in that area.
Physical Buttons
Other than using app or voice commands, you can also control it with the physical buttons on it. The three buttons are: mop only, power, and dock.
- Long-pressing the mop button will activate a child lock.
- Tapping the power button will start or pause cleaning, and a long press will turn it on or off.
- Pressing the dock button will send it back home, and a long press will wash the mop.
S8 MaxV Ultra Vaccum Test
Lets start with the carpet pickup test, where I scatter 54 grams of rice on medium pile carpet and send the S8 MaxV pass in Max Plus vacuum mode with the large 10,000 Pascal-rated vacuum motor. It was able to pick up 53 G or 98% of the rice, which is a good score.
Okay, moving on to the tile floor where I scatter 130 G of premium cat litter and send the S8 MaxV out in one pass to pick up as much as it can, it was able to pick up a total of 122 G or 94% of the cat litter. Which again is a respectable score.
S8 MaxV Ultra Mop Test
For the mopping test, I used exactly 4 ml of baked hot sauce on my tile floor and sent the robot out in deep mopping mode with two passes to mop up as much as possible. The S8 Max V does have an improved vibrating mopping system along with three water outlets and a side mop to help it with the stains, and it was very effective, removing 100% of the dried stains.
For the second test, I dropped some yogurt on my hardwood floor. And sent the robot to do a single pass, mop-only, at a standard scrub intensity. And it was painful for me to see my robot drive right through yogurt. It managed to clean most of the visible yogurt, but still, it was far from acceptable.
I tired it again, but this time with max scrub intensity and two passes. I was able to see my robot trying its best to clean the floor, like it was trying not to disapoint me. And it didn’t. After the robot was done cleaning, I checked the floor, and this time the results were great.
Obstacle Avoidance Test
For the object avoidance test, I placed common household items in my living room and sent the S8 MaxV out to avoid them. I run all my tests multiple times for consistency, including this one, and in each test it failed to detect the socks. It did, however, detect the wound-up cord, which is great news along with staying way clear of the fake animal waste in dark areas. The S8 MaxV has an LED fill light to help it avoid objects because it uses an RGB camera.
Noise Test
Vacuuming (quiet): There are several levels of suction power available. At the quietest setting, it came in at 59 decibels, which is close to the sound of normal conversation, so not bad at all.
Vacuuming (max): At maximum suction power, the noise reached 68 decibels, which is typical level for a traditional vacuum cleaner. This is what you should expect if you have mostly carpeted flooring.
Dust removal: When dock removes dust from the robot’s dutbin into its dust bag, it hits 72 decibels.
Mop washing: While mop washing, the dock noises vary quite a bit, but went up to 59 decibels.
Mop drying: When drying, it was just 37 decibels. For context, a whisper is around 30 decibels.
Things I like
There is a lot to like about the S8 MaxV Ultra.
Firstly. It’s good at cleaning. There may be better robots for just vacuuming or mopping, but S8 is good with both. I was very pleased with the results of my test. It did a really nice job in most.
The second thing I liked is its obstacle detection technology. It’s great at avoiding obstacles, except socks. And the navigation is also very accurate; it didn’t dump in any wall or corner while navigating.
The Roborock app’s options and customization possibilities are some of the best I’ve seen. You can really set it in to clean exactly how you want, or just let the AI take care of your house. It’s also fun to see a live view of not only where the robot is in my home, but where it’s already cleaned.
Final Thoughts
If you are looking to get a robot vacuum and mop, I do believe the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra should be on your list. It’s packed with tons of intelligent features and is great at cleaning. If you can afford its steep price of $1800, then I highly recommend it.
Or you can check other models like the Dream X40 Ultra or a more budget-friendly option like the Eufy L60 SES. The Dream X40 Ultra matches the features of Roborock’s S8 MaxV Ultra and is more budget-friendly (around $1100) compared to the S8 MaxV. Before deciding, I recommend checking out the list of the best robot vacuums to get a list of some of the best options on the market right now.