by Josh Teder

It’s been six months since I got sent a Roborock S8 Max V Ultra, Roborock’s newest top-of-the-line vacuum. After spending six months with the one that Roborock sent me, not only is it a home appliance I couldn’t live without, but it’s the best robot vacuum I’ve ever tested.

RGB Camera System

The first major highlight of the S8 Max V Ultra is its RGB camera system. This is something not every robot vacuum cleaner has. Still, I found it to be essential if you want to have your robot accurately navigate its environment and return to its dock without issue. It’s also the component that allows the S8 Max V to show you pictures of obstacles identified in your home. This makes you more confident that the robot won’t run over your shoes, a power strip, or a bathroom scale. Now, will it always avoid every obstacle it comes across? No, but in 6 months, it’s avoided most of the ones it could find in my apartment.

Privacy Concerns and Navigation

Now, I know some in the past have voiced concerns about having an RGB camera in their robotic vacuum, so if that’s you, Roborock does make a line that doesn’t have the RGB camera as well as the microphones. More on that in a bit, but I found my previous S8 Pro Ultra, which didn’t have an RGB camera, to not be nearly as good at avoiding obstacles. The RGB camera combined with the LiDAR sensor and additional light for vacuuming in darker rooms seems to be the key combination for a robotic vacuum to navigate your home efficiently. And six months later, I haven’t had a single problem with the robot being able to find its dock and return to it.

Smart Plan Feature

I’ve also found vacuuming with this Roborock easier than with previous models. Gone are the days when you had to tell it what mode to be in, like vacuum only or vacuum and mop. With the Smart Plan feature enabled, you just set the room or rooms you want the robot to clean, and it’ll take care of the rest. It automatically detects what modes to turn on or off based on room conditions like floor type, which it can detect. You can see what floor types it detected in the smart map within the Roborock app, and you can adjust the type if necessary. One of my favorite features is how it’ll automatically place no-go zones on the map without you having to do anything. It did this for part of my desk that it used to get caught on. Same for my bathroom scale.

Intelligent Dirt Detection and Cleaning Performance

The S8 Max V also has intelligent dirt detection. It will automatically decide if it needs to rewash the mop if it gets really dirty and then remop areas with a lot of dirt. So, how well does it actually clean? Pretty well, actually. My carpets not only have a satisfying clean look to them every time the robot goes over them, but when I’ve gone back over freshly vacuumed carpets with my Dyson, it doesn’t pick up any additional dust, meaning the robot is actually sucking up what it should be. The Roborock is also relatively quiet. I’ve measured its noise at about 65 dB, and the noise it makes itself doesn’t have this real annoying high-pitched tone or anything like that. It’s been pretty easy for me to tune out in the background.

Suction Power and Mopping Performance

Overall, the vacuuming performance is similar to what I’ve experienced with previous Roborocks, but the S8 Max V Ultra does have more suction power. It’s rated up to 10,000 pascals of suction for its extreme suction mode. With this model in particular, the cleaning performance that has stood out the most is mopping. Even if you just use water in the cleaning tank as I do, its mopping performance is quite good, by far the best on any Roborock I’ve tested, and it has caused me to use a mop a lot less. Like, I think I’ve used an actual mop like once in 6 months, uh, and that was just to clean the baseboards to get some staining that was on there, and it’s not like the Roborock could have cleaned my baseboards anyway.

VibraRise 3.0 Mopping System and Dock Features

Another benefit of this newer model is the new VibraRise 3.0 mopping system. The mop lifts farther off the ground than in my previous Roborock vacuum, so my carpet does not get wet at all when the robot transitions back to vacuuming. Another standout feature of this robot is its dock. It does everything you could think of. It auto-empties the robot’s dust bin, fills the robot with clean water, washes the mop with hot water, sucks out the dirty water, and dries the mop with a heater to keep things clean. If you want to use a cleaning solution with your mop, it’ll even auto-dispense that detergent.

Maintenance

The only maintenance I’ve had to do with the robot as well as its dock in 6 months is periodically wash out the filter in the robot’s dust bin, clean the sensors on the robot as well as the dock, and empty and refill both water tanks about every one to two weeks. And if that sounds like it’s too much work, Roborock does have a version of the dock that eliminates the need for water tanks by connecting the dock directly to your plumbing.

Roborock App Features

Another highlight of using the S8 Max V Ultra is the Roborock app. It has every feature and setting you could practically think of for a robotic vacuum. If you have multiple floors in your home, you can set the home layout to multi-level, and when you put the robot on a different floor, it’ll automatically recognize which map it’s in. You can adjust your floor cleaning settings and dock settings like mop wash frequency, empty mode, and how long you want the mop to dry. You can pin and go to set a target on the map for the robot to go and clean. You can even use the robot as more of a toy, controlling it around your home while looking at the live view through the app. Plus, it has useful widgets for both iOS and Android that sync with the routines that you create in the app. Routines can be scheduled within the app as well, and there are some useful suggestions, like cleaning up after meals. I often trigger them from a widget, or I’ll use a voice command to control the vacuum from a digital assistant like Apple’s or from the robot itself, which has a built-in assistant, though it’s somewhat limited in what you can ask it to do.

Setup and Design

Setup is another highlight of using this robot. Roborock has done a great job making the packaging materials more sustainable and cutting down the size of the box. There’s hardly any plastic packaging or styrofoam. It’s mostly cardboard, which is great to see. It comes with a quick start guide with a QR code to download the app, and I didn’t have any issues getting mine set up. The only thing I wish Roborock would implement is the ability for your old robot to transfer over the map data to your new one so it doesn’t have to spend time mapping your entire home again. Regarding design, the robot looks great in the white version that I got from Roborock. The dock is a bit slimmer and looks more premium than my S8 Pro Ultra’s did.

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Underused Features

Now let’s talk about some features I haven’t used that much. The remote viewing feature is cool, especially if you have pets, but I haven’t had that much use for it personally. Now if you do have pets, you can set the robot to search for them when it vacuums, which is cool. It’ll even stop the main brushes when it gets near your pet, but there’s also a cool feature called Pet Snaps. The robot will automatically take photos of your pets while cleaning and send them to you, which is cute.

On-Device Assistant and Voice Control

Another new feature of this robot that I haven’t found myself using all that much is the on-device assistant named Rocky. “Hey Rocky, I’m here.” “Clean kitchen.” “Okay.” That’s because this assistant’s integration is somewhat limited. You have to remember the room names you gave things, and you can’t use custom names like Josh’s room or Jake’s office, which makes things a bit cumbersome. In my experience, I’ve mainly relied on Roborock’s smart assistant integrations for voice control, and unfortunately, not being able to customize the room name can also impact how you control the robot via smart assistants. One way I got around this was by programming custom room names via Home Assistant and then creating shortcuts in Apple’s Shortcuts app. So when I say “vacuum my rooms” to Apple’s assistant, it’ll do it, knowing what rooms I’m talking about.

Google Home Integration

Now, one other assistant-related item I want to mention is Google Home integration. Roborock’s documentation for the app shows functionality where you can see a map of your home in the Google Home app and name rooms to whatever you want, but so far, I have not been able to get that to work. Perhaps this is a feature related to Matter support that’s coming soon for the robot, but I’m not sure.

Downsides: Object Avoidance

Next, let’s talk about the downsides, and the first one is object avoidance. While object avoidance is generally good, it doesn’t always avoid everything. In 6 months, I’ve had my Roborock suck-up socks that were just like underneath a couch that no one realized, or it sucked up some ribbon it found underneath furniture from our Christmas wrapping last year. And then there was the great plant massacre of summer 2024. The Roborock didn’t see the runners from our pothos plant that had started to stretch out onto the carpet, and well, it was a mess. Now the plant is fine, uh, my husband less so, but um, this is something you’ll want to keep in mind with any robot vacuum, even one as capable as this new Roborock. You still need to have your floors mostly picked up for these things to complete a run and not suck up something that’ll cause it to get stuck or chew through a pothos plant. And I would like to see Roborock uh, retrain some of their AI models to make sure that plant identification is a bit better.

Carpet Edge Cleaning

Another downside with this, and again, almost every other robot vacuum out there has the same issue, is cleaning the very edges of the carpet. Now Roborock has tried to solve some of this with their new flexi arm, which moves out and can get debris in the corner of the room, but it’s not going to suck up the dust that’s right in the corner embedded in the carpet. The only company I’ve seen that’s tried to solve that issue is Dyson with their side duct. However, from reviews I’ve watched of that vacuum, like those from Vacuum Wars, it doesn’t appear that Dyson’s design is doing anything better than the Roborock flexi arm design, at least according to what Vacuum Wars found in their reviews of the two devices. However, the rotating mop arm on the Roborock does seem to mop the corners and edges of the room decently.

Wi-Fi Connectivity

Now, one slight downside is that the S8 Max V Ultra can only connect to the 2.4 GHz band of a Wi-Fi router. For most routers, this shouldn’t be an issue, but I know some people do run into problems when trying to connect devices to a 2.4 GHz network, so just keep that in mind.

Repairability and Trade-ins

Now, what about repairability and trade-ins? Trade-ins were one weakness I found with my Roborock in my last review, but since then, Roborock has launched a trade-in program where when you trade in your old Roborock vacuum, you’ll get up to $1,000 towards a new one, depending on the model you’re trading in. Now for repairability, from what I’ve seen, when something typically breaks on one of these machines, you have two options. Some people have had luck buying parts from China and repairing the robots for simple things like the battery or control boards. However, I’m not sure if this will void your warranty. I suspect it probably will unless you have local right-to-repair laws. For most people, though, it will be easier to just get your robot repaired through Roborock if it’s under warranty. I’ve seen on online forums that people have gotten Roborock to just give them a prepaid shipping label. They ship the robot back, though. Remember that when you do that, you’ll probably just want to keep the box and packaging materials for your Roborock because of the shape of these devices. If you don’t do that, it could easily get damaged in transit, so that can be a pain and just keep that in mind, um, and then if it’s out of warranty, uh, the shipping costs are going to be on you. I haven’t run into a problem with any Roborock vacuum I’ve owned, but that’s likely because I mainly review them, and I haven’t kept them around for more than two years.

Final Verdict

So overall, do I recommend the Roborock S8 Max V Ultra? Yes, it’s by far the best robot vacuum I’ve ever owned. It’s not perfect, but pretty close. It has powerful suction, the mopping performance has improved quite a bit from my past Roborock vacuums, and the robot’s obstacle recognition, avoidance, and navigation is a step above the non-RGB camera robotic vacuums that I’ve used. But it’s also the most expensive. It retails for $1,800, clearly putting it at the top of the robotic vacuum market and several hundred more than its competition, like the new Roomba Combo j10+ Max Plus and AutoWash Dock from iRobot.

Value Proposition

The real question you have to ask yourself when looking at one of these robots, especially one in this price range, is how much is automated cleaning worth it to you? Well, the time that you’re going to save not having to vacuum or mop your floors, is that time saved going to be worth the cost of this device, you know, spread out over a few years? Of course, I think it is worth it to have a robotic vacuum cleaner. One that costs this much, especially given the competition, is hard to say; yes, this specific model is worth it. Now, I think if you can find it on sale during the holidays, if it’s going closer to $1,200, if you can get it for around that price, that’s where I’d say go for it. But for me, I’m not sure I would spend $1,800 US on any robotic vacuum cleaner.