If you’re looking for a house-warming gift (with a budget of roughly S$800) to help a friend keep the home clean, get him/her a Roborock S8.
The Roborock S8 series is the latest flagship lineup of robot vacuum mops for cleaning homes.
It comprises the basic S8 vacuum mop, the S8+ (with dustbin auto-emptying dock), and the top end S8 Pro Ultra (with auto-emptying, mop auto-washing, water tank auto-refiling, mop-cloth auto-drying dock).
View this post on Instagram
Roborock S8 robot vacuum mop freshly unboxed.
I’ve been trying out the S8 robot vacuum mop and it’s a good basic robot cleaner with no frills which keeps the home dust and dirt free.
The following key highlights of the S8 makes it a more effective and intelligent floor cleaner.
DuoRoller Brush
Instead of a single main brush, the S8 now has two main brushes brushing in opposite directions to more effectively corral dust/debris towards the direction of the vacuum suction inlet.
The dual-brush design also resulted in lesser tangled hair, and makes vacuuming more effective on all surfaces – from hardwood and tiles to carpets and rugs.
View this post on Instagram
The DuoRoller brush and VibraRise mop at the bottom of the Roborock S8.
HyperForce 6000 Pa Suction Power
So far, the most powerful suction rating for Roborock’s previous robot vacuums has been 5100 Pa in the S7 MaxV and 4200 on the Q7 Max.
The S8 has increased that by nearly 18% to 6000 Pa – that means the vacuum is now more effective in sucking up dust and debris from the floor.
Enhanced VibraRise 2.0 Mopping
The VibraRise sonic vibration technology scrubs the floor at a rate of 3,000 times per minute – that’s 50 times per second.
The Roborock S8 exerts a mop pressure of 6N while mopping the floor and its Carpet Boost+ feature lifts up the mop cloth by up to 5mm when it detects a carpet – so that it can switch to vacuuming the carpet.
This makes cleaning more efficient since mixed floors with carpets and hard floors can be cleaned in a single run, instead of one run for vacuuming everywhere and an additional iteration for mopping, whilst demarcating carpeted areas to avoid.
View this post on Instagram
The Roborock S8 has a 400ml dustbin and 300ml water tank. The internal 5200 mAh battery lasts for 180 minutes.
Reactive 3D Obstacle Avoidance System
The Roborock S8 uses invisible 3D structured light and infrared imaging technology to identify and avoid potential hazards on the floors, even in dark rooms.
The S8 is able to detect and bypass objects as small as 5cm wide by 3cm tall, and is able to recognise up to 42 different types of objects, such as shoes, fans or fan pedestals etc.
PreciSense LiDAR Navigation
The Roborock S8 continues the excellent tradition of its predecessors in terms of mapping out the apartment it is cleaning and planning an optimal route that does not leave any floor surfaces uncleaned.
The Roborock S8 is a robot vacuum mop which cleans an apartment effectively and efficiently.
The vacuum is powerful, the mop is intelligent and cleans well, while the overall routing and obstacle avoidance is top-notch.
This would make an ideal house-warming gift if your budget is around S$800.
It never fails to amaze me every time I set a new Roborock vacuum mop to create a map of the apartment from scratch – the rapidity and accuracy of the map appearing in the app is really captivating.
Every subsequent cleaning runs updates the map accordingly, while you can use the app to add invisible walls and no-go zones to control exactly where the S8 is to clean.
Something new that I like in the S8 is the ability to figure out the places where it is likely to get stuck and take extra precautions when cleaning those places in the future.
App Control
As with all Roborock robot vacuum mops, you can use the Roborock app or Xiaomi Home app to control exactly how the S8 is to go about cleaning your home.
From vacuum suction strength (power vs noise level) to scrubbing intensity/wetness, as well as the cleaning route (speed vs thoroughness) to take.
Up to four different maps (3D or flat plan view) can be stored, in case you have four levels in your house, and each map can be customised by dividing into individual named rooms, with invisible walls and no-go zones.
The app also enables scheduled cleaning as well.
View this post on Instagram
The Roborock S8 is a no-frills robot vacuum mop with a compact charging dock.
Off-peak Charging Scheduling
One feature which isn’t quite applicable in Singapore yet but which is useful in countries with electricity rates that vary with time periods of the day – the S8 charging dock can be programmed to charge the robot during time periods when the electricity rates are cheap, avoiding peak hours when the electricity rates can be more expensive.
That should help owners save on power bills in this inflationary time when energy costs are rising.
Tags: appliances, gifts, Home Tech, reviews, Roborock, robots, vacuum mops
What are the differences between the S8, S8+ and S8 Ultra Pro?
You can see the detailed differences on their website at this URL: https://global.roborock.com/pages/robot-vacuum-cleaner-compare
But broadly, the basic S8 vacuum mop comes with a no-frills charging dock (which is very compact) while the S8+ comes with a large dustbin auto-emptying dock; and the top end S8 Pro Ultra ships with an even larger dock (and price tag) with auto-emptying, mop auto-washing, water tank auto-refiling, and mop-cloth auto-drying.
Can it be controlled by voice?
Yes, it supports both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.