Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra: 10 000 Pa Suction, New Cleaning Module, AI Object Recognition

Hey guys, welcome to Robotobzor! Today we’ll review the best robot vacuum cleaner Roborock has to offer globally as of June 2024 – the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra. We’ve seen a lot of upgrades: the extendable side brush for sweeping out dirt in the corners, an additional wipe at the edge for washing the floor close to the baseboard, a tank for mixing detergent into the water at the station, “Hey Rocky” voice assistant, and even a power increase all the way up to 10,000 Pa. At first glance, this is really cool. But I’ll thoroughly test and review Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra, highlight the pros and cons, and then let you know what I personally think. The current price is $1800. Don’t forget to like and subscribe, and let’s get rolling!

Aliexpress: https://shp.pub/70k5qk

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3WAi2LA

Kit

The kit’s standard. It includes:

1. A power cord.
2. An extra bag for the station
3. And documents for the robot.

Appearance

Now, let’s take a look at the robot itself. It’s round, and offered in black or white.

There is a wall sensor on the right side, alongside a system of sensors and cameras in the center to recognize and carefully avoid obstacles on the floor, as well as to remotely look after your house.

This tech is called Reactive AI Obstacle Recognition, like the previously released Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra. There are 3D sensors on the sides of the cameras, and an LED at the bottom to light up in the dark.

Lidar is responsible for the navigation, and is covered by a spring loaded top to help it from getting stuck under furniture.

There’s three buttons on the panel. The dirt container is under the top cover, which is held in place by magnets. It’s small, only 270 ml (9.1 Oz.). The manufacturer allows washing the container and filter with water. The filtration system is only based on a HEPA-filter. The 100 ml ( 3.4 Oz.) water tank is hidden inside the robot, and isn’t removable. The water is pumped automatically through the station.

There’s 6 anti-fall sensors on the bottom. Next to the brush is a carpet sensor. There’s one three beamed screwed on side brush.

So this brush automatically extends to sweep out corners, solving the round robot’s problems. The technology is called FlexiArm Design.

The center brush unit is floating, which is a plus. Dirt is collected by two silicone turbo brushes that rotate towards each other. The technology is called DuoRoller Riser.The two turbo brushes automatically lift up when the robot returns to the station and while mopping. Both brushes are disassembled on both sides to clean off coiled hair and fur. Very cool.

As for mopping, the main wipe is held in place by Velcro and a groove. The wipe holder isn’t removable, which kinda sucks. There are two movable modules in the platform. The wipe also has two separate sections. The wipe reaches 4000 vibrations per minute.

In addition to the main wipe we see an extra round wipe behind the wheel at the edge that gets dirt near baseboards and in corners.

An alternative to the retractable holder with a cloth, like in Roborock Qrevo MaxV and front runners from Dreame, Ecovacs and even Xiaomi.The round wipe rotates 185 rps.

Both the primary and secondary wipes automatically lift a record 20mm (0.79 In.) upwards when driving onto carpets, vacuuming, when returning to the station after cleaning, and when the robot leaves the station to clean a selected area. This updated design is called VibraRise 3.0.

The station also got some upgrades. The robot at the station can self-clean, refill the robot’s tank with clean water, automatically mix detergent when washing, wash the wipe with hot water and dry it with warm air, which makes this robot basically self-sustaining. Plus, the station can sense when a particular area is dirty enough for another cleaning based on how dirty the cloths are.

The base cloth at the station is cleaned with a special roller with an elastic pile. The bottom of the base is scraped, which is very good. The extra round wipe is cleaned in a separate area.

The robot’s entry ramp, and the coarse filter of the extra wipe are both removable. There is also a coarse water filter after the wipes are washed. Its removable and should be periodically cleaned from hair, fur, and dirt.

Above the wipes washing area there is an easily removable lid, behind whichis a trash bag and a 580 ml (19.6 Oz.) detergent reservoir.

On top are tanks for clean and dirty water, with a capacity of 4 and 3.5 liters (1.05, 0.92 G.) respectively.

The clean water tank appears to have a disinfection module.

As for the utility connection to the sewage and water supply, there’s no option for that in this robot. But the official website states that the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra will also be sold with a separate, more compact station for utility connection. Whether or not we’ll see this in Russian markets is unknown.

Overall, lots of improvements that we’ll have to check out in our tests.

Technical characteristics

Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra’s main characteristics, Given by the manufacturer:

Vacuum:

• Battery Li-Ion 5200 mA*h.
• Suction power up to 10 000 Pa.
• Work time up to 180 mins.
• Cleaning area up to 300 sq.m (980 Ft.).
• Dirt container 270 ml (9 Oz.).
• Water tank 100 ml (3.4 Oz.).
• Obstacle size up to 20 mm (0.79 In.).
• Robot’s size: 353*103 mm (13.9×4.06In.).

Base:

• Clean water tank: 4 L (1.05 G.).
• Dirty water tank: 3,5 L (0.92G.).
• Bag in station: 2,7 L (0.7 G.).
• Detergent tank: 580 ml (19.6 Oz.).
• Station’s size: 419*409*470 mm (16.5×16.1×18.5 In.).

Notice the increased suction power, I’ll have to check that out in my tests

Functions

Let’s move on to our robot’s functions. It’s controlled through the Roborock app. Connecting to the network gave no problems, act according to the manufacturer’s prompts.

Here are the robot’s functions, highlighted are the new ones:

• The side brush goes into corners.
• Wipe washing with hot water (60 °C/140 °F).
• Wipe drying with hot air (60 °C/140 °F).
• Automatic detergent mixing.
• Supports “Hey Rocky” voice assistant.
• Dirt container self cleaning at station
• Water refill at station.
• Object detection system.
• Remote home monitoring.
• Save multiple maps in memory.
• 3D-map of the area.
• Automatically zones the area into rooms.
• Choose individual zones and rooms to clean.
• Virtual walls and no-go zones (as well as just for mopping).
• Suction power regulation.
• Wipe wetness regulation.
• Intensive mopping mode.
• User mode.
• Set up periodic cloth cleaning.
• Smartplan mode for planning out your cleaning cycle.
• Cleaning log.
• Set up a cleaning schedule.
• Automatic power increase on carpets.
• Carpet avoidance while mopping.
• Wipe lift on carpets.
• Central brush lift while mopping and returning to base.
• Supports voice assistants.

As you can see, you have everything you need to flexibly customize your cleaning cycle. There’s a new AI cleaning mode called SmartPlan. Alongside that is the voice assistant “Hello, Rocky!”.

Testing

Navigation

Let’s get to testing! First, let’s test the robot’s navigation in a room with obstacles. The robot first goes around the room’s perimeter, then through the area in a snake-like pattern. It drove around the drying rack’s legs, the box, and all 4 legs of the chair before returning to the base.

As for the rest of the house, the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra cleans room after room first around the perimeter then in a snake-like pattern. As specified, it returns to clean its wipes every 15 minutes, then returns from where it left off. When returning, it not only picks up the wipes, but the brushes as well. The room’s left clean, so the navigation here is superb!

Object recognition and avoidance

Let’s separately test the object detection system. We placed some items around the floor, which could stump the robot into going into error.

So in good light Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra recognized and carefully avoided 6 out of 6 objects.

Even in complete darkness it recognized 5 out of 6 objects and carefully drove around them. This time it drove over fake pet poo.

We can see that the AI is very well implemented here, but still has some things it could work on. Since this is an artificial intelligence and neural networks, it’s possible that it learns over time.

Suction power

Despite what we were told, the suction power is no miracle. It sucked dirt out of 2 and 4 mm (.078 & .15 In), which is slightly more powerful than the Roborock S8, S8 Plus and S8 Pro Ultra, which were previously on the review. They could only get down to 2 mm (.78 In.)

Like I said in the S8 line reviews, it’s probably down to the brushes and aerodynamics. Somewhere in the design something caused the power to be lost.

Vacuuming

It did pretty good vacuuming on the laminate, but there’s a nuance. There’s still some dirt in the corners after 2 runs. There is an obvious problem in the algorithm of the retractable mechanism of the side brush. The robot would stay longer in the corner and it is necessary for the brush to move out into the corner at the moment when the robot stops. And so it flies out at the entrance, leaving some garbage near the corner, and quickly the robot leaves the area, not having time to sweep everything effectively. In theory, the idea is good, the realization is still meh. But I’m sure that in the near future this will be fixed.

Note that there’s no hair wrapped on the brush, and all of the dirt is in the container. This is great!

Carpet cleaning

But even the silicon brushes have their disadvantages. For example, they clean carpets worse, even if the robot has a high suction power. And even if low carpets are still no problem after a few tries, medium and higher carpets need some more runs through. In any case, the end result is good.

Self-cleaning

Immediately after the “dirty tests”, I’ll let it self clean and see how well it does. Thd dirt container is clogged before we ran it. But the end result was excellent, the container was completely empty, and it did a fantastic job.

Mopping and carpets

If you’re thinking of mopping with carpets in the house, there’s a few things you could do. One, carefully go around them while mopping, another is lifting the wipes, and the last to just drive over them.

Mopping

It cleans dirt well too. The napkin firmly presses against the floor. Moreover, thanks to the station, the robot vacuum cleaner first wiped off the dirt, then rinsed the cloth and wiped the floor again, removing all the stains and leaving the floor perfectly spotless.

Scrubbing hard stains

The robot has a hard time getting off harder stains like dried coffee and sauce, but it still can. After 11 attempts going back and forth to and from the station, the floor is clean. The vibrations do actually help the process.

Blind spot

As for the blind zone between the edge of the body and the baseboard or furniture, it has been eliminated thanks to the rotating round wipe that gets up close to those edges.

Cloth cleaning quality

Let’s see how efficient the station. Let’s start with how well it cleans the cloths. Even after hard tests, they look significantly better after being washed. The station’s efficiency was bumped up by the hot air and water as well as the detergent. In everyday conditions, the cloths are rinsed really well.

We see that under the pressure of water nothing is washed out. The water is clean.

A few words about drying the cloth- it’s awesome. After 4 hours the napkin is completely dry. That’s a plus!

Station maintenance

Maintaining the station is pretty easy. \The drain can be easily removed to be washed in the sink; we can rinse the cloths and filters with water, and wipe with napkins if needed. The tray can also be wiped. Ideally, the inner tray should be completely removable, but even so cleaning it isn’t hard.

Obstacles

Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra did an awesome job off road, going over 2 cm (0.79 In.) thresholds.

Dark spaces

Dark spaces are no match for our vacuum, easily going over dark surfaces.

Volume

As for the volume, it stays between 56-71,5 dB depending on the mode. This is pretty average.

Opinion

After we thoroughly reviewed and tested Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra robot vacuum, our algorithm scored it 210 points. If not for the mentioned problems, it could even take place as the highlight of 2024. Now, I’ll go over the pros and cons, and at the end let you know what I think.

I liked the following:

1. An advanced station by 2024’s standards for self-cleaning the dirt container, washing and drying the cloths, as well as automatically adding detergent. It does all of its tasks well.
2. The object detection system works really well, not being blinded in the dark.
3. You can remotely track your home through the cameras.
4. «Hello, Rocky» voice assistant.
5. Two silicon turbo brushes which are a godsend to clean from hair and fur.
6. Better wipe lift system.
7. Central brush lift while mopping.
8. Gets all the way to wall edges thanks to the retractable side wipe.
9. A retractable side brush, which, WITH tweaking the algorithm, completely solves the issue of sweeping dirt in the corners. Moreover, unlike D-shaped robots, the round Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra doesn’t lose its maneuverability. It quickly and effectively moves around without contact.
10. Quality vacuuming and mopping on different surfaces.
11. With grat difficulty, but it can scrub off harder stains.
12. Lots of functions in the app.
13. Not scared of dark spaces.
14. Good off-road.
15. Good assembly and good brand credibility.
16. Full warranty and servicing.

As for what they could work on, here’s a few comments:

1. The corner sweeping algorithm needs tweaks.
2. The higher suction power wasn’t confirmed in my tests.
3. The station that came to my review can’t be hooked up to the utilities.
4. The object detection system still needs work.
5. Not a big dirt container in the robot.

The main ones are still the first three, and the most significant, in my opinion, is the misengineering of the side brush extending. One of the main features of the new product, which I really hope will be fixed soon.

In any case, Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra has become even more efficient, even more autonomous and even a little more powerful, compared to the previously released Roborock S8 Pro Ultra. So it can definitely be considered one of the best robot vacuum cleaners of 2024. For some, this might be the best, given the full warranty, service, and the Roborock brand credibility for their assembly quality and reliability compared to Dreame’s direct competitors.

Aliexpress: https://shp.pub/70k5qk

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3WAi2LA

On this note I’d like to end the review. If you still have questions, feel free to ask them in the comments down below. Have fun shopping, bye!