Roborock Q Revo sets the bar for what a robot vacuum should be

The Roborock Q Revo looks like a great package on paper with its vacuum and mop feature, coupled with the ability to self-wash and dry. When it comes to cleaning the house, it would make little sense to invest money into a device intended to save you time, only to have you spend an inordinate amount of time cleaning it up or doing maintenance stuff.

At $1,299.99 ($1,099.90 at the upcoming 7.7 sales at Shopee and Lazada), the Q Revo is far from cheap–this is a model that’s pretty much the entry-level offering of the premium range. And yet, I can understand why it’s not entirely crazy to drop that money on this. The Q Revo has many of the quality of life features built in that owning one is likely to be a considerable upgrade. 

A robot vacuum doesn’t replace good ol’ elbow grease; if you spill food on the floor or leave a gooey mess, this gadget is more of a hindrance than a help. But when it comes to day-to-day cleaning–you know, the little dusting and mopping here and there–this little worker bee is perfect for the job. It doesn’t change the fact that every now and then you need to whip out the Magiclean to remove stubborn stains, but the fact that robot vacuums like the Q Revo are able to vacuum and mop at the same time certainly makes the manual cleaning far easier, because 90per cent of the work is already done.

Setup

Lest you think that there’s a huge learning curve when it comes to setting up the Q Revo for the first time, there’s almost none where the Q Revo is concerned. You might need to note that the robot vacuum only operates in 2.4GHz and that it doesn’t accept special characters in identifying your WiFi and password.

Otherwise, setup is pretty straightforward if you follow the quick start guide; fill the water tank and let the Q Revo do its mapping, after which you’re good to go for your first clean. And that’s it, really. You can slowly figure out the nifty stuff as you go along, but you can certainly get everything up and running in half an hour, depending on the size of your house.

While the Q Revo is generally smart enough to navigate itself out of a messy situation, you have to reconcile its limitations (and try to follow the indicated recommendations, unlike what I did). For example: sometimes you can get away with placing the base station in a crowded area, but I’ve noticed that occasionally it might affect the robot in finding its way home. It doesn’t happen often, but if it does come up, simply relocate the base or free up more space. 

Mapping

Roborock says it uses PreciSense LiDAR Navigation for creating detailed maps, including 3D mapping and the combination of sensors and algorithms certainly seems rather effective in practice as it doesn’t take the Q Revo long to complete the preparatory scan. 

However, it’s not an exact science and it will still need to make its rounds to fill in the blanks. You’ll find that the Q Revo will keep bumping and grinding against table legs as it tries to familiarise itself with your home initially. So yes, your Q Revo will take some minor scratches for sure; it’s just the cost of going about its business. However, if you are worried about scuff marks on your furniture, pad it up with some tape as cheap insurance for the time being until you’re confident it’ll stop bumping against them. But that said, it’s not a hard guarantee so leave some protection if it really bugs you. Or you can just get over it.

The map allows you to place furniture, and though they are limited in range, they really are more like markers so you can tap on them–as opposed to an abstract point on a map–so that the robot vacuum can clean that area. The app also offers an option for Matrix mapping if you have a LiDAR-equipped phone, which in all honesty doesn’t seem to do much.

While the  3D map is certainly better than the 2D layout in visualising the path of the robot vacuum in relation to the size of the furniture, I wished that there was a way to edit in 3D versus going back and forth between layouts. That said, I’m probably nitpicking here, since in reality, close enough is good enough, as the vacuum will just adapt to the situation. 

On the off chance that your mapped path might go haywire, the app offers you a way to backup a previously saved map; I wished there was a way to specifically save it as the app overwrites them upon completion of another cycle, so if you’re not paying attention to how your robot vacuum is doing and the app supersedes that backup with a wonky update, you have no choice but to remap.

I’ve not encountered any issues thus far, but it’s a little rich coming from me because my home is pretty simple and straightforward and the reality is I can easily remap without much consequence–I understand that other people might have specific needs and setting up the map and the schedules again will be annoying. 

That’s because you can do quite a bit of customisation with the Roborock app; you can manually mark the floor as carpet, specify tile orientations (if you’re worried about rubbing against seams) and demarcate thresholds and no-go zones. You also have the flexibility to split up rooms and create specific cleaning instructions, or combine them if necessary. You can’t schedule zones for cleaning, but you can split them into rooms and schedule room cleaning. For one-off jobs, you can create multiple zones that you want cleaned with one run, and repeat up to three times. 

Cleaning efficacy

The Q Revo is Roborock’s first robot vacuum to feature dual-spinning mops–they press down and spin at 200 RPM to remove tougher stains but the smart bit here is that it is able to lift itself up to 7mm, which allows it to vacuum carpets without leaving stains as a result of a wet mop dragging its ass on all over it. So far it has worked OK for me and I haven’t had a situation where the mop left a stain. So far. 

The Q Revo can detect carpets perfectly fine on its own, and you get additional options such as Carpet Boost, which increases the suction power specifically for carpeted areas. Additionally, you can also enable Deep Carpet Cleaning, which instructs the Q Revo to do an additional round of cleaning after regular cleaning has been completed.

The Q Revo does well enough with loose dirt, so if you clean regularly, like creating a schedule to clean up the table area after a meal, you can minimise the build-up of dirt. This robot vacuum ranks among the most powerful vacuums in the category with 5,500Pa of suction force, but a regular, more powerful vacuum is still necessary for deep-set problems. The fact that it makes multiple passes speaks volumes about the suction power; you can’t beat a regular vacuum, but it can make up for it with diligence.

Needless to say, if you do spill food on the carpet or floor, you will need to go full manual (i.e. do it yourself) to clean up the mess–this is not what a robot vacuum was meant to do. Robot vacuums tend not to do so well with edges and the Q Revo is no different; the edges of the wall seem to have a tad more dirt (It’s still clean enough in my book) but this is something you can easily rectify when you do a more thorough clean of your house on off days.

In terms of power consumption, a 40 metres squared area takes about 25-30per cent power on balanced settings, while vacuuming a 12 metres squared area of carpet on Max+ settings will more or less burn through the entire battery in one sitting. For hardwood and tiled floors, it’s unlikely that the robot will return home for a charge-up under normal circumstances, unless, of course, you live in a large home.

But generally speaking as someone who still uses a broom, mop and occasional vacuum cleaner, the Q Revo does a far better job at achieving a consistently clean floor. It certainly misses fewer spots, if any. I’m only the second-best cleaner at home now and will lose my job here if it stays.

Doesn’t get in the way of your routine

Because it is automated, the Q Revo is at its best when you are away at work and it can do its thing on its own. It’s not to say that the robot vacuum will get in the way while you are at home; it’s equipped with a Reactive Tech Obstacle Avoidance feature, which is pretty decent at pausing its movement so long as you’re not fast-moving. I don’t have a cat at home, so I have no idea how well the Q Revo copes with a**holes, but at least I am quite certain that it will not be the aggressor given how it responds to obstacles.

Living obstacles aside, the Q Revo might YOLO and attempt to traverse table legs and cables (including your own feet) if they’re on the edge of its turning circle. Most of the time, the plucky little rascal will find a way to extricate itself (give it time), but there will be some rare occasions when it might need help. Bottom line: don’t make it unnecessarily difficult for your Q Revo and clear up as much mess as you can.

And if you are at home when the vacuum spins up to clean, you’d be glad to know that it’s not really loud to the point of distraction; even in the Max+ setting (the most powerful suction setting), you’re hitting around 78-80 dB while the regular mode is around 75 dB. However, it gets really noisy (no point in measuring, you KNOW it’s loud) when it empties the waste bag, but that’s an inconvenience that lasts only for a matter of seconds. Bingo points if you manage to time the trash bag blowout to hit the moment your irate partner lets loose a verbal barrage on you.

Easy maintenance

When it comes to ‘upkeep’, cleaning out the Q Revo is a breeze as it does most of the legwork for you. The Q Revo’s self-cleaning capabilities are a veritable timesaver because realistically, the only things you need to do is refill the clean water tank and clear the wastewater once a week (maybe more frequently if the idea of dirty water in the container bugs you), and then check if there are jams or abnormal build-up of dirt and hair. 

That’s because the Q Revo will empty dirt, wash and dry itself–yes it even blows heated air on the mop pads so you don’t have to dry them separately–and refill the water tank, all on its own. At the time of writing, I don’t need to wash the mop manually yet as the dirt build-up is minimal, but you can always go the extra mile if you feel uneasy about it.

On the dock there are two water tanks–one for clean water and one for waste–hold enough water to last a week or so, assuming you clean once a day. The dust bag needs to be replaced as required and only a dry wipe for the filter will suffice. The ramp and the dock base tray are easily removable and rinse off easily.

Dealing with the wear and tear components and maintenance stuff is quite straightforward. Most if not all of the parts that need cleaning or maintenance are easily removable and there is no ambiguity about which components need to be cleaned. The side brush for certain; the main rubber brush, and the mop, if you are particularly mindful about its cleanliness.

On the vacuum itself, the mops are held magnetically while the rubber brush is held in a frame secured by push tabs, which can be removed in seconds. You’ll need to do this a little more frequently than washing to free up the occasional hairs and fabric strands that may get caught in moving mechanisms and affect performance.

The rubber brush is a new ‘upgrade’ over the old bristled version, and the successor is supposedly more durable and less likely to entangle hair. So far, the claim seems on point, as I’ve only had to remove one or two strands of hair and bristle (from my regular broom) thus far.

You’ll still need to consult the manual on when you should expect to replace consumables, of course. There is a lifespan for these components, and these add to the lifetime cost of the vacuum cleaner, which understandably has to be considered. But it’s a small price to pay if you want to save yourself from the tedium of doing those cleanups frequently to keep your Q Revo in a hygienic state, and keep your floors in pristine condition.

Perhaps the one thing that needs cleaning and might not be as obvious would be the contact points that charge the robot vacuum–and don’t forget to turn off the mains first.

Final thoughts

The combination of cleaning efficacy and convenience in cleaning and maintenance makes the Q Revo a very impressive package. The app also covers a broad range of features to help tailor its routines to your needs. It’s a lot of money to blow on a robot vacuum–is it seriously twice as good as say, the budget Roomba 694? Well, in this example the Roomba only vacuums and I find that it means you still need to mop the floor on a regular basis, which I find saves you less time than you would like.

You can more or less tell that I’m sold on the feature set of the Q Revo. I’m only slightly less effusive about its performance, but only because it’s not like I’ve tried a hundred robot vacuums and I know how this fares against the rest in cleaning power or efficiency. For me at least, I know it works well enough and is certainly more effective than whatever I’m doing right now. And the house is unequivocally cleaner, no doubt about it.

What I find striking is that in terms of what a robot vacuum should be able to do to justify its inclusion in the household–price tag aside–the Q Revo’s feature set checks all the right boxes.

ALSO READ: Roborock's latest Q Revo is now available in Singapore and Malaysia

This article was first published in Potions.sg.