The Roborock Q Revo MaxV robot vacuum is a conundrum in that it has a lot going for it, while having some drawbacks that could be deal breakers for some. That means that, as good as the performance is here – and it is quite good – it can be a hard recommendation as one of the best robot vacuums or best vacuum cleaners on the market.
The reason for that is somewhat dependent on your personal situation. The Roborock Q Revo MaxV robot vacuum was tested in a house where the ground floor has an open floor plan with a few rooms separated with a drop-down step. This setup allowed for some unique insight. First, that the mapping is excellent as it mapped out rooms it couldn’t even access. However, it also showed a flaw with its mapping capabilities as partitioning the rooms (if you wanted to, say, only mop the kitchen) was nearly impossible in this house. If you have a more traditional house, however, you won’t run into this issue.
It’s also very expensive. You can find robot vacuums with mopping capabilities for much cheaper. However, those models probably don’t come with nearly the same feature set as the Roborock Q Revo MaxV robot vacuum, particularly the hot water mop pad washing or the unfortunately overly sensitive voice assistant. They probably don’t have the same ability to clean edges and corners like this robot vacuum. That’s pretty huge as most robot vacuums falter where the Roborock Q Revo MaxV robot vacuum excels. So, it’s a mixed, but mostly positive, bag that happens to run about $1,400.
Roborock Q Revo MaxV robot vacuum: Price & availability
When it comes to the Roborock Q Revo MaxV robot vacuum’s price and availability, you need to know two things. First, it seems to be available only in the US at the moment. The second is that it’s expensive. Specifically, it goes for a whopping $1,399.99. Of course, it does a lot of things and has more under the hood (and in the base station) than many robot vacuums with mopping capabilities at a lower price point. Nevertheless, that’s not an easy price point for a lot of people.
Since it’s available for that price at multiple outlets, whether you get it direct, from The Home Depot, or Amazon, you might be tempted to comparison shop and hope that one of the outlets will give something of a discount. And, if you’re not in a hurry, I would suggest you do so. While there are similar models that also reach for similar premium skies, it’s a lot to drop on a robot vacuum with or without mopping capabilities.
Score: (4 out of 5)
Roborock Q Revo MaxV robot vacuum: First impressions
Having set up a few robot vacuums with large base stations, I can say that meeting the Roborock Q Revo MaxV was not that overwhelming. However, if you’ve never dealt with a robot vacuum with such a large base station, not to mention mop pads that need to be installed, you might feel like it’s a lot. If that’s the case, though, you should persevere.
Putting everything together is as simple as removing everything from the box, taking it out of the plastic, installing the base plate on base station and the mop pads on the actual robot vacuum, filling up the clean water reservoir, and plugging the base station in. Scan a QR code on the robot vacuum and you’ll be able to download the app. If that sounds like a lot, it doesn’t take long and Roborock thoughtfully includes easy-to-follow instructions.
In essence, it’s big but much easier than it looks to go from start to start cleaning.
Roborock Q Revo MaxV robot vacuum: Design
Though the Roborock Q Revo MaxV is pretty big with the base station – it measures 20 x 13 x 22 inches – it’s not the biggest I’ve encountered. Still, you’re going to need a decent sized space for it. Luckily, it comes in an attractive (and neutral) almost all-white colorway.
The robot vacuum itself has the standard round design and is fairly flat, though it does have a raised center where some of its navigation sensors presumably sit. The LiDar navigation also has a window peeking out the front of the vacuum.
As far as all the attachments for cleaning up, there’s a single sidebrush out front to push debris toward the all-rubber brush roll, which pulls all the debris into the vacuum itself. There are also two mop pads on the back. It’s all basically standard fare, except that the mop pads lift up when going over carpets or rugs and can extend (at least the right one) to get those edges.
The base station holds two water reservoirs of the same size – one for clean water and one for dirty water. There’s also a dust bag that is big enough accessible through a front panel that I have yet needed a reason to replace it (Roborock states that you’ll only need to replace every seven weeks or so).
There’s a base plate that’s easily removable for cleaning as well. And, you’ll want to clean it because not only do mop pads get dirty after mopping, but the Roborock Q Revo MaxV actually does a hot water wash to clean them so that you’re never unintentionally mopping your floors with dirty mop pads.
As far as the app goes, it’s fairly straightforward to use. Just about all the controls are on the product page with a few sub menus for fine tuning. You can also adjust some of the other features on offer here such as adjusting its voice assistant or use the live streaming function, which is particularly useful for checking what pet toys have been lost under your furniture.
Score: (5 out of 5)
Roborock Q Revo MaxV robot vacuum: Key specs
Roborock Q Revo MaxV robot vacuum: Performance
As I always say with robot vacuums, it doesn't clean quite deep enough for you to skip a more standard vacuum, but it is good enough to push back your next deep clean quite a bit.
But, when it comes to vacuuming and mopping in robot vacuums, the Roborock Q Revo MaxV delivers as well as any I’ve seen.
It’s able to suck up small debris like pet hair and dander to larger items like a packet of silicon beads (which it promptly tore up). I also threw some broken up rice cakes on the ground to see if it would suck them up or bounce them around as some robot vacuums are wont to do. Thankfully, it did a good job picking them up. I was also impressed by the fact that it can also retract the mop pads to vacuum rugs and carpets.
When mopping, it leaves a thin, even layer of water that dries quickly, not to mention leaving it looking spotless, whether it’s mopping up tracked mud from two adorable but messy French Bulldogs or cleaning up certain biohazardous waste (pee), which I also had to do a few times. It also swiftly picked up a coffee spill with one pass.
It moves in an orderly fashion, leaving no spot uncovered including the edges thanks to the fact that the right mop pad extends out reaching farther out than what most (at least much cheaper) robot vacuums are capable of. Of course, it hasn’t mastered corners and won’t get those any better than any other robot vacuum.
The mop pad cleaning works well and is used quite often during a clean. It’s also relatively quiet at around 52dB (same as the robot vacuum during use). The downside of that is that I had to empty the dirty water bucket fairly regularly. But, it’s worth it for cleaner floors. At least the dust bag has yet needed replacing (Roborock says it can last up to seven weeks).
The battery life is 180 minutes and it has fast charging. I never saw it return to the base station for anything other than washing its mop pads, which it did regularly.
Where I'm least enamored with the Roborock Q Revo MaxV is its features. To start, it comes with its own voice assistant. While I appreciate having it, I would be just as happy with Alexa, Google Home, Apple HomeKit support. More importantly, the voice assistant is sensitive to anything resembling spoken words in its vicinity while only understanding a few key commands, resulting in a chorus of “I’m sorry, I don’t understand that command.” Of course, that may be my fault for placing it next to the kitchen table. However, for some, that's the best or most likely place to put it. I ended up turning the voice assistant off in the app.
The app itself is fine and is easy to navigate. However, if you’re using this robot vacuum on a floor with an open floor plan, it will do a great job of mapping the physical space yet be unable to separate it into different rooms. And since the app requires you to separate rooms by using a line tool, it’s very hard to carve up the space the way you might want. It does offer an alternative by drawing zones using a box tool. However, the app doesn’t remember zones. When I want to clean a room, I just run it for the entire floor.
Score: (4 out of 5)
Roborock Q Revo MaxV: user reviews
While the Roborock site is not very helpful when it comes to user reviews - there are four 5-star reviews without any elaboration on the site at the time of writing, Amazon’s loquacious customers come somewhat to the rescue. I say “somewhat” since this is a new product and has a very small amount of reviews there as well. But, at least we know what people are thinking.
Currently, it sits at a 4.8 rating on the retail site with users praising its cleaning ability, particularly the mopping, as well as its various features. One user likes how accessible everything in the base station (water reservoirs and dust bag, specifically) is for maintenance purposes. The one big issue that popped up was its inability to avoid cables. In my personal experience however, that’s almost every robot vacuum.
Should you buy the Roborock Q Revo MaxV robot vacuum?
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if...
How does the Roborock Q Revo MaxV robot vacuum compare?
Having reviewed quite a few robot vacuums, including the Ecovacs DEEBOT T20 Omni for our sister site TechRadar, I can tell you that the competition is fierce because of the price. Take the Ecovacs I just mentioned. It might be pricey, but it’s still cheaper at $1,099.99. It also employs the hot water mop washing tech so that the robot vacuum is wiping down your floors with clean mop pads. And, it’s a bit better on the mapping side of things (mainly in separating out rooms). Where the Roborock Q Revo MaxV still wins is in pure performance as it's much better getting to the edges of a room.
If you look at our top premium pick from our robot vacuum guide, the Samsung Jet Bot AI+ Robot Vacuum, you’ll see that it’s actually slightly cheaper than the Roborock, going for $1,299.99. It even offers a live video stream. However, it seems to have issues getting under furniture due to its height.
How I tested the Roborock Q Revo MaxV robot vacuum
To test the Roborock Q Revo MaxV robot vacuum, I cleaned up hard flooring and a carpet. I tested the various features, including the voice assistant, app, and live stream mode. And I used it consistently over the course of three weeks to get a good feel of whether it would make cleaning up a little easier.
Read more about how we test.
