Pros
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Good navigation
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Can self-empty and wash own mop pads
Cons
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Middling cleaning performance
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Doesn't avoid pet accidents
About the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra
- Dimensions: 13.75” x 3.75” (W x H)
- Weight: 9.85 pounds
- Suction Power: 6,000pa
The Roborock S8 Pro Ultra Robot Vacuum is an automated floor cleaner that is designed to clean both carpets and hardwood floors.
It has two-fold rubber brushes that deal with large debris and a vibrating mop cleaning cycle.
The S8 also has multiple ways to avoid obstacles, including Reactive 3D Obstacle Avoidance and PreciSense LiDAR.
What we like
Its navigation technology makes it good at avoiding furniture
The S8 Pro Ultra is really good at not ramming into furniture.
The S8 Pro Ultra has multiple senses to help it navigate your home. First and foremost, it has Reactive 3D Obstacle Avoidance, which utilizes light and infrared to help it recognize and avoid objects.
The S8 Pro Ultra also navigates via PreciSense LiDAR, but based on everything we observed, seems to be in line with LiDAR systems used by its competitors.
During our lab tests, we put robot vacuums on an obstacle course filled with simulations of furniture legs, thresholds, and different types of flooring.
The S8 Pro Ultra did an above-average job avoiding our bump sensors and getting caught on corners or throw rugs. In fact, the app actually noted all the major obstacles and suggested we place no-go zones around them.
While it’s moving in vacuum mode, its mop pads also lift up a few millimeters off the ground to avoid dragging on the rug and further prevent the robot from getting snagged or trapped. However, if you have thicker or throw rugs, the S8 Pro Ultra will still drag its mop pads.
The S8 Pro Ultra can empty itself and wash its own mop pads
The dock contains a clean water tank, dirty water tank, and a bag for debris.
The charging base for this new Roborock robot vacuum contains a secondary vacuum and water reservoirs. The extra vacuum is used to empty out the robot’s dust bin and place the dirty, dusty contents into a sealed bag.
The major advantage of this is that it’s far more hygienic for you. The bag makes it so you never have to see, touch, or smell anything unpleasant, plus when you throw it out there’s no giant dust plume over the trash.
The dock’s two reservoirs are for clean water and dirty water. In the event that the S8 Pro Ultra is mopping a very large surface area, it can return to base to wash and rewet its mop pads.
This assures the S8 Pro Ultra is mopping up dirt rather than just spreading it around all over your floors.
What we didn’t like
Middling cleaning performance
When we tested the S8 Pro Ultra’s vacuuming power, it picked up, on average, 8.5 grams of debris per run. A robot vacuum in this price range should pick up around 10 grams per run. On the mopping front, the S8 was also middling. The S8 uses a mopping called Vibrarise which vibrates a mop pad back and forth to scrub. Based on our cleaning tests, mop pads that spin provide much better results than those that vibrate.
The S8’s cleaning test results are not bad, just average. However, it costs so much that it makes us question its value.
This Roborock robot vacuum doesn’t fulfill its promise to avoid pet accidents
The S8 Pro Ultra making a mess.
Across the robot vacuum space, we are seeing that robot vacuums are increasingly capable of recognizing objects and avoiding them. Specifically, many of them call out the ability to recognize and steer clear of pet accidents. On its website, the company claims that the S8 Pro Ultra can avoid 42 common obstacles, including pet waste.
When testing the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra, we had our photographer capture our efforts at recreating fake pet accidents—we’ve done this in the past with other robot vacs like the Roomba j7+ and the Samsung Jetbot 90.
The end result was pretty realistic. While both the Roomba and the Jetbot were able to navigate through our fake poop maze, the S8 Pro Ultra utterly failed and dragged our chocolatey mess all over the testing floor.
What owners are saying
This model has just entered the marketplace—we got an early review model to test ahead of its launch. Consequently, there are currently no reviews on Amazon and only six reviews on Roborock’s own site.
The top positive consumer review states that the user likes that the mop pads lift up to avoid carpet.
The most helpful negative review states that the self-washing system for the mop pads does not wet the whole pad. We did not experience this when testing the unit, but we can totally see this happening if the charging station is not perfectly level, causing the water to list one way or another.
Should you buy the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra?
No, you should pass on this one
One gripe that we consistently have with the Roborock brand is that all its robot vacuum models perform well, but their price tags are so high that it’s impossible for them to deliver on value. Basically, you can get a different brand’s robot vacuum that performs similarly for a lot less money.
For example, this S8 Pro Ultra is similar to the Ecovacs X1 Omni. The Omni also can self-empty its dust bins and clean its own mop pads. The Omni picked up around 30% more crumbs in our vacuuming tests than the S8 Pro Ultra and did a better job cleaning during the mopping trials. Plus, the Omni costs less on average.
The S8 Pro Ultra needs to come down dramatically in price before it provides a good value.
The Roborock S8 Pro Ultra is a robot vacuum with numerous functions, including scrubbing, mopping, drying and even self-cleaning, making it the ideal cleaning companion.
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Meet the testers
Jonathan Chan currently serves as the Lab Manager at Reviewed. If you clean with it, it's likely that Jon oversees its testing. Since joining the Reviewed in 2012, Jon has helped launch the company's efforts in reviewing laptops, vacuums, and outdoor gear. He thinks he's a pretty big deal. In the pursuit of data, he's plunged his hands into freezing cold water, consented to be literally dragged through the mud, and watched paint dry. Jon demands you have a nice day.
Beckett Dubay
Product Test Technician
Beckett Dubay is a product tester at Reviewed, regularly using science-based protocol to test refrigerators, dishwashers, and laundry large appliances, and photographing the process in the lab from start to finish. Before Reviewed, working as a lighting designer for several years has left him with strong opinions about overhead lighting.
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