We have covered a lot of different robot vacuums here at EFTM over the years and it has been a while since we have covered Roborock vacuums but they have a new, fully featured robot vacuum available from today, the Q8 Max+.
From today you can pick up the Roborock Q8 Max+ robot vacuum for a relatively affordable $1,299AU from retailers such as Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, David Jones, Bing Lee and Costco and online from Mobileciti, Roborock online store, Amazon AU, Robot Specialist, Tech Sales Online.
Unlike the last Roborock robot vacuum we covered, this one comes in at a much more affordable price at a RRP of $1,299AUD. The decrease in price seems to be because the new vacuum may have all of the features of the more expensive one back in 2022 but that tech has now trickled down to the more affordable price, just as it does with smartphones.
Launching online and instore today, the Roborock Q8 Max+ is set to impress those looking for a fully-featured robot vacuum. We have spent the last few weeks putting it through its paces and have been very impressed with not just the functionality but also the ease of setup and use.
Hardware and Features
The Q8 Max+ delivers 5500Pa of suction which is not the highest we have seen but is definitely no slouch. Combined with the dual roller brushes underneath and the single rotating brush on the front-side the suction was able to pick up everything I threw at it.
A nice function of the vacuum was the ability to change the suction power for each room as required. For example, you can increase the power around dirty and high traffic areas such as the meals and kitchen areas.
In saying that some of the more stubborn messes such as flour, required more than one pass to get totally clean (my wife hates when I test out vacuums due to all the flour, crumbs, cereal etc that gets thrown around the house). If you have a truly messy room with this sort of stuff around we suggest you opt for the stronger manual vacuum cleaner.
The robot vacuum is really best used for daily or bi-daily quick once overs to keep the house clean before it gets too dirty. We do love coming home to a freshly cleaned house, especially when neither of us has had to lift a finger to get it this way!
There is no fancy surveillance camera or anything like that onboard, just hardware that is truly useful for cleaning a house.
The Q8 Max+ offers simultaneous vacuuming and mopping functionality and while it worked well enough I personally prefer to give the floor a quick full once over with the vacuum function on its own before setting up the vacuum/mopping session. You can see some of the dirt missed by the vacuum on the mopping pad after it has finished and it is considerably more when not doing the vacuum first.
The Roborock Q8 Max+ robot vacuum is equipped with a decent 470ml dustbin (enough for most cleans you will do on a single charge) and a 350ml water tank. You do not have to worry about emptying the dustbin on the vacuum yourself though as the Q8 Max+ also includes a home charging station that doubles as a dustbin. This incorporates a 2.5L dust bag which is good for up to seven weeks without charging according to Roborock.
In the month or so I’ve had this vacuum I’ve not had to change it – but then my wife is a stickler for a clean and tidy place so it never gets all that dirty to start with.
The battery life (rated at 240 minutes but less in my experience) on the vacuum is easily enough to clean my entire downstairs floor and even had no issues while mapping – more on that below. If it does get low on battery it will return to the charging station to recharge before recommencing the clean once charged.
A great feature which I have not seen before is the ability to have the robot charge itself in off-peak times – should you still have a power supply where the cost varies with the time of the day. I’m not sure just how much money you would save doing this but every little bit helps right?
As a piece of hardware that is all you could really ask for an actually **need** in a robot vacuum – good, strong suction with decent mopping, a battery that will allow it to charge your entire floor and a charging station that doubles as the self/auto-emptying dustbin.
Software
I’ve used so many robot vacuums over the years I know what I like and don’t like when it comes to their software. The Roborock software is great and the easiest to use out of all the ones I have used in my time.
Why do I say that? Set up is easy peasy as we used to say as kids. With some vacuums the first clean and mapping of the rooms and floors can take a long time and be incredibly frustrating. The Roborock Q8 Max+ is super fast with its first mapping and clean thanks to its accurate LiDAR mapping technology.
Once you have your robot vacuum setup it basically just does it all on its own as a general rule. Occasionally you may want to give an extra clean here or there but as a general rule you set your cleaning routine (M,W and F at 10am for me).
Naming the rooms was super easy and setting up boundaries and no-go zones was super simple as well. I tend to block off the robot vacuum from the hairier rugs on the floors because firstly it just cannot clean them deep enough and secondly, the long hair on them clogs the vacuum up far too much.
If you wish to clean just a simple area of a room or multiple rooms, you simply tap on “zones,” resize and move the box to where you want to vacuum, and tap “clean.” You can also set multiple zones at once which is a nice functionality to have.
You can also set up routines of the vacuum cleaning only certain rooms and at different times – want it to clean the kitchen and meals area only after the kids have breakfast? No problemo, save it as a favourite. Worried about it vacuuming up the kids’ toys? Don’t worry, it will avoid them using its “reactive tech” to avoid any and all hazards.
Other features include 3D mapping which I still cannot figure out why anyone would need this, but it’s there, the ability to store multiple maps so a second or third story if you have it – unfortunately you will need to carry the vacuum to the requisite floor as it cannot go up or down stairs – now that is feature I’d love!
There appears to be no smart assistant control included though which is a strange omission given every manufacturer likes to think we want to control all of our appliances with our digital assistants. Personally I never use Alexa or Google Assistant to control my robot vacuums so it’s not a miss for me – it doesn’t take long to open the app and start it vacuuming if you wish anything outside of the normal routine/favourite clean.
How well does it clean?
I’ve tested quite a few robot vacuums in my time and the Q8 Max+ is up there with the best cleaners I have used. It doesn’t have the highest suction I’ve used but the suction it does have seems to work very well. It is quite possibly the double rubber rollers which roll different directions (and somehow do not get clogged up with dog and people hair like every other vacuum I have used) that aid in picking up more dirt etc but whatever it is the result is good.
Hardwood floors — as you would expect the Q8 Max+ had not issues with the hardwood floors in my house. It cleaned all dust, small rubbish and pebbles that the dogs tracked in. It seemed to pick up all the dog hair on the ground too.
Carpets — these looked clean and there was no visible dirt or anything on the carpets although I’m sure a super heavy duty vacuum that you use yourself would be able to get more up.
As mentioned above the mopping was good but I wouldn’t be using it to mop up tough, ingrained spills or mess. You would have to have it go over the dirty area many times to get it fully clean.
Should you buy the Roborock Q8 Max+?
The Roborock Q8 Max+ slots nicely into a range of vacuums available which include every feature you may need to effectively clean your house. The dual roller system helps with a thorough clean while the mopping system is good enough for many spills.
The mapping of your home is quick and easy with the vacuum able to avoid locations where it may get stuck and the software is super simple to use once before, during and after the mapping of your floorplan.
The Roborock Q8 Max+ is a comfortable recommend to those looking for a vacuum with smarts and good vacuuming. As always you should shop around as they aren’t the only brand on the market which offer all of these features but there is no reason at all to avoid the Q8 Max+. Instead you should look closely at it and the features it offers compares to others of similar prices.
You can pick up the Roborock Q8 Max+ robot vacuum from today for a relatively affordable $1,299AU from retailers such as Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, David Jones, Bing Lee and Costco and online from Mobileciti, Roborock online store, Amazon AU, Robot Specialist, Tech Sales Online.
