REVIEW: The Roborock F25 LT Gen 2 – Competent in wet or dry conditions

Cleaning floors is a pain. We know that. There is no lack of appliances that can help you get through the task of cleaning your tiles, timber floors or other hard surfaces. Some can not only do that, but can also be that go-to appliance when disaster strikes.

They say there’s no use crying over spilt milk so what if you had an appliance that could take care of not only general dirt and grime, pet hair or dirt but that spilt milk as well?

What may be the solution is an appliance that can clean your floors and be that emergency “clean up in aisle 2” device as well. We had a look at the Roborock F25 LT Gen 2 to see how effectively it fits that bill

Roborock are one of the leaders in household cleaning appliances and with the F25 LT Gen 2 they aim to take the drudgery of of cleaning hard surfaces as well as from cleaning the cleaner itself

First let’s look at the stats. Roborock advertise the following functionality

• Anti-tangle design
• 5 minute fast drying
• 60 minute battery life
• Streak-free cleaning experience
• Fully flat tilt
• Self-washing (90°C washing temperature)
• 450 rpm cleaning strokes and 20,000 Pa suction
• 20N downward cleaning pressure
• 99.99% bacterial removal rate
• <1 mm edge-to-edge cleaning
• Covers up to 480m² cleaning area per charge (eco mode)

What’s in the box?

Apart from the cleaner itself you also receive your instruction manual and quick setup guide, a spare filter, a cleaning brush to help get to those small crevices within the unit, cleaning fluid for the water tank and the base and power cord. No big surprises here and the cleaner was easy to assemble. That consists of fitting the handle and sliding the roller in.

Setup

Pretty much the only setup required is to fill the clean water tank (add the cleaning fluid – just a few mls) and charge it. Stats on charging later

Operation

Hitting the start button and tilting the handle gets you into the default setting (Auto Mode) Other modes are ECO, MAX and SPONGE mode

Before operating  I didn’t realise that this appliance is self-propelled. It gently pushes itself along and requires minimal effort from you (except when pulling it back against the propulsion)

I started with my go-to stretch of hall where light shining through the front door illustrates every bit of dirt or debris deposited as we enter the house.

I think it did a pretty decent job and yes it only took about 5 minutes to dry. It’s claim of getting close to the edges is also well founded. Edges are the achilles heel of many cleaners. There’s nothing worse than investing in a modern cleaner then having to manually do the parts they couldn’t get to.

Getting to places others can’t is not the F25 LT Gen 2’s only party trick. The cleaner has the ability to lie completely flat without losing any suction power.

Modes

There are 4 modes you can select by scrolling through the options which are displayed on the screen.

ECO – Lower power consumption but lower suction

MAX – As the name suggests maximum power

SPONGE – cuts water flow to a minimum while cranking up suction power to quickly absorb liquid spills and dry damp floors

AUTO – The default setting which senses the surface and adjusts accordingly. This is where the F25 LT Gen 2 differs from the F25 Gen 2. The latter uses a smart sensor to detect dirt levels in real time and automatically adjust suction power and roller speed

So this appliance is designed to be the answer to both wet and dry situations on hard surfaces. Does it achieve what’s on the box? Yes it does. The anti-tangle brush lived up to the hype and despite my house having a constant struggle with pet hair, the F25 LT Gen 2 had no trouble cleaning the tiles and picking up all dog hair from the surface. It does this whilst also washing which is no mean feat.

I easily covered my approximately 60m² tiled area in Auto mode. I intentionally kept mopping to test the battery. After 30 minutes I received a warning that the battery was getting low and at 35 minutes it was necessary to recharge. Subsequent passes on ECO mode confirmed that 60 minutes running time is possible as claimed.

Cleaning the cleaner

Clean up is achieved by removing the dirty water tank, separating the two halves and rinsing the tank and waste container. As expected there is no getting around that you will end up with a wet hairy mess but the solids are separated from the liquids by a grated section.

Here’s another party trick. This thing cleans itself. Once you have done all you need to do just place it back on it’s stand and hit the autoclean button. The roller is washed and dried and Roborock claim that 99.99% of bacteria is killed. It can be a little noisy when self-cleaning. I registered it at just under 60 decibels so you may want to position it away from your living areas. Most people do anyway

But here is something I found that I think could be improved. Although the unit warns you that the dirty water tank is full, it doesn’t warn you when the clean water tank is empty. That means during operation you need to watch out for it and during the self-clean that water is required to wash the roller.

The saving grace I guess is that the tank is opaque so you will need to keep an eye on it. But the plastic tank is a smoky colour so it isn’t so easy to tell when it is low.

In my 35 minute Auto mode clean I had to fill the tank half way through so two tanks per 60m².

Performance

I mentioned earlier that this appliance can handle wet and dry surfaces. To test it I did my favourite thing and spread flour on the tiles. The F25 LT Gen 2 had no issues coping with the dry debris. Similarly when I threw milk down it also had no issue.

But the arch nemesis of wet/dry cleaners, Froot Loops with milk resulted in a less than ideal result. To be honest I am not sure vacuuming large debris is entirely fair as the gap between the roller and guide is quite narrow. Perfect for dust and dirt but cereal not so much

Charging

The F25 LT Gen 2 does take quite a while to charge when the battery is depleted. That time for me was about 3 hours. No self-cleaning is available when the battery is completely flat so be aware of that. In fact the warning was particularly vague.

It said (yes it talks) “Please charge for a period of time before self-cleaning”. Exactly how long a period of time is I didn’t determine

The verdict

The good

Self-propelled

Cleans very close to the skirting boards

Lies flat at full suction

Battery life on ECO as promised

The not so good

No low water warning

Struggles with hard larger debris