Robot vacuums have come a long way, especially since I purchased my first one, a Roborock S50 back in 2020. That is why all my subsequent robot cleaners are named Dwayne. “Dwayne The Roborock Johnson”
Original Dwayne is still going strong as a family hand-me-down but now I get to play with the latest in cleaning technology and today I examine the Roborock Qrevo Edge 2 Flow
The Edge 2 Flow boasts increased suction power over its predecessors and a whole new way of mopping. No rag dragging on the floor and no rotating discs. This beauty has the latest innovation in mopping, a roller spinning at immense speeds. One that not only picks up spills and dirt but also self cleans. During the review I encountered three surprises and uncovered three party tricks that make this robot cleaner stand out from the crowd.
Before we get ahead of ourselves lets look at the specs
Key Features
- SpiraFlow™ 2.0 Pressurized Self-Cleaning System
- 35000 Pa HyperForce® Digital Motor
- Dual Anti-Tangle System & Easier Maintenance
- 8.98 cm Ultra-Slim Design
- Pressurized Self-Cleaning
- Stain-Target AI Cleaning
- 75° Tiltable Roller
- 280+ Types of Recognizable Obstacles
- Easy-Rinse Dirty Water Tank
- Pet-Friendly Intelligence
- Voice control – inbuilt or linked to third party assistants
That’s quite a list. So what do you get?
What’s in the box?
The Qrevo Edge 2 Flow comes with everything you need to get started but no extra accessories. The dock has the single dustbag pre-installed, the robot comes in one separately sealed package and all you need to do is fill the clean water tank and it’s time to fire up the app
After downloading the Roborock app and creating an account it is time to add your vacuum. This is child’s play with modern appliances. Just point the camera at the QR code and let Roborock do the rest.
Steps include
- Connecting to your network
- Requesting information about the floor characteristics of your home
- Giving you some key features
- Checking for firmware updates
Mapping
Every brand of vacuum tells you to open all doors and curtains in preparation for mapping, and I ignore it every time. Opening curtains just leads to phantom rooms being created outside your windows. Not so much of a problem if your window sills are high. Mine are very low to the ground so I always end up remapping with the curtains closed anyway so why go through the hassle?
Well I hate to admit it but I was wr…….
I was wro…..
I was wron….
I can’t say it. Lets just say this Roborock has a surprise up it’s sleeve that I haven’t seen before. All will be revealed soon.
Mapping only took around 15 minutes. Like all mapping, the first version is a crude interpretation of your home and then you manipulate it a bit til it truly resembles your floorplan.
In my case despite closing the curtains I had the LiDAR peek through a gap and create a couple of stray rooms outside. It also missed a part of the bedroom that was partially obstructed on the initial pass. That bit was my fault. You then merge what Roborock thinks are multiple rooms into a single room or split rooms that you consider two that Roborock may have thought as one. You can then name your rooms, place furniture on it if that interests you and then here’s the bit I liked.
Surprise number one: Not only can you merge or split rooms, you can also delete rooms. Yay. Anyone new to a robot vacuum would think this is a standard feature but no it’s not. In so many other appliances you have to accept the room exists and tell the vacuum never to go there. The OCD in me hates having a map with a room that doesn’t exist
Once mapped, your Edge 2 Flow goes out and vacuums your whole home and this is where we encounter surprise number two: That area the mapping missed cause of an obstruction was filled in as the robot realised it could access it now.
Multi-map support
Many of us have homes with different levels or rooms that are separated by thresholds too great for a robot vacuum to climb. The Edge 2 Flow can cope with that and has a step by step guide in the app for mapping and cleaning multiple areas.
Performance on tiles
Dark tiles like the ones in my home show every bit of dirt or grime and when viewed in the light. You question yourself whether they will ever truly be clean but this robot did a great job. I was really impressed by the roller approach to mopping. A ludicrous amount of pet hair was vacuumed first then a second pass with the roller mop made the tiles shine. With the standard setting of water flow the tiles were ready to walk on in just a few minutes
Party trick # 1 – The initial mopping run revealed that the Qrevo Edge 2 Flow has a nice party trick. The roller mop extends to get right to the edges, hence the name I guess.
Party trick # 2 is that the LiDAR sensor is retractable so it can pass under furniture. When retracted the height is less than 90 mm.
Performance on carpets
It is difficult to tell exactly how well a vacuum cleans carpets til you see just how much pet hair lands in the onboard dustbin then gets transferred to the bag within the dock. Lets say it did a fantastic job dealing with a Border Collie who could shed for Australia in the dog hair Olympics.
After such a performance picking up the dog hair all of it made it to the base unit dustbag. A no-tangle brush is truly a no-tangle brush
Surprise number three:
My study is carpeted but I have a protector so my office chair doesn’t damage the carpet. The Roborock vacuumed the carpet then went back and mopped the small section of plastic. Now that’s clever
Modes
Of course you can let the Edge 2 Flow use AI to determine what your floor needs as it can detect particularly dirty areas and give them extra attention, but if you want to take control rather than using “SmartPlan” there are various settings you can choose from
Vacuuming
- Suction Power – Quiet, Balanced, Turbo, Max & MAX +
- Cleaning count of once or twice
- Routes of Fast, Standard & Deep – the pattern and concentration of passes in which the area is covered
Mopping
- Water flow is adjustable on a sliding scale from Slight, Low, Gentle, Medium, Moderate, High & Extreme.
Obstacle avoidance
The Edge 2 Flow did pretty good on my obstacle avoidance test and this is where Party trick # 3 comes in. By holding down the Home button on top of the robot it performs a spot clean of 1.5m X 1.5m surrounding where it was placed. This avoids having to draw a zone on your map and hope you cover the correct spot.
I placed 4 items on the floor and set the robot to spot clean. The Edge 2 Flow had no issues avoiding 3 of the 4 items placed in it’s way
- A sock
- A cable
- A dog toy
- What Amazon refers to as a “Brown fake poopy” (Can I claim a fake poop on my tax?)
The first three, no problem but not that it is likely, if your animal is partial to doing it’s business inside then I recommend cleaning it up before letting your robot loose. The result with the real thing wouldn’t have been pretty as it ran straight over it.
If your spot clean was to mop up liquids I did find that the side brushes still spin whilst in mopping mode. I think this unnecessarily soaks them with whatever liquid you are mopping up.
Remote control and viewing
I don’t intend to go through all the settings because that’s part of the fun when you buy a new device but I couldn’t finish without mentioning that the app allows you to view your home through the onboard camera and you can manoeuvre the robot throughout your home. A nice feature and it could really come in handy. Either to annoy the people you live with or to check on your pets if they are left alone
The robot vacuum has come of age
When robot vacuums first hit the market it was designed as a time saving appliance. We were sold on a machine that did the job for you. Not only that, you could set it up to clean at the same time every day or every few days
In reality it had it’s flaws
- The brushes got clogged resulting in you cutting pet hair from the roller
- The dustbin needed emptying after each cleaning cycle and sometimes during one
- Mopping was less than ideal and certainly didn’t get to the edges requiring you to finish the job manually
- It coped poorly with obstacles- Many a time you needed to remove socks, cables and other items that got jammed in the workings
As a result if you were not at home and wanted to remotely start a clean you didn’t know if the dustbin was full, if the brush was clogged and whether the kids had garbage all over the floor that would prevent the robot from doing its job
Fast forward to now and operating the Roborock Qrevo Edge 2 Flow can truly be a set and (almost) forget task.
Its base unit is not only somewhere the robot goes to recharge, it also acts as a hub for emptying the onboard dust bag and the mopping roller is washed and dried with 63° C hot air. During the vacuuming/mopping process the robot regularly returns to empty to ensure a satisfying clean. It won’t get stuck on whatever you left on the floor. It detects and goes around them.
The onboard brushes are not clogged with pet hair and you didn’t have to follow it around to properly get to the edges of your hard floors.
All this results in confidence that when the next scheduled clean is commenced or you want to start a cycle when you are away from the home, you don’t have to worry. It is ready to go again
Price and availability
The Roborock Qrevo Edge 2 Flow will be available 1st October from the Roborock website at an RRP of $2,499
Good
- Quick mapping
- Only 8.98 cm high when LiDAR sensor is retracted
- Mops right up to the skirting boards
- Tangle-free brushes
- Has the ability to delete a phantom room
- Portions missed on the map added automatically later
- Spot clean 1.5m X 1.5m at the press of a button
- Good obstacle avoidance
- Onboard camera and remote control viewing
Not so good
- Lack of accessories
- Side brushes still spin when spot mopping
- Inbuilt voice control is good but instructions given with the Google Assistant and Alexa integrations were hit and miss
The elder statesman of the EFTM team, Rob has been a long time listener, reader and follower – He’s “Producer Rob” for the EFTM podcast and looks after our social media posts. To be fair, he’s probably the most tech-savvy bloke in the crew too!
