Roborock S8 Pro Ultra: A class leader in robotic cleaning excellence
The Roborock S8 Pro Ultra. Picture: Roborock.
The Roborock S8 Pro Ultra sets itself apart with its cutting-edge technology, designed to simplify the floor maintenance task for homeowners. With its smart mapping and navigation capabilities, this robotic marvel can efficiently manoeuvre through different rooms and floor types without missing a beat. I’ve been testing the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra for the last few months for this long-term review to see if its premium price is justified.
The S8 Pro Ultra is premium and feature-rich and stands out among the plethora of robot vacuums. The package includes the S8 Pro robot vacuum and a separate docking station with three large containers. While the S8 Pro Ultra features a docking station that boasts the ultimate in automation and convenience – charging, mopping, refilling clean water, emptying the dustbin, cleaning the mop and even drying the mop.
The S8 Pro Ultra adopts a classic circular design with two large spring-loaded wheels, dual rotating brushes, and a rubber brush bar, effectively consuming dust and dirt, which is then drawn in by the powerful motor. The dual rubber brushes prevent pet hair from tangling, minimising maintenance.
The S8 Pro Ultra approaches obstacles with gentleness, steering away from the harsh collisions experienced in other robot vacuums I’ve tested. With a Lidar scanner, an array of sensors, and a front-facing IR camera. The latter replaces the standard camera on the S7 with a live view display in the app with a two-way communication option.
The IR camera works with the Lidar sensor to identify items like socks, cables, and potential entanglements in the vacuum's brush or wheels – it can even detect pet waste. The 3D obstacle avoidance system can detect and avoid up to 42 objects, and through frequent updates, the S8 Pro Ultra continually improves its capabilities.
On the top of the robot vacuum, you'll find three buttons for power, spot cleaning, and returning to the charging station.
The dustbin, tucked under a top flap, can be manually emptied, but thanks to the docking station's automatic cleaning cycle, you'll likely never have to. With a small water tank and a semi-circular mopping pad, the robot vacuum excels in washing and sweeping hard floors. The S8’s mopping system harnesses sonic vibration technology to deliver 3,000 scrubs per minute, offering three scrubbing intensities and five suction power settings, providing a versatile trio of cleaning modes. The mopping has been upgraded over the S7 with what RoboRock calls VibraRise 2.0. This improves the vibration modules two-fold, meaning that the cleaning zones are widened thanks to two sections rather than the single one found on the S7.
The docking station allows setting it to charge only during off-peak hours, making it a convenient feature, especially for those with night-rate electricity.
The Dock comprises three containers: one for fresh water, another for extracting dirty water from the S8 Pro during mop cleaning, and a third for the dust bag. For most daily cleaning routines, the dirty water needs emptying, and the freshwater refills once a week, signalled by the app's reminder and a red light alert.
Apart from handling dirty water and fresh water top-ups, the docking station takes care of mopping pad maintenance, employing a hard bristle brush for efficient cleaning. You'll find that cleaning the filter in the mopping cleaner is necessary approximately once a month, and while it may not be an enjoyable task, it only takes a few minutes.
After thoroughly cleaning the mop, the dock will dry it with warm air to remove lingering musty odours.
The Roborock app, compatible with Android and iOS, boasts an intuitive user interface with comprehensive features. Besides setting up cleaning schedules, the S8 Pro Ultra can map and store your floor plan in the app. Customisation options enable the creation of rooms, zones, and no-go areas, allowing precise control over where the vacuum should clean or avoid, and if the vacuum misidentifies furniture, you can manually correct it within the map.
The app's capabilities extend to rendering 3D maps of your home, offering a more immersive experience beyond the standard 2D maps. You can initiate cleaning sessions targeting specific areas, like the space around your bed or dining table after meals. There’s also a new quick clean option which is great if you need to do a fast sweep before guests arrive.
The S8 Pro Ultra is compatible with Alexa and Google Assistant, enabling hands-free cleaning initiation through voice prompts.
The app and robot get regular updates that improve performance and add features, showing that Roborock continually seeks to support and improve its products.
No matter how exceptional a robot vacuum is, occasional thorough cleaning is still necessary, as dust accumulates in corners and crevices inaccessible to the robot. Nevertheless, scheduling daily cleaning sessions ensures your floors remain clean and dust-free with minimal effort.
In terms of performance, the S8 Pro Ultra is one of the most powerful robot vacuums available, boasting impressive quietness during operation. Even at maximum suction power of 6000 pa, it emits a lower noise than many other vacuums I’ve tested. The vacuum tackles larger debris and small dust particles, extracting pet hairs from hard floors. The side brush is also improved; I found it slightly more effective than the S7.
The S8 Pro Ultra worked well on a low-pile rug, automatically raising the mop to prevent water contact and ramping up the suction power accordingly. I found it more effective than the S7 on carpetThe vacuum can also lift the roller brush mechanism, which is great when you want to do a mop-only clean. The rollers lift out of the way and clean the floor without any streaks.
To cater to varying cleaning needs, the suction power can be manually adjusted to either the quietest mode or maximum suction power. The only instance where the system becomes louder is during dustbin emptying into the dock, which takes less than a minute.
One of the most impressive things about the S8 Pro Ultra is its reliability. It simply works as advertised. Where other robot vacuums might get a cable or sock stuck in their rollers, the S8 Pro Ultra will avoid them and get on with vacuuming. That said, out of habit, I always ensure the floors are clear of objects, especially cables.
The combination of the Lidar sensor and IR camera allows the S8 Pro Ultra to scan and map your floors, even in darkness accurately. This intelligent mapping empowers the robot to systematically clean the entire floor instead of the less sophisticated "bump and go" approach adopted by inferior robots.
The Roborock S8 Pro Ultra sets the gold standard for effortless floor maintenance, requiring minimal user interaction and maintenance. Despite the premium price tag, the S8 Pro Ultra remains a clear favourite among my top tech products, justifying the investment with its remarkable performance and comprehensive feature set.
Roborock S8 Pro Ultra — www.robocleaners.com €1,550
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