In the smart home, you have to do less and less manual work when cleaning the floor because vacuum and floor mopping robots are constantly learning new tricks. The Roborock S8 Pro Ultra is a particularly well-equipped high-tech model. With laser navigation and sensors sniffed out by artificial intelligence, it should remove dirt across the board, but not choke on slipper salad or massage piles of animals into the carpet.
Two vibration motors in the wiping module promise to vigorously scrub away even stubborn stains. And a liftable rear is there to just mop the hard floor but leave carpeting dry. The scope of delivery includes a base station that cleans the cleaning robot and thus reduces the follow-up work by the hands of household members.
Is this the pinnacle of autonomous floor cleaning? The Roborock S8 Pro Ultra, which is not exactly cheap at a price of 1,500 euros, had to prove in the test how clean and labor-saving it really is.
Futuristic design – and with a car wash
As with the previous top model S7 MaxV Ultra, Roborock relies on a futuristic design. Ventilation slots, connections and sensor structures give the robot’s circular housing an almost industrial look. With a diameter of 35 centimeters and a height of 9.6 centimetres, the circular flounder is just as compact and fits just as well or badly under flat furniture as many other models.
On the top is a tower with laser distance sensors (lidar). They rotate during operation. Due to the reflection of the laser beams, the software is able to capture the geometry of the room even in the dark. An optical sensor directed to the front processes the reflections of two cross lasers and is supposed to detect blockages caused by small things.
Under the hood are plastic containers that hold 350 milliliters of dirt and 200 milliliters of fresh water. You can empty the dirt container yourself, but you cannot fill the water container. The latter takes over the base station of the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra.
The station that is part of the set not only charges the battery, but also sucks off the dust and stores it in a bag with a capacity of 2.5 litres. There is also a tank for 3.5 liters of fresh water in the tower. The system uses this to rinse the robot’s wiping cloth after the work is done and moisten it for the next use.
She pumps out the dirty sludge and dumps it into a sealed 2.9 liter container. A built-in blower dries the fabric so it doesn’t smell. As a result, the station offers all facets of self-cleaning.
Measuring 42 centimeters wide, 51 centimeters high and 45 centimeters deep, the base is one of the more compact self-cleaning stations. Although Roborock makes the look a bit more aesthetic than the previous generation with curved lines, it seems inelegant because of one detail. The tanks are uncovered on the top. It looks like Roborock forgot a decorative flap.