Roborock - S4 Max

I’ve had my roborock s4 max for years and I love the thing.

upvoting this. Love my roborock, just bought a second. My S4 Max has been going strong for like 3-4 years now, hell, maybe longer.

It's tied to an app but can run over your local network without an internet connection. There actually is an open source project called Valetudo that you can use to run your own server to manage it, but it only supports certain models. I have used it successfully with my Roborock S4 Max, there is a list of supported models on the site. https://valetudo.cloud/

Just picked up an Dreame L40 Ultra so our aging Roborock S4 Max can move to our basement. The perks being Valetudo support, swinging side brush, swinging mop arm, amongst the normal luxuries of auto water refill and auto empty. We still have cleaning people come for "deep cleans" beyond touching the floor but for two working parents with a puppy and two kids, this thing runs every days with weekly mops and is a MASSIVE improvement over our S4 Max. My wife is a neat freak, so she would clean after the S4 ran out of habit anyway and I've noticed her not doing it now with the L40. It also runs quieter, which is awesome so doing a run at night, plus a run after meals is easy. I am working on looping automations into my presence detection to get it to run every time we are far enough away from the house for it to do a complete cycle. Does it have more suction than our whole house vacuum? No. Is it better at mopping than our cleaning people? Also no. Is it better than my wife with our mini vacuum. Also no. But it running when we aren't around or aware makes up for all of that.

Roborock S4 Max - Ordered 09/2021 and it's been running 3+ times a day (1 full house run at least) for the entirety of it's ownership. I've just not retired it to secondary floor duty (finished basement) for a Dreame L40 Ultra. My biggest issue isn't the vacuum itself, you can source parts for it (for the most parts) and I'm talking more than just consumables like the brush, filters, and arm bristles, like wheels for instance. However I took really good care of it. I cleaned everything out, and I mean took the vacuum apart to fully clean out the entirety of its internal parts, where hair and dust really build up, pretty much 2-4 times a year. I truly think that makes the difference. > Warning, rant ahead My issue with Roborock, or the actual company, Xiaomi, or really any vacuum in general. Why does issuing a command to my vacuum need to hit a cloud server before my vacuum? Why does saying "clean the kitchen" require an internet connection? Firmware updates, sure, phone home all you want. Processing images for a AI whatever? If I have that enabled, by all means, I don't expect a vacuum to be a hardware-accelerated processing unit. I run Home Assistant, I looked into Valetudo, invested in a Dreame and took it all offline. I'm digressing majorly from what you asked but I always think it needs to be said. Hardwarewise, I think iRobot still sells parts directly for their first-released robot vacuum. In my experience, I could source cheap knockoff parts for my Roborock/Xiaomi vacuum from Amazon / Aliexpress.

Roborock S4 Max - still doing the job.

s4 max still going strong - 4-5 years. Named it notMax, after dog named Max.

Yeah it was definitely a steep price. I hesitated for a bit but ended up caving on the last day of the Prime Day sale. I was using the Roborock S4 Max before (vacuum only) and it worked great for years, but I got tired of the daily upkeep and it didn’t do well with long hair. I also had my eye on the QX Revo from Costco for $579.99. It looked like a solid deal and was my second choice, but it was sold out when I was ready to buy.

I was using the Roborock S4 Max that’s under $400 before the upgrade :)

I bought a Roborock S4 back in 2020 and it still works great. I maintained it regularly but now Roborock stopped selling the main brush replacements so I need to try 3rd party. If I'd known ahead of time, I could've bought in bulk but I guess 5 years is a long time for a robot vacuum anyway

S4 running daily for 5 years and Max running daily for a year.

Also have an s8 with vibrarise. I’ve read that the super “in” dual rotating mops aren’t proven to be better than vibrarise. What I will say is that I think mops on robot vacuums are still a “maintainer/extender” feature than a true mop up stains type of feature. If you manually mop, the s8 will make it so you have to do it less often. It’s not a replacement for that first initial manual mop. Besides that, I’ve enjoyed the s8 as it was an upgrade from my original s4. Obstacle avoidance is pretty good, although, I’m just used to tidying up before running it now a days.

I have a 9 month old so everything you said applies to me… I will say I haven’t checked on the ramp thing but the s8+ I bought last year works very well. It goes over the mats. The reason I bought it was because I wanted better than obstacle avoidance. I was coming from an S4 (not max) which had none. This does a good job, is self empty and does mop too. The mop is a vibrating mop bit the spin type of a revo. This doesn’t bother me as robot mopping still isn’t great no matter what you get, until you’re shelling out $1500+. Even then, I don’t think mopping tech has “matured yet”. I ultimately would just recommend a robot vacuum that has good obstacle avoidance as you just don’t want it to get stuck places since you’re spending time with your kiddo and not worrying about cleaning/picking up as much

I need a good one for my mix of hardwood and carpets that won't tangle with husky hair Self empty and mopping capabilities. Good mapping tech to avoid kids toys. Currently have a roborock S4 which does ok but constantly tangles hair, doesn't fill dust bin all the way, leaves clumps on floor. Any recommendations?

I have two Husky s and been reading about the qrevo edge s5a, although the dream l40 is still available, I'm leaning towards the roborock since I already have one and been pretty happy with it.

I also have two S4s. I don't run them too frequently but yeah they're about the same age and I haven't had issues with either.

My S4 is thankfully still going fine (except it 'mystically' stopped cross-hatching), however i did want something with some basic obstacle avoidance and having replaced the original use-case for the S4 with something that had an auto empty dock, i really wanted that function too. I get your waste to have a mop function and not use it, and i also understand the getting used to manually emptying every day, but honestly, the ease and improvement in suction when the bin is frequently (and automatically) emptied, is worth it. For the mop, manufacturers are shoving one on there whether it's any good or not, it's a check box for the showroom brochure, i would just ignore the fact it has one. Now, i replaced my S4 with an Q10 S5+ - it's the auto-dock'd version (the +) and whilst it has the fancier mop compared to the otherwise identical Q10 X5+, for some reason, the S5+ is frequently available for $299 on sale. Finally, bear in mind our S4 has a great/large dust bin capacity, that's not typically the case with newer models, they're more or less designed to have an auto empty dock to compensate. To go back to my point of getting max performance during the vacuum run, i have mine empty every 15 minutes, keeps the bin and the filter more clear, as the more full the bin, the lower the suction will be. I tried various replacements for the S4 for carpet-only performance, and the Q10 was the best.

Really? I have 2 GSDs and my Roborock is a game changer.

I have an s4 and a s8 pro ultra

s4 running 3x week for 3-4 years at this point. Good machine.

Roborock s4. I've had two since covid. They clean weekly. No issues. I've also had a s7 mopping for about 3 years. No issues as well.

I have had 3 roborocks over the years and they have worked great! My S7 max V ultra travel 180miles before I upgraded to the S8 Max V ultra. Had my S4 since it came out over 8 years ago and still use it for our basement. Also have the Dyad. Roborock makes the best robot vacuums by far.

Heh, fair enough, I bought the D10s plus when it was new, and it was a huge upgrade from the roborock s4 that I had since 2020. The auto empty base and object recognition seemed like magic---and honestly, I'd still be fine with keeping that except for the fact that it seems to be failing on me entirely after only two years of ownership.

I bought my Roborock S4 when it was highly rated by them and was not disappointed. Its exactly as they tested, has a little trouble with corners but does great with pet hair and cat litter on multiple surfaces.

I have a Roborock s4 and it’s been great for years now, with a German shepherd. It doesn’t get everything but keeps the floors looking much better. If I were to do it again I’d probably invest in one with mopping or a self-emptying model as having to dump out the dust bin every morning is kind of annoying (park it near a trash can)

My Roborock S4 just keeps chugging along.

Roborock, we have a tri-level home and a few years ago originally splurged (400) on the vacuum model S4, but this Black Friday we got the newer vacuum/mop combo for about 500. We put the old one upstairs to vacuum all the bedroom carpet and the newer one downstairs to vacuum/mop our floors- we run both daily after we go to work. Now I just have to sweep the stairs and the first floor once a week and occasionally deep clean the floors once a month.

We had a roborock s4 that died was really solid, got a shark and found out how much better its roller was at not becoming a tangled mess. I was surprised at how little it got tangled despite the amount of cat hair it was picking up. The sharks software is unfortunately unusable and the vacuum is so quiet when it complains that I have to guess what's wrong. 

Yea as soon as I got ces ads in the Roborock app I was out. Valetudo from here on out. I rooted a Roborock S4, and then bought a Mova P10 ultra. Rooted that. Put Valetudo on both. Just better now.

I have a long-haired wife, a long-haired cat, and a short-haired cat. The Qrevo Curv's new brush design (the DuoDivide) hasn't been tangled once in the month that I've owned it. For comparison, the Roborock S4, which I had previously needed to have its brush untangled every few days. Mopping is pretty good too. Obstacle avoidance is ok, it seems to be best at identifying my two cats and never runs into them. Overall cleaning is quite good and I'm pleased with it.

I have had good and bad issues with my Curv, but I'd still recommend it. I live in an apartment with a moderately thick carpet, and my old S4 could barely drive across it. With the Curv's ability to lift itself, the carpet is cleaned extremely well, and so is the hardwood floor. Mopping in the kitchen is quite good too! I also want to praise the DuoDivide brush because it never got tangled once, whereas my old S4 would get tangled up every few days due to my wife's long hair. Now onto an annoyance. I really wish the robot were intelligent enough to lift itself to its full height when driving across carpet to mop. It lifts itself a bit, but I know it can go higher, so it's dragging the mop pads. On a low-pile carpet, this wouldn't be an issue, but it's frustrating to me that Roborock could easily solve this problem yet doesn't. And now for the bad. My Curv developed a problem after only six months, where it was experiencing navigation issues and would think it was lost while navigating. Roborock sent me a shipping label to get it repaired, and it has been out for a few weeks now. Hopefully, the issue will be resolved once I receive it back. Note that I'm only one data point, and my S4 worked flawlessly for years, so I think mine may just have a quality control problem. I don't think it's representative of poor Roborock quality across the board. Buying from Costco would've been nice because I could've just taken it back and swapped it for a new one, but I purchased it from Amazon, so I have to go through Roborock's support team, which was a bit slow to reply.

Alternate thought, is it always empty because it has less suction or because it cleans better so now there's less to pick up? For what it's worth, my Qrevo Curv cleans significantly better than my old S4. The new DuoDivide brush literally hasn't been tangled once in the five months I've owned it. Reliability on the other hand... Let's just say I'm sending in the Curv for service because one of its wheels is messed up and developed internal rotational resistance. The S4 never had any real issues in years of ownership.

I went from an S4 to a Qrevo Curv. Huge upgrade with the DuoDivide brush since there aren't any tangles around the roller brush now. If you really don't care about mopping (you don't have to install the mop pad if you don't want to) look for a model with the two counter rotating brushes. Those clean carpets extremely well. The DuoDivide in mine isn't as good on carpet, but the lack of tangles is worth it to me, and it still cleans much better than my old S4 ever did.

I'm on my 4th Roborock The S4 Max. Q5 Pro, Q8 Max and Qrevo Pro which all have lidar navigation and none has ever failed. I watch these forums closely and have notg seen anybody complaining about lidar failure. The top cover of the lidar navigation is actually a button that gets pressed down if a vacuum tries going under someplace where it won't fit such as a couch. Narwal is fairly new to the scene and I have not used their vacuums. I know one thing that I don't like about them is the vacuums don't have on board water tank so if you want to take it to a different floor to mop all you have is the moisture that is on the mop, no tank to replenish the water.