Roborock - S4 Max

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

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.

I had a Roomba 650 and then got a Roborock S4 Max that’s still trucking along. You really can’t go wrong at this point.

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.