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.

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 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 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 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.

I’m still running my Roborock s4 and Wyze from way over two years ago

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

I have a Roborock S4 and it does a better job than I do. Hardest part is just to remember to start it. Best $700 I've spent in a while. Just remember also to pick up things it'll eat, shoelaces, cords, etc.

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.

Used to have iRobot/Roomba. But after looking at a bunch of videos from the vacuum wars YouTube channel (extensive testing of all the brands), I went with Roborock. I’ve had the S7 for 2 years, and the S4 I gave to my MIL after upgrading (hers still works perfectly). It’s a fantastic machine! Mopping function is decent but not fully replacing manual mopping, just reduces how often I need to do it. Black Friday is coming up, so I’m sure there will be good deals.

My roborock S4 is 8 years old and my S7 is 3 years old with over 3,000 hours of run time and still going fine. So no least not for Roborock brands but that's why you buy the best!

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'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.

Roomba's have pretty subpar mapping & navigation compared to most other brands. We have one (older) Roomba that relies on VSLAM for navigation and one Roborock that uses LiDAR; the difference is night and day. I would avoid iRobot on that alone until they change their tech.