S5

Yeah, we've got an S5 from around the same time (2019), and the battery is still strong. The [LDS has failed](https://www.reddit.com/r/RobotVacuums/comments/1kz11eb/free_roborock_s5_needs_a_repair_paying_it_forward/) in the last 2 weeks, and didn't seem repairable, but somebody with more expertise or patience can probably fix it.

Hi all, I know a lot of people are interested in this one, so I thought I'd give brief first impressions after the first day. We've had a [Roborock S5](https://www.reddit.com/r/RobotVacuums/comments/1kz11eb/free_roborock_s5_needs_a_repair_paying_it_forward/) since 2019 but replaced it after the LDS stopped being reliable. I bought the E25 for £700, direct from Eufy. So very brief first impressions of the E25, after first setup and initial clean: Setup: * Box is bloody heavy. Be careful! * Setup is super slick and super easy - wifi connection and app setup was done in a few mins * The machine looks and feels well-built * The funny circular light under the clean water reservoir is annoying, and I wish it could be dimmed or turned off * The sticky labels on the top of the reservoirs (which explain how to use) have tabs as if they should be removed - but when you peel them off they leave yukky glue residue Mapping: * Amazing initial mapping experience * It tracked all the rooms and identified some of them (e.g., it knew one room was a bathroom - presumably using the AI camera to identify the toilet) * The 3D map is cool, but pointless * I needed to set up a no-go area and virtual wall and the first time I set it up, this just failed (click 'save', message says 'Failed', and no other feedback). After I re-mapped the house, it worked fine. Probably an app or wifi comms bug. Cleaning and vacuuming: * First clean took about an hour - 85m2, or so. * It's *very* quiet. Half the volume, or less, than the Roborock S5, which was a noisy sod. * Vacuuming seems very good - better than the S5 (but you'd expect so, as it has nearly 10x the suction Pa) * Mopping seemed good so far, and the water from cleaning was very muddy. Be interesting to see how much better the effect is when running regularly. * Overall clean was pretty good. There were a few tiny bits of debris missed in the corners under teh worktops, but I'm aware no robovac is perfect. Again, little and often * It did get stuck in a couple of places - one step was too high for it to get down (virtual wall placed to prevent this) and a narrow bit next to the toilet - it's about 8mm to wide to go all the way in, so I set up a no-go area. But avoidance generally seems good. Overall, very pleased. It'll be interesting to see how well it works once we've got the schedules running. Edit: one other plus. I was a bit concerned about the cost of bags for the base unit, but there's unofficial ones on amazon for about £14 for 10 bags, which seems reasonable. Better still, I went into the Eufy app tonight and it offered me a free gift in return for feedback. So I wrote some feedback and they gave a voucher for a free £16 pack of 3 official hoover bags. So at 75 days per bag, that'll last me at least until Christmas.

Sorry, nope. Plenty of YouTube people out there that are doing that. I'm not putting rice and sand on my rug and vacuuming it! Performance is fine though. Loads better than my old S5 Roborock even with it on max and the Eufy on the standard/quiet setting.

For 6+ years now I have owned the [Roborock S5](https://www.amazon.com/roborock-Robot-Vacuum-Cleaner-White/dp/B0792BWMV4). In fact, I still use it literally daily. Without going into unnecessary detail, it's certainly reaching end of life. Therefore, I am in the market for a new vac. Exciting! One of the best things about the S5, for me, is that it does not have a self emptying bin. Let me explain... without a self emptying bin it allows the vacuum to maintain a low profile and ultimately allows me to keep the vacuum out of sight. It stays under my couch where it is completely out of sight out of mind 100% of the time. I live in a small apartment in a big city; floor space is absolutely critical and the more I can tuck things away, the better. Therefore, I am looking for the best vac + mop combo without a bin. Looked on the trusty Vac Wars compare tool and selected "Docking Station Type: None." What came up? Nothing great. The Roborock S8 is their highest rated non-dock option and it literally is so old it's unavailable. So, my questions to you, Reddit... got any recommendations for a robovac without one of those massive self emptying bins? Budget is not a factor.

My Roborock S5 is still working great. Had to change some parts like lidar motor and battery (and ofc brushes etc sometimes). It's from 2018 I believe.

I've had my roborock S5 for like 7 years and it's still going strong. Recently had to replace the battery and a few years back replaced the lidar motor. And of course replace the brushes etc sometimes. Very easy and cheap to repair

Don't have pets but it cleans just as well as ever ✌🏼

Ecovacs? Yeah, got an older one that cant even suck a few dog hairs out the Container into the Station. As good as my xiaomi roborock from first gen with that. And i swear this thing searches for any cable in the room and you need the dock to be free 50 cm left and right and chance he finds into the station are still 30/70. My 2026 Resolution is to buy a dreame for the upper floor.

I still have the first version of the Xiaomi/Roborock vacuum that is still working. Just need to replace some wear and tear parts.

Satisfied with mine on hard floors. Upgraded from a Roborock S55 where I would never even bother with mopping as it was bad and involved a lot of manual setup and maintenance. Hairs tangles all over, had to have like 20 no-go zones, constant dustbin emptying, loud as heck... The Saros 10R has to be filled with water more often than expected but we switched to alternating days of vac and vac+mop, with the sunday left for manual cleaning with the Dyson, and now it essentially mops oy twice a week, so it's not a bother. On some days it acts dumber than on others. On others it does very well. Had to still setup invisible walls so it stopped trying to jump over all my flat horizontal table legs - wish I could disable the stupid adaptive lift that I don't even need. It cleans the mops after each room, empties the dustbin after each run and we hardly fill it as the dustbag still hadn't filled after 4 months of almost daily use and eventually we swapped it just in case, not because it was really full. When I got it it worked perfectly for weeks. Then they updated it and it started lifting up getting stuck under our hanged toilet even though it used to be able to go under them just fine. Scratched the hell out of the top plastic cover and Roborock kindly sent me a new one. Worked fine for a month and they released a second update, which made it get stuck even below our second hanged toilet, which is placed higher!! They refused to send me a new cover as the second one scratched as well... Overall, surprisingly inconsistently dumb for its price but it made our lives so much easier and looks slick as hell in my opinion. The app is very good too. So I don't regret the 1300 euro I paid for it. But we don't have pets or toys on the floor. We have zero carpets. We're pretty much the ideal use case for this robot. I know of people with lots of carpets and many toys on said carpets. And in these situations, this robot does the dumbest shit imaginable. It "avoids" obstacles work than a basic no-camera no-lidar budget robot vacuum from 10 years ago.

I really appreciate someone bringing this up! As a design geek, I always struggle when I have to make purchase decisions because not always I find something that I consider "well designed". The robot vacuums category is one of these... However, here some robot vacuums that have a design worth talking about (of course, things need to be contextualised for their time). In completely random order: - **Roomba s9**: a sleek and professional finish, the first (and only) D-shaped Roomba, taking advantage of its shape and bringing to market the best edge cleaning ever (before robot vacuums with extensible side brush were a thing) together with one of the best vacuuming performances ever. - **Roomba i3**: the first one of the newly engineered Roomba mid-range series, bringing to "budget" conscious consumers a new methodical navigation method, together with a modern aesthetics which drops the carrying handle for a new fabric-textured top finish and with modern, clean lines. - **Philips (Versuni) HomeRun 7000**: not a particularly noteworthy product, however a robot vacuum distancing itself from the competition thanks to the typical Philips design, with dual-finish robot and fabric emptying base. Not the best result, but at least an attempt to bring an externally developed product (ODM'd by 3irobotix) in line with the company design style (uses for instance with air purifiers etc). - **Roomba j7/j9+**: distancing itself from its predecessor (Roomba i7, with a good looking "techy" design), it brings a much cleaner design, more minimal, and enriched by a metallic disc on top together with a UI based on the RGB light around the only button (not the most intuitive one, but an attempt to do something different). It also features a newly redesigned self-emptying station, now developed in a much more compact and modern-looking form factor, thing that will be later copied by most other manufacturers. - **Neato Botvac lineup**: overall, Neato products have always been lacking in terms of design (an exception being the Kobold VR300, which changes the design aligning it to the family feeling of contemporary Vorwerk products), however these specific units brought more thoughtful, cleaner lines (to an extent...) together with the LiDAR tower cap in some bold, unique colours. This aesthetic didn't survive long and wasn't - overall - in line with the brand identity of Neato. Still, a good attempt. RIP. - **Dyson 360° VisNav**: not too much to say - it looks good. Perfectly matches a useful D-shaped layout with the Dyson family feeling. Balanced despite the lack of simplicity, modern in a retro-futuristic way, and functional. - **Karcher RC3000**: one of the first robot vacuums with self-emptying station (the first one?), with a bold design perfectly in line with the company identity. - **Dreame W10 Pro**: overall, similar to all other Dreame products, but in the (now abandoned) D-shaped style. Adds a gold accent to differentiate it from the "non-Pro" version which lacks the front sensor array (ToF 3D cam + RGB cam). Clean lines, clean colours, very minimal and stylish overall. - **SmartMi VortexWave**: innovative design for this unique robot vacuum and mop: D-shaped style allowing a large front brush that can be exchanged to leave its place to a roller-style mop. The first robot vacuum supporting both dry and wet vacuuming. Clean lines and a good mix of minimal and techy design. - **Electrolux Pure i9.2 (also AEG RX9.2)**: one one-of-a-kind. The genuine successor of the original Electrolux Trilobite. Developed in-house by Electrolux, this product was one of the first to implement small obstacles avoidance (2017 for the first gen Pure i9) thanks to its navigation method fully based on dual-line lasers. Overall an excellent product, unfortunately killed by the high price, lacking marketing, and growing Chinese competition (at much cheaper prices). Futuristic design for a robot with futuristic features. - **Matic robot vacuum**: the only one that in recent years has dared to challenge the paradigm of robot vacuums. Narrower but much taller. Boxy design resembling a robotic toy, with large wheels and front, "peninsular" brush assembly. Together with a revolutionary vSLAM navigation system based on nVIDIA Jetson Orin. It has its flaws, but it's the kind of competition we need in the category. - **Narwal (in picture, Freo Z10)**: not really a worthy robot vacuum cleaner/brand overall, but one of the first brands to really bet on rotational mops, together with the distinctive clean and alien-like shape of their docks which has now been copied by many competitors. - **Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum (Roborock)**: the first LiDAR-based robot vacuum to bring LiDAR and methodical navigation to the masses, at a price that made it the the-facto standard of robot vacuum recommendations in 2016/2017. Together with the new technology at low price, it brought to the market a modern and clean design and a futuristic, intuitive app. - **DJI Romo**: too early to speak about this as a robot vacuum cleaner, but from a design perspective it takes the clean, curvy Narwal style and turns it inside-out giving it a transparent cover. Good result, but durability of the good look is still TBD. - **Mach R1** (sorry, I refuse to call this Eufy S1 Pro): birthed by the Anker Innovations incubator "Mach" (later absorbed into Eufy), it finally brings to Anker-owned Eufy a new style that was really needed. Futuristic and clean, not much to say. A very good result resembling the square-ish shape of older LG HomBot, but in a new futuristic, semi-transparent twist. That's all folks 😬 Edit: pictures in the comment below because somehow embedding doesn't work in this comment.