S8 Series

Yes, s8+ having 2 cats I used to had to vacuum at least 2-3 times a week. This vacuum has done over 26 km^2 over the span of 3-4 years. Needs maintenance once in a while, hardly ever gets stuck unless a cord or wired cat toy. But then again we don’t leave the appartement like a complete mess when the vacuum goes and does its job. This has been the best investment ever. It does 90% of a GOOD job. If I want to clean perfectly once in a while, corners etc. then I grab our corded vacuum. Saved me 725h in vacuuming time. Thats roughly €1.2/hour. My time is worth more.

I've had my S8+ (basestation with just dustbin, no water tank) for almost 2 years. And I'm very happy. It cleans twice a week and still going strong. I paid about €1000. I bet the MaxV is even better! Only thing I can complain about is the battery have deteriorated a bit tho, so it struggles with 2h cleaning sessions at max power. Edit: I do regular maintenance and exchange parts as needed. And I regularly clean the robo and filter as well.

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 bought the Dreame X40 Master for a specific reason. This is the version that you can fully plumb so that it will automatically fill and empty. I have mine hooked into my washing machine cold intake and it drains through the washing machine drain. A small pump on the unit can pump the waste water up to the height of the drain. It might function more efficiently if the drain were at ground level, but this setup works. I poured over reviews forever before deciding what to do. We ultimately went with the fully plumbed model because we also own one of those Tineco automops that look like a vacuum cleaner but it mops…and let me tell you if you don’t fully clean that thing out and leave any waster water behind…it stinks to high heaven the next day. The vacuum/mop unit we bought heat dries the mop pads after running to prevent smell, and we never have to worry about waste water sitting in a hopper. For vacuuming, we upgraded to their Tricut brush assembly, which handles long hair and pet hair very well. We run the vacuum at night after we go to bed. We cannot hear it from upstairs. Honestly I think it may be an exaggeration to use the term “life changing”, but frankly this thing can clean at I’d say 75% of the capability of a person with a vacuum and a mop. The MASSIVE advantage is that you can literally run the thing twice a day if you wanted, AND it gets into all the little nooks and crannies you might ignore if you were doing a quick clean every day. It spends roughly 3 hours vacuuming and then mopping, but you can set it to do both at the same time if you wanted. We liked the convenience of this thing so much that we bought a second machine for our second floor. Now our second floor is mostly carpet so we opted for the Roborock S8+, which has dual brush rollers and is extremely affordable. We don’t use the mopping function at all on this one. The dual rollers, according to my research, do better pulling things up from carpet. Let me tell you, I am shocked at how much crap this thing pulls out of our carpets even with running every day. The one caveat is that this thing requires a little bit of maintenance…I need to clean hair out of the rollers, which is really easy as it all bunches up at the end by design and it takes 10 seconds to peel off. Not sure if it’s because it simply collects more hair or if this is a design issue. I am aware that Dreame also has available the X50 master which may not be available in the US yet, at least it was not when I bought the X40. I believe this thing has more powerful suction and dual rollers.

**Background** I’ve had the Roborock S8+ since 2023. It was my first and only robot vacuum and ever since getting it I sort of kicked myself for not going all in on one that can wash, dry and refill the mop. I got a surprise work bonus and decided I’d splurge a little on myself and get an upgraded model and went between Roborock Saros 20 and Dreame x60. Ultimately Saros 20 won because of my existing vacuums reliability and my familiarity with Roborock, lacks a turret, and Dreame seems to have navigation issues from my research. **First Impressions** I received the new Saros yesterday from Amazon. The box was beat to hell but the vacuum survived and everything was in good shape. It all setup quick but my biggest complaint here is that it shipped without a charge, and it seemed to take 20 minutes to get it charged enough to reliably boot. From there it’s all straightforward and familiar (and it does charge decently fast compared to my old model, those first 20 minutes to get it going though were rough). Coming from the S8+, I love the dock and spinning mop vs vibrarise. I’ve already used half a tank of water having it clean today. 😂 The dock is very quiet—from drying the mop pads to even having it drive up to dock it’s all an upgrade on noise. Emptying the dust bin is still loud but muffled a little from my last vacuum. I also like that the brush rollers have bristles on them now (my old one was rubber fins) so I’m hoping for better agitation with the improved suction. It mapped the house quickly but had a few trouble spots that didn’t surprise me. I manually drove it to some tougher areas it hesitated on to map. It’s been great at obstacle avoidance, but also maybe too cautious at times. Despite being an inch shorter than my S8+ it’s currently hesitating to drive under my couch but I’m hoping it gets better as it gets fully mapped out. My other problem has been with carpets—it sees oval carpet when all of it is squared or rectangular, creating interesting lines. Again, I think this is it still learning its environment in the first 24 hours. I do love that it can take pictures of the obstacle for direct feedback—nothing beats being able to see what it saw. **Surprises/Pros** 1. Camera — I didn’t know I’d be able to monitor/control remotely or see obstacles. 2. Quiet — it vacuums and maps quietly and the dock is very muffled. 3. Dock Station — I didn’t know it also mixed the cleaning solution as well, so that was cool. It’s very quiet and easy to change the dirty and clean water. I didn’t expect a ton of change here from my old one but, again, even the robot driving on it to dock is quieter. 4. Navigation/Mapping — it added furniture to the maps, created my houses layout quickly, and has been super straightforward. **Oddities/Cons** 1. Carpet recognition — it’s still learning carpet boundaries and giving them weird shapes. It’s been 24 hours so I’m not terribly concerned yet. 2. Zero included accessories — no spare mop heads, no cleaning solution, no extra dust bags. 3. Mapping (sort of) — I wish it could leverage old maps from other vacuums. I get why it can’t, it just is a little annoying to set up rooms again with furniture, divide rooms, etc. (even if it does help). It’s straightforward but…first world problems. 24 hours in, am I happy? Absolutely. The pros vastly outweigh the picky cons. Would buy again and recommend. It’s a great upgrade and I hope it lasts at least five years or so.

If you want a vacuum only robot, I’d look at the AEG RX9-2-4ANM https://www.robocleaners.com/en/aeg-rx9-2-4anm.html (Not an affiliate link). This robot won't ao very well tor dealing with hair and fur on the brush roller but this is the best robot vacuum if you're only considering vacuuming performance (along with the Dyson VisNav which is considerably more expensive but the thicker roller means it’s less prone to tangles). If you want an autoempty station, I’d look at the roborock S8+, Roborock Q5/Q8 Max+, or the eufy E20. If you want a combo, I'd recommend the Dreame L10S Ultra Gen 2 (599), Xiaomi X20 Max (539), the Xiaomi X20 Pro (439), the Xiaomi X10+ (399) as these robots are better suited for larger homes (<60-100sqm) as it has an internal water tank so it won't need to constantly go back to the base station to clean the mops. The Xiaomi X20+ lacks an onboard water tank and must rewet the mops and can become dry when mopping before it resets it. This is generally less water efficient which is why I recommend the previous models. I’d recommend the Xiaomi X20+ for homes smaller than 50-60sqm. All of these robots are compatible with the dreame anti-tangle TriCut brush which works great with my long haired corgi’s fur and long hair in my home.

Suction power is about as unhelpful as Air Watts because bigger ≠ better. Brush agitation, sealing at the floor, airflow, and the airflow design are just as important aspects. For mostly carpet, get something like the roborock S8.

Is there a robot vac out there with a mop roller that won’t develop a smell after being washed/dried on the base station? Or is this just a thing with all robot mop vacs and resets once you do the monthly manual washing of the mop roller in a sink? For context I’ve had the Dyson spot scrub AI for 2 weeks now (got it for $762 when it was on sale combined with a coupon) and while the base station is doing a good job washing and drying it, it is definitely starting to smell 2 weeks later. I am not using dyson’s cleaning solution yet as it is out of stock, but I’m using aunt Fannie’s vinegar wash in the base station which it uses to clean the roller and in the clean water tank. Was really hoping the station would be able to keep it fresh smelling and clean between the monthly manual clean cycles of the wet roller. Before I got this Dyson I just had a Roborock S8+ with machine washable mop pads, and while it certainly doesn’t do as thorough of a mopping job, it would never develop a smell as there was no dirty water tank on it and the mop pads were a one time use per cycle until you wash it again. So I’m honestly wondering debating on either A. Just dealing with the smelly mop roller that gets refreshed during its monthly cycle B. Returning it and going back to my Roborock S8+ which had great vacuum performance and basic mopping and just using a swiffer or something for tough stains or C. Returning it and getting a even better robot vac mop that will never have a stinky roller (if such thing exists)