Roborock S6 MaxV Robot Vacuum and Mop Review – The Most Advanced Robot Cleaner

Roborock might have disappointed some of their fans in the United States since their recent robot cleaners had been repetitive and literally had no new features. Before the official announcement, I heard some rumors of the new Roborock S6 MaxV and some people thought it would be the Roborock T7 under a different name. Fortunately, the S6 MaxV is a brand-new product and it is actually a lot more interesting than the T7 or other vacuums in the S6 series.

Unboxing & Testing

Design

The S6 MaxV has the same packaging and accessories as seen in other robotic vacuums in the S6 series. Inside the box, you can find the vacuum, a charging dock, a mop bracket with attached mop cloth, power cable, a spare filter, and a moisture-proof mat.

The design of the S6 MaxV is quite similar to its predecessors with a raised LiDAR module on top along with 3 buttons (Spot Clean, Dock, Clean/Power). The Power button is also the battery indicator; You don’t have to worry about it because the robot has a Smart Top-Up feature, so it will automatically return to the charging dock when battery is running out. That means even when you have a huge house, the S6 MaxV is guaranteed to clean the whole floor.

The most significant upgrade of the MaxV is dual cameras on the front bumper. Roborock calls them ReactiveAI; It sounds like a gimmick but it is actually quite useful. We will discuss the feature in the next section. Apart from the new cameras, there is also a wall sensor on the right side of the bumper.

The bottom of the S6 MaxV is identical to other Roborock vacuums. We can see the main brush at the center, a side brush, wheels, cliff sensors, and the water tank with an attached mopping pad.

I love that the water tank and the mopping pad can be easily removed or installed without lifting the robot. The water tank is quite large and I often refill it just once or twice per week. You can adjust the water level within the app.

The dustbin is hidden beneath the top lid and it is also quite easy to empty it; There is a E11 filter in the dustbin and you can take it out to wash occasionally. It’s really great that the filter can be washed and reused, so I don’t need to worry about replacements.

The noise level of the new robot remains the same. At the maximum suction mode, the noise level is measured at around 65dB when I am just a few feet away from the robot. It becomes much more silent in normal mode at around 56-60dB.

Performance

A full cleanup of my 600-square-foot floor takes just 33 minutes as compared to 40 minutes with the Roborock S5 Max. The difference is really amazing and can be explained by the high-performing ReactiveAI cameras on the front. While the LiDAR module with LDS (360 Laser Distance Sensor) on top is great for continuously scanning the room, it can’t detect small low-lying objects on the ground like shoes, sandals, cords, or scale. Some objects can even stop the brush from operating and eventually pause the cleaning task until you remove them from the robot. The robot won’t push your shoes or other small objects around; Instead, you can see in the video above that it smartly avoids the objects and immediately choose another cleaning route. The previous generations of Roborock vacuums would spend more time crashing into those objects to check if they are really obstacles. The new obstacle avoidance technology utilizes a Convolutional Neural Network for image processing and is powered by Qualcomm APQ8053 processor; It can recognize common obstacles like pet waste, footwear, power strips, scales, etc in real time. All that information are shown within the Roborock app. Notice that it can detect power strips but it still suck up your charging cable lying on the ground.

A recent firmware update introduces a new feature called Remote Viewing. This function allows you to view live video feed when you are not home. There are some other improvements like better object recognition, obstacle avoidance, increased positioning accuracy and efficiency, and improved water control.

According to the manufacturer, all the images of your house are processed onboard and immediately deleted to protect your privacy. The product is certified by TUV Rheinland on ETSI TS 103645, a consumer IoT standard issued by ETSI (European Telecommunication Standardization Committee). This means it has reached a high cybersecurity level and privacy protection level

Another killer feature is multi-floor maps. This feature is currently available on the S6 MaxV only and it works flawlessly. The robot can automatically recognize different levels of a home and you don’t have to choose a map before starting a cleaning session. Basically, I need to run full cleanups of all levels first so that the robot can have full maps of my house. After that, I can just carry the robot and charging dock to my 2nd floor, place it anywhere, and start the robot from dock. The robot will need around 10-20 seconds to scan the room and locate its position in my house, then the map of the 2nd floor will pop up in the app and the robot will start cleaning.

The maximum suction power of the Roborock S6 MaxV is 2,500Pa, which is a remarkable boost as compared to other versions. The S6 Pure and S5 Max I tested recently max out at 2,000Pa. The battery capacity has no change as it is still equipped with a 5,200mAh battery which can run for up to 3 hours in quiet mode. I use the normal mode and the robot has never had to return to the dock in the middle of a cleaning session. The battery could last around 1.5 hours in this mode.

The robot can divide rooms accurately and I can choose any room I want to mop. Other features like invisible walls, no-go zones, no-mop zones, customized mopping still work perfectly. The MaxV is almost a perfect solution for me. If Roborock could find a solution to vacuum my carpet without removing the mopping pad, that would be awesome. At the moment, I still need to finish mopping my floor first, then manually remove the mopping pad and start vacuuming the carpet area only.

The S6 MaxV supports voice control via Google Home and Amazon Alexa. I added it to my Google Home devices but it always gives an error “The device is not ready” when I try to make a voice command.

Conclusion

Pros

• 2-in-1 product
• Increased suction power
• Long battery runtime
• LiDAR laser-navigation technology combined with ReactiveAI cameras to avoid obstacles
• Digital no-go, no-mop zones, invisible walls
• Alexa voice control

Cons

• Hefty price
• Voice control via Google Home is not working

The Roborock S6 MaxV is undoubtedly among the most advanced robot vacuum and mop on the market. It still has a few shortcomings but the improvements are much more noteworthy. I can see Roborock’s effort to create a perfect cleaning solution for households. If you can afford the price tag of around $700, we at TechWalls highly recommend it.

Buy Roborock S6 MaxV on Amazon