Cleaning review
Roborock Q Revo Review: Cleans Almost Everything, Sees Almost Nothing
One tester called it the only robot of seven that picked up all the debris. Another scored its obstacle avoidance 4 out of 12, the lowest they had recorded.
By Paulo GerchonPublished 2 min read
Illustration, not a photo — we don’t have a licensed image of this product yet.
Roborock
Roborock Q Revo
Good · researched from 3 sources
As a cleaning machine this is excellent and two of three sources rate it near the top of the category. It simply cannot see what is on your floor, so tidy up before you run it and keep it away from cables.
- Buy if
- Hard floors and low-pile carpet, where the mopping earns its keep · Households willing to clear the floor before a cleaning run · Anyone who wants a dock that handles emptying, refilling and drying
- Skip if
- Rooms full of cables, toys or pet bowls · Getting under low furniture, given the height · Small flats, where the dock's footprint is a real cost
We don’t list prices, because Amazon’s change hourly.
Two verdicts, both defensible
Bob Vila: 9.5 out of 10.
Vacuum Wars: 1.99 out of 5, against a category average of 2.58.
They were measuring different things. Bob Vila ran a debris test against six rival robots and found this was the only one to pick up all of it. Vacuum Wars ran an obstacle course and scored it 4 out of 12, the worst result they had recorded.
Both are true, and together they describe the product accurately: a very good vacuum with very poor eyesight.
The cleaning
5,500 pascals of suction, which is a lot at this price.
Bob Vila's test was flour, a crushed cookie and chocolate chips on hardwood. Zero crumbs left. Vacuum Wars, who scored it harshly overall, still confirm it easily picked up everything from fine dust to large debris on both hard floors and carpet.
The mopping is the newer part. This is the first Roborock to use two rotating pads rather than the vibrating plate on the S series, and Tech Advisor considers that the more effective approach. Vacuum Wars tested dried grape juice and coffee and reports it handled them perfectly, while noting wet spills cause streaking and overload the pads.
The blindness
Structured light sensing only. No side-firing lasers, which is where Roborock saved money against its premium models.
The consequence is not abstract. Tech Advisor reports cords and small objects getting caught, which stops a clean and needs a person to intervene. Vacuum Wars quantified it at 4 out of 12.
If your floors are clear, this is irrelevant. If your floors have charging cables, children's toys or pet bowls on them, you will be picking this robot up regularly, and that undoes most of the reason to own one.
The dock does the tedious parts
Empties the bin into a bag that Bob Vila says holds about seven weeks of debris.
Refills the robot's water from a five litre clean tank, and collects the dirty water in a matching one, which Tech Advisor says covers around 400 square metres of mopping.
Washes the pads during the clean and again afterwards, then heat-dries them at 113°F.
Bob Vila's three-week finding is the one that matters: no odour developed. A mop pad that sits damp is the reason most robot mops become unpleasant, and drying them with heat is the fix.
The cost of all that machinery is size. Tech Advisor calls the dock massive, and Vacuum Wars notes the auto-empty bin is taller than on previous Roborock models.
And it will not go under your coffee table
Bob Vila names this as the main practical limitation: the robot is too tall to fit under most coffee tables and television stands.
Carrying both a dust bin and a water tank makes a robot taller than a vacuum-only model. Measure the gap under whatever furniture you most want cleaned before you commit, because no setting fixes it.
How it scored
The overall 7.6 is the weighted average of these five criteria — we never adjust it by hand.
Cleaning performance
Bob Vila found it the only one of seven robots to pick up all the test debris, leaving zero crumbs on hardwood. Vacuum Wars says it easily picked up everything from fine to extra-large.
Value
Bob Vila scored it 9.5 out of 10 and Tech Advisor gave it an Editors' Choice. Vacuum Wars is the dissent, scoring 1.99 out of 5 against a category average of 2.58.
Build quality
A multifunction dock with five litre tanks that washes and heat-dries the mop pads. Bob Vila found no odour after three weeks of daily mopping.
Ease of use
Lidar mapping with no-go zones and app alerts for water and dust. Bob Vila notes it is too tall to fit under most coffee tables and television stands.
Obstacle avoidance
Vacuum Wars scored it 4 out of 12, the lowest they had seen. Tech Advisor reports cords and small objects getting stuck and interrupting cleans.
Pros and cons
What we liked
- Bob Vila found it the only robot of seven to pick up all the test debris
- Vacuum Wars says dried-on grape juice and coffee stains came up perfectly
- The dock empties the bin, refills the water and washes and heat-dries the pads
- Bob Vila reports no odour from the pads after three weeks of daily mopping
- Mop pads lift 7 mm over carpet, so no manual zoning is needed per Tech Advisor
- Up to 180 minutes of runtime, about 1,500 square feet per charge per Vacuum Wars
What we didn’t
- Vacuum Wars scored obstacle avoidance 4 out of 12, the lowest they had recorded
- Tech Advisor reports cords and small objects getting stuck and stopping cleans
- Bob Vila says it is too tall to fit under most coffee tables and TV stands
- Tech Advisor calls the dock massive, and Vacuum Wars notes the bin is taller than before
- Vacuum Wars found wet stains prone to streaking and to overloading the pads
- There are no side lasers, which is where the obstacle detection budget went
Specifications
| Suction | 5,500 Pa per Tech Advisor and Vacuum Wars; 5,550 Pa per Bob Vila |
|---|---|
| Mopping | Two rotating pads that lift 7 mm over carpet |
| Dock | Self-empties to a bag, refills water, washes pads and heat-dries at 113°F |
| Water tanks | Five litres clean and five litres dirty |
| Mopping range | About 400 square metres per fill per Tech Advisor |
| Battery | 5,200 mAh, up to 180 minutes, about 1,500 sq ft per charge |
| Dust bag | About seven weeks of capacity per Bob Vila |
| Navigation | Lidar mapping with named rooms and no-go zones |
| Obstacle detection | Structured light only, with no side lasers |
How we researched this
We have not had this unit on the bench. This review synthesises the manufacturer’s published specifications, independent measurements and owner reports listed below. Every figure on this page comes from one of those sources rather than our own measurement.
3
sources reviewed
Bob Vila tested it against six other robot vacuums with a fixed debris mix and supplies the pickup result, the dock capacities, the three-week mopping observation and the furniture clearance problem. Tech Advisor supplies the mop lifting height, the water capacity and mopping range, the battery specification and the criticism of obstacle avoidance and dock size. Vacuum Wars supplies the scored obstacle avoidance result, the stain testing and the runtime estimate, and is the source that dissents sharply on the overall verdict. Percentage pickup figures circulating for this model come from a source we could not read directly, so none are quoted here.
What we read
Common questions
How well does the Roborock Q Revo actually clean?
Why did one reviewer score it so badly?
Does the mopping work?
What does the dock actually do?
Will it fit under my furniture?
The bottom line on the Roborock Q Revo
As a cleaning machine this is excellent and two of three sources rate it near the top of the category. It simply cannot see what is on your floor, so tidy up before you run it and keep it away from cables.
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