Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

4/2/2019 I am not getting paid for a review, I am just a random person trying to help others in their consideration of this product. First off, I primarily have hard floors, and that is what my Roborock S5 stays on 99% of the time. One thing to understand, these little vacuums are for maintaining floors, and are not made to handle heavy duty build up, sticky spills from juice or pop, or large chunks of food. They are meant to be used after a floor has been fully cleaned before first use and after it will keep your floors cleaned by taking care of the day to day use. I have 3 dogs in my house, as well as kids from age 2 and up. I always have a large amount of dog hair in my home and it's just impossible to keep up with. So I'm listing a few catagories on this review on what I've seen so far in the past few days I've had this. This is my own opinion and may not be the same as others' views. I received my Roborock S5 in quick order once purchased(2 days), in sparkling brand new order with not a thing wrong. It was a thing of beauty to look at. It was almost completely assembled once I pulled it out of the box, excluding the base needing to be set up and plugged in. With dogs, I worry that one of them may get at the vacuum, so I pulled out a drawer in the hallway and retrofit the floor with a ramp so it can be tucked into the wall with some protection. I did not give the vacuum the recommended 3 feet on either side, and even with a 1.5 inch ramp, it still manages to get in and out of the space just fine. Navigation: The Roborock S5 is a newer "smart navigation" vacuum that uses zig-zag patterns instead of the random navigation used in older or cheaper models. I have noticed that my S5 will split up each room in my house into sections that it will tackle in its own order, not necessarily what we think may be the best order. Example: The S5 will split my kitchen into 4 sections of cleaning, my living room into 3 sections, dining room into 3 sections, and hallway into 2 sections. Usually it cleans one hallway section first, then the kitchen in 3 sections, heads to the dining room to clean 2 sections, back to kitchen, finishes dining room, second hallway section, then living room. Seems odd, right? But I assure you, it cleans almost EVERYTHING. It picks up 95% of what is on the floors. It will start by going around the outside perimiter of a section first, then zig-zagging around the inside until that entire section is complete. It covers all of the floors and leaves nothing behind. I have noticed that the side brush spins at a faster rate on edges to help bring anything in the edges out, but slows down when not near an edge as to not fling debris everywhere. I love this type of navigation, where other vacuums have taken nearly 85 minutes to clean my house and not even gotten everything, the Roborock S5 does it in 40 minutes and gets it all, including edges and most corners. Bumping, close quarters and obstacles: This is one of my favorite things about this vacuum. The front bumper is a super sensitive, light touch bumper. 99% of the time when the S5 approaches a wall, chair leg, even a shoe, it will slow down to a crawl until it just barely touches the object, then it will stop and slightly change it's course to go around the object. I have seen it go along a wall, come to a closed door and turn into the threshhold, go along the door, and when it meets the wall it compensates and moves just enough to get along the wall to continue going straight. It usually stays within 1/2 inch while doing walls / edges which is more than enough to keep the side brush rolling against it. If it meets an object in the middle of the floor, it will go completely around it and maps it out, compensates for the object and continues on course. I have also seen this vacuum run full force into a slender table leg that it didn't detect so it could slow down, and the impact was trivial at best. It barely bumped it and stopped in its tracks. No big bang, no shaking or objects flying off a table, no damage to the table leg. (For pet owners) This robot has hit my dog's water bowl a dozen times and never so much as rippled the water. Never the less, may be best to place a barrier from the app to be safe. Note: While going around sharp corners and between obstacles, you may notice a ticking noise. This is from the side brush being a bit too close on a corner, however I haven't seen it to be a problem and there has been no damage to vacuum or objects from this yet. I personally won't worry about it. While the navigation is all good and well, some people wonder how loud this is. This vacuum has 4 power settings (5 if you include the mopping setting), Mop, Quiet, Balanced, Turbo, Max. I usually run mine on Balanced, since I have mostly hard floors and this setting still picks everything up perfectly. Quiet can sometimes be too weak to pick up everything well, and you tend to hear the brushes more. I can watch TV and have a conversation easily on Balanced. Turbo, and especially Max, do tend to be quite loud and not so great on hard floors as it'll blow debris around (namely hair) and those settings tend to do better on carpet. Videos tend to make the vacuum louder than it really is, I've found that it's much quieter in person. Another thing I've noticed this vacuum does that others have had a problem with, it will go on black rugs and carpet! I may have lucked out, or perhaps the company fixed it, but attached is a video of mine going on a black rug with no issues. I tested out the cliff sensors to make sure they function properly and they work just fine. Mopping: The Roborock S5 is equipped with a mopping function. I'm not particularly a fan of the mopping attachment, it has a water tank that has a pad on the bottom. I followed the directions and soaked the pad first, wrung it out until it did not drip, then attached it to the tank and filled it with water. While this did mop the floors, I don't feel it was very adequate. The mopping function is basically just dragging a pad around on the floor while keeping the pad wet from the tank. It won't scrub clean any sticky spills, and it even can leave some lighter things behind as well. Attached is a before and after picture of a coffee stain, showing that it cleaned most of the stain up, but left a bit behind. The vacuum suction does slow WAY down while mopping, and it is recommended to vacuum your floors first before mopping with this robot. It does, however, get the floors wet and I feel that it does a good job of taking any dust off the floor. Personally, I don't feel I will use this function much, as it's easier to mop myself, especially since I have kids that like to spill drinks or food everywhere. The App: This app, is by far one of the coolest and most helpful apps I have seen for a robot vacuum. It has a map right on the front page that will show a layout of your house, which is generated after the first full cleaning. You can put No-Go Zones, Barrier Tape, send it to a specific area for Zoned Cleanup, or send it to a specific area to do a spot cleaning! Spot cleaning is handy for dry spills such as crumbs, dry cereal, powder, etc. Starting from the center of the spill, the S5 will go around in widening circles until it has picked it all up! And since it has the map saved, it also has the docking base saved, with pin-point direction to get back to charge, even if it's across the house. The app has many many other functions, like instructional tutorial videos for cleaning and maintenance, but it also has an option for "Care", which is where you can see on a timer how much time is left before the recommended maintenance replacements and cleanings. I love this function, I don't have to worry anymore about forgetting to replace parts! You can also manually control the robot from the app with a "joystick" option and run it around like a remote control car. Battery: The battery on this thing is HUGE. It cleaned my house twice, running for 80 minutes total, and STILL had 61% battery left. The best guess I have, is that this robot can clean 2000 sq ft before recharging. The company claims the S5 can run 150 min on one charge, but I'm betting it could go longer on Quiet mode. Maintenance: So far I have not had the Roborock S5 long enough to do any replacements or even general cleaning much, however I do empty the dustbin and clean it, along with the side brush and the main brush after every use (you are not required to do this, I just do because I want to keep it as clean as possible) it is absurdly easy to take this thing apart and clean it, everything unsnaps and snaps together smoothly and with ease. If you ever need assistance, there are training videos located in the app! I do have some tips, and last experiences to share. Check your firmware and update it as soon as you get it. Do it while the vacuum is charging for the first time. It only takes about 10 minutes. When you first run this robot, let it do a complete and full cycle of cleaning, including going back to the dock to charge. I made the mistake of NOT waiting, and instead while it was completed and going back to dock, I decided to send it to a certain location. This erased the map and I had to run it again to generate a new map. After it completed fully, the map stayed and I had no issues with it disappearing again. If the vacuum is returning to dock, try not to pick it up and move it. While it may find its way back, it may also get "confused" and mess up the pathing to get back. If you decide to make a "hidey hole" like I did into a wall, try to make sure the floor is as level as possible. I took the easy route and made a ramp for the vacuum to climb into. This works, and it gets in and out just fine every time, however when it is cleaning the hallway that the ramp is located in, it will climb halfway onto the ramp while cleaning, and drop off the other side. While it is not doing any immediate damage, I do worry about the long term damage it may have. I will be fixing mine to have a flat, even entry immediately. While this vacuum may be able to get around in tight spaces, sometimes, it may be better not to. I have two recliners side by side, and two end tables next to them on either side. My robot will find it's way behind them and try to clean, but sometimes tends to get a bit hung up on the base of the chair sometimes. It always finds its way off, and comes out fine, but this is one of those cases where I will be taking advantage of no-go zones and barrier lines. Wrapping up, this vacuum is ABOVE and BEYOND better than most others, and it equals other vacuums that are hundreds of dollars more. While not being 100% perfect, I couldn't ask more of this little helper. It cleans amazingly well, the navigation is great, pathing out objects works excellently, it always finds its way back to the dock, has an awesome app, and so much more. Not to mention it distracts my toddler and she follows it all over the house (which is a nice reprieve for the wife and I). I highly recommend this vacuum to any and all. It may be more expensive than the more budget friendly vacuums, but it is so worth the money. I have not yet seen the longevity of the S5, but I look forward to finding out how it holds up in the long run, and will be listing updates in the future. UPDATE 4/11/19 Still running great, no issues. If anything, there's been improvement. Cleaning time has reduced by 6 minutes. Can verify that it works like Alexa, however I have found its just to start and stop. Also, I have heard that starting the robot with Alexa will make it ignore barrier lines and no go zones, I can officially say that this is false. I start it with alexa every day and it still stays inside barrier lines. My house has never been so clean!