iRobot is synonomous with robot vacuums. Most people don’t say they have a robot vacuum, but rather a „Roomba”. Similar to how most don’t say they have an Android phone but a „Galaxy”. But just because iRobot is the more popular brand in the world of robot vacuum, doesn’t mean that the Roomba is better than Roborock.
In fact, we’d argue that Roborock is miles better than Roomba. And not just in a single area. In many areas. So today, we are going to highlight why Roborock robot vacuums are better than Roomba. And you might be surprised at a few of these reasons.
Roborock Navigation runs circles around Roomba
Roborock has always excelled when it comes to navigation. This is because Roborock uses a LiDAR system on the top of the robot, that is able to map out your home, and ensure that it doesn’t miss a spot. You can also see where it has (and hasn’t cleaned) in the app. And you’ll notice that it doesn’t miss anything.
Roborock S5 Max cleaning under the bed
Now, Roborock vacuums are not perfect when it comes to navigation, but it does run into far less furniture than a Roomba does. We’ve witnessed the latest Roomba’s still running into various furniture, walls, and so forth. Roborock vacuums run into these a lot less, in our experience.
When it comes to „what’s next” in terms of navigation, Roborock has leaped above Roomba even further. Thanks to the stereo camera an AI built into one of its latest robot vacuums, the S6 MaxV. Not only is it using LiDAR to navigate around your home, but the stereo camera and AI is being used to avoid other obstacles that the lasers might miss. Like shoes, cords, scales and even pet waste. It’s a night and day improvement over even the S6, which was already a massive leap above what Roomba offers on its latest robot vacuums.
Navigation may not sound like it’s that big of a deal on robot vacuums, but in reality, it is. With bad navigation, not only can the robot vacuum miss out on spots in your home, but it can also knock things over. I can’t tell you how many times robot vacuums have knocked over my tripod – thankfully my camera was not on the tripod at the time.
Roborock S5 Max – Amazon
Better brushes and more powerful suction
At first glance, you may not believe this. But Roborock actually has better brushes than any Roomba vacuum, and also more powerful suction to get everything up. The reason why you may not believe this, is because Roomba has more brushes than Roborock does. For example, Roomba has two spinning brushes on the front, one on either side and then the center rotating brush that has all the suction. While Roborock has one on the front on the right side and then the rotating brush in the center.
So why does Roborock only have a single side brush? Well, the side brush is mostly for cleaning in corners and against the wall. And it’s always cleaning in corners with the corner on the right side of the vacuum. So adding one to the left side would make little sense. And it would make no difference in the cleaning ability of the Roborock robot vacuums.
Roborock S4 Max brushes
That essentially means that iRobot is giving you an extra brush that is pretty much useless. Now as for the main rotating brush underneath, the bristles that iRobot uses are not that strong, which means it’s not able to get up the dirt that is deep in your carpet. In fact, in some of the newer Roomba vacuums, you’ll notice that it is more rubber than actual bristles in that brush. Which iRobot says works better, but it hasn’t in our experience – and we’re not alone.
With the stronger brush in the middle of the Roborock vacuums, it also adds more powerful suction. Roborock was first to move to 2000Pa a few years ago and it brought the industry with it. And now it has moved to 2500Pa on the S6 MaxV. Only one other robot vacuum has that kind of suction, and that’s the iRobot Roomba S9. Which is a very powerful vacuum. But it still needs a good brush to lift up and then suck up all of that dirt, dust and other debris in your home.
The cleaning ability is perhaps the most important feature of any robot vacuum. If you need to clean up behind your robot vacuum, what’s the point of buying one?
Roborock S4 Max – Amazon
Roborock combines Vacuuming and Mopping in one robot
Roborock has mopping built into almost all of its robot vacuums – there are a couple exceptions like the S4 Max. Meanwhile, iRobot forces you to buy a Braava robot mop to get that functionality. And often times the Braava mops are about the same price as a robot vacuum. And hence you are paying double, for what is really not all that great of a mop. It works about as well as the mop that is built into Roborock’s robot vacuums.
Roomba & Braava vs Roborock
With the Roborock vacuum and mops, it will only mop your hardwood, tile and laminate floors. It is able to decipher the difference between that and carpeted floors. So thankfully, your carpeted floors aren’t getting mopped. As that would be very bad. You also have the ability to set no-mop zones. So if you’d rather it not mop in your bathroom, or your bedroom, you can set that up in the app once and forget about it.
There is one downside to all robot mops at this point though, and that’s the fact that you are unable to use soap with these mops. So they are only mopping with plain water. It does the trick, but using soap would be a much better option.
Roborock has insanely better spot cleaning than Roomba
Another area where Roborock excels, over the competition, is in spot cleaning. Not only can you choose a specific area for the Roborock to clean. But you can also choose which rooms. Say you want it to only clean the carpeted areas of your home, you can set that up when you start the cleaning cycle. Just drag the box on the map to where you want it to clean.
Roborock makes this super easy to do in the app, since it does color code the rooms. Instead of just numbering them like some other robot vacuums tend to do. Allowing you to choose from cleaning the entire home, a specific zone or a specific room, every time you have the vacuum run. Additionally, you can choose to have Roborock make one or two passes in each room or zone. Which can be very useful if that area is particularly dirty. For example, my dog sleeps in the living room so there’s a lot more pet hair in that room than most of the rest of the house. So I’d have it clean the living room twice.
With a Roomba, you can’t make it clean an area twice. It’ll only clean it twice if it determines that a spot needs to be cleaned again. But that isn’t all that accurate. You can tell Roomba to clean in a specific area, but the controls are not as granular as what Roborock offers. For example, you can even use Alexa to tell Roomba to clean in front of the couch. Though, it may not actually know where the couch is, if it mis-identified the couch as something else.
Like Roborock, you can tap on a room for Roomba to clean. But where Roborock really shines, is that you can drag the box to have it clean only half of a room, or even multiple rooms at once. That is not, as of now, available for Roomba robot vacuums within the iRobot HOME app.
Of course, this also goes back to the cleaning portion. Spot cleaning is only as good as the overall cleaning ability of the robot vacuum.
Roborock S6 MaxV – Amazon
The Roborock app is super simple, and even has recommended maintenance included
The majority of the features are the same in both apps. Both iRobot and Roborock offer the same main features like the ability to schedule when the vacuum will clean, telling it to clean now. As well as where to clean, and seeing where it has cleaned, and so forth.
However, where things differ is in the settings. You see, Roborock offers the ability to see when maintenance needs to be done on your robot vacuum. This includes cleaning the sensors, the filters, and replacing the filters and brushes. It’ll also show you how many hours of cleaning are left before they need to be replaced. So you can plan ahead in case you need to buy some new filters or brushes for your vacuum. iRobot doesn’t offer that in the app, in fact it’s settings are quite limited. Mostly only offering up WiFi settings, the ability to turn on or off carpet boost, etc.
Roborock App
Roborock also does a really good job with the layout of the app. Making it super easy to use the app and find what you’re looking for. With options to change the suction power and water levels of the vacuum and mop, respectively, right there on the home screen. Which can even be altered while the Roborock vacuum is vacuuming. Roomba does have the ability to adjust the suction and some other features, but that’s only before you hit the big „Clean” button on the app.
Finally, and this is probably not as important to most people, but the voice that Roborock uses is actually understandable. Meanwhile, iRobot just beeps. And the number of beeps will tell you what’s wrong with it. Most likely, you won’t know what’s wrong with it, as that’s like learning a whole new language. With Roborock, it will tell you what’s wrong, and of course send a notification to your phone. But if you’re not near your phone, you’ll still know what happened.
The app experience is a big part of a robot vacuum, and the clear winner here is definitely Roborock.
Roomba does win, when it comes to its dock
iRobot does have one feature that Roborock does not, and it’s one we hope Roborock adds really soon. And that’s a self-emptying dustbin. So when the Roomba (providing you have a newer one and paid the extra $200-$400 for that base) docks at the base, it’ll automatically empty the dustbin into the base. Then once the base is full, you just empty the bag. So there’s no more worrying about dumping the dirt and dust back onto the floor.
It’s a nice feature, honestly, but is it worth an extra $200-$400 depending on the model? Probably not. Roborock doesn’t offer self-emptying, but it was one of the first to allow users to access the dustbin from the top of the vacuum, rather than the bottom. Which makes it less likely to spill all over the floor.
iRobot Roomba i3 docked
So, yeah, the self-emptying base is cooler, but that doesn’t automatically make it better. It is nice not needing to empty it for 30 days though.
Just like other features we’ve seen enter the robot vacuum world, Roborock will likely adopt this feature pretty soon. And it’ll likely be like other robot vacuum makers that have, and will include it for free. Instead of charging almost another entire robot vacuum for the base.
Roborock is a fraction of the cost of a Roomba
If none of these other reasons helped you decide to buy a Roborock over a Roomba, well this one should take the cake.
The majority of Roborock’s vacuums are cheaper than even Roomba’s cheapest vacuum. And we’re talking MSRP, not current prices or sales. As there are quite a few iRobot vacuums that are currently dirt cheap due to the holiday shopping season.
Almost all of the Roborock robot vacuums on the market are under $500, with many under $400. There’s really only one that is priced over $500 and that’s the S6 MaxV, at $749. That’s still cheaper than the iRobot S9 is $899 at MSRP, and that doesn’t even include the self-emptying base (that’s the S9+) which would cost you a few hundred more.
You’ll struggle to find an affordable Roomba. The cheapest one at MSRP of course, is $399 and that’s the Roomba i3 that just came out. Meanwhile the Roborock E4 has an MSRP of just $299.
So you be the judge. Do you want to pay more for a robot vacuum with less features, and mediocre cleaning. Or pay less for a robot vacuum that has way more features and does an incredible job at cleaning your home? Ultimately the choice is yours.
Shop Roborock on Amazon
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Source: ndroidheadlines.com