REVIEW – If you don’t already have a robot vacuum in your home, what the heck are you waiting for? Seriously, robot vacuums in my house have saved me countless hours over the course of the last few years. I very rarely use a manual vacuum to clean my floors because I don’t have to. If you’ve been considering buying one or upgrading to a new one, I have another one to consider. It’s the Roborock S5 Max. Let’s check it out.
One weeks ago I got my hands on the latest Roborock S5 Max. The S5 Max takes all of the great things from the S5 that we all love and makes them better and smarter.
The new model has a bigger water tank, many options for mopping, smart features and performance that surprised me in a good way. What has been changed comparing to the Roborock S5? What makes it different from the Roborock S6? Let’s see what the Roborock S5 Max offers and who is the device for.
What is it?
The S5 Max is Roborock’s latest robot vacuum that is designed to clean the dirt from your carpets, hardwood, vinyl, tile, and other hard surface floors.
What’s in the box?
- Roborock S5 Max
- Non-skid floor mat
- Charging base
- Power cord
- Mopping cloth and plate
- User manual
Design and features
The Roborock S5 Max has a standard robot vacuum design. It’s round with a protruding laser eye on top. I was sent the white version which is a nice departure from all the black robot vacuums that I usually review. The glossy white plastic housing does not show dust like black versions will. But, if you like black, you can get the S5 Max in black too.
There are a few improvements in the S5 Max, and the most significant one is the completely redesigned mopping system. All the previous models used a slim 150 ml water tank and mopping pad attached underneath when the S5 Max equipped with a large 290 ml water tank.
The difference is not only in the mopping tank, the S5 Max has a built-in water pump which takes the necessary amount of water (which can be adjusted in the app) from the water tank and sprays it on the mopping pad.
A dustbin and water tank are always installed which means if you want the robot to mop, you can either make it sweep and mop or only mop.
On the bottom of the S5 Max robot vac, you’ll see the wheels, main brush, and side brush.
A plastic guard over the brush lifts off so that you can remove the brush if you need to clean it.
The brush has soft bristles and rubber flaps which make this vacuum able to clean carpets and hard surfaces.
The side brush isn’t like other side brushes on robot vacs that I’ve reviewed in the past. Instead of being made of actual brush “whiskers”, the Roborock side brush is made of long rubber arms. And also unlike many robot vacs that I’ve reviewed before, the side brush is attached to the bottom of the vacuum with a screw. That means it won’t pop off on its own which might sound like a good thing, but I’m not so sure. More about later in the review.
The top of the S5 Max has a hinged lid that lifts up to reveal the dirt bin and WiFi status LED.
There’s also a small cleaning brush with a string cutter that snaps into a holder under the lid.
The dirt bin is easily removed when you need to empty it.
Compared to some other robot vacs, I find the S5 Max’s dirt bin to be a little on the small side. It’s also a little awkward to open it in dump out the dirt.
The S5 Max is designed to vacuum dirt from carpets, rugs, and hard floors, but it can also mop hard floors. There’s a removable water tank and in included mop cloth which snaps to the bottom of it.
The water tank is made to be filled with plain water. You should not add soap or other cleaning fluids.
The mop cloth attaches to the bottom of the mop cloth bracket which in turn snaps into the bottom of the water tank.
Then the whole mopping assembly slides back into the vacuum.
The Roborock S5 Max: what’s new?
- Water tank. The new model has a bigger 290 ml water tank. Enough to clean a 65sqm (700sqft) apartment more than 3-times or a 200sqm (2600sqft) home in one go.
- Water level control. Now you can control water level in the app. In small areas, the robot turns off the water when it goes over the places it’s already been. When it’s done mopping, the robot shuts off the water leaking to let the mop dry as it returns to the dock.
- Customizing water level and suction for each room. You can set water level and suction power for each room depending on high-traffic areas and rooms that might not be as dirty.
- Scheduling for mopping. You can schedule the robot to mop at a specific time.
- Selected room cleaning. The new feature allows the robot to clean within a certain room or a few.
- Scheduling to work in a specific room. You can make the robot work in a particular room at a specific time.
- No-mop zones. The new feature allows keeping your carpets dry when the robot is mopping. Once you take off the mop unit, the barriers disappear. You can mix them up with virtual no-go zones (for vacuuming) if needed.
- New efficient navigation. In narrow spaces like corridors, the robot uses a different navigation pattern which saves battery life and allows finishing the job faster.
Mopping Improvements!
The biggest improvements in the latest model – the mopping feature. It has a bigger water tank (290 ml) compared to 150 ml the Roborock S5/S6 have.
In mopping mode, the S5 Max can go up to three times over the cleaning area covering a 65sqm (700sqft) apartment or a 200sqm (2600sqft) home if it’s running once.
In the app, you can control the level of water dripping depending on the light of heavy jobs (there are three water dripping levels: low, medium, high). The Roborock S5 doesn’t have any water control, the Roborock S6 has a toggle on a water tank and two levels of water dripping. The toggle is not as convenient as the app control.
Mopping with the weight of water in a tank means floors don’t get properly cleaned. As water is used, the cloth presses down more weakly. Dirt is left behind. S5 Max’s spring-loaded mop presses down with an even 300g (11oz) from start to finish. So, the last area cleaned is as fresh as the first.
If the robot cleans small areas, it turns off the water when it goes over the areas it has already mopped. After finishing the job, it shuts off the water allowing the mop to dry before the Roborock returns to the dock.
Now you can set no-mop zones so the carpet will not get wet when the robot is mopping. You can also mix them up with no-go zones when the cleaner is vacuuming. The no-mop zones disappear once the mopping pad and cloth are off. Leave your carpets dry while the S5 Max is mopping with the new no-mop zones feature.
When setting mopping options, you are allowed to choose from any water dripping level (or shut mopping off) along with sweeping modes (none, silent, balanced, turbo, max). So basically you can choose either you want the robot to mop, sweep only or sweep and mop at the same time and also set the mode that would be better for the room the robot is going to clean.
With the app, you can edit rooms, set no-go zones, divide the map into separate sections. Also, customize cleaning by setting suction power and water level
I would recommend setting it on the highest water level and balanced mode in the kitchen or any other high-traffic area. For the living room and bedroom, I would go with medium settings. You can also set the same water level and cleaning mode for the whole house if you don’t want to play with different settings.
The app
If you are familiar with the Roborock or Mi Home app, you will not see many new features except for the advanced scheduling and more mopping options. The S5 Max supports both apps.
It has the same start/stop and manual control. You can also track the robot’s movements in real-time. Zoned cleaning is similar to the room cleaning, but you can’t schedule the robot with drawn zones. When you draw a rectangle, you make the robot clean within it.
The app allows setting no-go zones and barriers by drawing a rectangle or tape depending on the shape of the zone (the left pic). Also set zoned cleaning to make the robot clean within the area (the right pic).
No-go zones or no-go barriers keep the robot of specific areas. Barriers look like tapes and are ideal for areas where a rectangle can not be placed. The no-go zones are ideal to set around cluttered areas or where you have many cords.
What is the difference between no-go zones and barriers? No-Go Zones come in a rectangle shape and are limited in terms of changing the shape while no-go barriers are tapes which you can set depending on the shape of the zone you don’t want the vacuum to go to.n cleaning history, you can see how well the robot cleans whether it covered the whole area or not.
Selected room cleaning
Select the room you want the robot to clean. Customize suction power and water level for every room.
When the robot creates a map, it automatically divides it into separate sections (rooms). If you don’t like the way your rooms look on the map, you can merge or divide sections. Once every room is set, you can choose which one to clean through the app. If you don’t want to vacuum a guest bedroom, you can make the robot clean the kitchen and living room only so it will not go clean the whole place. There is also an option to schedule the robot to clean a particular room. This feature is presented in the Roborock S6 and lacks in the Roborock S5.
Aside from understanding rooms location, you can also set cleaning zones, the place where the robot should clean, and as we said before, no-mop/no-go zones to keep the machine off some areas.
Scheduling
So the S5 Max scheduling is the most extended among all of the robots I have tested. The things you can do with the timer:
- Set “Start” when you want the robot to work.
- Choose when to repeat (once, everyday, weekdays, weekends, custom). The custom option allows choosing certain days when the robot should clean.
- Clean mode. There are two options: to set cleaning mode and water level manually or use that customized settings you did before with water level and cleaning modes chosen for each room.
- Select a room to divide. It allows you to set a room or a few rooms to clean. When picking the room, it already has water level and cleaning mode for each room if you customized it before. If you did not, you would be capable of tapping on the rooms you want the robot to clean and choose the right water level and cleaning mode in the “clean mode” settings.
In short, you can do almost everything with scheduling: choose which room to clean, only mop or sweep there, set water level and cleaning modes, and so on.
I customized the whole place, so it is easier to set a timer now. In my case, the charging dock stays in the room with carpets so I can set no mopping there and make the robot start mopping when it is in the kitchen or corridor, but since the mopping cloth will be wet there is no reason to set no mopping in that room because when the robot is returning to the dock it needs to go over the carpet, and it will be wet anyway. As a solution, I can change the room with no carpets for the dock, and in this case, the Roborock will sweep first and then mop the other rooms. When it is returning to the dock, it does not make my carpets wet. So if you have carpets, think of where the robot should clean first if you want it to avoid the carpeted area when mopping.
Multimapping
You can merge and divide zones (left pic). Multimap management (right pic)
The Roborock S5 Max is capable of saving up to three maps and it is still in beta and hopefully, Roborock will update the whole multi-floor feature so it will be easier to use the S5 Max in multi-level houses.
Currently, there are three maps available to be created: current (Map1), manually backup (Map 2), and automatically backup (Map 3).
The manual map is saved after you setting no-go zones there (when you manually edit rooms or no-go zones), the backup automatically creates a map after the robot runs around the whole place and finishes cleaning on its own.
So when you let the robot run the first time, it creates a map1 (current) and backup (map 3). If you set no-go zones, the map2 (manual) is created.
Basically, if you have a two-story house, and one of the floors have carpets or zones, you don’t want the robot to go, you set no-go zones and it will create the Map2. If you run the robot there, all three maps will look the same (since the first and third map are always the same), but if the robot and dock are downstairs where you don’t need to set limited areas, the Map2 will be different (the upstairs map with created no-go zones). If you edit rooms downstairs, it will recreate the Map2 and you will have all three maps the same again.
So if you want two different floor plans for two levels, you should keep one without editing, and one with no-go zones set.
To make the robot recognize its location, place the dock (and the robot) to the floor you want the robot to clean, choose the map you need, and start it from the dock. The map will be created when the Roborock finishes cleaning by automatically docking itself.
The multi-mapping management is not complete and still has room to improve but if you don’t have a need for setting no-go zones on one floor, the current version will work just fine.
You can also control the vacuum with Google Assistant, Alexa, and even advanced controls using IF…Then… type of programming.
Mopping test
To make stains, a mix of cocoa and Coca-Cola was used, and the area was also covered with oatmeal. Since the water tank and dustbin are separated containers and are being placed together all the time, the Roborock S5 Max can do mopping and sweeping at the same time. You can also turn off the mopping or sweeping if it is needed.
I set the highest level of water dripping and let the Roborock S5 Max go clean the stains. It leaves visible wet marks on the floor either on low and high water leaking settings, by the way.
So the Roborock removed most of the stains in one pass, and it was impressive! I think the Roborock S5 Max did a great job by improving the mopping system. Because it is now closer to the floor, it does an excellent job when mopping.
Cleaning performance
The Roborock S5 Max delivers 2,000 Pa of suction. It climbs an obstacle up to 20 mm (0.8 in) which makes it suitable for thicker carpets. The robot is able to recognize carpets. It boosts suction power once it is stepping on carpet providing the best pickup.
Because of the new mopping system and a 290 ml water container, the latest Roborock covers a bigger area and is more suitable for light jobs or heavier messes but do not expect it to remove stubborn stains though it is better at mopping than the previous S6.
Noise test
It is not as quiet as the S6 tho, so if you want a more silent robot vacuum, might have a look at the high-end Roborock S6. But it is also not as loud as the Roborock S5 and is much easier to the ear than the older model.
Obstacle test
Once S5 Max is off the leash in your home, you can leave it to work. An array of environmental sensors including an accelerometer, odometer, infra-red, compass, as well as a bumper and its hyper-accurate map of your room, mean it just goes about its business safely. It won’t roll off of steps, get trapped, or slam into your walls.
Conclusion
The company has stepped forward by making the new product better, improving the mopping experience for its users, keeping the Roborock S5 Max as powerful, and having a user-friendly app. The model meets expectations for those who live in a big house, have pets, many carpets, and also some areas without carpet since now it is a robot vacuum that can avoid carpets when mopping.
The Roborock S5 Max is not only one of the best robots that do a great job at vacuuming but also the best robot I have tested that has excellent mopping performance. If I had fewer carpets, I would use the mopping feature every other day because it is fantastic!
If you’re looking for a well-rounded floor cleaning robot that can take care of both dry and wet cleaning, the Roborock S5 Max is a great contender at its price point. Though you can get two robots from iRobot for a little less, Roborock will save you the headache of dealing with two separate machines. The S5 Max also has a great feature set and a design that competes against the best.
If you have a big hard floor area for mopping, the Roborock S5 Max is perfect.
If you have carpets (not thick ones tho), the S5 Max is a great device to buy.
If you want a smart machine with many additional features, including advanced mopping performance, the S5 Max is ideal.
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