Roborock Q Revo Review: A high-tech robot vacuum and mop with auto cleaning for a solid price

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I'll admit that I haven't been a big fan of robot products. They have always seemed more of a hassle than helpful, whether it's a confusing setup process or poor navigation capabilities that cause them to bump into things or go into areas they shouldn't. However, I'm glad my editor pushed me to test the Roborock Q Revo robot vacuum and mop because, unlike most robot products I've tested, it improved my life and the cleanliness of my home — without the headache.

Robot wet-dry vacuums are robots that vacuum and mop simultaneously with a simple button push. It's even equipped with a charging station that removes debris from the dustbin and washes and dries the mop pads without you having to lift a hand. I tested the Roborock Q Revo for two months (in two different houses, no less), and while there are plenty of great vacuums, mops, and wet-dry vacuums on the market, I can confidently say that investing in the Q Revo is a good choice among the best robot vacuums. Read on for a full breakdown.

Setup

The Roborock Q Revo was packaged efficiently and included a Quick Start Guide. I didn't have to do much to put the circular robot or charging station together beyond placing the base and plugging it into a wall outlet. After doing that, I filled the clean water tank with water. The clean and dirty water tanks can be easily pulled out from the top of the charging station and filled or emptied. There is a dust bag hidden behind a middle panel. Roborock included an additional dust bag.

I set up the Roborock Q Revo twice. I originally took it to my parent's home over the holidays and set it up in their home first before bringing it home with me and re-setting it up in my house. This is relevant because I found it easier to set up in my parent's home regarding wifi connectivity.

After downloading the app through the QR code on the Quick Start Guide, connecting the robot vacuum to the WiFi of my parent's home was a breeze. Unfortunately, when I returned home and tried to connect the robot to my WiFi, it took me 30 minutes, as the robot is only compatible with 2.4 GHz home wifi networks, and I was only successful after deleting and redownloading the app. 

Our review of the Roborock Q Revo vacuum

Since receiving the Roborock Q Revo, I tend to use it at least once a week for a full cleaning, and other times as a spot cleaning device. I'll run the Q Revo mop and vacuum after I've done my weekly yard work and traipsed in some dirt and mud, especially if I'm not ready to pull out a handheld wet-dry vacuum to give the floors a deep clean. With it, my floors remain clean all week without me having to do the work myself.  

Ease of Use

Once I set up the app, the Roborock Q Revo was quite easy to use. It only takes a few pushes of a button to schedule the Q Revo to clean at certain times of the day or to clean a specific spot in the home. I'm a big fan of how it cleans in a gridded path that is visually apparent on the map. It gives me peace of mind that a spot wasn't missed. Not only that, but I liked that the robot didn't bump into my furniture and that it could recognize a step in my parent's home and not fall it.

Yes, there were a few momentary glitches, though more so at my parents' home during testing than at my own house. Perhaps the most frustrating glitch has been my inability to create dividers between rooms on the map. No matter how many times I've tried it, the divider won't save.

The Q Revo is small enough in terms of height and width to fit under cabinets, beds, and shelves as well as in tight spaces. It gets caught on the legs of a swivel chair in my living room (nearly every time) and occasionally wrapped up in a cord (that I'd forgotten to pick up) that pulled off a mop pad. When there was an issue, the voice assistant on the robot informed me on how to fix it.

The most impressive aspect of the Roborock Q Revo is how it can climb over all the thresholds in my house — and I have quite a few. Most robot vacuums I've tested have been able to climb over most of the thresholds except for the tallest, about an inch in height. Surprisingly enough, the Roborock Q Revo had no trouble climbing over any of my thresholds, and it did so with more grace and ease than other wet-dry robot vacuums I've tested. 

Technology and app 

The Roborock Q Revo wet-dry vacuum utilizes the same kind of AI found in self-driving cars. Called Precise LiDAR Navigation, it prevents the robot from bumping into objects or falling down stairs and provides incredibly quick 2D and 3D mapping. In fact, I was very impressed watching the robot map out parts of the house that it hadn't even been to and putting things like thresholds or furniture on the map. It even allows those with multi-story homes to have multi-level maps.

The Roborock Q Revo does have an integrated voice assistant, but you can also connect it to Amazon Alexa, Google Home, or Apple Siri. The app itself is simple enough to use. As soon as it opens, you can hit a button that immediately sets the wet-dry vacuum to clean fully, or you can enter the app for more customization options — like a full cleaning (vacuuming and mopping), vacuuming only, or mopping only and make adjustments to suction power, water flow, and cleaning route.

The map can be switched between 2D or 3D. Details like floor type, obstacles, and furniture often appear automatically or can be placed on the map by the user. I can also adjust when the mop lifts (such as when it detects carpet), whether carpets should be cleaned first (so the wet mop pads don't accidentally touch the carpet fibers), and determine the self-cleaning settings when the robot docks.

In the app, I created a zone for the wet-dry vacuum to clean or use the Pin-n-Go feature for spot cleaning. I was very impressed with how well the Q Revo performed in these tasks and often found myself deferring to the Q Revo to do spot cleaning rather than pulling out a vacuum to do it by hand. The app has a remote control feature to guide the wet-dry vacuum directly to the spot you want, though I always found the Pin n Go and Zone cleaning features to work well. 

Vacuuming Performance

The Roborock Q Revo provides top-notch vacuuming performance on tile, hardwood floors, laminate floors, carpets, and rugs. It could pick up everything from hair to Cheerios and even coffee grounds in one pass, regardless of floor type. While it picked up most of the flour I placed on the hardwood floor, the material is too fine for the vacuum to pick up completely without the assistance of the mopping pads.

There are two carpet cleaning settings — boost or deep cleaning. I have set my Q Revo on "carpet boost," which prompts the vacuum to increase the suction when carpets or rugs are detected automatically. The vacuum can suction up to 5,500 Pa. It's not the highest suction capability for wet-dry vacuums, but it's definitely in the top percentile (anything over 4,000 Pa is).

Mopping Performance

The Roborock Q Revo is outfitted with spinning mop pods. I much prefer this design because it provides a much deeper clean than a Swiffer-like pad plopped on the bottom of the machine.

Overall, the mopping feature is pretty solid. I put flour, coffee grounds, soy sauce, cheerios, and a thicker barbecue sauce on the floor during testing. The mop generally took one or two passes to clean the substances. It did better cleaning dried mud on my floors than stickier substances that had dried. Most importantly, the mop doesn't leave a lot of water on the ground, which is something that I'm very mindful of since I have historic hardwood floors.

With robot mop vacuums, you must remember that although they can mop decently, it's not as deep of a clean as you'll get from a wet-dry vacuum or mop. Also, some of the dirt and grime that has been cleaned in one spot of the floor may get moved to another spot. The mop pads are not continuously cleaned as they work; rather, the robot can return to the docking station every 10-25 minutes to be rinsed, depending on your settings.

The Q Revo does have the capability to lift the mop pads when a carpet is detected, as this ensures that wet or dirty mop pads don't touch the carpet. While it can lift the pads 7 mm, the mop pad fibers do slightly touch my rugs. To prevent any crossover contamination, I've set it up so that the wet-dry vacuum cleans my rugs before cleaning the hard floor. 

Battery life

According to Roborock, the battery life of the Q Revo is 180 minutes. In my testing, I found that this wet-dry robot vacuum lasted about 140 minutes before it needed to be recharged. That's over two hours — and the robot wasn't even completely dead. Battery time is affected by the different settings, so if I used a higher vacuum suction power or set the vacuum to do a deep clean, that would affect the battery run time. When the battery is low, the robot vacuum returns to the station to recharge and then returns to work once it has enough juice to finish the cleaning job. 

Maintenance and Cleaning

The self-contained cleaning system is my favorite aspect of the Roborock Q Revo. Upon returning to the charging base, the Q Revo auto-empties the dust and debris it picked up. From there, the mop pads are washed according to your preference — light, balanced, or deep. Unfortunately, it doesn't have the capability to wash the mop pads with hot water, like the Ecovacs Deebot X2 Omni I recently tested. At least you can choose how often the mop pads are washed during a cleaning session — between 10 and 25 minutes. From there, the mop pads automatically dry between 2-4 hours, depending on the user's choice.

The app has a "Maintenance" section that tracks the replacement time of a robot part. For instance, my app says the filter has 143 hours remaining before it needs to be replaced, while the main brush has 293 hours, and the side brush has 189 hours remaining. It even tells me when the sensors need to be cleaned. 

Cons to consider

The Roborock Q Revo is a solid wet-dry robot vacuum, and yet, like others on the market, it sometimes suffers from technological glitches. While testing the Q Revo, I had difficulty connecting to the WiFi, some initial issues with the robot wet-dry vacuum not charging, and I could never edit and create individual rooms on the map. As someone who has tested a few robot products (some of which were even more expensive), I know that this is to be expected, and you should, too.

The only other notable con is that the Roborock Q Revo doesn't support 5GHz WiFi. Most WiFi routers are dual-band, or in other words, they support 2.4GHz and 5GHz. I had issues connecting the wet-dry robot vacuum to the WiFi at my home and not my parent's house, even though we both use the same internet provider (AT&T). At my home, the app and the robot seemed only to be picking up the 5GHz and not the 2.4GHz WiFi at first. I had to delete and redownload the app and connect the wet-dry vacuum very close to the router before it finally connected. This took about 30 minutes to figure out.

If I'm being particular, I should point out that the base of the cleaning station, where the mop pads are rinsed and dried, shows visible dirt. Unfortunately, I have to clean it quite often, but at least it's removable. Of note, the base of the Ecovacs I tested that also has a hands-off self-cleaning station doesn't seem to get as dirty, though perhaps it's not as visible because the Q Revo station is white and not black. If you hope to avoid this situation, the Q Revo is also available in black. 

What are your alternatives?

Within the Q Revo series, Roborock announced the Q Revo Pro and the Q Revo MaxV at the beginning of 2024, which will be available this spring. Both upgraded models introduce increased suction power and a new mopping system with hot water mop washing. The most premium MAXV is even more feature-packed with built-in voice assistance, AI obstacle avoidance, and an onboard camera. 

The Q Revo is Roborock's most affordable fully automatic offering, but if you want a high-performing robotic vacuum and mop at a slightly lower price from Roborock,  consider the Roborock Q7 Max+. The more affordable wet-dry vacuum differs from the Q Revo in a few ways. For one, you'll have to fill the water tank by hand and place it in the robot. The charging station is only outfitted with a dust bag. Most notably, the Q7 Max+ has a single mopping pad rather than two rotating mopping pads. It won't have the kind of deep mopping capability as the Q Revo, but it'll still be able to pick up dirt and grime.

The Ecovacs Deebot X2 Omni is one of the market's most comparable wet-dry robot vacuums. It may be more expensive, but in my review of the Ecovacs Deebot X2 Omni, I note that the high price tag includes a square shape for better edge and corner cleaning, and the mop pads are cleaned with hot water. Additionally, you can watch the Deebot X2 Omni clean through a live video stream. 

The bottom line

The Roborock Q Revo is for those who want a wet-dry robot vacuum that utilizes AI for navigation and mapping but doesn't cost $1,000. The self-cleaning station auto empties the dust bin and washes and dries the mop pads, so you don't have to. While you can't watch a live stream of the robot mopping and vacuuming your house, at least you can monitor its consistent and thorough cleaning on the app.