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Three things to check before you order
Updated
Three surprises catch robot vacuum buyers. The mop is a damp pad. The robot will not join the WiFi. Or it cannot get under the sofa or over the door sill. All three can be checked in ten minutes before you buy.
1. What the mop really is
- A wet pad. The robot drags or vibrates a damp cloth. It wipes up dust and light footprints. It does not scrub dried spills. The roborock Q10 S5+ is this type. Its pad vibrates, which the maker says is up to 3,000 times a minute, and one owner review notes that you refill the water tank by hand and that it helps to wet the pad first.
- Spinning mops with a washing dock. The roborock Qrevo S Pro has two spinning mops. The dock washes them at 167 F and dries them with warm air, according to the listing. That is the step that makes robot mopping low effort. The price is a dock over 20 inches tall.
- Rugs. A mopping robot needs to lift the mop or avoid carpet. The Q10 S5+ lifts up to 8 mm and the Qrevo S Pro lifts 10 mm. Thick rugs can still get damp edges. Set them as no-mop zones.
- Three of our five picks do not mop at all. If you have mostly carpet, that is no loss.
2. WiFi: it is almost always 2.4 GHz
The Qrevo S Pro listing says 2.4 GHz WiFi only. The Roomba 105 listing says it uses a 2.4 GHz network for setup and for running, and that your phone can go back to 5 GHz after setup. If your router joins both bands under one name and pairing fails, look in the router settings for a way to split the bands or a guest network on 2.4 GHz.
If you do not want any of this, the eufy 11S MAX has no WiFi and no app. You give up maps and schedules from your phone.
3. Measure two heights
- Under your furniture. Measure the gap under the bed and the sofa. From the listings: the eufy 11S MAX is 2.85 inches tall, the maker says the Qrevo S Pro cleans under 3.8 inches of clearance, and the Roomba 105 Vac is 4.1 inches tall. A robot that almost fits is the one that gets wedged.
- Your door sills and rug edges. We did not see a climbing height on the listings we read, so we cannot give you one. Owner reviews of the Q10 S5+ mention it crossing door thresholds and bath mats about half an inch high. If you have a tall sill between rooms, check the maker's manual before you buy, or plan on running the robot one area at a time.
When those three check out, go to the picks or run the emptying calculator.