Our Rating:
Key Features:
180 Minutes Battery Life
Intelligent Obstacle Avoidance
2500Pa Suction Power
Sweeping and Mopping Functionality
Roboborock’s Flagship Model – The Biggest and The Best
The S6 MaxV is Roborock’s premium offering in the robotic vacuum range, it offers advanced technology features that other brands offer for twice the price.
The cleaning power rivals even the premium brands, and the in built obstacle avoidance system works surprisingly well. If you have pets in your home who frequently leave their poop in places where the vacuum finds it, you will definitely appreciate this feature!
The hybrid mopping functionality is well designed and is actually a useful addition – especially if you have a lot of uncarpeted surfaces in your home.
If Roborock continues to update and improve the firmware, as they have with previous models, then I can’t wait to see what awesome functionality they can squeeze out of this fantastic robotic vacuum.
Review Criteria Ratings
| Cleaning Power | 4.5/5 |
| Battery Life | 4.5/5 |
| Navigation | 4.5/5 |
| Smartphone App | 4.5/5 |
Pros
- Object recognition and avoidance works well
- Great cleaning power
- Large dustbin size is great
- Multiple maps can be saved
Cons
- Dust and dirt stands out on the black unit
- App UI can be unintuitive at times
Should You Buy It?
The Roborock S6 MaxV is at the top of its class and it is great value for money.
Amazing cleaning power, advanced navigation features, and true set-and-forget functionality are all reasons to give this model a go.
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Roborock S6 MaxV Robotic Vacuum Overview
The S6 MaxV is certainly an impressive unit. Let’s take a more in-depth look at some of its features and functionality.
A Real, Practical Test
Just a quick note – I don’t do a series of set-up tests as some other sites do. I don’t use rice, or salt, or anything like that to test these vacuum cleaners.
I use real-life scenarios – I actually put these vac’s into my home and use them for a couple of weeks before even starting to write my review.
I really believe that to get a real idea of how well something works, you need to use it how it was intended to be used – and then look back on that use and decide if it is truly a good product or not.
Cleaning Power
The cleaning power of the S6 MaxV is impressive, to say the least. If you had told me 5 years ago how well this unit would clean – I would have laughed in your face because the models back then were just so inadequate.
Well not so anymore. I am lucky enough to have two Roborock Vacuums in our house (one for upstairs one for downstairs) and I almost never have to get the stick vacuum out these days. Although in saying that, Roborock also have a great stick vac – the H6.
Vacuuming
The vacuuming functionality is what everyone wants to know about right? Well, it certainly doesn’t disappoint.
I have two young kids and they love to make a mess. After they have a meal, the area under our table is covered in crumbs and mess. After they have been outside playing, they have walked in dust and dirt from outside.
So what does this mean? It means that I truly appreciate something that saves me time when it comes to cleaning up after my kids. And that is exactly what the S6 MaxV did – it saved me serious time.
After the kids have made a mess, I simply set the vacuum to cleaning and off it goes to vacuum the area that needs doing.
You don’t need to watch it to make sure it doesn’t get caught or tangled, the inbuilt artificial intelligence and the stereoscopic dual-camera system does a great job at keeping the unit out of trouble.
And yes – it even avoids pet poop!
I also found that long hair doesn’t get caught around the brush as it does on some other vacuums.
This really is a set-and-forget robotic vacuum.
As far as how well it vacuums the floor? This model features 2,500 pa of suction power, and it’s safe to say that it does a great job – leaves almost nothing behind on the floors, whether they are carpet or hard floors, and the well designed sweeping side brush does a great job of cleaning the very edges of the room.
Multiple Power Levels
There are 4 different power levels that the unit can be set via the app at (by room or as a whole):
- Quite
- Balanced
- Turbo
- Max
And of course, using the higher power levels will mean that the battery run time is affected negatively.
Mopping
The mopping functionality works about as well as the S5 Max (the S6 MaxV’s little brother), which is to say that it does a reasonable job.
It’s not going to remove the need to ever mop again (you will still need to do your regular tile floor cleaning), as all it really does is drag a wet cloth around on the floor.
But, it is handy for doing a quick mop if the floors need a touch up in between your proper mops by hand.
The water tank size (300ml) is adequate for most sized floors. We have quite a large hard floor in our house and even on the maximum water setting, I rarely had to top up the unit mid-mop.
The amount of water pumped into the mopping pad can be set by room, or as a whole. And if there are areas that shouldn’t be mopped you can turn the mopping functionality off altogether, or set ‘no mop zones’.
Tip: If you aren’t using the mopping function, take the water tank and mopping bracket off the unit. Store it away somewhere until you need it.
Dustbin Size
Dustbins are never huge in robotic vacuums, just due to their nature of being quite compact machines. But the Roborock S6 MaxV has a 460ml dustbin, which is actually quite big for such a product.
It actually looks very similar in size to the S5 Max’s smaller capacity unit, and it’s only in the day to day usage that you really notice just how much bigger the S6 MaxV’s dustbin actually is.
Instead of having to empty the unit daily, I can now go 2-3 days without a dustbin empty.
The dustbin itself is easy to maintain – it is completely washable and includes an E11 rated HEPA filter – which can also be washed!
And a nice surprise in the box was a spare filter!
Smart Phone App & Mapping and Navigation
Smart Phone App
The Roborock smartphone app is where you set up and control your robotic vacuum. There are quite a lot of features in this app that would be impossible to cover in a single review, but I will go over some of the main features and functionality.
Upon first starting the app, you will need to create a Roborock account. This is a fairly simple process, and once you are logged in then you can basically forget about it. I tested whether you can be logged in on multiple devices at the same time, and it worked fine for me – there were no issues with other devices logging out.
When you first use the S6 MaxV, you will need to place the dock in your desired location then tell it to run a clean. The robot will then navigate around the house and use its LDS (laser distance sensor), and stereoscopic cameras to create a map of your home.
The robot will need to complete a full clean, which may require it to recharge mid clean, for it to fully create the map which you can then use to customize the cleaning program.
After the initial clean is completed, you can do things like:
- Separate or merge each room into distinct areas/zones
- Add invisible walls and no-go zones
- Add no-mop zones
- Set vacuum power and water levels per room
- Set room cleaning order (choose which rooms to clean first)
Once you have set up your map and settings the way you want it, the app gives you 3 main cleaning modes to use
Room Mode
This setting allows you to select a single or multiple rooms to clean.
The vacuum will navigate directly to the first room and start cleaning, once finished it will go to the next room and continue until all designated rooms are done.
I especially liked the feature in-room cleaning mode where you can set the “Total Cleanups” to multiple times. e.g. I can set the total cleanups to 3X, and the vacuum will go over each room 3 times before continuing.
All Mode
This mode simply sets the vacuum to clean the whole map, in the order, you have designated in the settings – with the cleaning power you have set.
If the vacuum gets low on battery mid clean, it will go back to the dock and charge only till it has enough to finish the remaining areas. It doesn’t make you wait for a full charge before continuing.
Zone Mode
The zone mode allows you to mar out specific areas of the map to be cleaned. This is set by a box (or multiples) that you place on the map and resize to the desired area.
The zone mode also allows you to set how many times it should be cleaned.
Other App Features
The app is feature-packed and I could write a whole article just on its functionality. But for now, here is a list of the other notable features of the Roborock App:
- Ability separate the map into rooms
- Allows you to set a cleaning order
- Allows you to set vac power/mopping water amount per room
- Gives the ability to do a single room clean
- Ability to separate the map into zones
- Can tell the unit to clean a particular zone
- Pin n Go feature
- Tells the vac to go to a certain area and clean in a certain radius (spot cleaning)
- Maintenance reminders
- Filter cleaning
- Sensor cleaning
- Brush replacing
- Remote control
- Ability to manually control the vac
- The kids love it, the cat hates it!
- Set voice language and volume
- Set cleaning schedules
- Set a DND mode
- Vacuum won’t automatically operate between the DND hours set (e.g. overnight)
If I had to find a complaint about the app, it would be that it almost has too many features – if that is at all possible. This makes it a little hard to find some settings sometimes.
Multi-Level Maps
If you live in a house with multiple levels, you can indeed still use the one Roborock robotic vacuum to clean both levels.
The firmware and AI are smart enough to recognize when it is placed in an area that it hasn’t mapped before. When it detects this, such as when you take your vacuum from upstairs to downstairs, the unit will do a full clean. Just like when you set it up the first time.
After that, it will save the map as a new file. From then on, whenever you move it between levels it will automatically scan its surroundings and determine which map it should use to navigate and clean.
Pretty neat hey?
Intelligent Obstacle Avoidance
The intelligent obstacle avoidance system is one of the S6 MAxV’s standout features – and it actually works very well.
Dual cameras are built into the S6 MaxV, these are used to estimate any possible obstacle’s location and size, and then navigates around them as required.
The artificial intelligence also has some limited ability to try and determine what category of item the obstacle is. These obstacles are then marked on the map, and the robot can be set to take a photo of them so you can check later on areas that the unit decided to avoid.
Some of the obstacle types I noticed the unit mark were:
- Power strips
- Cords
- Pet droppings
- Clothes
My testing showed that this feature works well – occasionally the vacuum would decide for some reason that an obstacle shouldn’t be avoided, so it would just try to push it out of the way. But these instances were rare indeed.
If there is one thing I can say about Roborock, it’s that they continue to update and improve their products long after the release through firmware updates. So I expect that the obstacle avoidance functionality is only going to get better and better.
Remote Viewing
One of the interesting, but probably less useful features of the S6 MaxV is the ability the see through the robot’s built-in camera via the smartphone app.
When you activate remote viewing through the app, the robot announces roughly every 30 seconds that remote viewing is being used – so there is no spying on anyone without them knowing.
And for those of you concerned about home security, you can disable the functionality altogether if you prefer.
While it sounds interesting, and the kids certainly found it super fun, I found that this feature is more of a “why not” type thing and doesn’t really have any useful functionality.
Battery Life
The 5,200 mAh battery is reasonable and provides about 180 minutes of cleaning time. This number will vary depending on the power setting you choose, and the type of floor coverings you have.
It should be enough for most standard size houses in a single clean. Our house has about 110 square meters of floor space to be cleaned on the bottom floor and it takes our S6 MaxV 129 minutes and a little over 1 charge.
S6 MaxV Alternatives
If if you are looking for viable alternatives to the Roborock S6MaxV then here are some suggestions.
Cheaper Option
Roborock S5 Max
The S5 Max is the little brother of the S6 MaxV.
It has a less powerful motor and doesn’t have the stereoscopic camera system or the advanced obstacle detection. It’s still a great robot though.
Well Known Brand
IRobot Roomba I7
If you feel safer spending your money with a more well known brand, then the iRobot Roomba i7 is a good choice.
Keep in mind though you are paying a lot just for the name, and the feature set is not as good.
Conclusion
It’s hard to fault the Roborock S6 MaxV. The feature set and functionality you get for the price is amazing, and while it certainly isn’t cheap – it IS great value for money.
At the time of writing this review, the S6 MaxV is my favorite robotic vacuum I have tried yet. If it’s within your budget, this is the machine to get.
