roborock E4 Robot Vacuum Cleaner, Internal Route Plan with 2000Pa Strong Suction, 200min Runtime, Carpet Boost, APP Total Control Robotic Vacuum, Ideal for Pets and Larger Home, Works with Alexa
Control Movement with Magnets
Stop access to rooms or bumping into fragile decor with magnetic strips that can be stuck to the ground.
*Magnetic strip needs to be purchased separately.
Strong Suction
Up to 2000pa power suction delivers powerful cleaning without excessive noise, powerful but quiet.
Automatic Carpet Boost
Carpet Boost cranks up the power of 2000Pa on carpets for a deeper clean, easily lifts dirt.
Safer Cleaning with Sensient
The Sensient array of sensors keeps the robot away from ledges and drops for a safer clean on multi-level homes.
Automatic Top-Up Charging
When the battery is low, the robot will return to the dock to recharge then continue from where it left off.
Low to the Ground
A super-slim 3.55in tall design allows the robot to reach under beds, sofas, and other areas where dirt hides.
Optimized edge cleaning
E4 cleans the interiors of a space first, then finishes by running close to each wall. As it does, the side brush accelerates for a deeper clean.
Anti-entrapment systems
As it records every movement, E4 can escape from tricky locations.
More cleaning less emptying
A 640ml dustbin stores up to a week of dust and can be emptied in seconds
Washable Filter
The integrated E11 rated air filter is washable for a longer life.
michael –
Purchased the E4 just over a week ago and have used it every day. It has worked great so far and I have no complaints. The first time I ran it, I followed it as it cleaned the entire house so I could locate trouble spots. I Had to adjust a few things to keep the sensor on top of the machine from causing it to get stuck. Uneven floors would allow it to move under furniture at one point, but then not have the clearance to exit at a different point. Transitions seamlessly from wood to tile to area rugs. Although it does not like really small light weight area rugs. Then again, no vacuum does so not really a big issue for me. It sometimes will clean the same area twice, but I think that has more to do with the cats and dogs taking issues with it and knocking it off course. Which brings up my favorite part of this machine. It slows down when it senses a obstacle in front of it, which in our case is usually our older slower moving cat. Overall very pleased so far. 1600 sq ft floor, all hardwood and tile with 3 dogs and 4 cats.
Artie –
Love this Roborock E4 , I’ll be honest I’m sort of embarrassed showing the picture that I have posted. But I wanted to show you how well it actually works. I have two cats and a dog and we vacuum every day. I have area rugs and a tiled floor. I know, by the picture you wouldn’t think so, LOL. But I must admit the robot got into areas that we do not normally vacuum, like under the sofas, wall units ,beds and cabinets and produced what you see in the Photo. I love the fact that it actually increases the suction power when it goes over the rugs and reduces power when it goes back onto the tiles. Unlike other robots it doesn’t blow light items or hair around the floor from It’s exhaust , it’s designed with a diffuser where the air comes out of. I also like the fact that it connects to Alexa. It also has the option of mopping as well, But I haven’t used this feature as of yet. I had the shark robot vacuum which worked well but not as well as this one. But I will warn you if you have carpeting with black borders or just black carpeting it will avoid the carpet thinking it’s either an edge that it can fall off or the stairs. I have a Carpet with black borders and I was able to override the cliff sensors by applying white paper over the four sensors that it has. But keep in mind that I live in a single level home. If you have a multi level home I would not recommend covering the cliff sensors with white paper. I love this vacuum and highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a high end budget vacuum cleaner that is extremely reliable and has mapping capabilities as well. I paid $239 and it’s worth every penny. I am very happy with the purchase!
Rachel –
As soon as I opened the shipping box, I could tell the original seal had been broken. Inside, the vacuum itself and all the separate parts were dirty. I’m pretty upset to think dirt, germs, and possibly critters (bedbugs, roaches) could have hitched a ride into my house. I’ve asked for a new replacement, but if the next one comes in the same condition, I’ll be pretty peeved. This exact circumstance was mentioned in a prior review, so I guess it’s an Amazon thing that happens from time to time.
Update: The replacement vacuum came the next day, brand new. I charged it for several hours and pushed the button to start it. I was amazed that it ran for almost 3 hours, criss crossing my 2000 sq ft ranch house. It made me a little concerned to see it seemingly roam from room to room and then go back again, but it covered the whole house in almost three hours before returning to the base. And the dustbin was FULL! It was relatively quiet and I think relatively thorough, despite its weird, angular pathway. It encountered one set of wires I couldn’t pick up, but it crossed them with no problem and didn’t chew them up. Low pile carpets and a 1″ slope to different flooring didn’t phase it. I think I’m in love.
J. R –
I bought this thing to hopefully help with the massive amount of dog hair my two labs shed on a daily basis. It can get overwhelming at times. I could make a new dog with the hair every other day. So I googled top rated robot vacuums for pet hair and this machine came up. The price was good and the reviews were good. The set up was very simple, you down load an app, register it, then connect to the wifi, maybe 10 minutes total, then let it charge up. Well 2 days in and I am very pleased. I have to empty the tray several times during its cleaning session but that isn’t any problem and was to be expected. It have about 1800 sq feet of tile flooring that it cleaned very well. I kept the bedroom doors closed that have carpeting, so I can’t speak for how it would handle the rooms, but it cleans the few throw rugs that I have strewn throughout the house with ease. No more sweeping for me, this thing kicks butt so far. Oh and its pretty quiet as well. I just let it run as I watched TV and it did its thing. I would definitely purchase again if need be. If you have pets or kids, I don’t think you will be disappointed with your purchase.
Chemguy –
I just bought the Roborock E4 3 weeks ago. I was very skeptical at first on how a vacuum robot could clean and vacuum the hard floors and carpets in my home. We have 3 rabbits, so it means a lot of small hay left on the floors and carpets and some dry rabbit poops around the litter. That means I have to vacuum 3-4 times a week the whole house and this is time consuming. I first tested the robot downstairs. I was surprised on how it handled the rabbits fur balls. I was watching it go and it really covered the whole floor where it could go and even the edges. I then brought it back upstairs in the kitchen where there were rabbits fur balls, some toast crumbs (from breakfast) and some sand (coming from shoes when going in and out). It was the best time to test it and see if it vacuumed all the small debris. I started it and went downstairs. After 26 min, it was finished as I got the notification. I went upstairs and at my surprise, everything was gone, cleaned. The last test I performed was to put the robot in the rabbits room where there’s a carpet. There were a lot of small hay on the carpet and some rabbit poops. This was the ultimate test. After 20 min, the robot was done with the cleaning so I went to look and there were no more poops and just some hay left on the carpet. That’s to say that I’ve got a Shark Rocket vacuum and I have to pass more than once on the carpet so all the hay is vacuum so I can say that the Roborock E4 does a similar job. Looking at the robot, it goes in a Z shape pattern and knows where it’s been and where to go. It’s not a random pattern like the cheaper robots. Only one concern. When the robot cleans the edges, the side brush speeds up and sometimes, instead of throwing the debris in front of the robot so it can vacuum those debris, it throws the debris too far towards the center of the room. Since the robot starts with the center of the room and finishes with the edges, some debris that were thrown in the middle are not vacuum and since the robot finishes with the edges, it goes back to the charging station after having done the edges, leaving some debris in the center. That’s why I’m giving 4 stars instead of 5. In all, I’m very satisfied with that vacuum robot and at this price, it does a good job with its double gyroscope and OpticEye system.
*UPDATE* After almost 1 month of use, I’m taking one start down. The robot is very good at cleaning the floors and the carpets. The suction is powerful but there’s one thing that could have been done better by the engineers at Roborock (Can’t believe that they haven’t tried this to realize that). The robot should really start with the edges THEN finish with the center of the room. When the robot vacuums the edges, the side brush starts to spin so fast that all debris, instead of getting thrown in front of the robot, they get thrown so far towards the center of the room. Since the robot finishes with the edges, all those debris stay there, without the robot picking them up. I have to vacuum back those debris with my had vacuum after the robot finishes. It took me 2 weeks to figure that out that if the robot would start with the edges then finish with the center of the room, all debris would be picked up. I guess that the R&D at Roborock still needs to learn few things.
Amazon Customer –
First of all, I used to be a person who saw a robot vacuum’s being not worth it. There are a couple of reasons for this like price and overall cleaning. That was the case until I found this little bot, for only $250 you get a great bot.
It cleans EVERYWHERE, even under sofas. I was impressed when I opened the lid and saw how much it picked up.
this is the best bang for your buck! Would recommend.
Besher –
The robot suction power is great, it cleans really well and doesn’t scatter debris around. it will also automatically increase suction to high once detect carpet and will clean until the battery reach low level then go back to the dock and recharge to resume cleaning from the same spot it finished. It’s accuracy is really good as long as it was not manually interrupted or placed in different spot.
The robot tries its best not to get tangled with wires and succeed in most cases.
The path of cleaning if the dock is placed in the middle of apartment is unpredicted but eventually, it will get the entire apartment cleaned and record all the spot that was done. I think if it’s placed at one end of the apartment the path will be more predicted.
Maximo –
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I purchased the Roborock E4 over a month ago.
I now have less cleaning to do! The vacuum doesn’t have LIDAR like those expensive robot vacuums, but trust me it gets the job done. It does map your home by using an Electric eye and gyroscope. So it’s able to clean in a Z-Shape pattern. Most Robot Vacuums in this price range just ping pong around the room until the battery is dead.
The suction power is great and picks up really well, even things like dust and pet hair. The sensor works great and the rob vac knows when to increase suction power when on carpet/rug. (Attached Picture) It has a large DUST bin, After it’s cleaned your house a few times probably can empty the bin less often. I usually empty the bin once or twice a week now. (Note: I have it clean daily)
Battery Life is excellent, It was able to vacuum Kitchen, Living Room, Hallway and bathroom (46m | 57 mins) I’ve never seen this vacuum battery life at 60% or lower to be honest. For the most part I just have it clean my finish basement daily.
Thickness, it goes under most furniture, I can only count 3 times in over a month where the vacuum got stuck. Twice because I have a very flat base table stand and another was because it picked up a sock that was left on the floor.
The APP Features are good, you don’t get all those extra features like it’s LIDAR models. You can still schedule cleaning times, tells you when to maintenance your Roborock, it stores and saves cleaning history after each cleaning. I’ve never received any odd error message. So it’s been working great. It’s also Alexa Friendly, which was fairly easy to setup, just have to add the Skill to the Amazon Alexa app.
Overall, I’m extremely happy with my buy, If you’re looking for budget robot vacuum that cleans and has decent features or want to try out a good robot vacuum. I definitely recommend the Roborock E4 to start with.
Karen H Walrond –
It works well for cat hair and dog hair. I’m happy with my vacuum
Maggie –
I’ve only noticed a few minor issues with this vacuum. Sometimes it doesn’t do the entire area and I have to run it a 2nd time, but it gets it all then. Haven’t figured out why it does this yet. I have a area rug and it doesn’t even slow it down, my husband thinks it does a better job on the rug than the hardwood floors!! The bin is large enough to hold everything left on the floor from 3 large dogs, 3 adults, 2 kids and multiple people coming and going. As I’m in a wheelchair this thing is a LIFE SAVER for me!!!! I also ordered the “mop” setup and will be trying it out soon. I have to admit I caught this on sale for 100 off but this machine is worth the full price to me!!
RubyMcFarland –
EDIT AFTER 6 OR 7 WEEKS OF USE:
I still love this vacuum; as my Great Pyranees and German Shepherd start to shed their winter under coat however, she clogs often. It’s not her fault (the vacuum), it’s just a schit-ton of hair and clumps. That said, it is still so easy to remove the brush and clean it out, unlike standard vacuum brushes. I really love that you can clean out the brush with no tools needed. Just pop it out, take the hair off of it, and pop it back in.
Been using this every day for a week now. 1100 sq ft home with laminate floors, two kids in and out all day in rural America (no side walks just grass and diry/mud) with dirty feet, three very large, very hairy dogs, and two cats and the pets also in and out all day tracking in dirt when they’re not just dropping their hair every where all day long.
This will sound like a paid review but it’s not. We have been using a $1200 Hyla water vacuum for the past several years and while the Hyla has it’s many positive features, it’s also a huge, heavy, messy pain in the butt to use – therefore we did not use it as much as we should. Even when we did, the very next day we would have what looked like snow drifts of dog hair in all the corners, under the furniture, every where. It was a constant battle we lost on a daily basis. There was this love-hate relationship with the pets because their hair was EVERY WHERE and so gross no matter what we did! For this reason I was skeptical about the Robo-Vac, I just didn’t think it could handle the work load.
My teen boy did research on robo vacs for a year trying to talk me in to getting one because the boys are in charge of vacuuming and hated the Hyla. The one he recommended finally went on sale so I got it as a family Christmas present. WOW. I love this thing!
We named her Rhonda. Rhonda not only keeps up with the work load, she doesn’t clog with dog hair the way the Hyla’s hose did. That hose would clog several times per cleaning, any little old bread tie wire, wad of hair, little scrap of candy wrapper – clog. Thirty minutes taking it apart and cramming coat hangers down it’s throat to clear it. Rhonda doesn’t clog. There is no hose to clog. The suction is amazing. We have found an entire dryer sheet and a key chain in her dust bin that she sucked right up with no trouble. She did pick up a rock yesterday and gave us the error message to remove the rock (what the heck is a rock doing in my house? who knows).
She also goes under the sofa, chairs, tight corners, under the book cases, right up against the walls, every where the Hyla either didn’t fit or was such a bulky pain to use we didn’t sweep regularly.
Because we put down these laminate floors last year, we put felt pads on the bottom of all our table and chair legs so they wouldn’t scratch up the floor. Ever seen what mass amounts of dog hair does to felt pads? Every table and chair leg had a mass amount of hair stuck to them, looked disgusting, everything had dirty furry feet! The Hyla could not get this off. Enter Rhonda! Rhonda has those rotating fingers that scrub up against everything, she pulled all that mass of stuck hair off her first run and has continued to keep it clean since then.
Another problem was kids and couch blankets, or any blanket. Blankets end up on the floor, covered in dog hair. No more! Last night watching TV I noticed my boy wrapped in a blanket that was no longer covered in dog hair! Because they love her so much, they also keep their shoes and socket and stuff up off the floor so she can clean.
Rhonda wakes up every day at 8am and starts cleaning. It takes her about an hour to do the entire house, bedrooms, pantry, laundry, both bathrooms – all those places the kids and the Hyla generally ignored. Usually we empty her dust bin twice. Because it’s so fun and easy to use, sometimes we run her a 2nd time during the day. The noise level isn’t bad at all. She gets on the throw rugs by each door awesome, they are cleaner than ever. It is so amazing that I don’t have snow drifts in the corners, or wads of hair on my socks. These dogs are Great Pyrenees and German Shepherds – nothing but hair, all day long, hair hair hair! Not anymore!
Yesterday we washed the filter. It takes much longer to dry than they say, so I should by a 2nd filter to use. We cannot sweep this morning due to the filter still damp, and Rhonda told me this with an error message that her filter was wet.
I can’t say enough about this robo vac, I love it love it love it. It’s not a gimick tech toy, it’s a hard working floor cleaning machine.
JG –
I have both this and the Roomba i7. These are both amazing machines. I had a 5 year old roomba and wow, the new gen has come a long way!!
Roborock compared to Roomba i7
Roborock is quieter
Roborock is about as fast
Roborock is pretty good at mapping, even if it has to start over each time it seems efficient
Roborock suction can decrease if you don’t tap at the filter each time to clear it
i7 is better at getting the finest particles. I have it clean after the Roborock and it gets much finer dust which I love
i7 has a nice app
i7 you can upgrade and get the dock that sucks up the dirt
Julie –
I like the cleaning power of this vacuum it does a good job of suctioning things up. I’ve had a few problems with it that I’ve not been able to solve. I’ve reached out to Roborock customer service several times and had no reply so just having to use it the way it is. Within two runs, my vacuum has been covered in scuffs, scratches, and paint. It runs into everything and doesn’t stop. It just keeps pounding itself into it which has caused the vacuum to look terrible. Nearly every time the vacuum runs, I have to chase it down when it’s done cleaning to take it back to its base. It will run until it dies looking for the base. It’s not blocked by a lot of things or difficult to reach. The vacuum goes to three different rooms looking for it’s base but not the room the base is in. The vacuum also decides what rooms it wants to clean that time. Some runs, it will completely ignore a room. It’ll take five more runs to get it to go into that room. Lastly, I’ve been unable to get the app to do the things the listing here says it will. I have been unable since purchase to make (or get the vacuum) to create a map. The app disconnects from the vacuum constantly so I don’t even use it at this point. If these issues were worked out, this would be a great vacuum.
Anonymous –
This review is long, but if you’ll take the time to read it, I think you’ll find a lot of useful information about the Roborock E4. It is a good alternative both in price and performance to the random navigation robot vacuums, which just bounce around. Budget robots feature random navigation as do the less expensive models of Shark and Roomba. The E4 uses internal navigation to move around your home leaving straight lines and covering 99% of a room.
Cleaning ability on medium pile carpet and tile: 5 stars
Battery Life: 5 stars
Navigation: 4 stars
Customer Support: 5 stars
App quality: 0 stars
Total score: 3.8 (4) stars
Pros:
1) The battery life is amazing. There are few, if any, manufacturers out there that use a 5200mAh battery in their bots. If the E4 manages to make it to every room, it can do our whole home (a little less than 1700 sq. ft.) in a little less than 2 hours on the Balanced mode, which I find to be sufficient. Our home has a lot of medium-pile carpet. I have the carpet mode turned on, so it will increase suction when it detects carpet. If you have a smaller home than I do or don’t have much carpet, I feel reasonably confident that it will be able to clean your whole home.
2) I have long hair, and we have two short-haired dogs. I’ve had the vacuum a week and a half, and it hasn’t had one hair get tangled in the brush. I don’t know how it does it, but it is amazing.
3) As mentioned before, it employs an algorithm that allows it to vacuum a room in mostly up and down lines, which ensures that most areas are cleaned, and the straight lines are pleasing to the eye. (Photo attached)
4) The bot can be controlled by the buttons on the top if desired rather than from the app.
5) The suction is rated at 2000Pa. There are only a few other vacuums out there that have a stronger suction of 2500Pa. It cleans VERY well.
6) The side brush is a silicone brush. It doesn’t have bristles, which I have read can get tangled with hair, so if true, this is an improvement.
7) I’ve had to contact CS through email support several times. Because the headquarters are in China, I would receive a message from them the next day, but they always responded to my emails. I might add that they were extremely helpful in providing solutions to the app issue explained later.
8) We have an entryway threshold that is ¾” high. The E4 will try to go over it sometimes and does get on top of it, so it appears to have good climbing abilities.
Cons: I dislike using this word, because this bot is what it is. It’s not a “smart” robot per se, since it doesn’t have cameras or radar (Lidar) and can’t do some of the things that people think it might, but here goes. (And a few are definitely cons…):
1) Because it doesn’t use cameras or radar (Lidar), it is more or less blind. Like I said earlier, it uses internal sensors (gyroscopes and an electric eye) to detect objects, and it does a pretty good job of that. It makes a “map” of your house, but the map is kind of useless, since you can’t set no-go zones or section off/name rooms. You can’t tell it to go clean a certain room for example. And it will miss cleaning some rooms of the house and clean others twice, so…
2) It is supposed to be able to sync with Alexa, which you can use to turn it on or off; that’s my understanding anyway. We use Google Home, and at this time, it is not compatible with it.
3) It’s supposed to clean the internal part of the room first and then clean the perimeter. I have yet to see it do this. It mainly just cleans up and down but does go around most parts of the perimeter while in the room. It will sometimes clean the same path a few times, but I think it’s because it’s trying to decide where to go.
4) This is a big con for us. If the battery gets below 20%, and it doesn’t think it’s done cleaning, the bot will go back to the dock to recharge and then resume cleaning. Because I manually block some areas of our home with dumbbells, pillows, etc. to keep the bot from going there, I need to remove them at some point. With two dogs, they can also get their toys out or drip water on the floor after getting drinks, so I wish there was a way to turn off the charge and resume feature, as I only want the robot to clean when I know it’s safe for it to clean. I have to check my app occasionally to see how much charge is left, and done or not, when there’s about 22% of the battery left, I send it home to dock. It will not resume cleaning if you do this. You can buy a magnetic strip to make no-go zones, but I don’t want those strips all the time in the areas I need to block.
5) Because of connectivity issues, the best place for our dock is in the room with our router, which is a far bedroom. The E4 cannot find the dock many times and wanders around aimlessly looking for it, until the battery reaches 10%, and then it stops where it is and states that it has Error 12. I have to pick it up and set it manually on the dock. The funny thing is, is that it can be near the room with the dock, and when I send it home to dock or it thinks it’s done cleaning, it will turn and go the opposite direction. If I was able to keep the dock in a central area of the home, it might not have this problem. So I now just keep my eye on the battery indicator, and when it reaches 22%, I manually pause the E4 using the power button on top, pick it up, set it in front of the dock, and then hit home.
6) I had an issue with the app two days after I got the E4. The remote function stopped working and then the next day, nothing worked on the app except the battery life indicator. The vacuum settings and voice settings showed strange screens when I selected them. This is when I contacted CS. While in contact with them, I tried all sorts of things…clearing the cache on the app, deleting the app, and reinstalling the app. I finally decided to move the dock into the bedroom where the router is located. I deleted the E4 from the app, and then re-added it. When I did that, all the screens returned to normal, and all the functions worked.
Flash forward to two days after I thought I got it fixed. The bot started cleaning using the clean command on the app, but nothing on the app would work after that except the battery indicator. I did everything I did before including deleting the device from the app, but this time, it said there was a wi-fi connection error. WTHeck. Good thing I only need the app to see the battery life (which it does show), because if I needed it for more than that, I would be SOL. The E4 cleans amazingly well, so I am going to keep it, since that’s why I bought it, and I can do everything I need to do from the buttons on the unit. I did contact CS about this again, and through a process on their end, I was able to let them have control of my app to see what the issue is. In the meantime, I was able to get the app working again by sheer luck. Customer service has continued to work with me on this issue, and they get a 5-star rating from me for their continued support.
Other Observations:
1) It will sit and spin when it’s deciding where to go so no worries if you see it do that.
2) Spot cleaning works well. But by the time you use the remote control feature on the app to direct it to the spot, you could have gotten a regular vacuum and gotten a mess cleaned up in the time it would take you to start the navigation of the robot. So I find the spot clean feature to be more of a novelty.
3) The remote control feature has a delay in time from when you touch (and briefly hold) the button to when the bot receives the command.
4) Whatever direction your dock is facing is the direction it will clean for the most part. For example, if you have the dock on a north wall facing south, the bot will mainly clean in a north/south direction. So you may have to move your dock to face different directions until you find the best place for it so that it will clean the majority of your home.
My final observation is that its best use is to just turn it on and let it run. Forget the spot cleaning, forget about trying to direct it somewhere, and don’t worry if it misses a few areas–it may go back at some point during the cycle and get them or get them the next run. I bought the E4 at the introductory price of $242. I had some Amazon gift cards and reward points that I used, which brought my price down to $157. At the price I paid, it is worth having even if it only lasts a year–that’s $3 a week to have clean floors. And if it lasts longer than that? Great! Other budget vacuums in this price range or a little cheaper have half the battery size and vacuum in a random pattern, so those are big turn offs for me. (Eufy or Coredy seem to be the best budget random pattern vacuums according to Vacuum Wars on YouTube and according to the reviews.) So for right now, the Roborock E4 is the best one out there for what I’m willing to spend.
GuyFromSeattle –
Was on the verge of returning this. First impression was the utterly novice garbage app with Chinese characters everywhere. I’m guessing roborock paid bottom dollar for software ‘talent’ and passed the savings on? Can’t integrate with Alexa because the app is gibberish. Zero stars on that count.
Next, I try it out, and this thing is LOUD. This would be my third robot vac and it is by far the loudest ever. The motor is loud and it makes awful screeching noises on the hardwood floor as it turns.
After this double whammy, I prepared to return this back to the Chinese garbage factory whence it came.
Decided to try it out a couple more times first and noticed that this unit doesn’t get stuck like the others I’ve had. As long as I’m not around to hear the awful noises it makes, it actually cleans quite well and reliably. I use the button to start it; the app is complete garbage made by Chinese zero-talents with no knowledge of user experience and localization. But as long as I don’t have to look at that abomination of an app, the vacuum works surprisingly well.
And so I’ve decided to keep it. I can go out on an errand, start it up (using the button, not the crap app), and return each time to it neatly parked, dustbin lightly occupied because it got most of the dirt last time it ran.
To add, this unit has the most graceful way of navigating obstacles that would have certainly stopped my other units in their tracks. It seems to be quite adept at untangling itself from a stray cord I forgot to put away, or finding its way out of a tight space. Maybe roborock should use it to clean out their garbage app team next…
M. Lawson –
I wanted to love this vacuum. It works great. After several attempts, the device finally connected to wifi, but then it will drop from wifi periodically and then it takes several attempts to reconnect. Roborock customer service responds pretty quickly, but by email only. There is no customer service phone number. Sadly, I have to return the vacuum. I don’t have the time to repeatedly attempt to reconnect to wifi.
****Update: After my review, I received an email from customer service, stating they do have a phone number. It is 1-831-217-6425. I wanted to include this here for others, as I did not see it anywhere in the user guide.
Sara Brandt –
We just love this robot. We have a dog and lots of carpet and it works like a dream We vacumned the carpet before we used the Robot. We had to empty the Robot four times, even though it had just been vacumned. We love that it goes under the couch and chairs—no need to move anything, Works great on our hard wood floors too.
ryan schmidt –
Had this for about a week now, and I’m really impressed with it. It has great suction, and actually gets in spots we have to work more to get. I was amazed how much this thing was cleaning up each day. The app is easy to use and lets you setup a schedule, shows you a cleaning map, etc. Very happy with it so far!
Dounia –
Overall a very good product. I bought this model because it goes in straight lines to clean and not in a random pattern. It will map your house using its optic eye which is why there is only one side brush. And I believe if it runs out of battery it will recharge and resume where it left off. My house is too small so it always finishes at around 60% battery.
The only issue I have with this is that it will get stuck on my medium pile carpet, which other models I have tried out do not get stuck on (GOOVI and iRobot). It sends my phone an error saying it cannot get back to its dock. It is never stuck, but I watched it struggle to even traverse my carpet under normal conditions and not the return to dock mode. Maybe the automatic increase in suction for carpet makes it hard to move? Not sure.
While this is an awesome and very efficient robot vacuum (it cleans 32m^2 in 40ish minutes) the fact that it cannot handle my carpet makes me consider returning it and getting perhaps an eufy.
I have to say I love the design of the waste container, the app is very easy to use and will always tell you what’s wrong if an error occurs.
I’m sure every model of robot vacuum has some sort of fault with it. I have yet to find one that completely suites my needs.
Additionally, the price on this model is pretty good for all the features you get.
I’ll give it another week before I decide to return or not.
Update 10/14/20: the customer service team reached out to me and wanted to make it right (They responded very quickly once I told them my issues and were very eager to fix them). Although I did not take them up on the offer of magnetic strips, I went ahead and ordered a different brush style (with bristles at the end) and it slightly improved roborock’s performance. It no longer gets tangled in my medium pile carpet. It still struggles to ride over the carpet but it is now returning to dock most of the time. For these reasons I’ll upgrade my rating to 4 stars.
Henrik –
If you are on the market for a robot vacuum, I can highly recommend the Roborock E4!
It has a gyroscope which helps it find its way around instead of just randomly bouncing around between objects like cheaper robot vacuums do. It does ok with power cords, but anything thinner [ie. speaker wires, blind cords] I would recommend taping down or hiding. I would also advise to supervise it for the first couple of times, to see what areas need to be robot vacuum proofed.
For example I’ve found that tilting the dining chairs against the table, with only 2 legs per chair staying on the ground helps it find its way around them easier.
Adjust bed skirts to avoid it getting sucked in.
Make sure there are no socks, small items, dog food etc. on the ground.
Move coffee table/ottoman away from couch at least the width of the vacuum.
The clearer you can make your floor [no shoes or other random items laying around] the easier and faster it will clean up your home!
The only thing I would change: I wish the dock locator was flush, because that’s the only reason it can’t get under my couch. Height: 3″/75mm the dock locator ads about another 0.5″/15mm
This is not an “intelligent” vacuum, meaning you can’t clean certain rooms, unless you pick it up and bring it in that room, but it’s smart enough to find its way around our oddly laid out home.
The dust bin and the battery [only uses about 55% battery] are large enough for our ~1100 sqf home with a small, short haired dog and a cute, short haired female.
Winchester2 –
Here’s the situation. I have an open floor plan which appears to mean utter and total confusion for these robot vacs. The last one I had literally got so befuddled, it would just stop in the middle of the room for no reason over and over then would clean the same three foot by three foot area before the front door ten times over while missing entire rooms.
I researched robot vacs a lot. Specifically robot vacs that could handle carpet and had strong suction. The Roborock E4 kept coming up and it was on sale so I went for it. It was a little rough at first. “The Rock” as I call it got caught up on every area rug or throw rug I owned due to the little silicon sweeper brush getting caught on them. I removed it and had no more issues. It cleans in a diagonal pattern which at first seemed a bit odd, but it is thorough. The first few cleanings around the house, it bumped into everything hard and sometimes bumped over and over as it tried to figure out it’s way around. By the fourth cleaning, it seemed to get smarter and was no longer going over certain areas too many times. It now had a routine it followed of which room to do first, second, etc. With every cleaning after that, it got faster, more efficient and bumped into much fewer things. I’m now able to trust it to clean unsupervised. It doesn’t get lost or caught up on furniture and after, it returns to it’s charging station without issue.
It’s run once daily and so far in the several weeks I’ve had it, I haven’t had to perform any maintenance on it apart from emptying the dust bin and cleaning the filter each time. And I have to state that the suction on this thing is amazing. You can max out the suction through the app, but I find normal suction to be sufficient. I can clean with my full size vacuum and then let the Roborock go do it’s thing and it will come back full of dust. The battery life is also excellent surpassing my Shark.
As for the app, it has become glitchy and is often unresponsive on my device. The map it draws after cleaning is invariably inaccurate so apart from being able to adjust suction, I’m not sure there’s a need for it. I rarely use it anyways choosing to instead utilize the buttons on the top of the vac itself.
I’ll update my review if my opinion changes, but so far, I’m pretty impressed by the E4.
Jess –
5/22/2020 Update:
I can’t say enough good things about Roborock customer service. All my issues are resolved and I would not hesitate to promote their products! Are there a few things I would improve, yes. Are the products absolutely great and a great value, yes.
I decided to get my first unit after a co-worker told me about their robotic vac, different brand. At first I thought it was all hype. I told him to let me know how will it worked it a few weeks. After waiting and hearing good things I jumped aboard. Now I tell everyone these little guys are one of the best investments you can make to keep things neat and reduce allergens.
Thanks Roborock.
Original review below:
I don’t write many reviews but I felt compelled to write one this evening. I own both the E4 as well as the 35 model so I have some experience with Roborock.
The E4 seems to have similar suction compared to the E35. and the unit is sleek clean and a great buy. HOWEVER… The E4 can’t deal with a decent piled carpet. Constant errors and lack of support are forcing me to consider sending this back and looking elsewhere.
I’ll update if things get better it worse!
UPDATE 5/12/2020
Within about a day Roborock reached out to me with some helpful tips on how to resolve my issues with the E4, I was surprised it wasn’t an automated response. To hopefully be helpful to all here is the tip they suggested:
1. Ensure that you have carpet mode enabled in the phone app. This tells the unit that it will be used on carpet, I know this seems silly but it’s worth a try – and should help get carpets nice and clean! This mode will increase the section used when the unit detects carpet, a win-win.
Unfortunately for me, this didn’t resolve my issue so we are still working on things. In a time where most companies seem to care less about folks after they buy products, it’s nice to actually find one that responds to issues from customers. I’m still very happy with my E35 I use on a different floor of my house (mostly hardwood and throw carpets). I’m quite sure that we will find a solution for my “upstairs”! Upgrading the review to four stars – sometimes service is worth more than anything, especially in the long-run!
I will provide additional updates and hopefully a final fix once things are sorted.
That One Blonde –
The robot vacuum post that you didn’t know you needed! TL;DR
Roborock E4 {$179-$269}
Roomba i6+ {$549-$799}
If you’re looking to get a robot vacuum, I would like to say DO IT. As to which brand to pick, it’s a toss up, and completely depends on your budget.
I bought our Roborock on sale for $179 last year and have been very pleased with it. My heart was originally set on the more pricey Roomba self-emptying units, but since I am frugal and wanted to see if it would even work here, I went with the lesser expensive bot. We have a house full of old furniture and rooms so I didn’t know if a robot would even jive here.
I have been VERY pleased with our Roborock. It has done a great job over the last few months while we are not home. I would say, realistically, 8 out of 10 times it went off without a hitch. It went down our foyer stairs one time and had also gotten itself lodged under my sewing machine and other furniture a handful of times.
Every day that it did its cycle (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 9am) I would come home and empty the trap. It has a washable filter and I cut the hair from the brushes and cleaned the sensors. It has been well worth the $179 to not have to see cat hair, hay, gravel, stove dust, and leaves everywhere.
A week ago I bought the unit I had had my heart set on. Well, the unit a tier above the one I had had my heart set on. The lowest priced Roomba unit with the self emptying dock has been at about $500 for the last year, the i3+. The next level up, the i6+, has run about $799. Last week, and even now, Amazon has had the i6+ for the same price as the i3+. My assumption is that a new i6+ is probably coming out soon so they’re blowing them out. WHICH IS FINE, I want one.
I don’t spend a lot of money on goofy things, except 1978 El Caminos, so I decided to spoil myself with this i6+. To be honest they were similar in price LOL. I’m an adult with adult money, no kids, and a farmy kind of property with a dusty wood stove so I did it.
After purging, donating, selling, and burning almost everything I owned in the fall, having a clean house feels absolutely amazing. Having a clean floor 24/7 is almost euphoric. I enjoy being home and no longer have those nagging feelings of dread about things I need to be cleaning. I also very much enjoy the kitty cats and Chris and I have raging allergies so I need something to clean up the hair.
My feelings so far on the two:
Quality of the clean:
Roomba and Roborock seem to clean the same. I was very pleased with both. The Roborock generally took a little more than an hour and would get down to about 30% battery life. It was also slower than the Roomba. The Roomba is a faster unit, almost a bit more violent, and takes about 3 hours to complete the first floor. It does seem to be more thorough and charges itself halfway through a first floor cycle.
Apps:
I didn’t want to get another brand so I’d have a second app, but I went with the Roomba anyway. The Roomba has a far superior app. And by far I mean, from here to Australia. The Roborock app is great and easy to use, but very primitive. You also cannot choose certain areas to clean with the E4. It cleans everything or nothing. The Roomba i6 created a map of our house and will just do certain areas that I tell it to. It can do certain rooms on different days of the week or on command. Both tell you when to perform regular maintenance on the machines, when they are stuck, or if software updates are needed.
Parts:
I like that the Roborock company and Roomba BOTH offer replacement parts at affordable prices. I have been able to take apart and clean out the Roborock really easily. I won’t have to do anything to the Roomba for a while, but I will have new brushes, filters, etc. on hand for when it is due.
Clumsiness:
The Roomba is definitely a superior machine, but it should be, at 3x the price of the Roborock. The Roborock is very primitive but very gentle. Like I said, only 1 time out of dozens of cleanings did it go down some stairs. And it was probably my fault for not cleaning the sensors. The Roomba is much, much faster and almost more violent, sometimes bashing pretty hard into my furniture and woodwork. I think after a few cleanings, it will figure itself out and no longer hit so hard. The Roborock is definitely a more simple, slower, and more methodical machine. Roomba goes in curvier lines and seems to have a method to the madness. Roborock says eff this madness, I need to go in a straight line or I’ll die.
Convenience:
Both are great in that they are vacuums that I don’t have to push around. We have so much wood floor, furniture, and trim – it is super cool to not have sheh just pushed up against it. I also cook a lot so the crumb thing was driving me bonkers. I do have to manually empty the trap on the Roborock, but it’s not bad at all. A few seconds and I’m done. The filter is also washable, so it lasts a long time. The Roomba has the base that sucks the dirt out of the machine and into a disposable bag. 1. The base sounds like a god dang jet taking off when it gets the dirt out of the vacuum. 2. I haven’t quite gauged how long it will take to fill the bag. Now I’ll have to purchase bags from time to time. I’m not sure how I feel about it. But having to not have to remember to empty the little bastard is convenient since I have it running 3 days per week.
Sounds:
Both are god dang vacuums. They sound like vacuums. Run it while you aren’t home. I hate seeing people complaining about the noise in online reviews. IT’S A effING ROBOT VACUUM, WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?
Physical differences:
They are approximately the same size and weight. Both are black and have cameras and sensors in approximately the same areas. Major differences are that the brush on the Roborock is 1 actual bristled brush, while the Roomba has 2 rubber “brushes” that work simultaneously to pull dirt between them, instead of sweeping dirt up into a bin like the Roborock. Both seem to function very similarly, but I’d have to give the blue ribbon to the Roomba.
I want to point out that the other reason I went with the Roomba was that the higher quality Roborocks [$500-$800] only come with vacuum AND mop features, and I did NOT want a mop feature. They also do not come with a self-emptying dock. I personally don’t see how you can jam a mop system and a vacuum system in a bot the same size and not compromise the vacuum capabilities. I also read a lot of reviews that the mop part is just a glorified restaurant pre-packaged moist toilette and having it drag that around my entire first floor seemed kind of gross. It’s just us and the cats, I will mop when I need to.
joe thomas –
I’ve had 2 different roborock models, 2 different eufy models and the irobot 675. my Roomba was amazing. had it about 3 years and it still runs like new. biggest thing I didn’t like about it was that it got stuck constantly and about once a week didn’t return to it’s base. the eufy models had this problem as well. both brands get long female hair stuck in the brush like crazy though as well! my gf has really long hair and the roborock models do a great job of not getting tons of hair stuck in the brush. I went with the roborock E40s overall because of the lack of maintenance they require. I have 3 levels, one bot on each level. I have a small dog sitting business and even when I’m fully booked with long hair dogs these can go easily 3 days without having to even think about them. you can tell when brushing out the filter that it does a great job of catching fine particles and the filter can even be rinsed well with warm water.
things I would love to see in updates: ability just to run edge cleaning on schedule, ability to run deep clean where bot would finish one round and go again in opposite direction, side brush has to be removed for high pile carpet (really didn’t effect me as 2 levels are only carpet and 1 level is all tile and hard wood).
overall these are great!
side note: when I had to contact roborock customer service about an issue with my e25 models the response time was terrible, they gave me the run around for almost 3 weeks! eventually it was taken care of and I upgraded all 3 to the E40s but I will say the 2 times I had to contact irobot they took care of me right away no bs.