Roborock S8 Pro Ultra Robot Vacuum Review

This is episode number 265 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Greg Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're so glad that you could join us for another live episode. Here in the studio. What's going on, Kev?

Oh, you know, just another day in the life of all the things.

He's like a duck on the water, y'all.

Well, I mean, what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? It's just, uh, it's one of those days.

A little Game 7 happening tonight.

A little, yeah, yes, little, a little game.

Game of no consequence.

You know, it's really interesting because, I mean, obviously, I mean, everybody that ever watches this show— listening to the show, maybe not— watching the show knows that I'm a huge Texas Rangers fan. I mean, I wear a Texas Rangers cap a lot. Um, we've talked about it a lot recently. It's been an interesting year, but I mean, one of the things that I think Texans wanted for years was a World Series against each other. other, right? And that could have possibly happened someday, right? Not until, until the Astros came over into the American League. Now it will never happen, right? However, the stars aligned, and as it happens with the ALCS, Astros and Rangers, and it comes down to a Game 7. Crazy,

crazy, crazy.

Did you hear that delay that was happening? The weird echo?

I didn't hear it.

Somebody's playing with the RODECaster over here.

Uh, can't imagine who that would have been.

Yeah, I was like, what is that?

Who knows? So yeah, anyway, it's— yeah, it's gonna be an interesting evening. Yeah, yeah.

You think— you think they're gonna do it?

Who, the Rangers? Man, it's not—

because here's the thing, it's fine to root for them.

Sure. It's another thing to be objective, and I I, I believe, uh-huh, that I am fairly objective. Even like towards the end of September, I was going, I don't think— I, I don't think this is going to work. I mean, oh, the way they were hitting it, we were, we were not playing well, right? And it— I mean, up until the middle of August, I would have said, man, we're, we're unbeatable in the American— in the, uh, in the American League West.

Uh-huh.

I felt like we had it. Well, then we went on this ridiculous slump and I was like, nope, we're done. I mean, we are absolutely done. Astros are going to win it. It is what it is. And I didn't know what was going to happen from there. Then whenever we actually got in as a wild card, I was going, well, goodness, now we got to go through the East, right? And the East has the 2 best teams in the American League with the Rays and the Orioles.

Well, the 2 best records.

Yeah, but they were I mean, objectively speaking, by record, and they're playing— everybody plays this. Every, every team plays every team now. This is the first year that's happened.

Oh, is it really?

Every team plays every team.

Well, that's cool.

Yeah.

So because of that, someone was explaining to me the other night that like the designated hitter thing is like universal. I mean, like, or it's—

Yeah. I mean, you don't—

you—

the pitcher— yeah, designated hitter is in.

Right.

Now, now your pitcher can be the designated hitter. Mm-hmm. But that's his, that's his position, right? Is the designated hitter. So anyway, um, uh, objectively speaking, every team plays every team, and by record they had the best record, and both of them did really well. One of them won 100 games, the other one won 99. I mean, it was really, really good, and we had to go through both of them. We swept both of them, and I was like, oh man, this is really good. And then of course, once you get to rivalries, like all, all bets are off, man. It's been a really weird series. There's been no home field advantage, obviously. Yeah.

No, in fact, that's, that's the one statistic I think that actually matters in this series.

Yeah, it's, yeah, it's very interesting. And the other thing is Texas through the playoffs has not lost on the road. Every game that they've played on the road, they've won.

I think that's true for the Astros too, isn't it? Like, they haven't, they haven't won one at home.

Yeah, well, uh, no, they did win. They won one at home, um, in, in the division series.

Okay.

And, uh, anyway, it— the way it all played out, it's, it's very interesting to me, and it's all come down to this. I— do I think the Rangers will win tonight? I think that if If all things were the way they should be, which they're not, then I would say yes, I think the Rangers win because we've got Max Scherzer on, on the mound. He's one of the best pitchers in the game today.

Yeah.

But he pitched in Game 3 and did not do very well. In fact, he did really poorly, but it was also his first game to play after being on the injured list for like a little over a month.

Yeah.

So I don't know. I mean, he's gonna make a few adjustments. He is a crazy competitor. The other thing I know is it doesn't matter. Every single arm in the bullpen is available. Every single one. Even the, the pitcher from last night can pitch tonight. Now he can't pitch a lot of pitches, but every single person is gonna be available. So like, who knows? It's weird. It, it, we might see a whole lot of pitchers in this game, but that's even changed, man. Like, You have to face a minimum of 3 batters.

Oh, you have to?

You have to unless it's the change of an inning.

Okay, okay.

But if you come into the next inning—

That's fair.

If you come into the next inning—

You got to face 3 batters.

You, you got to face, well, a total of 3. So like, let's say you got the 3rd batter, uh-huh, or the last batter. Say one, one batter, the last batter of an inning, and you come in the next inning, you have to face 2.

Okay, so they let you roll over from the previous inning, right?

So you have to, you have to face 3 unless it's the change of an inning. The change of an inning, you can change pitchers.

Was that something that was being abused before?

Okay, they have made a ton of changes this year.

Is it— is all of it like speed the game up?

All of it is speed the game up.

Okay.

That's where the pitch timers come in. That's where the 2 throws to first bases come in. That's where you know, basic— well, it's a 2-throw, 2 disengagements is what they call it. Um, the batter, the batter has to be in within a certain amount of time. The pitcher has to pitch within a certain amount of time. Even, even in, even in like extra innings, they're putting a ghost runner on second. Like, there's so many.

Really? Yes.

Yeah. So the person who got the last out goes to second, goes to second. Huh.

And, uh, I mean, it's kind of like in football. I mean, they give you the ball like what, the 25 or the Well, yeah, in—

yeah, in college. So I mean, in, in high school.

Yeah.

So like, they're just trying to do everything they can to speed the game up. And, you know, even, even to the point where, um, there's only a certain number of mound visits you can have, right, during the game. So like, there's just a lot of— there's a lot of things that they've done, a lot of nuance to really speed the game up, right? That's fine, by the way. Yeah. Okay.

I was looking out, I was like, wait a minute, the horses are out. There's a horse peeking through the window, isn't it?

That's not usually what's happening, but I see the kids now. Um, so I, I think that all of those things matter, and it, it'll be— man, it'll be really interesting. So I don't know, can they do it? Well, sure, but the Astros are really tough, man. I'm not gonna— I am not gonna put it past the Astros in any way. I'm not taking them tonight for granted in any way, shape, or form.

Yeah.

The Astros are a great ball club. They got, they got massive bats. Their pitching has been— the guy they've got pitching tonight, Javier, is— he's, he's been lights out in the postseason. So, I mean, I don't know. All things equal, I think we have the better pitcher on, on the mound. But it's not all equal.

Yeah.

And it's high emotions.

I mean, so here's, here's my deal. And as a guy who, one, doesn't care and two, hasn't watched at all, but I actually played quite a bit of baseball.

Sure. Yeah.

Watching Scherzer, the guy that started for the Rangers, I actually think that was a big mistake to put him back out.

You mean in game 3?

Well, no, to put him back out in this game.

Oh, okay.

Because I've heard a little bit about him, and I know he's a little bit older. He is. And I know he's competitive and all this kind of stuff, but, man, his game 3 didn't go well. And as an older guy, you got to be in the back of your mind going, do I still have the stuff? Yeah. You know, I, I like the part of that's just gonna be there. And like, I just, that's just not the guy I want on the mound to decide. Now I could be wrong. I mean, like, he just, he could just rise to the occasion. But like, when you come off the injured list, you didn't perform, you lost the game at home. Yeah. I don't want to give it to you on the road. Yeah. That's just me though.

He, if it wasn't him, I might agree with you, but the guy's, I don't know. He, he's one of the craziest competitors.

Sure.

In the game today. Like, back in the day, it was, you know, Ty Cobb or whoever that was like ridiculous competitive.

Um, Ted Williams.

Ted Williams was super competitive. Like, there, there are plenty of those guys. Uh, he's one of them. But I— at the same time, like, you, you get these guys that are, that are overly confident, and that, that becomes its own problem. Yep. You know, so yeah, I don't know. It's, it's gonna be fun.

Yeah.

I'm either gonna be really happy or really sad tonight.

I tried to talk him into livestreaming the game, guys. He wouldn't do it.

No, I was like, look, this is not gonna go well for anybody.

Trust me.

I don't think I can do it. I don't think I can handle myself. Like last night in, in moments, like I'm, I'm literally like screaming and running through the house.

No joke.

Like running through the house excited. So it's ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.

All right, so I know, I know we got this vacuum to, yeah, to cover. I wanna, I wanna just do a quick shout out on these bad boys right here because I just got them in the mail. They are Georgia Boots. They sent them to me. They are awesome. Waterproof, genuine leather. Like, I sat down with the guys over at the company and they kind of walked me through, uh, all of their, their new brands and the stuff that they're coming out with. I mean, they're just, they're a work boot. Sure. That's all these guys do are good work boots.

Yeah.

And they have like steel-toe models, and— but these are just like their waterproof work boots. I mean, my wife says that they look kind of like, um, Doc Martens from back in the day.

They have that feel to them, yes.

So, and like, they— I will say, I will say, like, they're comfortable. I can tell, like, I don't know, like a lot of leather these days has that sort of worn-in feel already, right? And anytime I've had that, they just don't last as long.

They don't.

Um, these I can tell already because I'm gonna have to break them in, which means they're not super comfortable right from the get-go, but you can tell that once I get them there, they're gonna be great. They're gonna last.

They'll be your foot.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, so just, just a good shoe, man.

Yeah.

I mean, just a really, really good shoe. Super happy to, uh, field test them for these guys.

And they weren't very expensive. Like, that's the other thing. Whenever you told me the price of them, I was like, geez, that's really not bad. Like, you can't buy a pair of boots for that price.

No, no, no. I think, I think brand new, these And I'd have to go double-check, but I think they're like $210.

I mean, seriously, I mean, my work boots that I wear, I wear Ariat steel-toe boots.

Same, that's what I usually have.

They're super wonderful. I love them. They're waterproof, all the things. They're like $350, man. That's for the lower end.

I love Ariat boots. I will tell you, I've had issues with them just about 2 years and they're done.

Really?

Yeah. I mean, for the amount of work, I mean, you—

I wear Ariats a lot, um, in— but not as often as you. Like, every day I'm wearing— when I'm wearing jeans, I'm wearing them most of the time. You wear jeans every day. So, but I also have like one of the ones that I wear the most has a rubber sole on them, and that rubber sole lasts a little bit long— longer than other soles.

Yeah, I mean, the, the soles on them haven't been the issue for me. It's just the leather wears out on the sides.

Oh yeah.

Um, and there's— I mean, like nothing I can do about that. I mean, like, I mean, upkeep, you know.

But they're also not the most expensive boots in the world. No, they're very approachable.

Oh yeah, as far as— well, I mean, like, they're, they're middle rung, lower rung. Yeah, they're higher ones. I mean, you can, you can pay, you know, $500 or $600 for some nicer stuff. Um, but yeah, I mean, you can walk out of there for, you know, $200, $240 for a good pair of work boots. Sure. Um, but, you know, I, I can tell you that the leather on these is better.

Oh, I— you can feel them and just tell.

Yeah, it's just, it's a better grade of leather. Um, and so, and that, that was one of the things I got from, from visiting with those guys is like they're just, they're interested in just making a better quality product.

That's awesome.

Um, so, and like they let me pick out whatever I wanted.

That's awesome.

Um, so I went through their whole catalog and I was like, I don't know. I will say this, I don't, I'm not a big fan of the way that these, uh, look with my pants like down over the top of them. Oh, they don't look— because the heel's a little bit taller.

Yeah.

And it just makes the boot look a little squinched underneath my jeans.

I don't know why.

Yeah. Um, but I mean, like, they look fine.

Yeah.

But I'm not, I'm not wearing them for fashion.

Well, you're, you're also not a skinny leg jean guy.

No.

So I don't know what they would look like with those.

Who knows?

I don't think you'd be able to get those over the, the neck of those. Probably not.

But anyway, so anyway, um, not only that, we've got, we've got some cool stuff coming up. I know we're doing an episode on, um, some more squatter stuff.

Oh yeah.

Because it's, it started happening with Airbnbs now. And so we've got some stories to run through on that. We have some new guests, we have some returning guests, um, we got several products to go through.

That's right.

Um, so we just, we got a lineup for you guys. We just, we know, need time to get in the studio and record all of it, um, and get all these guys scheduled. So, but today, what, what are we, what are we talking about?

Yeah, so I— let's kind of start at the beginning. So robot vacuums have been around for a long time. Actually, where I got introduced to robot products, um, was back in the early 2000s. I did an internship and lived with a family, and that, that we just were friends. And the guy worked for USA Robotics.

Okay.

And he had at his house a robot lawnmower. And this was like 2003, I believe.

Yeah. I think you've talked about that before.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

It was, it's crazy. He had to bury a line all the way and it just kind of went all over the place. And, but it mowed, it mowed like 3 times a week and his yard looked fantastic. And, but it was kind of weird because you'd look out and there his lawnmower would be going. So I got introduced to that a long time ago. Well, not long after I got married, uh, we decided to buy a robot vacuum because we just thought, man, it's a cool idea, you know, this would be nice.

Yeah.

So we bought one of the Roombas.

Okay.

And it was terrible.

Oh, really?

And the reason it was terrible is because, first of all, it was new technology. Fairly— I mean, new enough that they were mass-producing it, but it was still new technology. The— it, it didn't do what most of them do now, which is like straight lines. It just kind of went— it would hit something and turn and go the other way and then turn and go the other way. And then it, it just made no sense, like some weird star pattern.

Weren't those the ones like that were like notorious for like running over dog poop?

Oh man, they, they would run over anything and, and like it would get stuck on everything and it would, it would get trapped a lot. It was just a— it was crazy. So We wound up— it— and then it finally died. So we, we got rid of it, didn't have anything for a while. Well, then we bought a new one, and the brand was Neato, N-E-A-T-O, and it looked like a game system, like a game console.

Okay.

Um, it was like flat on one end, it had— it was round on the other end. Uh, but its whole deal was like, like, um, pet hair pickup and that sort of thing, which we didn't have a lot of that, but Um, anyway, it had, it had more suction to it, and it did go in straight lines back and forth, back and forth, and it did a pretty good job until it died on us too. And honestly, at that point, getting replacement batteries for those was not great.

Okay.

Replacement batteries weren't great.

How long did the batteries last?

I don't know. Oh, I mean, a long time. I mean, they go, they dock, and they charge themselves and that sort of thing. Um, but there were 2 things. It would get lost and it wouldn't make its way back to the dock. That was one thing that was a problem with it. And then 2, uh, that once the battery went, we, we just couldn't find a replacement that lasted more than like 5 or 6 weeks.

Is that because it wasn't as well known of a brand?

I think so. I, I just think that the, the battery replacements weren't great.

Okay.

So anyway, we wound up getting rid of it, um, after a while. And so then I started doing some research. We waited a while before getting one. I finally did some research and got what I felt was the best on the, on the market. It was, uh, Roborock was the brand. Roborock has been around for a while. The one we bought was the S5. So the S5 model, uh, one of the things that was really cool about it was that it would— you're looking at something, is it?

Well, no, the light was off and I was just like, I couldn't figure it out. I was like, I wonder if that was intentional or not.

Um, I probably just didn't plug it in.

Cool.

So anyway, carry on. So the S5, one of the things I loved about it is it not only vacuumed but it mopped.

Okay.

As well. The way it worked though, what— and, and it has— it had an app, and so you could like— you could— with my Neato, you had to like put up these physical things that had batteries in them to make like a no-go zone so it wouldn't go into certain rooms or whatever. Yeah. with the new Roborock with the app, you could digitally tell it don't go here or don't go there. Um, it was— but the app was clunky, man. Like, it, it sometimes it would work. At one point somehow we got 2 different homes set up on this thing and we didn't know which one was which. And it like, we got— it got to the point where like—

Were you having to draw the map yourself? I mean—

No, it, it, it maps itself. That's one of the things that's really cool about it. It mapped itself. But one of the weird things was we had it set to go every day, um, except during the weekday. But when daylight savings time hit, it wouldn't change, and I couldn't get the time to change. So it would like come on at like 7 o'clock in the morning, and we're like, that is not what we need. We're trying to get ready for school. This is not helpful. Um, but it, it had like this little reservoir on the back, and you pull it out, put water in it, and you put it back in. And it would— basically what it would do is it would drag this rag behind it and it would

just kind of wipe the floor more than anything else. Then you had to, you had to take them, the rag off, wash it, whatever. Um, but it did a really good job.

Yeah.

I mean, it— we, we were very, very pleased with it. It had, it had better suction than anything else we had, we had had up to that point. Um, But it was starting to have to go back to the dock every like 20 minutes because the battery was not lasting. So my wife went back to work. Um, I say back to work, she was working, but she worked from home. She went to work outside of the home and she was like, all right, man, we need to get one of those really nice ones. And I was like, you mean one of the really nice ones? And she said, yes, because if I'm not going to be at

home, I don't want to have to worry about my floors being clean.

Mhmm.

I was like, alright. I'm gonna go do some research. So I went out, and I was still convinced that the Roborock was the best brand. Did my research. Still completely convinced it's the best brand. They have got one, though, that is, like, literally the most amazing thing, and we got it. Mhmm. Okay. So I will tell you what the features are of it, and then we'll go through some of them.

Okay.

Okay, so, um, it's got it— the dock that it's got has— it self-empties.

Okay.

It, uh, adds water to itself.

Okay.

And it also empties the water itself. Um, it cleans the mop, it dries the mop, um, and it's got— so The S8 has 2 brushes instead of 1, which basically— and they're rubber, there's not that, that bristle on the bottom, so stuff doesn't get caught in it. And whenever it— when both of them are working together, they— stuff does not get tangled inside it at all. So there's no tangling on it. Um, it's got cameras on it, so it will literally— I mean, anything that's in the floor, it sees and goes around Um, one of the coolest features is the mop actually, like, moves.

Okay.

And then when it is going, if it detects carpet, the mop raises out of the way so it doesn't get the carpet wet.

So when you say in this, maybe just like in the description, when you say it like, kind of, is it like a Philips Sonicare toothbrush kind of a deal?

Like— Yeah, it vibrates.

Okay.

And so it's, it's it's literally like scrubbing as it, as it goes along.

I got you.

Right? So those are the, those are the main things. But so basically the way this thing— the dock is pretty big. I, I'll tell you right now, that is one of the, maybe the only con to this thing is the size of the dock. Because the self-emptying thing, it— first of all, with our other one, we would have to like replace the filter quite a bit.

Sure.

Well, this thing has so much suction whenever it sucks all of the, the debris out that it cleans the filter at the same time. Now, over time, like once every like 3 months, you're gonna have to clean the filter, but we were having to clean the filter like 2 or 3 times a week with the other one.

Hmm.

So it sucks everything out. There's a bag that, that holds— we've had this thing for We've had it for 2 months and we haven't had to empty the bag yet.

Oh wow.

And it goes every day except on Saturday and Sunday. So it's pretty, it's pretty amazing as far as that goes. Then the water bin, you've got a clean water and a dirty water. And so instead of having to like have a reservoir on the, that you, on the machine that you take out and you have to go somewhere and all that kind of stuff, it just auto empties itself. And dude, like, whenever we empty the water, it's dirty.

Mm-hmm.

Like, like really dirty, like brown. And, and it's like, how in the world? I mean, this mops every single day. How is it that dirty all the time? But it does a really good job. So whenever it, whenever it goes back to the dock, what it does is it backs itself into the dock first where, where the mop is. And on the dock itself, it's got this brush. It's, I don't know, 5 inches long.

Mhmm.

And, and I don't know, an inch around. And this thing spins and moves itself back and forth across the mop and literally washes the mop.

Huh.

And then it empties itself, refills itself, and then goes out of the dock, turns back around, goes back in.

Mhmm.

And empties all the debris out. And if it needs to charge, it will. If not, it takes off and it starts doing its thing again. Doing its thing again. So one of the cool things about it too is that you can change the direction that it goes. So like, if you want it to go with the— like, if you've got hardwood floor and you want to go with the hardwood floor, um, then it will. If you wanted to go like across the hardwood floor, then you can make it do that too. So it depends on how you want it to go. Um, it'll do all those things. You, um, and there's one other thing I was gonna say about this thing. Oh, um, again with the dock, once it's done,

it dries the mop out.

Okay.

So it's literally got air that it blows onto the mop rag and it dries it so that it doesn't get mildewy or anything.

Start smelling.

Start smelling, which was a problem with these other ones is they would start smelling if you didn't take the rag out and, and wash it, which you can still do. You can still take it out, throw it in the washing machine if you want to, all that kind of stuff. But I'll tell you what they made a huge upgrade on, uh, beyond all of the kind of the internal things is the app.

Okay.

So the app has got— it's completely rebuilt, completely redone. Uh, the amount of control you have on it is is quite amazing. Uh, when, when it goes and maps out all the rooms, um, you can name all the rooms and you can tell it to just go do one room. Literally, you can tell Siri, go, go clean the kitchen or whatever, and it will. In fact, you can even set just like after dinner, it'll go do the dining room if you want it to. Um, but like we've been—

So real quick, so you, you have it connected to HomeKit?

It is connected to HomeKit.

Okay.

So, um, is it—

is— I mean, are there other— like, can I do like Alexa? Can it do—

I assume it will do Alexa too. I don't know because I don't have Alexa.

Google Home is the other one.

Yeah, I don't know. I'd have to actually— that is one thing that we'd have to go look for and find out. But okay, so right now in our house we've got a little project going on in our entryway, and, uh, so I just told it today not to go there. And so it didn't, it didn't clean in that area today. So that was kind of nice. Um, but all of these things, like, I, I just tell my— look, we have been trying to get my daughter 4 years to keep her room clean.

Mm-hmm.

In, in any kind of clean, like just some kind of clean. I don't care what it is, just do something to make it look clean. Um, I finally told her, I was like, look, one of your chores every week is to vacuum your room. If you'll keep it picked up, the robot will vacuum every day for you and you won't have to do it on the weekend. This has been the most magical thing ever because every day she's like, I can't leave yet because I gotta pick all this stuff up. It has been amazing. Um, But so I'll tell you the thing that was the game changer in many ways besides the, the self-cleaning, the dock, all that kind of stuff, was the

fact that it will mop every day and that it actually like gets your floor cleaner because it, it, I mean, you, it'll go across carpet. It literally raises. Now the other thing that it does whenever it lowers back down on like carpet, I mean, uh, on hardwood or tile or whatever it is.

Right.

it puts pressure down also. The other one, just like I said, just drug behind it. This one actually puts pressure down and it oscillates, so it literally is, is mopping as it goes. So, um, man, I'm telling you, I, I don't— I know it is a lot of money. This is not a cheap purchase, but it is the most hands-off.

You say this is the S7?

No. This is the S8 Pro Ultra.

Okay.

So, and right now, I'll just tell you, right now on Amazon, it's $1,599.

Okay.

It's, it's expensive.

Yeah.

Now I will tell you, my mother-in-law bought one, but not this one. She bought one that is the self-emptying for the dust.

Okay.

But not for the water. So hers does have a reservoir on it still. And then it still raises and lowers the mop and does all of those sorts of things. But she has to take the mop thing off and clean the, the mop rag. Otherwise, it doesn't, it, it doesn't stay nearly as clean because there's, there's no self-emptying on it and there's no, like, cleaning of the mop, uh, itself. So she has to do that manually. Again, that, and that one's like $800. So it's like half price.

Yeah.

If you don't get that function. So, But I think, I mean, you think about it, like, that's where a big portion of that dot comes into play. Like, it, it self-dries, self-empties, self-refills, self-cleans, all of those sorts of things.

So, so, but you have to, you have to put clean water?

You do.

Okay.

I mean, there's, there's no way to like hardwire it in. No, you, you can't do that.

Hard plumb it?

You can't, you can't hard plumb it. Um, there, there actually, I did see one on the market that does That does do that. Go with the plumbing. Uh, but it doesn't have— it, it doesn't have a lot of the other features that this one does. Uh, but honestly, for me, I literally— I take it, I take those 2 reservoirs, I take them into, to the bathroom, dump the, the dirty water into the tub, I refill it, slosh it for a second, dump it out, and then refill, uh, refill the clean one. That's it. I mean, it takes me 2 minutes to do that. And if you didn't, it will go— basically, you can adjust the amount of times that it returns to the dock. So, okay, again, with the,

with the app, there's so many things you can change. They've got multiple different suction levels. It's got multi— and, and with that, you get— you either increase the, the way how much battery is expended. But, you know, if you, if you make it have more suction, the battery is going to go long— it's going to go out sooner, right? Um, if you make it go back to the dock more often, it will use up more water, right? So depending on how often you have it go back to the dock, how much suction you've got it going, you can make it do more vibration on the mop or less vibration on the mop. depending on how much you've got all of those things working, you could probably— and how often do you have it

going? I mean, some people may do it twice a week, some people may do it once a week, some people may do it 3 times a week. With us doing it every single day, uh, we could easily get 2 days out of it, um, out of the water without refilling it. I just do it every day to make it easy. But, um—

Is, is the self-refilling— I mean, like, because you've said that a couple times, is it something a lot of them don't do?

Yeah, well, I think—

Or the self-emptying?

Well, so the— it has become a more common thing. Like the iRobots will do it, and some of the other ones have these docks that will self-empty. I've just never had one that does. Like, this is my 4th robot vacuum. It's the first one to self-empty. So, okay, for me it's huge, you know?

Sure.

And the fact that the bag is big enough that we've had it for— it goes every day, and we've had it for you know, like, 8, 9 weeks, and it's still— we've not had to empty the bag.

Yeah.

That's a, that's a pretty cool thing. So just—

So the, the S8 Pro Ultra is compatible with Alexa and Google Home as well as Siri.

There you go.

Apple Home. But are they even doing Apple Home? Is that—

well, I, I—

are they just putting everything through Siri now?

No. Everything is I'm like, you have to have a hub of some sort. And so if you— it's basically Apple TV.

Okay.

If you've got an Apple TV, even like one of the older ones. Yeah. Uh-huh. That's weird. Like the 3rd and 4th generations, I think. I don't think the old ones even really work anymore. Like the 1st and 2nd generations, I don't think they even work.

They work. They just work terribly. I have some.

They don't— like, you have to have a certain internet signal and you've gotta— like, they don't update anymore.

No, they do not.

You cannot add or delete apps.

I think I have like the second generation Apple TV, and you know how it goes to, uh, it's like a screensaver. Yeah, it's still showing me movie posters from like 6 years ago, and I'm like, that's funny. Like, really? Like, you guys can't even update this? That's ridiculous.

Yeah, that's, that's really funny.

I keep thinking it's like a sequel, but it's not.

It's just the same one.

I was like, why'd they make a sequel of that one? It's like, oh no, it's just 8 years ago. Yep.

So it comes in white and black. So we chose black because it blended in a little bit better. My mother-in-law bought the white one. I don't know. There's a lot of other things.

Ebony and ivory.

Yeah, exactly. Not to bring color into it, but, um, but, you know, there's a lot of other things that it does. I mean, the, the app has 3D mapping, so you can kind of look at— one of the things that's kind of cool is it, you can kind of tell where things are in your, in your house. And as, as it's doing its cleaning, if it finds something, like, because it's got a camera on it, it will literally tell you in the app. Oh, that's cool. I'm— their shoes are— there are shoes right there, or there's, or there's a pet toy.

Yeah.

Right there, or something like that, which is kind of cool.

So here's something I'm reading about it that I think is interesting, um, that I— it doesn't sound good, but I— it makes sense to me. Um, it says fast charging and off-peak charging support, changes from empty to full in only 4 hours of fast charging, um, get up to 180 minutes of runtime in one clean. Um, so I mean, like 4 hours, that doesn't sound all that fast.

No.

But if you're needing to vacuum your house every 4 hours anyway, right, you might want to address some other issues.

That's true. No, I, I mean, I don't know how long it takes to do the entire house. Um, I think at my house it takes typically 2 to 3 hours. Okay. Um, but again, Well, so do—

so when it, when it's doing your house, does it have to go back and charge in order to finish?

Um, it depends. Some days it does.

That's only 2—

Some days it doesn't.

That's 3 hours of runtime right there.

Yeah, it's— that's 3 hours. It really kind of depends on—

Because I imagine that's kind of like drones, right? Where like if it gets to like a certain percentage and it's far enough away from the station, it's gonna go back regardless.

Yeah, it—

so— I would also imagine there's certain tasks that take up more power than other tasks? Like, I would, I would think like probably the mopping takes up a lot more energy maybe than— well, maybe not, I don't know.

Well, I think that, I think so. I think that when it's mopping, I think it does take up a little bit more just because the brushes are still going and the mop is going.

Okay.

Um, but whenever it's distributing water and sucking up water and—

okay, that makes more—

okay. But when, when it goes into bedrooms though, and, and the mop lifts, it uses more suction on carpet than it does on hard floors. So I don't know that, but there it— I think it depends. Like, pretty much it does the same, like it goes in the same rooms at the same time. Like, yeah, but if it ever doesn't for one reason or the other, and one, one of the things that'll make it do something different is if there is an obstacle in the way, or like if you have a chair that you've put somewhere and it causes it to go a different direction. And it— yes, there are times whenever it takes longer, there are times whenever it takes, uh, less time. Um,

most of the time it's done in, in 2 to 3 hours and it's good to go. And we do it whenever we're not home. I mean, we're, we're not home throughout the day, and so that's when we have it set to go.

So I, I have one more question and then I want to move on to a fun segment. Um, uh, pet hair.

Yeah.

I know that your, your dogs don't really shed.

They don't.

So you haven't probably encountered that. Did you read any reviews that talked about pet hair?

Yes. And—

Because I know that's one of the things that people get robot vacuums for.

Yep. Yep. This one is definitely, uh, made to handle that without any problem. Yeah. And again, because the dual brush, it works against each other to keep it from getting tangled. And so it, it works with that really well. I mean, yes, we have a little bit of pet hair here and there, but it's, it's very minimal. Um, I will tell you, it's very easy to clean though. Like, so, um, when you, when you take the brushes out, you just lift up a compartment. It clips in, you lift it up, you take the roller out.

Mhm.

And then there's 2 axles on it. You literally just pull the axle out And if there's any hair or thread or anything tied around, you just slide it off and put the axle back in. That's it. So it's super simple to clean as far as that goes.

Cool.

I will tell you real quick, uh, whenever it comes to like how far they came between the S5 and the S8 Pro is the S5 had— I don't know what PA stands for, but it's a suction measurement.

Mhm.

My S5 had 2,000 PA. I have no idea what that means except that the S8 has 6,000 PA, so it's tripled, huh, in its, in its power over those years. So for what it's worth, let's see here. And, and I will tell you, like, it, it is noticeable. And in the S5, we didn't have any issues with. We're like, man, this is great, it does amazing. Um, but the new one, it's a lot better.

Okay, so all it is, it's, uh, it's a Pascal.

Oh, okay.

It's the vacuum level, which is the force required to lift objects.

Okay.

So they tripled the force to— tripled the force.

Triple the force. Hey, hey, there you go. Um, you can't— one other thing I'll tell you, you can in, um, floor cleaner into the water if you want. Uh, it's just—

Gotta be careful about what it's—

Yeah, it does say to use their brand only.

Um, and, uh, does it void the warranty if you don't?

Probably. Yeah, most likely. I don't know. Most of these are going to be similar as far as what they do, but it's going to be diluted the right amount, whatever. But, um, I do know we've not done it. We've just used water. But their— if you want to do it, their bottle, which is 16 ounces, is $19. And I'm— my guess is you put a capful in every time. So sure, so it's gonna last a while. But $19 is if you need the, the solution. But I'm sure it would help, like if you've got a dirtier floor, I would— I'm sure this solution would help.

So, so, um, what I'd like to move on to—

Yep, let's do it.

Are the, uh, the 1-star reviews on Amazon. Oh, for this thing.

Okay, let's do it.

Because, I mean, it has— to be fair, 77% of the reviews are 5 stars.

Yeah.

9% of them are 1 stars.

Wow. Which, I mean, yeah, but let's listen to them.

I will tell you a number of them have to do with customer service.

Okay. Which, okay. I mean, this is not a US-based company. Sure. Okay. So a lot of the people buying this will be in the US. And so whenever you're dealing with a company that's not in the US, you're dealing with time zones, you're dealing with language barriers, you're dealing with all kinds of stuff. Right? Yeah.

So this guy says, it's a 1-star review. This product will drive you crazy. I think he takes himself to be a Reader's Digest writer because it's embarking on my journey with the Roborock S8+. Pro Ultra Robot, the initial weeks were nothing short of delightful. The device presented itself as a capable, intelligent, and convenient cleaning companion, offering a welcome respite from manual house cleaning. Its sleek design, efficient mapping, and strategic cleaning paths particularly stood out, creating an illusion of a hands-free cleaning future.

That's pretty good.

I like this guy.

Yeah, I do too. So far, I'm interested. However, okay, here we go.

As weeks progressed, the sheen rapidly diminished, giving way to a plethora of frustrating issues that overshadowed its once admired capabilities. The consistent stumbling block was the frequent entrapments. The robot often found itself lodged in corners or stuck amidst household items, requiring constant supervision and defeating the purpose of an autonomous cleaner. The pet hair management, or the lack thereof, was another stumbling block for my experience. The tangles, jams, and subsequent manual cleanups became my back hair ratchet ritual, with the robot struggling to manage the hair shed from my furry companions. I don't think he has any.

Yeah.

The minuscule dustbin and impractically designed dust bag compartment further exacerbated the problem, creating more mess than it managed to clean up. This accumulation of issues eventually dulled the initial sparkle of technological convenience. After a few short weeks, I found myself pondering whether manually cleaning my home was indeed a more reliable and less frustrating alternative to the now erratic robot vacuums.

Hmm.

When the Roborock finally capitulated just 3 months into this tenure, the disillusionment was further amplified by the staggeringly slow and inconsistent convenient customer service, providing responses often after a full 24-hour cycle and in the unsociable hours of 2 to 4 AM.

Oh, please.

In reflection, while the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra robot initially dazzles with its intelligent navigation and sleek design, the subsequent myriad of operational and design flaws quickly dim its appeal. My journey from initial delight to subsequent frustration has reshaped my perspective, positioning a manual cleaning session as a more appealing prospect than wrestling with the recurring issues presented by the robot.

Oh, man. Thank you, Juan.

Yes.

That was lovely. Yes, that was lovely.

I think— I don't know if I want to read another one because that was my favorite.

That— well, that was good.

I mean, This guy.

Yeah. I mean, the constant supervision. Like, anytime you're like constantly supervising a robot that's mopping, it's like, it's like, there it is. It's going.

What's he doing in there? It's going back.

It's going forth. It's going back. It's going forth.

I mean, to a certain degree, you have to monitor a robot. Sure. To make sure that it's doing what it's supposed to be doing.

Of course.

Otherwise.

But I will tell you, like, literally, if you want to go on the app while it's going, uh-huh.

Oh, you can watch the camera?

You can. Well, I don't— I actually hadn't tried that.

That would be fun.

I don't know if you can, but what you can do is—

that'd be some fun video to post to the internet.

Actually, you know what, I think they took that feature. I think they had that feature in like the S5 or something. Yes, and it was one of those weird things, but so I think they took it away. But if you open the map, you can literally watch it as it's, as it's going.

Oh, you can see where it's at in the house?

You'll see exactly where it's at. So like, um, and it— you, you can change its voice commands and like how, how loud the voice commands are. And so like it'll tell you if it's— if it does get trapped, which, you know, that might happen from time to time. Um, it doesn't happen very often. What we found is in our, in our master bathroom, our old one would shut the door on itself and it would just stop because it couldn't get out.

Couldn't get out.

It was trapped. This one doesn't do that. It's got better, better avoidance of obstacles. And it's, it's very interesting. Like, it's got— it'll detect, like, cliffs. So, like, if you put it on the second story, like, it won't go down the stairs. It'll detect a cliff. So it'll say cliff and, you know, please don't go.

That's what I want. I want the robot vacuum that'll clean the stairs.

That would be amazing.

That would be amazing.

Yeah.

So, all right, I got, I got one more. It's really short, um, and I don't think it really has anything to do with the mop, but I just thought it was funny to mention. Um, this is from Regina, um, titled Unbelievable Arrived Used. Oh, seller, I don't know about most people, but absolutely unbelievable that a very expensive vacuum— she didn't spell vacuum right—

No.

Arrived used, dirty mop pads, Debris in the wheels, dirt in the vacuum bag, smells awful. Couldn't believe it when I opened it. Shame. Shame.

That last one was good. Shame.

Shame. Yeah. And yes, shame on them, whoever sent that to her.

No doubt.

It's unacceptable.

That's—

you paid what, $1,500, $1,600 for a vacuum? Yeah.

You should—

it should be new.

Right. I will tell you, that is— I mentioned a con earlier.

Uh-huh.

The size. The price is a con.

The price is a con.

I mean, but it, it really kind of depends on what you're— how you're using it, what your day-to-day is. Like, I'll tell you right now, what's the warranty on this booger? I think it's just probably a 1-year warranty.

Really?

I'm guessing. That doesn't seem— Um, well, I'm gonna go look, but you know what, Here's the thing, the price of things is completely objective, right?

Sure.

But the value of it is completely subjective. How you're going to use it and what you choose to do with your money, all completely subjective. So you can equally say, why would someone buy an Aston Martin? Well, they have different reasons than buying an Aston Martin than you would.

Sure.

So the way they choose to spend their money is what it is. So did you find the answer?

No.

Okay, I actually didn't either. Um, I don't— I think it's a 1-year warranty. Um, I was looking kind of in, in the, um, in it through, through the, uh, About This Item section, and I didn't see anything. I'd have to go look, but I'm pretty sure it's just for 1 year. Here we go. So—

oh, you can buy one.

You can buy a warranty.

Yeah.

Oh, oh, there you go. For warranty information, click here. Did you click that?

I didn't click it. I just searched it and it's— you can buy a 1-year or 2-year warranty.

Oh, well, this just says please contact the seller for warranty information.

Yeah, so you can purchase an additional warranty. A 1-year warranty is $69.99 and a 2-year warranty is $99.99.

Okay.

So I mean, like, $100 for it.

I would, I would say it's probably worth it. I mean, a 16th of the price for 2 years.

Depends on how accurate the reviews are on the customer service. Yeah. Well, I mean, like, and if you bought it, I mean, can you only buy it from Amazon or can you buy it from like a Best Buy or a Home Depot?

I don't know, I didn't try any of those.

You bought it off Amazon?

I bought it off Amazon.

Okay.

Yeah, and it arrived 2 days later.

That's just— I mean, that's—

yeah, I mean, that's the way— that's the way I do most things these days. I mean, I found Amazon— I— most of the time their prices are cheaper and I can get it in 2 days. I typically can't get to the store within 2 days.

So, so it looks like Yes, you can buy it from Best Buy.

Okay.

And if you buy it from Best Buy—

So while you're doing that, I will say this. So if you go to Amazon, you start looking for Roborock, you'll find that the S7 model also has a very similar docking to this one where it does the self-emptying, the self, uh, the water emptying and the water filling. The difference is the vacuum. The vacuum is—

Power of the vacuum, or—

Well, the vacuum itself. The, the difference between the S7 and the S8 are the vacuum more than anything else. They have made upgrades to the dock to make it look a little more, um, nice, I guess. But as far as the way it functions, uh, the dock itself is very similar, but the vacuum itself is more advanced in the S8. So yes, you can go get the S7. It is cheaper. It just doesn't have some of the features that the S8 does. That's the difference. So, because I did look into it.

So you, you can purchase an additional warranty from Best Buy, and they actually offer a 4-year warranty, um, but it's $530.

Oh, the 2-year, uh, is $260.

Um, but like, I know this is like their, their Geek Squad protection.

Oh, okay.

And so like, that's, that's going to be like full replacement.

Okay. Kind of like something goes wrong, they'll just give you a new one off the shelf. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So that's why that one's a little bit more expensive.

Yeah.

Um, okay, cool.

Makes sense.

There you go.

Well, that's it, man. I mean, I, I know, I know that some people, if you're looking for, uh, robot vacuums, I mean, obviously iRobot has come a long way.

Mm-hmm.

Since that first Roomba that we purchased. I mean, it is not nearly the same as whenever we bought it. Um, I don't even think they make the Neato anymore. Um, but this one, it consistently gets good reviews. It is the top seller on Amazon. Um, I, I believe it is probably the biggest competitor to the iRobot. Um, and I, I'm really, really happy with it. I, I'll tell you, like, we— you can see we've given bad reviews on things.

Sure.

So I'm gonna give you an honest review, and it's—

We let a couple people give a bad review tonight.

There you go. Uh, but you know what, if legit— legitimately, if, if I felt like it wasn't worth it, $1,600, you would know. Oh yeah, you would know. So, all right, y'all, thanks for sticking with us. Uh, if you're live with us, great, thank you very much. If you're not, if you're on podcast, uh, anywhere you can find us. Thank you for being with us. Leave us a 5-star rating and review. Subscribe. Do all the things. Until next time, we'll see you later. See ya.