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Roborock S8 Max Ultra

Roborock S8 Max Ultra

By Roborock · Robot Vacuums · Cleaning & Smart Home · More from Roborock

  • 8000Pa HyperForce suction
  • VibraRise 3.0 mopping system with 4000 times/min scrubbing
  • 8-in-1 RockDock Ultra with hot water mop washing (140°F) and heated air drying
  • DuoRoller Riser brush with 99.5% hair pick-up rate on carpets
  • PreciSense LiDAR navigation with Reactive 3D obstacle avoidance

Price not listed

New
Used, refurbished, open-box

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Problems, parts and running costs

Summary

The Roborock S8 Max Ultra is the camera-free twin of the S8 MaxV Ultra, built around 8,000Pa suction, VibraRise 3.0 mopping with a 20 mm pad lift, PreciSense LiDAR navigation and an 8-in-1 RockDock Ultra dock. Independent testing found excellent debris pickup and mopping but below-average airflow and suction, and owners report recurring dock water-handling and charging-contact faults; it is worth considering only at a steep discount and only if you do not want a camera in your home.

Strengths

  • Debris pickup was near-perfect on hard floors and carpets in independent testing, including pet and human hair.
  • Mopping handled dried-on coffee and grape juice with minimal streaking.
  • Mapping took about five minutes with nearly perfect coverage and no getting stuck.
  • The RockDock Ultra combines hot-water washing, hot-air drying, auto-emptying, refill and detergent dispensing in one base.
  • The 20 mm mop lift lets the robot mop and vacuum mixed floors in one run.
  • The FlexiArm side brush reached corners in testing, supporting the 100% corner claim.

Weaknesses

  • Vacuum Wars measured lower airflow and suction than the MaxV and rated deep-clean and airflow below average.
  • No camera means no Hello Rocky voice assistant, no DirTect dirt sensing and no camera-based pet features.
  • Owners report recurring dock water-handling faults, including dirty-water-tank errors that overflow onto the floor.
  • Charging contacts and warranty returns are a recurring complaint, including one unit returned wet and damaged.
  • Support is reported as unhelpful, with no part numbers offered for failures after 1.5 years.

Verified specifications

Suction8,000Pa HyperForce; the camera-equipped S8 MaxV Ultra is rated at 10,000Pa.
MoppingVibraRise 3.0 at 4,000 vibrations per minute on dual microfibre pads.
Mop pad lift20 mm, up from 5 mm on the S8 Pro.
NavigationPreciSense LiDAR.
Obstacle avoidanceReactive 3D structured light and infrared, no camera.
Side brushFlexiArm extending brush; Roborock claims 100% corner coverage, certified No.1111279039 by TÜV Rheinland.
Main brushDuoRoller Riser dual rollers in a floating assembly.
Base station8-in-1 RockDock Ultra with auto dust emptying, hot-water mop washing, heated air drying, tank refill, automatic detergent dispenser (accepts any detergent) and a dirt sensor in the dirty-water tube.
Battery5,200 mAh lithium ion; official runtime 180 minutes on low power.
Robot weight31.75 lbs.
Hot-water mop washup to 140°F (Roborock internal tests).
Heated air drying140°F (Roborock internal tests).
Detergent tank580 ml, rated for over 3 months of use.
Dust emptyingrated 7 weeks without emptying.
Edge moppingmargin under 1.68 mm, side mop up to 185 rpm.
Carpet hair pick-up99.5% claim (Roborock internal testing, Max+ mode).
Wi-Fi2.4 GHz only; 5 GHz not supported.
Voice controlAmazon Alexa, Apple Siri, Google Home; Apple Watch app.
Dimensionsrobot 13.8 × 13.9 × 3.8 in; dock 16.1 × 16.5 × 18.5 in.
In the boxrobot, RockDock Ultra dock, mop cloth, mop cloth mount, dust bag, power cable, user manual.
Warrantyone year for new products, six months for certified refurbished; extended warranties of one or two years sold separately.
Plumbed variantthe S8 Max Ultra RDS connects the dock to household plumbing for automatic clean-water refill and wastewater drainage (separate SKU).
Full research notes and sources

Cleaning performance

Independent testing by Vacuum Wars is the only lab-style evaluation found for this exact model. Their head-to-head with the MaxV found near-perfect debris pickup on hard floors and carpets across debris sizes, including pet and human hair, and excellent mopping on dried-on coffee and grape juice with minimal streaks in a wet evaluation. Mapping took about five minutes with nearly perfect coverage and no getting stuck, and the FlexiArm’s corner coverage claim held up in their evaluations. The trade-off showed up in measured work: the S8 Max Ultra had lower suction and airflow than the MaxV, slightly worse crevice pickup and carpet deep clean, and weaker obstacle avoidance because it lacks a camera. Navigation efficiency was about average for the price range.

Mopping and the dock

The 8-in-1 RockDock Ultra is the feature that carries the product. It auto-empties into a bag, washes the mop with hot water up to 140°F, dries it with heated air at 140°F, refills the tank, dispenses detergent from a 580 ml reservoir rated for over three months, and uses a dirt sensor in the dirty-water tube to trigger a re-wash. The 20 mm mop lift, up from 5 mm on the S8 Pro, is what makes mixed-floor cleaning in one run practical. The dock is the same unit on both S8 Max models, so it does not distinguish the two; the differences are suction, the camera and the MaxV’s voice assistant and DirTect.

Reliability and support

Owner reports against this exact model cluster around the dock and the charging hardware. Threads describe Error 44 dirty-water-tank failures that leave water on the floor on every run, Error 104 main brush open circuit, a dock that had to be replaced outright, a charging-contact failure that came back from warranty service wet and damaged, a mop heater that stopped working after a few months, a new unit that would not power on, and a side brush motor failure requiring disassembly. A 1.5-year-old failure drew no part number from support, which asked for the whole unit back. These are individual reports, not a measured failure rate, but the pattern points at water handling and contacts rather than navigation.

Which model this is

This page covers the non-camera S8 Max Ultra, sold in black and white, with structured-light Reactive 3D obstacle avoidance and no camera. The sibling S8 MaxV Ultra adds a front RGB camera, 10,000Pa suction, the Hello Rocky voice assistant, DirTect dirt sensing and camera-based pet features.

The Amazon listing for this model is ASIN B0DDTS3R7Q.

Is it worth it?

Roborock’s US store lists the S8 Max Ultra at $1,599.99 and shows it out of stock, coming soon. Discounted sightings include $799.99 from $1,299.99 in July 2025, $699.97 from $949.99 in June 2026 and $614.99 for the plumbed RDS version at a mid-2026 sale. The Ambient’s framing is the useful one: if the budget does not stretch to $1,799 for the MaxV Ultra and you do not want the camera features, this is the model that was built for you. Above about $1,000 it stops making sense, because the buyer pays MaxV money for a machine Vacuum Wars could not recommend on measured performance. Consumables add up: the product page lists 480 ml floor cleaning solution at $18.99, a six-piece dust bag at $25.59, side brushes at $15.99 and a cleaning brush at $19.99. The warranty is one year for new products and six months for certified refurbished units, with one- and two-year extensions sold separately.

Sources

Manufacturer:

Independent reviews:

Owner reports:

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