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i got roomba less than year ago, because it was hard to find well reviewed non-mop vacuum with docking station that sucks all the dirt out.




The common solution is to just buy the cheapest Roborock that does a great job at vacuuming, even if it has a mop (that you never have to use).

I got a Q7 M5+ for this exact reason, for $265 shipped. (And yes, that includes a self-emptying bin.)

For the vacuum function, it seemed to be highly rated.


> non-mop vacuum

Such a good point. Vacuum wars website has no way to filter out vacuums without mop (my house is mostly carpet, I do want a good product but they are all with mops nowadays).

It's such a common issue with sites like this. It's either all products or products WITH this feature. No way to find products WITHOUT this feature.

Anyway quite happy with my Mova which is a rebranded Dreame.


I have a Roborock S5, and when I don't use the mop, I just remove the mop AND the water tank. And without the water tank it never gets stuck in doors.

it feels like getting instead of pickup track minivan, removing 2 rear seating rows and then chopping off parts of roof and doors

my house is actually mostly tiles/hardwood (at least areas that are accessible for roomba). but i want it just to be vacuumed.

polished tiles will always have some water marks after washing and require pass with floor buffer to buff it out. i also don't want to deal with with clean/dirty water (yeah, i know that are now few models that you can hookup to drain/water supply. but it's not exactly trivial to arrange in convenient way).

what i really want, is dock integrated with central vacuum.


I have a pretty old Roborock, and I can just not attach the mop and have it in vacuum only mode.

> what i really want, is dock integrated with central vacuum.

I have two dogs that shed HEAVILY. I fear to even turn my robovacuum on, since getting them.

I NEED THIS!!!


i bypassed this specific problem by getting dogs that don't shed (frankly, i shed more than both of them).

i contemplated getting spare dock for my roomba and modding it. but one thing I didn't figure out yet it's a how to close opening into central vacuum piping when it's not actively engaged. probably possible to do something with servos/etc, but it feels like too complicated/messy


You can avoid water marks by using distilled water.

water marks in this case will be because water mixes with dirt and it's not 100% wiped off and polished off

You fix this by doing a cycle of vacuuming first. Robots allow you to clean frequently to prevent large buildups. It's the same as if you were cleaning by hand. I have tiles as well and no dirty water marks.

i have robot running daily. it will never pick up 100% of everything. because if it would have picked up 100% there would be no need in mopping.

when i did robot shopping year ago, based on reviews and feedback it (vacuum before mopping) doesn't always work and the more polished your floor is, the worst the outcome


No, mopping is not for dust, but rather for sweaty/greasy/sticky matter that accumulates and can't be recovered by vacuuming. This is why proper cleaning is vacuuming + mopping, and it was like this before the invention of the cleaning robot.

You can also mix a non-foaming detergent with the distilled water to have an even more thorough cleaning (or just ask the robot to pass more than once). Robot mops are typically rougher to compensate for the lack of detergent, though.

It's the same for professional car cleaning - it's done with distilled water. If what you said was true, it would be impossible to clean cars as they are much more polished than tiles.


so it's going back to square 1: sweaty/grease/sticky matter not going to be picked up 100% by mop after it was diluted by water. distilled water or not distilled water.

this is why floor buffers exist. to buff the floor so it will be nice and shiny.

professional car cleaning usually made with deionized water. much easier than bringing distillery. but even with usual water on my car there will be usually no marks after wiping it with towel.


> sweaty/grease/sticky matter not going to be picked up 100% by mop after it was diluted by water. distilled water or not distilled water

Most of it is picked up since it is retained by the mop, which the robot can then clean at the station.

And unless your flooring is made of mirrors, you'll hardly notice after two passes, or if you run a deep mopping mode, especially everyday. Tiled floor in houses is typically not mirror-like in order to absorb sound.

Most industrial robots cleaning shopping malls work like this and don't have additional equipment to wipe the water dry.




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