One thing is certain in the new century that we now live in – we just don’t have enough time for the things we want to do and a good chunk of it is often spent on mindless drudgery like housework.

As with anything, there’s a solution to be had with the power of tech and provision of a smart robot vacuum like the new Roborock G10 means that you can shave off a precious few hours a day rather than having to mop or sweep the floor but the question does remain, is it an actual replacement for actual labour? Here’s our Roborock G10 review where we put it to the test!

What is the Roborock G10 robot vacuum?

The Roborock G10 robot is a semi-autonomous robot capable of performing sweeping and mopping duties in a given radius around the home and has a built-in reservoir of water and a built-in dust receptacle on top of a battery of sensors to navigate the average domicile.

It’s sufficiently intelligent enough to trundle back to its charging dock for recharging in between cleaning cycles and to also take on clean water from the dock’s central reservoir while dumping any dirty water it has into another container within the dock itself.

Our Roborock G10 review sample securely nestled into its charging dock to charge its battery and take on additional water in its reservoir. You’ll have to manually clean up the built-in dust container yourself though.

Primarily intended as a midrange offering in Roborock’s Malaysia line-up of robot vacuums with its modest RM3,699 price tag, the Roborock G10 has been specially designed to tackle the typical hard floors common to homes in Southeast Asia and a modicum of carpet cleaning duties as well with an emphasis on the ability to mop and automatically refill its water reservoir with minimal human intervention while offering a decent amount of dust cleaning and sweeping capabilities though you need to manually empty its dust container after about once every 10 days or so.

Higher up the totem pole with a higher price tag and with more powerful capabilities is the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra which has everything that the G10 has including the ability to automatically empty its built-in dust receptacle.

Roborock G10 review – Unboxing and Setup

The whole affair which primarily consists of the charging dock and the Roborock G10 itself comes neatly packaged in a massive box. While it’s still man portable, it’s something that masses a good dozen kilos or so. Both the charging dock and the Roborock G10 drone itself are sandwiched between protective slabs of styrofoam.

Popping the Roborock G10 review sample out of the box was a relatively easy affair though it’s extremely bulky. The charging dock is a huge, squarish housing made of polycarbonate with a pair of top mounted water containers along with a recess at the base lined with charging prongs and guideways for the drone itself to guide itself into a recess within the dock itself and connect for charging while also cleaning and scrubbing the underside mop.

The box also ships with a separate charging cable that hooks up the charging dock to the mains along with a small plastic snap-on ramp that attaches to the front of the dock so that the G10 itself can smoothly reverse back into its charging cradle.

The Roborock G10 itself primarily resembles an oversized white dinner plate that’s equipped with a battery of sensors all around and a trio of buttons to enable you to turn it on or off, to initiate a power clean mode, check battery life, start a spot cleaning mode, enable a child lock mode or to get it to immediately roll back to its charging dock.

A recessed button in the rear of the Roborock G10 grants access to the built-in dustbin which has a removable filter that you’ll need to clear out on occasion.

The vacuum itself also has a slide-out 300ml water tank on the rear with two separate compartments for clean and dirty water. Up top, it has a stylised Roborock logo on top of a LiDAR array which helps it to dynamically map its work area.

The underside of the Roborock G10 is vastly more sophisticated with a pair of heavy motorised rubber wheels to traverse terrain, a side brush to whisk debris into the main underside brush as well as a fabric flap on the rear secured by Velcro straps that acts as a mop.

Emplaced beneath the flap itself is what Roborock refers to as a ‘Vibrarise’ module. Rather than manually slopping water across the floor, the Vibrarise module sonically vibrates the mop at 3,000 times per minute to efficiently shake out dirt and crud from the floor.

The main underside brush of the Roborock G10 also has a modicum of suction ability too and a tough finned rubber roller that spirals about to take in debris and hair tangles without jamming up before depositing any gathered dust and crud into the dust bin.

In terms of build quality and design, our Roborock G10 review sample did not disappoint. While the charging dock and the Roborock G10 itself are primarily made of polycarbonate, it’s the good stuff with thick, sturdy build quality which is also why the whole affair weighs over a good dozen kilos. 

Once everything has been deployed out of the box, it’s somewhat necessary to read the user manual to set everything up properly as the charging dock needs to be located in a clear area around the house with about half a metre of clearance on its flanks and the front for best results while also being connected to the mains.

Before you let the G10 start gallivanting all over the house, you’ll also need to do a bit of prep as well to avoid potential mishaps so you’ll have to stow away or put aside any loose cables lying around underfoot on the floor that may tangle up in the G10’s undercarriage.

You’ll then need to pop the G10 unit itself into its charging dock for its first initial charge and then download the Roborock app on your smartphone (there’s versions for iOS and Android) before pairing it via a QR code hidden in a panel on the top side of the drone itself.

It’s not exactly plug and play and it’s well worth the trouble to go through the user manual. Fortunately, the instructions are in English if you purchase the official units for Malaysia and getting it fully set up and running is something that’ll likely take you a good couple of hours over the weekend to fiddle over.

Roborock G10 Review – Setup and Performance

On paper, the Roborock G10 robot vacuum is designed to simultaneously mop and sweep a designated area that typically encompasses about 300 square metres of living space, which is about the average dimensions of a single floor apartment in a zone-by-zone manner and in a methodical zig zag or criss-cross pattern if you’re assigning it to conduct multiple pass throughs in a given zone. For larger areas like the living room or halls, it splits these areas up into separate zones and cleans them in sequence.

The robot itself is sufficiently intelligent enough to trundle back to its docking station if it runs low on power or needs to top up and swap out its water reservoir. It’s also sufficiently intelligent enough to avoid objects like chair and table legs and is also smart enough to raise itself slightly to be able to sweep carpets too. 

The Roborock G10 vacuum is able to guide itself into its charging dock on its own without direct human intervention

Debris is swept in under the Roborock G10 via the side brush into the main underside roller and then sucked up with 2,500Pa of suction power into a small dust receptacle paired with an air filter. Of note here are the unique fins on the main underside roller that prevent tangling from long objects like hair or shoe laces.

It’s able to efficiently tackle small bits of dirt and dust like cookie and chip crumbs, hair, dust bunnies and maybe a small LEGO piece or two but it won’t be able to handle larger sized bits of dirt or sharper, nastier bits of debris like glass shards or paper clips would prove to be more of a challenge.

The Roborock G10’s mop doesn’t just simply slop up and wipe up stuff on the floor as it has an ultrasonic motor that helps the underside mop attachment to vibrate hundreds of times per second to shake stubborn stains loose. 

On its first run where it learns your house layout you’ll need to nursemaid it for a bit but after it’s mapped out your home layout you can mostly leave it to its own devices and assign areas as well as frequency of cleaning along with designating areas it’s not supposed to wander into.

While it works best when paired with a phone and your home WiFi network, the Roborock G10 is equally able to work in autonomous mode and bumps its way around your house to ensure it does the job and covers all the bases.

It’s relatively intelligent and capable of avoiding dangerous obstacles like steep steps and the like though you’ll still need to be around to keep an eye on it on its initial romp around the house.

The Roborock G10 review unit was tested on the most ubiquitous flooring you’d see in an Asian household – a solid marble and tile floor lived in by a family with school going kids.

Our Roborock G10 review sample was able to efficiently clean and mop tiles and marble flooring

After setting it up with the home WiFi and after filling out the water container with clean water, it was able to start working. Its initial foray was more exploratory as it mapped out the area but after an initial pass and some fine tuning via the app such as designating cleaning times and areas to clean, it was able to be left to its own devices. 

The 2500pA suction was exemplary with the ability to capture small bits of hair, dust and dirt without issue. Unfortunately, the dust container isn’t fully sealed so some care needs to be taken when removing the container from the unit for cleaning.

It’s also somewhat audible when cleaning in standard mode though it fortunately isn’t loud enough to drown out everything in earshot. If you’re a stickler for peace and quiet, you can assign it to work when you’re out of the house or enable the Quiet mode in the app to let it work at a much quieter noise level in the background.

Shortcomings aside, our Roborock G10 review sample’s built-in mop was able to efficiently handle recent stains that haven’t set in like dried coffee on the floor and whatnot.

While the user manual states to use a certified Roborock floor cleaner, a few drops of a house brand floor cleaner in the charging dock’s main water receptacle did it in a pinch. Unfortunately, both the sweeper and the mop aren’t able to handle sticky stuff all too well like sweets stuck to the floor or discarded Shopee shipping stickers but these are exceptions rather than the norm.

As with all things mechanical, the entire system requires regular maintenance to retain optimum performance. On top of regular tasks like refilling the clean water container and disposing of dirty water in the charging dock, you’ll regularly have to perform more comprehensive maintenance on an average of at least once every month for most of the user accessible components in the Roborock G10 robot.

A modicum of maintenance is required and you’ll have to occasionally refill the clean water container and dump out the used, dirty water in the other container.

Even with the added requirement of infrequent maintenance every couple of weeks and swapping out the water containers, the Roborock G10 truly is a time saver, gradually helping to shave off a couple of hours a day that would have been spent on sweeping and mopping the floor though tougher stains and corners still require a human touch. It’s still necessary to manually clean some of these stubborn stains or out of the way areas but it’s still a far cry from having to manually clean an entire house.

Should you buy the Roborock G10?

The Roborock G10 robot vacuum accomplishes its role marvellously and is able to effectively mop and sweep a swath of your home in an efficient manner which helps save you loads time that can be put to more productive use elsewhere.

Some irksome ergonomic issues remain like the use of an unsealed dust container which complicates disposal but it’s otherwise an excellent investment for any household looking to save a few hours of manual labour.

Roborock G10 review sample courtesy of Roborock Malaysia. For more details and to purchase, please visit their official Shopee store at https://shopee.com.my/roborockmalaysia