Roborock Flexi Lite – powered vacuum/mop with style (cleaning review)

05/08/2024
By Ray Shaw
In Reviews

The Roborock Flexi Lite is a powered vacuum/mop with a particularly elegant style – it looks svelte. Its best use is on hard floors as a one-pass vacuum and mop.

The powered mop category has exploded in the past two years with brands including Tineco, Eufy (Mach), Narwal, Karcher, HiZero, and many more. Dyson, LG and Samsung have mop head attachments or power mops.

The theme has many variations – single, double, and quad rollers, clean water bottle sizes, wastewater handling, with/without vacuum suction, steam, combo, lay-flat and more. We wrote a guide, Five tips for choosing a cordless power mop which we try to update after every review.

What should a power vacuum/mop do?

First, consider it a hard-floor-only mop with benefits because most are not vacuums in the traditional sense. Few vacuums/mops can operate as vacuums only and are not for carpets (unless you want wet carpets).

Clean water is supplied from a clean tank to a rotating roller/s, and dirty water is squeegee/bladed off to the wastewater tank. A vacuum, if present, provides additional suction to help the mop and improves one-pass cleaning results.

Run times vary from 30 to 180 minutes, and coverage from 60-240m2.

Roborock Flexi Lite VS Pro

Always be aware that Lite means something is missing. In this case, the $999 Roborock Flexi Pro adds powered wheels, dual-edge clean, a headlight, an app, and a 25% longer battery life.

This is the $599 model. If you were to compare features, it is closest to the Tineco S5, which costs $599 at Harvey Norman.

Australian review: Roborock Flexi Lite powered vacuum/mop

Wet and Dry Vacuum Cleaner Model: WD3D3A
Dock Charger Model: MDS08LRR

Website	Roborock AU online Official Store – see grey market warning.
RRP 25/07/24	$699 sale $599 plus freight if applicable
From	Roborock AU online Official Store – see grey market warning.
Colours	White with black highlights
Warranty	2-years. It has a Sydney service centre.
Made in	China
Company	Established in 2014 with support from Xiaomi, Beijing Roborock Technology (Roborock) specialises in the research, development, and production of robotic home cleaners and other cleaning appliances.
More	CyberShack cleaning tech reviews and news

We use Fail (below expectations), Pass (meets expectations) and Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader) against many of the items below. We occasionally give a Pass(able) rating that is not as good as it should be and a Pass ‘+’ rating to show it is good but does not quite make it to Exceed. You can click on most images for an enlargement.

We are also tightening up on grading. From now on, Pass, for example, means meeting expectations for the price bracket. We consider a Pass mark to be 70+/100 with extra points added for class-leading and excellence.

Grey Market Warning

There appears to be substantial parallel importing (grey marketing). Roborock can only offer an Australian warranty for purchases from its official store or approved retailers – usually Harvey Norman (and sub-brands), JB Hi-Fi and Bing Lee – it varies by product. In particular, avoid an unofficial site https://roborockonline.com.au/ run by Tech Sales Online and online markets such as Kogan/Dick Smith/MightyApe/Matt Blatt, eBay, Amazon, Catch, My-Deal, etc.

First Impression – 10 points for style

Powered vacuum/mops are not known for style – this stands out as quite avant-garde winning a Red Dot 2024 design award.

Part of that is an ergonomically designed handle and the ability to lay flat to get under furniture—although there are some caveats we will discuss later.

It is 110.3cm (H) x 23.3cm (W) x 26.4cm (D) x 4kg plus clean water.

Setup – Pass+

Insert the handle into the body, charge on base (3 hours), fill the clean water tank (assuming an empty wastewater tank), and go.

There is no app or privacy issues.

Using it – Pass+

We have reviewed several of these devices and know what to look for.

An LED readout shows battery charge, mode (ECO, AUTO, MAX), Error Code, dirt level, and mop drying. The handle buttons are for power on/off, mode, voice, and cleaning.

It claims 17000 Pascals – a huge figure more about bragging rights – we will discuss later.

It is light, at 4kg plus 620 ml (620g) of clean water, making it relatively easy to ‘heft’ around.

The spinning roller provides adequate forward motion, and you provide the rear motion. The wheels are not forward- or rear-powered, but you would have to spend considerably more to get that.

Like any powered vacuum/mop, you need to tread a path to avoid stepping on the cleaned floor. Start from a far corner and work backwards—the handle is designed to accommodate that.

Unlike the Pro version (both sides), it only cleans the right-side edge (the claim is 1mm, but it is more like 6mm). There are issues with corners as the front roller has a 6mm gap to the wall. Again, it’s not much of a problem if you plan your cleaning path.

It is also perfect for quick spot cleans as it vacuums and mops, removing detritus from coffee powder up to rice grains.

Cleaning Tests

These results are subjective based on 1-5 being 0-100% effective. Where multiple passes were required, the rating reduces.

Overall quality of hard floor cleaning: 3 – it is a maintenance clean
Edge Clean: 3 – 6mm is not true edge cleaning, and you get used to other double-sided machines.
Corner clean: 3 – the 6mm front overhang stops effective corner cleaning
Handling: 3 – there is no power wheel assist
Dried coffee 3 – takes multiple passes
Milk and lighter liquids: 5
Heavier liquids like porridge or tomato sauce: 3, but we found the need to use the self-clean function immediately.
Lay flat – 2 with caveats
Self-cleaning: 4 – it does a good job, but it’s a little noisy for the hour of drying
Clean water tank: 3 Without visibility or an alert, it is too easy to run dry.
Battery: 5 – meets expectations and not bad on Max mode either.
Display: 3 – basic
Base station: 3 – I would prefer the power supply to be removable.
Quality: 4 – well made
Design: 5 – looks great

Battery – Pass+

The 2500mAh battery lasts about 40 minutes in Auto mode – about 25 minutes in MAX mode. That translates to about 80-100m2 of cleaning area.

The 21.6V/2.5A/54W battery requires 3 hours of charge from the base station that supplies 25.6V/1A.25.6W. The base station is the charger, so there is no separate detachable power brick. Therefore, it cannot be submerged or get too wet.

Suction power – Pass+

It claims 17,000 Pascals or about 2000 air watts – impressive. However, as the vacuum is solely to assist the water flow from the roller brush (no vacuum slot), it is more about bragging rights than real vacuum power.

Three power levels (ECO, Auto, Max) increase the power to the maximum level but do not increase the mop RPM.

Roller Self Clean – Pass+

When replaced on the base, you can press the clear button that washes, and 50° hot air dries the roller. The process can take up to an hour. The device monitors the amount of dirt being squeegeed/bladed from the roller and adjusts the clean time as required.

It does a great job, but we recommend monthly hand washing and drying.

Lay flat – Passable

While the head is approx. 60mm high, the barrel is over 150mm. It is not quite as useful so check your furniture height first.

Roborock advertises a ‘back-flow prevention feature’—an error message to empty the wastewater tank. We also found that when the tank was partially filled, water could enter the filter area and potentially the motor.

Tanks – Pass

It has a 620ml clean water tank. The only issue is that there is no empty tank sensor, and as the tank is ‘hidden’, you cannot see how much water is left without removing it.

The 400ml wastewater tank is on the back of the barrel, and you can see its capacity.

Maintenance – Pass

Omo Floor Cleaner Pro $39.90 480ml. We did not test this, but we feel it would have improved grease cutting and perhaps the floor shine.
Filter $39.90 pair. Wash and clean each time, and replace each 6-12 months.
Roller: Base station cleans each time. Replace 6-12 months. We recommend hand washing every few weeks.
Roller: The base station cleaning does a good job on the squeegees, but we recommend hand washing them each time (removing the roller).
Cleaning dock: Wipe over each time
Battery: Removable and should be replaceable (screwdriver). Caution: it is Lithium-Ion.

CyberShack’s view – Roborock Flexi Lite has both style and substance

If you judge a book by its cover, Roborock Flexi Lite will sell heaps. If you look at the tech, you realise it is a reasonably entry-level device. While it does a good job, spending more on the Pro version will give you better edge cleaning and results.

The lay-flat is a good idea – more work is needed to stop the unintentional backwashing of the wastewater.

It is a good basic power vacuum/mop for hard floor maintenance and spot cleaning.

Competition

The closest competitor is the $599 Tineco Floor One S5 Pro vacuum mop hard floor cleaner, except it does not lay flat.

Tineco has a new $899 S6 Stretch (review soon). According to international reviews, the lay flat is better implemented, and it has motorised wheels—more like the Flexi Pro.

Roborock Flexi Lite rating

This is based on the 2024 rating of 70/100 as a pass mark. For earlier reviews, it was based on 80/100 so deduct 10 points from these for parity.

Features: 75 It is entry-level, so we don’t expect things like dual edge cleans, headlights, longer battery life, larger tanks, etc.
Value: 75 – it compares well with competitive entry-level powered vacuum/mops
Performance: 75 – If the floors are in good condition, it will maintain them that way.
Ease of Use: 75—It is Easy to use and not heavy on the wrist, but the cleaning regimen is more extensive than that of a self-cleaning roller.
Design: 80 – Nicely made, reasonable charge dock