Roborock Qrevo Curv
Roborock’s newest mopping robovac, the Qrevo Curv, is probably my favorite bot they’ve ever produced. Not only is it quiet, efficient, and hands-free, it has one of the most aesthetically-pleasing docks I’ve seen in any botvac.
I’ve been covering Roborock for a while now and I declare each new model my “favorite robovac ever.” And there’s a reason for that—the company keeps on adding smart innovations that actually bring additional utility to an already stellar product.
But can it really make you happier than a full-fledged Apple laptop? Ask yourself this, when was the last time you sang the praises of your MacBook for doing anything?
What Is It?
The Roborock Qrevo Curv is the company’s most advanced mopping robovac. It has dual rotational mopping pads (rather than just a vibrating single pad), an legitimately tangle-free main brush, 18,500Pa of suction power, extendable arms to mop and sweep edges, mop lifting, chassis lifting, self-emptying, hot water washing, hot air drying, dock self-cleaning, and dual-sensor obstacle avoidance and intelligent pathing.
It is, by far, the most advanced, feature-rich robovac you can buy today.
A Dock Like No Other
Right out of the box, you’ll immediately see that the Roborock Qrevo Curv is different. Whereas most robovacs with self-emptying docks hew to a rectangular profile, the Curv is, well, curvy. It took me a while to figure out why I found the shape so familiar, but then I got out my AirPods and it clicked. Somewhat literally.
Separated at birth?
With its smooth curves and glossy white plastic, even the lid with its satisfying close, feels more like something out of Cupertino. Not to say that Roborock has borrowed Apple’s iconic design…but they certainly were inspired by it. And that’s not a bad thing. In a seemingly endless sea of identical robovacs, why not stand out with something that has some actual design?
The only issue with the Curv’s dock being design-forward is that a bit of room is sacrificed when it comes to the water tanks. I find that I have to fill them at least once per run. This is a far cry from up-and-comer Yeedi who’s latest ziggurat of a dock can go for days without refilling. The best thing to do is empty and top it off after every run, otherwise the Curv runs out of water in the middle of the cycle and you have to manually tell it to go back and fill itself up after you’ve refilled the tanks (like a reticent toddler who refuses to drink even when they’re complaining they’re thirsty).
That well-designed dock hides a wealth of utility. It does the usual self-emptying, self-refilling, mop washing, and hot air drying that we’ve come to expect from high-end robovacs but Robovac has gone further. The water is heated to a blistering 75°C (that’s 167°F), about 15 degrees more than the competition. What this does (and this is borne out by my usual sniff test) is kill a considerable amount of bacteria, leaving your dock and dirty water free of funk. The dock also has a self-cleaning mode where it will scrape the removable cleaning tray, getting rid of the accumulated gunk that builds up over time on any mopvac.
First Impressions
Within minutes of setting up the Roborock Qrevo Curve, I had an extremely accurate map of my home. The intelligent pathing of the robot and the considerable polish of the Roborock app itself means that I had to spend far less time marking room borders and making adjustments.
The source of this intelligent pathing is the latest RGB camera and LIDAR sensor, paired with Roborock’s latest AI algorithm. In practice, I found that it does an impressive job avoiding common robovac obstacles, like stray socks, pet toys, cords, and shoelaces. It’s not fool-proof, but then I haven’t met a robovac yet that is. Still, it’s better and better is a lot when the alternative is having to pre-clean your entire house or suffer going to bail out your robovac every 30 minutes.
The obstacle avoidance goes even farther when you have a pet in the home. It will be on the lookout for anything that looks like a pet mess, tag it in the app, and give it a wide berth (anyone who’s experienced a robovac poopocalypse will appreciate this). Even better, when it detects your pet, it’ll go into quiet mode and avoid the pet so as not to disturb them. Not an issue for my cat who perches on the back of the couch and watches from afar, but a boon for anyone with dogs who like to lounge on the floor.
The smart pathing lives up to its name (though the order in which it cleans room is sometimes befuddling), cleaning the edge of a room, then working its way in, taking care of the rest of the area without wasting time on where it’s already cleaned. It extends its mopping pad as it detects an edge, allowing it to cover where a round robot would usually miss.
The Curv can easily lift itself over thresholds as well. When it detects an obstacle it can traverse, it raises the entire body by up to an inch and a half (that’s 4cm for everyone else). It’s a much better solution than other bots that clatter their way over bumps.
Speaking of clatter, the Qrevo Curv is quiet, much more so than any robot I’ve tested in recent memory. It can automatically adjust suction based on surface and the side brush has been redesigned with just two soft arms that generate practically no additional noise (as opposed to the “playing card through bike spokes” chatter of some side brushes).
There’s a method to the two-arm madness. Roborock claims that the design greatly reduces accumulated hair tangles. And, to be fair, after a few weeks of running the Roborock Qrevo Curv around my home, there’s not a single strand wrapped around the side brush. The side brush is also on an extendable arm, allowing the Curv to reach out under appliances, furniture, and into corners.
There’s a lot going on under the hood.
The main brush is impressive. It’s actually two side-by-side brushes, with a split in the middle. The Qrevo Curv’s design funnels long hair down the length of the brush, to be suctioned away when it gets to the split in the middle. It’s an extremely effective design that’s undefeated by my long-haired cat or the two long haired humans living in my home. Whereas with other vacuums I’d find myself having to dig clumps of hair out of the end of the roller every few days, the Curv has completely eliminated tangles.
But Is It Worth It?
As you might expect of a flagship robovac, the price of entry is high. At $1,599, it’s the same price as the 14-inch MacBook Pro currently sitting on my desk. But after being away from home for a week, there’s only one of these devices that I actually missed.
Having not run the Qrevo while I was away (I could’ve had it run in vacuum-only mode but I was going to be gone, how dirty could the house get?) I was astounded at how dirty my floors were. The Roborock Qrevo Curv does a better job on a daily basis of keeping my home tidy than any other robovac that I’ve ever used (yes, even my beloved purple robot). I have to do less day-to-day in order to keep it in working order. Even if it does mean refilling and emptying the water tanks more than I’d like, I don’t have to pull it apart to clean hair out of every crevice on a regular basis.
And I’m not even using every option available! Roborock’s “Rocky” assistant will listen for voice commands, even to the point of finding where you are and cleaning where you’re standing.
No matter how you look at it, the Roborock Qrevo Curv is a major upgrade over whatever robovac you have cleaning your floors right now. If you have it in your budget, you won’t be disappointed. Find out more on the Roborock site.
