Roborock Flexi Pro Wet and Dry review: Flexxing on Dyson

Pitched as a Dyson WashG1 competitor, the Roborock Flexi Pro Wet and Dry Floor Vacuum does have a lot in common with Dyson’s mop. Both use microfibre rollers, both are cool water only, both have flexible mop heads and manoeuvrable designs, and both cost $999. While the Dyson stops there, the Flexi Pro adds self cleaning and drying using heat at the base station, edging itself forward to give you just that little bit more value for the price.

From a practical perspective, the Roborock Flexi Pro is an excellent hard floor cleaner but it does have one impracticality that irks me. App connectivity. Although Roborock advertises this as a feature, to me it is a bug. Not everything in your home needs to be connected to your home network, and when it comes to the Flexi Pro it might be too much work for the pay off.

Using room temperature water, the Flexi Pro makes light work of a range of messes. It performs just as well on liquids as it does on small debris, and even sticky messes like maple syrup. During testing the device picked up each of these, in a bunch of different combinations in one pass. Performance doesn’t hold up well to baked on stains, but that is to be expected for a cleaning device like this. You’re better off with a steam mop for anything that has been holding tight to your floor for a while.

If you ignore the app component, it is very much a plug and play device. Roborock’s DirTect adaptive cleaning adjusts the power and saturation levels based on what kind of mess it encounters. This function is generally quiet, and effective, but you can manually switch out to a deeper cleaning mode. On max, the 730ml clean water tank drains quite quickly but it is still enough for 2-3 spot cleans. If you’re tackling a big job then you may need to empty and refill the tank mid-way through. The same can be said for battery life. The Flexi Pro lasts around half an hour at full speed, which should be plenty of time to get through most cleaning spells. If you’re on a real cleaning tirade then knocking it back to auto mode should get you an extra 10 minutes.

Once you’re done cleaning, the Flexi Pro takes care of itself. On the base station it uses 60 ̊ C hot water to saturate and clean the roller, while scraping off the debris and sucking it into the dirty tank. Afterwards it uses 55 ̊ C air to dry off the roller. Roborock claims this will take around 30 minutes, and in our testing the roller was mostly dry by the end of the cycle. It was definitely warmer.

There isn’t anything overly special about the aesthetic design of the Flexi Pro Wet and Dry, but there is utility in its flexibility. Designed to fold almost flat, it easily gets deep underneath furniture provided that it fits. At 5cm the head can get under almost anything, but the 13cm body does limit how far into the depths you can go. While folded down it has just as good performance as when it is upright, so you’re not missing out on anything there.

The flexible neck also allows for better manoeuvrability around corners. With a 360 pivot the head can swivel on itself, which makes the process of cleaning less laborious, especially considering how heavy the machine is.

Weighing in at 5kg the Flexi Pro is about the same weight as other wet/dry vacuums, but it is still quite a bit to lug around - especially when you add the extra 730g of water to the tank. How the weight is distributed can make a huge difference in the feel of these vacuum cleaners. Eufy’s Mach V1 is bottom heavy so it can build up speed and become unruly to use, Dyson’s Wash G1 holds its weight up high so it feels lighter than it is. The Roborock sits somewhere in the middle. It isn’t so bottom heavy that the device runs away from you but it has more heft than Dyson. All around it is well balanced, and shouldn’t be too cumbersome for short cleans, but it also isn’t the best in class.

Like all other Roborock devices, the Flexi Pro can connect to the manufacturer’s app, allegedly, and unnecessarily. By connecting you gain access to a handful of extra features that mostly revolve around the base station. It allows customisation like adjusting water temperature for self- cleaning, tracking self-drying and cleaning, and suction control while you’re using the device. All features I was unable to test.

The device only supports 2.4ghz connections, and I like most people who have upgraded their router recently, have an automatic dual-band router. This means both my 5ghz and 2.4ghz bands are combined under one connection and they switch automatically to whichever band is the most efficient at the time. Unlike the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra, which handled my home connection fine, the Flexi Pro can’t seem to make sense of this. After at least ten attempts, hard resetting a bunch of devices, redownloading the app, and many profanities, I gave up.

None of these additional features are essential to the daily operation of the Roborock Flexi Pro, and even if they were, sticking them behind an app is impractical. Unlike robot vacuum cleaners where apps allow users to be more active in an otherwise passive experience, the user experience of a handheld stick vacuum is inherently active. It is more intuitive to press buttons on the device you are currently using than it is to pick your phone up to control it.

Sticking them behind an app when the device doesn’t support 5ghz connections is even more vexing. More and more modems and routers are moving away from seperate channels to the dual-band model, and while this isn’t exclusively a Roborock issue, it is something that needs to be addressed. Users shouldn’t be penalised for having a faster router.

Retailing for $999 the Roborock Flexi Pro Wet and Dry vacuum cleaner is available from a range of certified sellers in Australia. You might get lucky and be able to grab one at a discount, but you'll need to keep an eye out for deals.

If you’re in the market for an upscale floor cleaner I would recommend the Roborock Flexi Pro over the Dyson Wash G1. App issues aside, the device is a simple and well designed tool that tackles wet messes with ease. For the same price as the vacuum giant, the Roborock gets you just that little bit more. Warm water self cleaning, self-drying, and the extras in the app if you want, and if you can get it to work.