Roborock QV 35A review: an all-in-one dock at a mid-range price

Roborock QV 35A at a glance

First impressions of the Roborock QV 35A

The QV 35A is part of Roborock's QV Series, a line built around the Qrevo dock idea but at a lower price.

The black dock is tall rather than wide, but it is still a big unit. It needs a spot against a wall with clear space in front so the robot can drive in and out.

If you live in a small apartment, measure the spot before you buy.

The robot itself is a classic round design with a LiDAR turret on top.

Setup has one catch: a long-term owner reports that the QV 35A only connects to 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi. If your router combines 2.4 and 5 GHz under one network name and setup fails, you may need to split them.

The dock is tall rather than wide, but it needs clear space in front of it.

What the QV 35A actually is

The QV 35A is a robot vacuum and mop with an all-in-one dock.

Roborock rates its suction at 8,000 Pa, a big step up from older budget models such as the Q5 Pro but well below the Qrevo flagships.

It uses LiDAR for mapping and Reactive Tech sensors for obstacle avoidance.

Two spinning mop pads handle mopping, and they lift about 0.4 inch when the robot detects carpet so it doesn't drag wet pads across your rugs.

The full-rubber main brush and asymmetrical side brush are designed to resist hair tangles.

The dock: what it does for you

This is the main reason to buy the QV 35A.

The dock empties the robot's bin into a sealed 2.9-quart bag. Roborock says a bag lasts roughly seven to nine weeks, and one owner with two cats reports changing it every six to eight weeks.

A 1-gallon clean water tank refills the robot, and Roborock says one tank covers around 3,552 square feet.

While mopping, the robot goes back to the dock to rinse its pads. In one independent test it mopped for about 18 minutes, rinsed for around four minutes, then went out for another 17 minutes before the next rinse.

That frequent rinsing stops it from spreading dirt it has already picked up.

Unlike the Qrevo flagships, there is no hot-water washing or heated drying. The pads are washed with cold water and dried with unheated air.

That sounds like a recipe for smelly mops, but owners mostly don't report it. One owner who mops with plain water and no cleaning agent says there have been no bad smells. Others still prefer heated drying, so check the pads and the dirty water tank now and then.

With frequent mopping, the clean water tank needs refilling more often than you might expect, and the dirty water tank needs emptying about once a week.

Our tip: If you mop every day and the clean water tank keeps running dry, lower the water-flow setting in the app. Each fill goes further, and most floors still come out clean.

QV 35A performance

Times from an independent hands-on test. Your home’s layout and settings will change them.

Vacuuming

Vacuuming is one of the QV 35A's strengths. In an independent test in a home under 900 square feet, it finished a full vacuum in about 61 minutes, tracing the edges of each room first and then cleaning the middle in a tidy zigzag.

It picked up everyday dust, crumbs and hair well and left carpets looking even.

The side brush does a good job of pulling dirt and hair out from along walls and baseboards, where many robots leave a gray line.

An owner who upgraded from a Roborock S5 noticed better pickup straight away, especially on hard floors. Another, with two cats, runs it all week with little intervention.

Carpet is where it runs out of steam. One owner with three dogs and a large high-pile carpet found it pushed fur around at first instead of picking it up. Max suction and splitting the room into smaller zones helped, but a carpet rake still pulled out plenty of fur afterwards.

The independent tester also found that area rugs collected enough pet hair, litter and crumbs to need an occasional pass with an upright vacuum.

It isn't built for shag or high-pile carpet.

Our tip: For heavy fur on thick carpet, switch to Max suction and split the room into smaller zones in the app. It helps a lot, but plan on an occasional pass with an upright vacuum.

Pet hair and tangles

The full-rubber main brush is one of the best reasons to buy the QV 35A if you have pets.

A household with two cats used to clean the brush on their old Roborock S5 every few days because long fur wrapped around it. After seven months of daily runs with the QV 35A, a quick check about once a week is enough.

Another owner with long hair and heavy shedding reported no real tangling in the first two months.

A tangle-resistant brush cuts maintenance, but it can't pull every hair out of thick carpet. The QV 35A does best on hard floors and low- to medium-pile rugs.

Mopping

The two spinning pads scrub the floor rather than dragging a damp cloth, so they lift everyday dirt, light stains and footprints.

In the independent test, a full mopping run took about 48 minutes, including trips back to the dock to rinse.

Owners with wood and tile floors say regular mopping makes a visible difference, and some who didn't expect to care about mopping now rely on it.

It doesn't press down hard enough to remove stubborn, dried-on stains, and heavily textured floors are harder to mop well.

Our tip: Wipe up sticky or dried-on spills by hand before a scheduled mop. The QV 35A is great at keeping clean floors clean, not at scrubbing out set-in stains.

Because the pads don't extend outward, edges and corners get less attention than on Qrevo models with a FlexiArm.

The pads lift automatically on carpet, but the tester saw them sometimes stay up a little too long afterwards, leaving small patches of hard floor unmopped.

Carpet and floor transitions

During mapping, the robot correctly told hard floors and rugs apart and moved between them without trouble.

A long-term owner reports reliable runs across hard floors, flatweave and low- to medium-pile rugs.

Thick rugs can hold more hair and debris than it removes in one pass, lightweight mats can shift as it drives over them, and thresholds higher than about 0.8 inch are a problem.

Navigation and obstacles

The first mapping run took about 30 minutes in the independent test. The map picked out the main furniture, separate rooms such as the living room, bedroom and bathroom, and the different floor types.

LiDAR mapping is reliable, and the robot can store maps for up to four floors.

Obstacle avoidance gets mixed but mostly positive feedback. An owner who also has a Roborock S8+ found the QV 35A noticeably better at steering around dog toys that used to trap the older robot.

The independent tester found it inconsistent at times, and some owners have had it get stuck under low furniture or bogged down by heavy debris. Other testing found it weak with small obstacles, and it can mistake dark or reflective floors for obstacles.

How to keep it from getting stuck

1. Pick up cables and small items

   Chargers, socks and small toys are what trip it up most. A quick sweep of the floor before a scheduled run saves rescues.

2. Block off low furniture

   If it keeps wedging itself under a sofa or bed, draw a no-go zone around it in the app.

3. Do the first big clean yourself

   Heavy buildup of fur and debris can bog it down. Vacuum by hand once, then let the robot keep up.

4. Fix the map

   If it gets a room wrong or keeps missing a spot, edit the map rather than hoping it figures it out.

LiDAR mapping is reliable, but small obstacles are best cleared before a run.

Battery and coverage

Roborock quotes up to 180 minutes of runtime from the 5,200 mAh battery.

Real-world runtime is shorter at higher suction settings, which is normal.

Our tip: Save Max suction for rugs and high-traffic rooms. Running everything on Max shortens each charge without making much difference on hard floors.

For most apartments and medium-sized homes, one charge is enough. In larger homes, the robot recharges and picks up where it left off.

Maintenance: what you still have to do

The dock cuts down the daily chores, but it doesn't remove them.

Refill the clean water tank and empty and rinse the dirty water tank regularly, about once a week if you mop often.

Replace the dust bag every six to nine weeks. Homes with heavy shedding may need to swap bags and filters sooner than Roborock suggests.

Check the filter regularly. A filter clogged with dust and fur reduces suction and makes auto-emptying less effective.

Give the main brush a quick check for wrapped hair about once a week.

Make sure the water tanks are seated properly, since a few owners report leaks when they are not.

Running costs look low so far. One owner with two cats bought a third-party replacement kit for about $27 and needed no other parts in the first seven months. That is one person's experience, not a guarantee.

Maintenance schedule

The Roborock app

The QV 35A uses the same Roborock app as the flagships.

You get room-by-room settings, suction and mopping modes, schedules, no-go zones, cleaning history, live progress and multi-floor maps.

There is a learning curve. One long-term owner spent a few days exploring the menus before their routines were set up, but after that the robot needed very little attention.

A popular setup is daily runs in busy areas such as the kitchen and hallway, with quieter rooms scheduled a few times a week.

Your first week with the app

1. 01Run the first mapClear the floors and let it map the whole home. Expect about 30 minutes for a smaller home.
2. 02Check the roomsRename rooms and fix any dividers it got wrong.
3. 03Add no-go zonesBlock off pet bowls, cable corners and furniture it gets stuck under.
4. 04Set room-by-room settingsHigher suction for rugs, lower water flow for wood floors.
5. 05Build a scheduleDaily in the kitchen and hallway, a few times a week everywhere else.

If the map gets a room wrong or the robot keeps missing a spot, you can edit the map in the app.

It also works with Alexa and Google Home.

Is the Roborock QV 35A worth the money?

The QV 35A launched with an MSRP of around $600 and is regularly discounted well below that.

At a sale price, a dock that empties the bin, refills the water and washes the mops is a lot of convenience for the money.

Owners say it noticeably cuts the time they spend sweeping and mopping, especially with cats or dogs. Just plan on an occasional deep clean with a regular vacuum and mop.

If you want hot-water washing, stronger suction and an extending mop, the Qrevo 2 Pro costs more but adds all three.

Prices move often, so check the current price on Amazon before you buy.

Roborock QV 35A specifications

From Roborock, the Amazon listing and owner reports.

QV 35A vs Qrevo 2 Pro vs Q10 S5+

Here is how the QV 35A sits between Roborock's budget and mid-range models.

Best Roborock QV 35A alternatives

If you can stretch your budget, the Roborock Qrevo 2 Pro adds hot-water washing, much stronger suction and FlexiArm edge mopping.

If you don't need a mop-washing dock, the Roborock Q10 S5+ is a cheaper self-emptying option.

How we researched and scored the Roborock QV 35A

This review brings together an independent hands-on test in a home under 900 square feet, long-term owner reports (including households with cats and dogs, some after seven months of daily use), Roborock's published specifications and comparisons with other Roborock models.

Problems that came up again and again, such as heavy fur on high-pile carpet, count for more than one-off complaints.

We scored four areas, and each gets its own subscore.

• Vacuuming (7.6): pickup on hard floors, rugs and carpet, including pet hair.
• Mopping (7.5): everyday dirt, dried stains and edge coverage.
• Navigation (7.4): mapping accuracy and how it handles obstacles.
• Dock and value (8.4): what the dock does for you, and what you get for the money.

The overall score is an editorial rating.