Who enjoys vacuuming? Wouldn't it be nice if someone did it for you, and not once, but every day? And ideally, while you're out, or quietly at night while everybody is in bed? This is the great appeal of robotic vacuums, allowing you to keep your home or workplace clean while giving you back the time you'd have spent doing it.

They can be highly effective too; the first time I tried a robot vacuum I was both amazed and mortified by the sheer amount of dust and fluff it pulled out from under every couch or bed.

Yet, if you've used a robot vacuum in the past you might have found they kind of ... sucked, and not in a good way. That same unit that initially impressed me would go missing and I'd later find it stuck under a couch with its roller tangled in the very fluff it was somehow miraculously finding.

I've also heard horror stories of vacuums where the dust tray detached and the robot continued driving around the house blowing rubbish out its empty bottom. Or, the time I heard of a robovac driving through cat poo and smearing it over the carpet.

Happily, those days are gone with Roborock Technology's new flagship range, the S8 series. You get all the goodness of free time and automated vacuum cleaning but with loads of smarts and optimisations to ensure a truly trouble-free hands-free cleaning experience.

The Roborock S8 comes in the S8, S8+, and S8 Pro Ultra, all of which feature unmatched cleansing power, intelligence, and self-maintenance with the highest suction power in the market, at 6000Pa. A new dual rubber roller brush improves dirt pick up and is more effective in resisting hair tangles. That feature is sure to be loved by anyone with pets, as well as anyone who has, or lives with someone who has, long hair. The range includes a camera with onboard smart processing to bring 3D obstacle avoidance, identifying and remembering various objects on its path to maneuver around them.

“The S8 Series uses the most powerful cleaning system we have ever seen in the Australian market to date on a robot vacuum. Paired with the ability to maneuver around objects and maintain itself, customers can now enjoy a more hands-free deep clean than ever before,” said Roborock ANZ head of marketing Jade Tang.

The S8 range will even mop your hard floors too. Its brush will automatically lift up to 5mm when it is running in mop-only mode, or when returning to the dock, so it can prevent cross-contamination. The mop can scrub floors up to an astounding 3,000 times per minute, all working in harmony to leave your floor surfaces spotless.

A great vacuum deserves a great dock; not only will the robot return for charging, but also for tidying itself up. The S8 and S8+ models include the Roborock RockDock, and the S8 Pro Ultra the RockDock Ultra that empties the dust bin, and both washes and dries the mop. These functions not only mean the bot is ready to go again but is kept free from mould and odours. In iTWire's own testing of the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra, we came to love the little ceramic white disc-shaped bot so much that we began thinking of it as washing and warming its little feet while docked.

The Roborock S8+, meanwhile, includes an auto empty-dock station that allows the bot to self-empty for up to seven weeks without the need to change dust bags.

Whichever you choose, you won't go wrong or be disappointed. Also, using the companion Roborock app you can set your vacuum going whenever you want, whether manually or on schedule. It will alert you to any problems or when it's time to perform maintenance and provide other helpful status information. The bot's camera will detect obstacles both in light and darkness, and its Lidar system will detect stairs and other levels. It will auto-map your floors, and you can specify "no go" zones in the app.

Nicely, the app will also allow you to schedule recharging - this is something I've not seen in any other robot vacuum app and means you can take advantage of off-peak electricity rates.

The Roborock S8 robot vacuum range gives you the great gift of hassle-free cleaning and with that, time back in your life to enjoy your clean home. iTWire found it dead simple to set up, and then dead simple to set running. It is quiet and unobtrusive. Depending on the number of people and pets in your home you may find yourself having to empty the bin (on the S8 model) after each clean, or only after every several cleans. Still, that's an indicator of how effective it is.

The S8 series is available to purchase from JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Godfreys, Bing Lee, David Jones, Mobileciti, Robot Specialists, and Roborock's own online store. Recommended pricing is $1,199 for the base Roborock S8 model, $1,899 for the S8+, and $2,699 for the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra. However, right now until the 29th of October 2023, Roborock is running a spooky Halloween special sale of $200 off, and one one-year extended warranty on top of the existing two-year warranty.

This takes the S8 down to $999. How often do you vacuum and how much do you value your time? When it comes to expensive coats or footwear my wife's taught me it is all about "cost per use". So, using a bit of quick maths, if you vacuum half your house on Saturday, and the other half on Wednesday, that's 104 vacuums per year. I feel tired already at the thought. Now, the Roborock S8 range will last many years, but even during the life of the two-year warranty plus third year extended warranty, that's 312 times. That takes your $999 Roborock S8 to $3.20 per vacuum. Would you gladly pay somebody a little over $3 to do the vacuuming for you and do something else instead? Then consider you can set the Roborock S8 off to vacuum the entire home every single day. That's now 1,095 vacuums over three years or 1,825 over five years. The more you let it do its thing, the more it becomes a cost of simply cents per operation.

Forget about cleaning and check it out in action here: