Every few months it seems like one robot vacuum or another has an innovative solution to a long-standing issue, which then becomes standard among high-end vacuums and eventually trickles down to the cheaper ones. The most recent example is Roborock’s Qrevo Edge, which is the first model to be able to lift its chassis and deploy a retractable wheel to hoist over room thresholds up to four centimetres high.
The downside of this constant innovation is that the new tricks aren’t new for very long. At CES this month we saw a model from Dreame that can do six centimetres on a pair of rotating legs, as well as future models with robotic arms for clearing debris. But for right now, the $2800 Edge has a unique selling point, in addition to being an otherwise competent high-end bot.
But first things first. Does its extra little foot-wheel actually do the promised job of lifting the robot over floor transitions? In my current house the carpeted lounge room sits exactly three centimetres lower than the tiled kitchen to the west and entry to the east. This is enough to trip most first-time visitors to the house, but it also makes the lounge room a trap for most robot vacuums; they can fall in, but they can’t climb out.
Since there’s no way around the lounge, you would need at least three robots to do the whole house without manually lifting them all the time (they refuse to be taught to climb makeshift ramps, and I wouldn’t install anything more permanent in a rental).
So I was interested to see how the Qrevo Edge would fare when I plopped it down to do its initial mapping run. It maps quickly and accurately thanks to its raised Lidar unit, and once it had done the lounge it lifted itself up on its wheel and practically blasted over the transition into the kitchen. I was astonished.
But since then, I’ve noticed it isn’t always so bold. Sometimes it fails to make the climb and backs off, pacing for a bit before trying again. Other times it comes at it on an angle for no real reason and heaves over with the painful air of a middle-aged man climbing over a fence and regretting it half way. But it has never once become stuck or given up; it works.
At three centimetres my transitions are pushing the Qrevo Edge to its limits, and its possible it would glide effortlessly over slightly lower bumps. The four centimetre maximum jump is only possible for double-layer thresholds.
Even if your floors are totally flat, this robot has plenty going for it. Its asymmetrical sweeping arm and extendable mop are a bit creepy-looking but do an excellent job knocking crumbs away from edges and getting into corners. It delivers a lot of suction despite not being especially loud (compared to other vacuum cleaners). It happily mops and vacs at the same time and will return to mop again if it detects an especially dirty patch.
