I matched Qrevo Edge against H5 and this is what I found

I pitted two of the newest vacuum cleaners against each other in a review battle — and one of them came out the clear winner.

I have two young daughters and it doesn’t take long before a combination of drawing, craft and food turns the house into a pigsty.

So when Roborock reached out and offered to let me review a couple of their units, I thought I’d try a little experiment.

I decided to pit two different types of vacuum cleaners against each other to see which one is the most useful to a young family living in western Sydney.

I got my hands on the Qrevo Edge, a new machine that’s being launched in Australia in January. The robotic vacuum cleaner was first revealed at the IFA 2024 industrial exhibition in Berlin

I also got ahold of the H5, which was released earlier this year. It’s Roborock’s latest lightweight handheld cordless vacuum.

This is the Roborock Qrevo Edge. Picture: Supplied

And this is the Roborock H5. Picture: Supplied

Qrevo Edge

The Qrevo Edge is the company’s high tech new robovac, and was announced alongside the Qrevo Curv.

I haven’t seen the Curv but my understanding is that the Edge and Curv have almost identical specs, except for the dock station.

There are five major upgrades in the new Qrevo Edge and I put them to the test.

Robovac that can climb

Firstly, the cleaning robot can lift its entire chassis by 10mm. I found out this is an incredibly handy feature as the unit I live in has an uneven floor.

You see there’s a fairly sizeable height gap between the hallway and the bathroom entrance that other robovacs have struggled to climb.

This meant that the bathroom floor missed out while other areas were being regularly cleaned.

The Qrevo Edge, however, rose to the challenge, literally.

The function is called AdaptiLift Chassis, and it kicks in when the robot detects a difference in height.

It then automatically lifts, allowing it to overcome thresholds of 30mm and double-layer thresholds of 40mm, reportedly the highest in the industry.

This means it can get more effectively overcome obstacles, better clean high pile carpets and crawl over sled-leg tables or chairs.

If this tech is a sign of things to come, it probably won’t be long before robovacs are climbing stairs (Roborock hasn’t announced anything like this yet, but it’s nice to dream).

The DuoDivide main brush and FlexiArm Arc side brush are part of the anti-tangle system. Picture: Supplied

Tangle-free design

Then there’s the dual anti-tangle system: the DuoDivide main brush and the FlexiArm Arc side brush.

Tangled hair has actually been a pet peeve of my mine when using other models of robovacs as things often get caught in the brush, ends, and side brush.

To deal with that, you need to take apart the cleaner and manually remove the knots, sometimes with scissors or a knife.

Roborock has addressed this with a smart design solution.

While normal robovacs have side brush shaped like a three-clawed propeller, the FlexiArm side brush is arc-shaped with a two-claw design.

This has the benefit of producing a centrifugal force that throws off hairs during rotation, and provides less support for the hairs to get caught on.

It also has longer bristles which means a better cleaning performance.

The DuoDivide main brush, meanwhile, is designed to funnel hairs into the central dustbin.

This is due to the two parallel short bristle rollers with spiral blades, meant to send hairs (and other rubbish) hurtling towards their ultimate fate.

Although I don’t have pets, there are plenty of hairs in this house, and the robovac managed to stay tangle-free.

The Roborock Qrevo Edge gets right into the corners. Picture: Supplied

Man does it suck, in a good way

Sorry for that pun, I couldn’t help myself. But suction power has definitely been ramped up.

The Edge is now equipped with the HyperForce providing 18,500Pa of suction (pascals measure the vacuum’s suction strength). This benchmark is also reportedly an industry-best.

That means it’s better at tough tasks like pulling out hair embedded in carpet.

My unit has mostly wooden floors, but there are some rugs where hair inevitably seems to gather, and it did a good job of cleaning those. It also picked up the sand which made it way into our place from various sandpits in Parramatta Park.

A robovac that actually cleans the corners

Another thing that’s very obvious when the robovac is in action is the FlexiArm tech.

This allows the robot to extend the arc side brush and right-side mop when cleaning corners.

Edges and corners have always been a weak point of robovacs and I found that the extended cleaning makes a big difference.

The FlexiArm Arc extends the brush, and the FlexiArm Mop expands the mop coverage, vastly improving the percentage of the total area cleaned.

In terms of cleaning, there’s also a dual mop system, which operates at 180RPM, and the mopping intensity can be adjusted with different water flow levels.

Hotter water in the dock

That last point provides a good segue to talk about the multifunctional dock, where there have been some improvements.

The water temperature for mop washing has been increased from 60C to 75C and the dock has a self-cleaning function that uses hot water.

The hot water mop washing is better for cleaning stains, and particularly worked well near the kitchen area.

As the mop is cleaned, the dock can also detect how dirty the mop is, and determine whether rewashing or re-mopping is required.

I should also point out that there are a range of features on the app.

You can control suction power, power flow, the route, and customise the floor plan for cleaning.

The robovac also responds to voice commands (various languages are available) and connects to the home Wi-Fi.

And, it’s smart enough to permanently note down furniture, as well as spot and avoid objects.

I still found that it’s best to tidy up the house before running the Edge, just to avoid problems and to ensure the entire floor is cleaned.

Pre-orders for the Qrevo Edge are available now until December 31, 2024, with some bonuses for customers who get in early at Roborock’s online store, as well as JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, The Good Guys, Bing Lee.

The Roborock H5 can be mounted for easy storage and quick access. Picture: Supplied

H5

The Roborock H5 is a handheld cordless vacuum. I found it’s best used for spot cleaning, rather than a whole house top-to-bottom.

There are two functions that I liked the best about the H5.

Firstly, you can mount it on the wall for easy storage. It’s quite unobtrusive if positioned in a subtle place like a laundry, and looks fairly good while mounted.

Secondly, the H5 is versatile as it has various attachments for different uses. There’s the main multi-surface brush for floors and carpets. And it can automatically activate a 50 per cent power increase on carpets.

You can also attach two much smaller brushes, the 2-in-1 Crevice Brush and the Motorised Mini Brush.

The Roborock H5 with the Crevice Brush attached. Picture: Supplied

You can use the Roborock H5 like a small vacuum cleaner with the powerful Motorised Mini Brush. Picture: Supplied

I found the Crevice Brush is good for cleaning annoying spots like car seat and behind appliances.

The Motorised Mini Brush is best used for firmly embedded hair, mats and extremely dirty surfaces.

As for the stats, it has 158 air watts, a calculation of air flow and wattage. This is used because suction power is lost through the vacuum filter and cyclone. I found it to be strong enough to pick up any rubbish in my unit.

It’s light at just 1.55kg (1.82kg with the mini brush) and Roborock claims a 99.997% whole-machine filtration rate, mostly for dust and debris, which has been certified.

The machine itself is based on a 9-cone, two-level separation system. Essentially the air is forced to spin around in a vortex, which causes heavier particles to be flung outwards due to the centrifugal force. This is done to ensure the air passes through unobstructed.

It’s fairly quiet too, peaking around 68.9dB(A), around the level of typical speech.

I was quite impressed with the battery life and I never ran into a problem. It’s my understanding it can run up to an hour on a charge.

I found emptying the cleaner to be fairly easy too, you just click a button and the bottom opens. There’s a window so you can tell when it needs emptying, although I generally empty after every clean. Most of the parts are washable too, which helps for longevity.

The Roborock Qrevo Edge, which can reach into corners, was the clear winner in my book. Picture: Supplied

The verdict

The Qrevo Edge wins out due to its convenience and overall cleaning power.

The suction power, extended mopping reach, and anti-tangle functions made a big difference in keeping my unit sparkling clean.

It performed particularly well as an end-of-day cleaner.

However, the H5 also has its uses and is particularly good at solving mess problems instantly.

When the kids make a spill on the floor (which seems to happen every half an hour or so), it’s easy to grab the H5 and quickly clean it up.

And to be fair, it’s like comparing apples with oranges.

The Qrevo Edge retails for $2799 (it will be available on January 1) and can clean the house while you sleep. The H5 is selling for $599 and is great for spot-cleaning.

They are different models made for different purposes, but overall I found the Qrevo Edge to be the most useful in keeping this messy house under control.

Originally published as I matched Qrevo Edge against H5 and this is what I found