Robocist R850 Review

Pro

• Long 100-minute run time
• Smart control; app control, voice control, or remote control
• Good cleaning performance on hardwoods

Cons

• Uses physical boundary strips instead of infrared or digital boundaries (boundary strips not included)
• Difficult to get replacement parts
• Struggles with finer debris on carpeted floors

Robocity Design

The design of the Robocist is simple from the outside. The only button on the vacuum itself is the power on / off button.

All other controls or settings can be adjusted using the remote control or the smartphone app.

The underside of the vacuum is pretty simple. It has all of the typical things you’d find on most other robot vacuums including:

• Brushroll: located in the middle of the vacuum and uses a dual-design of soft spiral bristles and a rubberized sweeper blade to pull debris from the floor into the dust bin
• Spinning brushes (one on each side): used to capture dirt and debris from edges and corners and pulls it into the cleaning path of the Robocist
• Navigational wheels: two large wheels on either side of the brushroll help navigate across varying floor types, adjusting suction as needed.
• Directional wheel: a smaller directional wheel at the front of the vacuum is used to steer and turn the vacuum as it navigates the space
• Charging contact plates: two small plates on either side of the directional wheel ensures that the vacuum is charging properly when it returns to the docking station

The Modes

This Robocist robot has four distinct cleaning modes:

1. Auto: allows the vacuum to adjust mode and suction power as needed; returns to base when cleaning is complete
2. Edge: runs a cleaning cycle around the perimeter of the room
3. Spot: focuses the cleaning in a radial pattern starting in the area where you put it.
4. Low Noise: best for running light cleaning cycles at a lower decibel level

Top Features

Here’s a quick list of the top features on the Robocist R850:

• 100-minute run time
• 4 cleaning modes
• 1600Pa max suction
• Amazon Alexa enabled
• Scheduled cleanings
• Bristle / rubberized sweeper spiral brushroll

Size & Dimensions

The Robocist is about average size compared to other robot vacuums we’ve reviewed. Exact dimensions are:

• Diameter: 12.5″
• Height: 2.7″
• Weight: 5.9 pounds

Parts & Accessories

The Robocist robot comes with the following parts and accessories:

• Robocist R850 robot vacuum
• HEPA filter
• Spinning brushes (qty: 2)
• Charging base
• Charging cord
• Remote control
• Cleaning tool
• User guide

The remote control makes it easy to change settings or control the Robocist from a nearby location.

Controls on the remote include:

• Start or pause a cleaning cycle
• Auto mode
• Return to charging base
• Manual navigation

Performance

To test the cleaning performance, we ran a series of tests with the Robocist.

We tested performance on three different floor types (hardwoods, low pile carpet, and high pile carpet) and against a mix of debris, including cereal, rice, sugar, and kitty litter.

How’d it do?

Cleaning performance on the Robocist R850 was reasonably good. It was more successful at cleaning hardwood floors and struggled a bit with fine debris on carpet.

Note that all of our tests were on MAX suction mode.

Cleaning Hardwoods

On hardwood floors, the R850 robot did a nearly flawless job. It left a little debris in the corners, but otherwise, performance was excellent.

The Robocist captured 98% of debris during our hardwood floor test.

Cleaning Low Pile Carpet

On low pile carpet, it struggled more. The biggest miss was sugar and other fine particles.

The Robocist captured 88% of particles, overall, on low pile carpet.

Cleaning High Pile Carpet

On high pile carpet, the results were pretty consistent with the results on low pile carpet. The vacuum struggled with the smaller debris types, missing mostly sugar.

Overall, the R850 captured 85% of debris from the high pile carpet tests.

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Setup & Usability

Usability on the Robocist is simple and pretty intuitive. The majority of controls and settings can be modified on the app, but the remote control is also a nice add if you prefer more manual controls.

How do you set it up?

Setting up the R850 vac basically includes the following steps:

1. Unbox the vacuum and remove all original packaging.
2. Install the spinning brushes.

From this point, you can do one of the following:

1. For instant setup, just press clean. The vacuum will begin an Auto cycle. You can also use the remote control immediately without any additional setup.
2. For smarter setup, install the Robocist app on your smartphone and pair the vacuum to your wifi network. This will allow you to control the robot using your smartphone.
3. For scheduled setup, you can use the app to to schedule cleaning cycles on particular days or at particular times.

Is the Robocist a good value?

Okay, so specs, features, and performance aside, the question remains— is the Robocist a good value? I would say it is pretty good.

There are some nice features here, like smart control, long run time, and auto mode with self-adjustign suction power.

This vacuum did struggle with fine debris on carpet so that could be something to consider if you have a high traffic carpeted space.

In addition, it can be difficult to find replacement parts. If you plan on using this robot vacuum long term, the need for replacement parts will likely arise.

Not being able to find these parts easily is definitely a hit to the overall value, in my opinion.

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July 7, 2020 Update – Many times when a new robot launches it will be several months later before replacement parts are available. We had expected that would be the case here, however, replacement parts are still not available even months later.

As a result, maintaining the performance and usability of the Robocist R850 long term is going to be impossibble. You absolutley need a supply of replacement parts.

We tried to find parts on our own, but were unable to. We also reached out to Robocist, but did not recieve any reply. As a result of the lack of available of replacement parts we think the value is signicniantly diminished and we have updated our value score below to reflect this.

Robocist R850 Specifications

Who Should Buy the Robocist R850?

I would recommend the Robocist if you’re looking for the following in a robot vacuum:

• Smart control: This vacuum an be controlled using a remote control, app-based control, or be paired with a voice-control device like Amazon Alexa.
• Long run time: A long run time could be important if you have high traffic spaces or a large floor plan. The R850 can run for up to 100 minutes.
• Good performance on hardwoods: If you primarily have hardwoods, the Robocist will really shine. The performance was best on this floor type compared to carpeted floors.

Click here to learn more about the Robocist R850 or to buy one for yourself.

Updates

• October 22, 2020 – As part of a comprehensive audit of all robot vacuum review scores on Modern Castle the usability score was reduced from 94 to 84. While replacement parts are still limited in their availability, they can now be found more readily than what we saw in our July update. We also increased from value score from a 75 to a 90, as we’ve are now calculating maintenance as part of usability instead of value. These updates adjusted the total score from an 89% to a 90%.
• July 7, 2020 – A commenter below had difficulty finding replacement parts in June. We too were unable to find extra parts. We reached out to the company, but they did not respond. As a result of the difficulty of finding replacement parts, we added a notice in our value section and decreased the value score from 93 to 75.
• March 6, 2020 – Initial version of the review was published.