Roborock F25 Ultra Steam Wet Dry Vacuum Cleaner Review

After putting the Roborock F25 Ultra through a full round of real-world messes — muddy paw prints, spilled milk and cereal, and even kitty litter — it walked away with the Just A Dad sticker and the title of my #1 wet/dry mop of the test. The reasons are simple: it cleans with steam and hot water instead of chemicals, the power-assist wheels do most of the pushing, and it barely wraps any hair. Here's exactly how it held up.

What's in the Box and First Setup

In the box you get the vacuum, the charging dock, a spare washable filter, the power cord, a maintenance brush, a cleaning brush, and a bottle of floor solution — though the headline feature is that you don't need chemicals. Setup is quick: dock it, fill the clean-water tank, and you're going.

Cleaning Performance: What It Actually Picks Up

Steam Mode: Chemical-Free Deep Clean

Steam mode is the star. It sprays 356°F steam across the cleaning width with just water — no bottle of solution — and it crushed the muddy paw prints, milk, and cereal without a second pass. One thing to plan for: steam takes about 35–40 seconds to build before you start cleaning.

Hot-Water Mopping & Tough Stains

For the messes steam doesn't love, there's a 187°F hot-water mode. That's the one I reached for on kitty litter — normally a nightmare for wet mops — and it picked it up great. Getting both steam and hot water in one cordless unit is genuinely rare.

Auto Mode & the Dirt Sensor

Auto mode runs room-temp water and lets the dirt-detection sensor ramp suction and water up until the floor reads clean, then eases back off. Across steam, hot water, and auto, the floors came out squeaky clean every time.

Hair and Pet Pickup

The power-assist wheels self-propel the mop and honestly feel good when you're pushing. The problem is they never shut off. Let go of the handle — especially in lie-flat mode — and it drives away on you. That's a real safety concern, not a nitpick, and it's the single reason this mop is a Skip It. I updated the firmware (524 → 568) hoping it was a software fix, and it did NOT fix the runaway wheels. Lie-flat mode is awkward to manage on top of that.

Battery and Runtime

Roborock rates it at up to 60 minutes in Eco, and you'll get less in the higher-heat steam and hot-water modes since they're doing more work. I didn't time it to the minute, but the battery wasn't dropping a whole bunch during a normal clean, so runtime never became the story.

Maintenance Reality

Dock it and it runs a hot-water self-clean, then hot-air dries the roller — about 5 minutes on the fast dry, or a slower, quieter cycle if you'd rather. The fast dry is hidden behind a press-and-hold on the mode button while charging, so that's worth knowing on day one. The filter is reusable — rinse it and let it dry in the sun — and there's a removable chunk-catcher basket in the dirty tank; leave it in so debris goes to the trash instead of down your drain. Empty and rinse the dirty tank after each use to keep it from smelling.

What I'd Change About the Roborock F25 Ultra Steam 

The flagship price is the big one — it's a lot, so the real value shows up on a strong deal. The fast hot-air dry is loud, and I'd love the blue dirt-reveal light to be easier to see in a bright room and the fast-dry setting to be less hidden.

Roborock F25 Ultra Steam vs Cheaper F25 models (F25 GT / F25 XT)

The step-down F25 models skip the headline heat features. The Ultra's 356°F steam and 187°F hot-water mopping are the real reason to pay up — if you don't need chemical-free steam or hot-water degreasing, one of the cheaper F25 versions may be plenty.