Quick guide of the Roborock S5 and Roomba e5 features
Rollers
The latest Roomba models are equipped with silicone rollers. They are tangle-free and are perfect for pet and long human hair. The Roomba e5 has advanced double-rotating rollers that are neon-green.
The Roborock S5 is equipped with a brush that is a mix of rubber and bristles. It needs more time to maintain than the Roomba's rollers and is also suitable for pet hair, but it does get hair clogging, not as much as other robot vacuums though.
Battery life
The Roborock S5 runs the whole 150 minutes before it needs to recharge; the Roomba e5 does 90 minutes.
The long-lasting battery makes the Roborock perfect for bigger homes while the e5 is more suitable for small and average-sized places.
Carpet boost
The Roborock S5 is equipped with a system that identifies carpet flooring and automatically provides deep cleaning by boosting suction power to its max level. Once the robot is off the carpet, the suction returns to normal settings.
The Roomba e5 does not have this feature.
Mapping
The Roomba e5 is not equipped with a built-in camera. That means, the robot is not able to remember your home layout and it is not as efficient at cleaning as the Roborock because it can go over the cleaned spots a few times. Thus leading us to a random navigation pattern, the Roomba moves around until its battery runs out of energy and the vacuum docs itself to recharge.
The Rorobock S5 has the LDS sensor on top that scans the surroundings to map out a cleaning area. When the map is created, the cleaner knows where it needs to clean and following the back-and-forth navigation pattern, it methodically covers the room based on the plan it has built. Mapping helps the robot to be more efficient when it comes to cleaning, it reduces the chance of repeating the same area twice, so the robot saves battery life when cleaning.
Suction power
The Roomba e5 has a little bit weaker suction power than the Roborock S5. For sure it is enough to clean carpets, but the Roborock can do it a little bit better.
Recharge & resume
Thanks to mapping, the S5 knows where it is so when its battery runs lower than 20%, it docks itself, recharges up to 80% and automatically resumes cleaning to finish the job.
With the Roomba e5, you can do it manually in case it didn't cover the whole place the first time.
Mopping
The Roborock S5 comes equipped with a water container and a mop cloth for mopping. When the container is filled with water, slide it underneath until it clicks and press start. In this mode, the S5 works up to 40-50 minutes until the tank gets dry. You can fill it out with water again if you need more cleaning time. The mop cloths can be washed in a washing machine.
The Roomba e5 does not have mopping.
Climbing ability
Different climbing ability means that the Roomba can vacuum a carpet up to 18 mm thick when the Roborock is able to go over a 20 mm obstacle (carpet, rug, threshold).
Virtual Walls
The Roomba e5 has a dual virtual wall barrier in the box. It creates a zone up to 3 meters in diameter which block the vacuum off from certain areas of your home.
The Roborock S5 comes with the Mi Home inside which you can set an unlimited amount of restricted areas. By drawing a rectangle (or a few of them), you don't let the robot go to the specific zone.
The Roomba is limited by one physical barrier when with the Roborock you can create as many of those as you want to.
Zoned cleaning
Some rooms get dirtier faster than others like saying a kitchen. Sometimes you don't want to vacuum the whole place. You can draw a zone on a created map to make the S5 clean within it.
The Roomba e5 does not support this feature.
Manual movement control
In the Mi Home app, you can control the Roborock S5 like a radio car. If you want the robot to go to a certain place, you can move it there. It also supports the target point. With this feature, you can tap on the screen to send the robot to a specific place.
The iRobot Home does not support this option.
Dirt detect
This technology helps to recognize high-traffic areas, and when the Roomba goes over a dirty spot, it moves back-and-forth ensuring deeper cleaning.
The Roborock S5 lacks this feature.
Full bin indicator
When the Roomba's dirt container gets full, the indicator shows it, so you don't have to check it automatically. You can also track it in the app.
The Roborock S5 stops when its container is full. It does not have any indicators, you will get a message in the app saying that you need to empty the bin.
Cleaning performance & Which one to get
The Roomba e5 is built on the same platform as the iRobot's flagship Roomba i7. It does not have all the features of the i7 one, yet it costs about half of the high-end model price. The e5 performs flawlessly on carpets that are not thicker than 18 mm, because of the silicone rollers, it does a great job at picking up pet hair without getting tangled and supports Alexa-enabled devices.
On the other hand, the Roborock S5 is the flagship of the line. It mops and sweeps at the same time, maps the area that helps to save battery energy, the app offers useful features like zoned cleaning or restricted areas. It has a HEPA filter that can be washed and lasts longer than a non-washable one. Thanks to a good barrier-cross height, carpet boost, and strong suction, the Roborock S5 performs amazingly on carpeted flooring. In addition, it is perfect for bare floor as well. Long battery life and the recharge&resume feature, the S5 is ideal for big homes.
The Roomba e5 is ideal for those who have a pet and whose home is about carpets mostly. If you don't care about lack of mopping and mapping, the Roomba e5 is a decent robot vacuum that offers great cleaning performance.
In case you are not tight on budget and are okay with the Roborock price (note, most of the similar models cost more than the S5), we would recommend getting the Roborock. It is perfect for large households, its navigation is superb, the robot provides deep cleaning on carpets and is suitable for pet hair as well. The Roborock S5 is one of the best high-end robot vacuum cleaners on the market.
The Roborock S5 and Roomba e5 are on our top robot vacuum cleaners of 2019 list.
