Robot vacuum docks explained: self-emptying, mop washing, drying, refill and plumbing
The five jobs a dock can do, which of the 79 machines we list do which, what the dust-bag interval means, and which dock you actually need, from the makers' published figures.
Maciej Ziółko · RoboVerdict editorial · Published · 4 min read
Five jobs a dock can do
The dock is where a robot vacuum stopped being a gadget and became an appliance, and it is now most of the price. A dock can do up to five things. It can empty the robot's bin into a bag, so you touch dust once a month or two instead of every run. It can wash the mop pads or roller. It can dry them with warm air afterwards, which is the step that stops a damp mop smelling. It can refill the robot's clean-water tank from its own. And on one machine we list it can be plumbed into the water supply and drain, so the tanks disappear entirely.
What the catalogue shows
Of the 79 robot vacuums we list, 52 have a dock that does all four of the everyday jobs: empty, wash, dry and refill. The Dreame X60 Pro Master is the one with a plumbed dock on top of that. Ten machines empty, wash and dry but do not refill the water tank, which means filling the robot's own small tank by hand: the Roborock Qrevo Curv 2 Pro, Saros Z70, Saros 20 Sonic, Qrevo Curv 2 Flow, Qrevo Curv S5X, Qrevo 2 Pro and Qrevo S5V, the Narwal Freo Z10 Turbo, the Dreame D30 Ultra and the MOVA E30 Ultra.
Five machines wash and refill but do not dry the mop: the MOVA Mobius 60, Roborock Saros 20 Neo, Roborock Qrevo Edge 3 Pro, Dreame X60 Ultra and Narwal Flow. Two only empty and wash, the Roborock Qrevo Edge 2 and Saros 10. Four only empty: the Roborock Q10 S5+ and Q7 L5+, the Dreame D20 Air Plus and the MOVA S10 Plus. And five come with a charger and nothing else.
Dreame X60 Pro Master
The X60 Pro with a plumbed dock only 249 mm tall: the same 42,000 Pa, 89 mm clearance, climbing legs and 18 cm mop reach, with water piped in and out instead of tanks, for €1,599.
The dust-bag interval
Makers state how long a bag lasts in days, at a usage they assume and do not always state, so the figure compares makers with themselves better than with each other. Roborock publishes 49 days for the Qrevo CurvX, Qrevo Curv S5X, S8 MaxV Ultra, Q10 S5+ and Q7 L5+, and 65 for the Qrevo Edge 2 Flow; for its other docks it publishes no figure. MOVA publishes 75 days on the P and E lines and 100 on the Z, V and S70. Dreame publishes 100 days across the range. Narwal publishes 120 days on every dock it lists, as does the Dreame D20 Air Plus, and the MOVA Z70 Ultra Roller Complete publishes 125, the longest in our catalogue.
What the spec sheet does not tell you
- How loud emptying is. No maker in our catalogue publishes a figure for it, and it is the loudest thing the machine does.
- Detergent. Several docks dispense a cleaning solution; we do not yet record which, so a product page's silence on it is our gap, not the maker's.
- Wash-water temperature. Hot-water washing is now a selling point; we do not record it until it can be recorded as a published figure for every machine.
- The dock's size. A dock that washes and dries is a box the size of a small bin, and it wants a wall socket and, ideally, a hard floor under it. Measure the spot before you order.
Which dock you need
If the robot mops every day, the dock must wash and dry; a mop that is washed and left wet is worse than one that is not washed. Refill matters when the robot's own tank empties mid-run in a larger home; the large-homes ranking is where that shows. With a pet, the bag interval and the bin emptying are what save you from the dust, and the self-emptying ranking weights them. In a one-bedroom flat with hard floors and no pet, a dock that only empties, or none at all, is a defensible saving, and the best value ranking includes several. How we score sets out how each of the five jobs is credited in the automation subscore.