Roborock Qrevo Slim Water Leak- Broken Internal Inlet Valve Housing Fixed
Roborock Qrevo Slim is leaking water inside of the vacuum unit its self.
I have made several requests to Roborock warranty department for the repair manuals and guides for my unit. Roborock has dug in their heels and is denying me my legal access under Oregons right to repair act ORS SB 1596 CH 69.
Roborock offers a 1 year limited warranty. What this means is it is up to the consumer to foot the bill of shipping the item for repair even if the issue is due to a manufacturer defect. The only way to contact Roborock is via email and their customer service is next level awful as they are not US based. I have had to file a Complaint against them with my State Attorney General Consumer Affairs and Fraud Division.
So I decided to open it up and start troubleshooting the issue myself.
Step #1. Rule out the docking station
Helpful video to show you how to remove the cover Video Guide
I decided to open up the Docking station to rule out any malfunctioning hoses or pump issues. Upon opening it up everything looks great no water spots or corrosion anywhere to be seen. This means the leak is not coming from a malfunction in the docking station.
#2. Open up the vacuum chassis
Tools
- Pudger prying tools
- phillips screw driver #12
- Magnetic project mat
- to keep screws organized and contained
- iPhone tool kit and prying tools and electronics Phillips screw driver
- Nylon bristle Cleaning brush
Next I decided to open up the vacuum unit itself, once it dried out from internally leaking into the rubbish compartment from my troubleshooting.
General Guide for opening up Vaccuum
Take your time and anticipate short electrical connectors between the chassis, bumper, and sensors and DO NOT tug or pull apart any of the body pieces. Gently pry and wiggle until you can see the electrical connectors and disconnect them.
So once I opened it up I could see water on the battery and signs indicating water leakage damage.
Corrosion is visible near the internal pump fill inlet
I found the culprit for the leak!
I had to remove the water tank + camera and the speaker to access this area.
The diaphragm water fill inlet is held in place by two molded pieces of plastic. Those pieces broke free and the diaphragm was loose in the caboose.
I used PC Products PC-Super Epoxy Adhesive Paste and 3M adhesive gasket sealer to re attach this with the silicone diaphragm. I clamped it and let it cure for 4 hours and tested it. Found it to be back in working order!
I used the 2 part epoxy on the two black plastic pieces that broke off and added 3m waterproof gasket adhesive to create a water tight seal around the perimeter of the white plastic inlet. The silicone diaphragm just seats inside the inlet before adhering and clamping everything in place. Make sure and test the silicone diaphragm for correct orientation prior to adding adhesive.
Broken Extending Side Brush
So a few months after this repair I noticed that my side arm brush was no longer turning. So after removing the brush head I found that there was a small piece of yarn that was stuck on the brush head. This + the side arm not moving = dead brush motor.
The only option here was to order a replacement part on aliexpress. It is important to understand that parts for the Roborock Qrevo S8 Maxv are identical to the Qrevo Slim but be sure to perform your due diligence and verify before purchasing any parts.
Tip: Remove the top and bottom completely exposing the water tank area. The extension brush arm has a small electrical connector that will need to be accessed from this side and disconnected.
There will be four or so screws to remove from the brush arm side before playing a bit of tug of war. I found it necessary to remove the two screws holding the electrical motor to the brush arm until the piece would come out. My wire harness ended up being pinched so it made removal a bit more involved.
A Year Review of Ownership
The last time I used a professional carpet cleaner on my floors was before I owned the roborock and I had to stop and clean the fur from the brushes at least 2-3 times per room and this was with me using an upright plug in high powered vacuum cleaner. We have 5 adult cats and 1 kitten coming and going at any given time and I have not used a professional carpet cleaner on my floors in over 2-3+years. I have been using the roborock for the last year in additional to using an upright vacuum cleaner and I was amazed at how fur free my carpets were when I rented a carpet cleaner last month. I cleaned the brushes once when we were all done!
I purchased the roborock Qrevo Slim because at the time it was the only slim automatic vacuum with clearance to get under neath our furniture with a mop combo and I wanted to use it with my smart home automation. I would now recommend to anyone with interest in using smart home automation and needing a slim low profile automatic vacuum to look at roomba, especially if you own a litter robot and want to use IFTTT to trigger your vacuum to clean up any time the litter robot is used. The problem is not roborock (surprisingly) it is litter robot who does not support smart home integration use.
There is a work around to integrate the litter robot into your smart home by using open platform website voice monkey to create a work around. However this is only works with pairing roomba and the litter robot and does not work with roborock or any other self automated vacuum brand.
I was extremely disappointed with the customer service experience from roborock and their lack of transparency and inability to comply with US consumer rights laws. So if you are capable of making repairs yourself and are fully aware that Roborock does not offer local repair services and will refuse to comply with State and Federal consumer rights laws then its a great little cleaning machine for my furry pet babbies.
I suggest looking for a vacuum that has transparency by having an abundance of either video guides or written repair guides available either by peer to peer (ifixit.com/forums) or on their websites. People need to realize that most things sold to the American consumer are considered disposable by the manufacturers and it isn’t cost effective, especially for the manufacturer who is overseas, to establish repair centers in the US. Not to mention that if you do google search for vacuum repair centers in your area you will be lucky to find even one repair center still open for business and of course this vill vary from urban populated areas to suburban and rural areas.
Be prepared to be your own repair technician if you expect to keep your automated vacuum cleaner running well beyond the 1 year limited warranty.