The Roborock RockAqua P1 marks the company’s first move into pool care, expanding the Beijing-based brand beyond the smart robot vacuums that made it a household name. Known for indoor models featuring robotic grabbing arms and stair-climbing skills, Roborock is now targeting a new category with a compact, colorful autonomous underwater cleaner.
The RockAqua P1 is engineered to clean pool floors, walls, waterlines, and shallow platforms. It carries over the adaptive cleaning path found in Roborock’s indoor vacuums, letting the robot navigate pools of varying shapes and depths. Vision-based obstacle avoidance detects drain covers, steps, and similar features to help reduce interruptions during a cleaning cycle.
Suction Power and Smart Debris Handling
The robot delivers a suction rate of 6,800 gallons per hour, putting it in the same class as some of the most powerful pool-cleaning robots from established brands. Raw suction is not the full story, however, and lab testing has shown that greater power does not always mean better cleaning results.
One standout feature is the robot’s ability to adjust suction based on conditions. According to Roborock, the RockAqua P1 lowers suction when it encounters larger debris, preventing water flow from pushing it out of the cleaning path. As the robot moves closer, it ramps suction back up to capture the debris. Notably, the device does not appear to offer AI-driven debris detection, a capability found in some competing models that actively track down leaves, bugs, and stones.
Battery Life and Retrieval Design
Roborock’s first pool cleaner runs for up to 3.5 hours on a full charge, an average figure for high-end models. When a cleaning cycle finishes, the robot rests on the water’s surface rather than sinking to the bottom. This surface-resting design makes the RockAqua P1 easier to retrieve for emptying and recharging, avoiding the manual hauling required by cleaners that settle underwater.
Availability
The RockAqua P1 was unveiled at IFA Berlin, where the device was shown on the crowded showroom floor. For now, the pool cleaner is set for release in Europe only. A rollout to the US market remains uncertain, leaving American pool owners without a confirmed launch timeline.
