Alfred Kärcher SE & Co. KG (Germany) Kärcher RCV 5 (1)

$300 – $570In October 2026 Best Buy listed it at $299.99 (against an $834.99 list price) and Home Depot at $569.99. In Europe the robot costs about €350 and the optional suction station about €180 (Techniknews, 2024).

AvailableHome Assistant / Matter5,000 PaLidarCamera + dual laserOptional self-empty station

Possibly ≤ 1 weekShipping: undefined. Listed in the US at Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowe's, Walmart and Amazon, and widely sold in Europe. Stock and sellers vary by retailer. Best Buy ↗

Remote control: Through Home Assistant with the unofficial karcher-rcv5-ha integration (cloud), otherwise app only.

Official page (US) ↗Official page (Ireland, full specs) ↗Suction Station RCV 5 ↗Review with suction station (Techniknews) ↗Review (TechRadar) ↗Home Assistant integration (karcher-rcv5-ha) ↗

Overview

The RCV 5 is the German cleaning-equipment maker's lidar robot vacuum and mop, connected through the 3iRobotix cloud platform. Its camera and dual-laser obstacle detection is its strong point, and Techniknews rated it among the best in its class for avoiding cables, towels and slippers, while a TechRadar reviewer found it still got stuck on rugs and toys. The mop is a plain wiping cloth with no lifting, and self-emptying needs the separately sold suction station. Kärcher promises software updates until the end of 2030. Launched in Europe in 2022, it is now also sold in the US through Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowe's and Amazon, often far below its list price.

Specifications

Category	Cleaning robots · Robot vacuums without mop-washing docks
Released	2022
Country	Germany
Availability	Available
Programmability	Community / unofficial SDK
Built-in autonomy	Task-level · Carries out multi-step jobs on its own, such as inspections, deliveries or chores
LLM support	None · No voice assistant or built-in LLM, app control only.
Best for	Ages 12+ (estimated)
Vision sensors	Lidar, Camera, Depth camera, Sonar / ultrasonic
Actuators	DC / gear motors
Audio	Speaker
Compute type	Proprietary / undisclosed
Remote control	Home Assistant / Matter
Size	350 mm diameter × 97 mm, 3.9 kg with mop unit, charging base 135 × 150 × 99 mm, optional suction station 401 × 290 × 446 mm
Suction	5,000 Pa suction with auto carpet boost
Cleaning	Vacuum with a main brush and side brush, 330 ml bin, plus a static wiping cloth with a 240 ml water tank. The cloth does not lift, so carpets are skipped in mopping mode
Dock	Compact charging base as standard. The separately sold Suction Station RCV 5 empties the bin into a 4 L fleece bag and can be retrofitted to any RCV 5
Navigation	Lidar with multi-floor mapping, room recognition and no-go zones
Obstacle avoidance	Dual line lasers plus a front camera with AI recognition of obstacles such as cables, shoes and scales
Runtime	Up to 120 min (5.2 Ah Li-ion, 230 min charge), some US listings say 140 min
Smart home	Kärcher Home Robots app (2.4 GHz Wi-Fi), voice prompts, no Alexa or Google Assistant support listed (unconfirmed), community Home Assistant integration
Sensors	Lidar, front camera, dual line lasers, cliff sensors, ultrasonic carpet sensor, bumper
Compute	Not published
API / hacking	No official API and no local API. The unofficial karcher-rcv5-ha integration (HACS) reverse-engineers the 3iRobotix cloud that the app uses, with start/stop, rooms, suction, mop level and live map, and can expose the robot to Apple Home through Matter