Roborock S7 Review: time to let the robots do the cleaning

Despite them being widely available for years now, robot vacuums are still not a mainstay in most people’s homes. Fortunately, manufacturers have been pushing the technology forward each year, delivering new features and capabilities. The new Roborock S7 is no exception.

Roborock S7 Features & Specs

• LiDAR and Ultrasonic Carpet Recognition
• All-Rubber Brush
• Upgraded Floating Brush
• 470ml Dustbin
• 300ml Water Tank
• 5,200mAh Battery
• 180-minute vacuum time
• Automatic Room Recognition
• Washable E11 Air Filter
• Scratchsafe Wheels and Brushes

Getting started with the S7

If you’re a first-time robot vacuum user like me, starting up the Roborock S7 will be a breeze. Simply plug in the charging base in a clear and convenient area of the home. For our testing, we placed in the hallway leading to the office of our 1200 sq. ft. apartment. This is not a high-traffic area, and provides enough space for the Roborock to navigate back to its base when the cleaning is completed.

Pairing and setting up the Roborock is a breeze, as you’ll just need to follow make sure the Roborock is charging on the dock. Then, just follow the on-screen steps and you’ll be up and running in no time. After the S7 had finished charging to its first full charge, the magic was underway. As this was my first time with a robot vacuum, I was interested to see what exactly was going to happen as the Roborock S7 attempted to map out the apartment.

In an effort for the S7 to get a feel for the entire apartment, we ended up just letting it run its course across all of the areas and rooms. This includes the entranceway which has some vinyl flooring, along with the kitchen with vinyl flooring of its own. Walking around the apartment following the S7 probably wasn’t the greatest idea, as the LiDAR Scanner needs to be able to view what it’s going to clean, and not worry about a couple of legs being in its field of view.

Nevertheless, the first scan and clean session lasted about 45 minutes, which isn’t even the entirety of the apartment. That’s because of a conscious decision to leave the bedroom vacuuming to a traditional vacuum, along with leaving out both of the bathrooms and the office area because the floor was riddled with boxes for other products.

Going through the first run and observations

But I have to be completely honest. The level of excitement that I had watching this little vacuum work its magic while seeing the entire apartment mapped out in real-time was off the charts. My girlfriend was at work, and my other buddy was just getting home from work and the sense of annoyance in responses from both was pretty evident. Nevertheless, we finally had a vacuum capable of cleaning up the house for us, in the event that we were too busy or just wanted it to work while we were out running errands.

After that initial cleaning, we waited until the next day before having it run another cycle. But this time around, we noticed the floor wasn’t quite as clean as the first go-’round. That’s because of the limitations of the 470mL dustbin which needed to be emptied. It was here that we noticed that having something like an automatic disposal would be extremely useful, so you don’t need to empty the bin after every cycle. This is a staple for some robovacs, and Roborock has confirmed that there is an all-in-one disposal/charging station coming later this year, but it was not included in this review.

When that arrives, it will be a mad dash to pre-order one, as it’s something that could be seen as essential. Of course, you don’t have to empty the bin every time that the S7 is run, but it just depends on the size of the rooms/apartment that you are cleaning up. The 5200 mAh battery is large enough to allow the Roborock S7 to clean an area up to 3,200 square feet or mop and area up to 2,100 square feet on a single charge.

Talking to others who have had robovacs previously, and continue to use them, it seems to me that there is one omission with the Roborock S7. It was pretty obvious the first time the S7 was going through and cleaning the apartment. See, I didn’t want to deal with all of the no-go zones or anything during the initial run or two. That’s because it’s still nice to have a vacuum run over a vinyl floor, even if you don’t need to have it mopped. But in an effort to try and stop the S7 from mapping the kitchen area, we made unique use of both our Swiffer and Broom. Placing them as barriers for the two entrances for the kitchen proved to be useless, as the Roborock S7 stubbornly continued to pushing through until the two “blockades” had been displaced.

This wasn’t too surprising since the Roborock S7 doesn’t include the same obstacle avoidance system found in the Roborock S6 MaxV and a few other more expensive vacuums. Not having the feature isn’t the end of the world, but it very well could help the S7 from bumping into the wall or the legs of the living room coffee table on a repeated basis. It eventually will either push through the barrier or find its way around after knocking its head against the obstacle a few times.

Setting up areas and zones

As I stated before, being able to watch as the apartment was mapped out by the LiDAR Scanner via the Roborock was incredible. But it wasn’t until after the first couple of sessions were completed that I started to tinker around with the “no-go” zones. There’s a sunroom in the apartment that has largely become a catch-all for odds and ends, so that’s an obvious no-go area. Creating the zone in the Roborock app is quick and painless.

If you intend on making use of the mopping functionality, you’ll want to be sure to attach the included mopping brush. Roborock suggests that if you are mopping on a schedule, then you don’t need to wet the brush, but if you’re just doing a quick mop-up, then putting the brush under some water will definitely be helpful. But there’s also the reservoir on the back of the S7 to help supply enough water to clean the hardwood or vinyl floors well enough based on the different strengths of cleaning.

Unlike most robot vacuums that double as a mop, the RobotRock S7 sports an auto-adjusting mop head that lifts automatically when the vacuum detects that it’s moved from bare flooring to a rub or carpet. This innovative feature will save you a lot of time as you won’t need to map out each room in your house with no-mop zones. On top of that, the mop head is mounted to an oscillating arm that scrubs the floor up to 3,000 times per minute as it passes rather than just wiping it.

The Roborock S7 also features a new floating brush roll that automatically adjusts to make sure it’s always making perfect contact with the floor. This allows the S7 vacuum function to work even better than the more expensive models in Roborock’s lineup, giving you the cleanest floors possible.

I’m not going to dive into the other “smart” features that are found on practically every robot vacuum nowadays. Integration with Google Assistant is awesome, as it can easily be controlled from the Home app or with your voice, if you don’t want to fiddle around with the Roborock app. These are expected features, and they have made their return with the S7.

One more thing we would like to touch on is the different intensities that can be used to clean various areas of your home. In the app, you can adjust the power of the vacuum, ranging from “Quiet” and going all the way up to “Max”. Obviously, the use-case for this varies depending on the severity of a mess that needs to be cleaned up, but it’s fantastic to have the option to switch up the power.

Should you buy the Roborock S7?

If you are in the market for a new robot vacuum, whether you already had one or are just getting into the smart home world, the Roborock S7 is a fantastic option. Our only current hang-up is the inability to purchase the docking station with automatic disposing of the built-in dust bin. But that’s slated to come at some point this year and will make a fine addition so you don’t have to empty the bin manually after just one or two cleaning sessions.

The only other reason why I might recommend the more expensive Roborock S6 MaxV is for those who may need to make use of the obstacle avoidance. The S7 does the job just fine, just make sure everything is off the floor.

Roborock plans on releasing the S7 on March 24th where it will be priced at $649. Additionally, it will be available in either black or white, so you can pick one that may match your home. Either way, the Roborock S7 is an amazing vacuum, but if you’ll excuse me, I just started another cleaning session so I’m going to watch the magic at work.