The Roborock S7 MaxV Robot Vacuum Mops and Vacuums Your Floors — and It Empties Itself
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There are a lot of cool things out there that make us wonder, “Do they really work?” In our I Tried It series, we set out to use them in the real world and have determined that, in fact, they really do.
The Product on Trial
Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra Robot Vacuum and Mop
The Tester
Brandon Carte, owner of two large dogs, daily vacuumer, infrequent mopper
The Brief
Ever since I started using a robot vacuum, I immediately realized how clean my floors could really be. Thanks to these futuristic cleaning devices, I now rarely see dust bunnies gather in corners, I can wear black socks without the bottom of my feet looking like a dirty Swiffer pad, and I’m able to walk barefoot in my kitchen without stepping on any crumbs.
Although robot vacuums help automate the vacuuming process, most models have the unfortunate downside of requiring frequent maintenance. For example, unless your robot vacuum has a self-emptying feature, you’ll have to make sure its dustbin is emptied before you start a cleaning cycle. And if it has a built-in mop, you'll have to clean its mopping pad after every clean and refill its tank. Not only that, you’ll likely have to tidy up your home beforehand so the vacuum doesn’t get stuck on something like a cord or loose sock, which would end the vacuum job entirely.
But those annoying design setbacks simply don't exist when it comes to the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra. It was designed to put a halt to those common pain points and is a game-changing do-it-all robot vacuum that feels like it’s from the future. It’s a vacuum, mop, and, as crazy as it sounds, a security camera all in one.
Not only can the robot cleaner vacuum and mop your floors with outstanding prowess, but it also comes with an “Empty Wash Fill Dock,” so after it is finished cleaning (or if its onboard dustbin is full), the S7 MaxV Ultra will return to the base, empty the collected debris into a bag, drain its dirty water tank into a reservoir, refill itself with clean water, and then wash its own mop head.
Seamless Setup
Considering all the tricks up this robot vacuum’s sleeve, I expected it to take at least an hour to set up, but I was pleasantly surprised to have the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra up and running in under a half hour. To be honest with you, the hardest part of the setup was finding a place to put it because the Ultra Dock is rather big.
Weighing in at 18 pounds and measuring 16.6 inches in length by 19.4 inches wide and by 16.5 inches in height, the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra is an absolute unit. Thankfully, the robot vacuum itself measures 13.8 inches in diameter and 3.8 inches tall, so it's small enough to clean under most furniture.
Roborock suggests setting the base station a little over 1.5 feet away from objects on either side and just under 5 feet from anything in front of it, so take that into account upon purchase. I also recommend setting it up somewhere with solid Wi-Fi coverage so you can start the cleaner remotely. Of course, it needs to be by a power outlet, as well.
After I found a spot to put it, I downloaded the Roborock app, which automatically detected the robot and the dock in seconds, got it connected to my home Wi-Fi, and installed a software update, which took about 10 minutes.
Cleaning and Navigation Performance
I’ve been comparing and testing robot vacuums for years now. To test the Roborock, I followed the same criteria as our robot vacuums trial and was blown away not only by how well the S7 MaxV Ultra cleaned my floors, but also how well it navigated my floorplan.
I’m the proud owner of a German Shepherd and husky pup — but between the two of them, they’re quite the mess makers. They love ripping the stuffing out of toys and making a disaster with their water bowl. Plus, they leave behind tiny paw prints on my hardwood floors whenever it rains. The S7 MaxV Ultra tackles these problems with ease. It has dual cameras and AI object recognition, so it’s smart enough to avoid running over my dogs’ toys. Its onboard water tank and mopping pad use sonic vibrations to wipe up drool and clean up paw prints — all while simultaneously vacuuming my floors.
What’s even cooler is when the vacuum approaches carpet. Shortly before it transitions from hard floors to an area rug or room with carpet, the vacuum will lift its mopping pad like a forklift. Similarly to the iRobot Roomba J7+ I previously tested, the S7 MaxV is also intelligent enough to dodge pet poop, so you don’t have to worry about it making a bigger mess.
I love that the Roborock seamlessly cleans areas I can’t reach, like behind my entertainment stand, beneath my bed, and under my sofa. I like to remotely start the vacuum from my iPhone, so it runs when I’m out running errands, allowing me to come home to freshly mopped and vacuumed floors.
Other Notable Features
The first time you fire the robot vacuum up, the S7 MaxV makes a map of your entire floorplan which is visible from the Roborock app. Conveniently enough, it’ll automatically label certain rooms so you can select them from the app to clean each room individually. The app correctly identified my bedrooms and bathroom, but I had to manually name the kitchen, the hallway, and my office.
The Roborock app offers users a myriad of customization features you can tweak from suction speed to mop intensity and keep-out zones, plus you can go as granular as changing cleaning settings room by room. It even has a live-streaming camera onboard with two-way audio built-in, in case you want to use it as a remote-controlled security camera. For those who have privacy concerns, this feature is optional, and the camera cannot record or store footage.
Since it syncs with your smart speaker, starting the vacuum is as simple as saying, “Hey Siri, tell ‘Roborock’ to start cleaning.” I prefer to schedule automatic cleanings so I can go about my day without even thinking about vacuuming.
Although my townhome’s floor plan is nearly two times smaller, I also tested the Roborock in a 2,500-square-foot home, and it was able to clean the entire space on a single charge. Even if your space is bigger than that, the Roborock is smart enough to return to its dock to charge and then will resume cleaning where it last left off. You can expect roughly 140 minutes of runtime.
Minimal Maintenance
I’ve been testing the Roborock for 5 months now, and the vacuum is holding up well and cleaning just as strongly as it did the day I got it. Even though, for the most part, you can just let the vacuum do its thing — since the included Empty Wash Fill Dock takes care of swapping the dirty water for clean water and sucking out all the debris from the robot’s dust bin — you still need to occasionally tend to the dock.
Roborock says the MaxV Ultra’s Empty Wash Fill dock can go an impressive two months without needing any maintenance. Having said that, I still emptied and rinsed out the dirty wash tank once a week to keep things from getting gross and smelly. The competing Ecovacs Deebox X1 Omni packs a dryer to keep the mop pad from getting musty. I was happy to see that Roborock recently announced a similar accessory that you can attach to the dock. As for the dust bags, Roborock says you can expect those to last 8 weeks. Since I run the vacuum almost daily and deal with a lot of loose pet hair, I change mine closer to the 6-week mark.
I also recommend wiping down its sensors each month, checking the wheels for hair clogs, and washing its filter monthly. Roborock also recommends replacing the filter, side brush, and mop cloth after around six months of use.
It's also worth mentioning that if I don’t consistently run the Roborock each day and let pet hair accumulate on the floors more than normal, I’ve found that it increases the likelihood of hair getting trapped around its brush rollers (which I sometimes have to remove by hand).
Final Thoughts and Minor Faults
If you’re a pet owner, you’re probably well aware of how quickly hair starts to pile up if you skip a day of vacuuming. The maintenance of my two large dogs quickly taught me that investing in a quality robot vac and a wet/dry vacuum can help control the chaos, so my home won’t be overtaken by stray pet hair and pet messes.
Although I’m a huge fan of my cordless stick vacuum, without an ounce of doubt, out of any piece of consumer tech I’ve purchased, my robot vacuum has made the largest impact in my life. Having a robot vacuum makes all the difference in the world, and the Roborock S7 MaxV is the best one you could possibly buy.
Vacuuming and mopping with a cordless cleaner or wet/dry vacuum is a literal time suck and this robot vacuum will give you the freedom to do other tasks that you want to complete while it’s running. Although it’s extremely expensive, I can wholeheartedly say it’s worth every penny.
The biggest issue I’ve had with the Roborock is it occasionally sucks up one of my longer Lightning cables that sometimes dangles from my nightstand onto the floor. To remedy this, I got into the habit of tucking the cables in my drawer.
If you're looking for a low-maintenance robot vacuum that will get your floors looking their absolute best and keep them in tip-top shape, you won’t be disappointed.
The Closing Argument
One of the perks of being a technology editor is you get early access to groundbreaking products before they become the norm. Every now and then, I’ll come across a product that feels like it’s from the future, and although these products are few and far between, the Roborock S7 MaxV is certainly one of those products.
What separates the Roborock from the hundreds of other robot vacuums on the market is how autonomous it is. The S7 MaxV Ultra requires practically no human interventions before and after its cleaning cycles, and it does a thorough job at every cleaning task I assign. I named my robot vacuum “Destroyer” because it reminded me of a huge battleship after I pulled it out of the box, but after testing it out for a couple of months, I’m starting to think the name “Miss Independent” would be more fitting.
Shop the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra
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