Life is getting busier and time is more valuable than ever, so anything that can save time is worth considering. Maybe you just need a little help and are looking for an easier way to maintain the floors in your home. I spent the last few months testing the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra to see if the high price tag was justified.
I’ve reviewed quite a few robot vacuums over the past few years and all of them were great in their own way, but the S7 MaxV Ultra is the most advanced and feature-rich I’ve tested to date. It comes complete with the S7 MaxV robot vacuum as well as a separate docking station with three large containers. You can buy the S7 MaxV on its own, but the docking station not only charges, but also mop-cleans, fills clean water, and even empties the dust bin for ultimate automation and convenience.
The S7 is your typical circular-shaped robot vacuum cleaner with two large spring-loaded wheels underneath, a rotating brush and a rubber brush bar that gulps up dust and dirt, which is then sucked up by the powerful motor. The brush is made of rubber rather than bristles, which prevents pet hair from tangling, further reducing maintenance.
The all-black S7 MaxV has a sizable plastic bumper on the front, but unlike other robot vacuums I’ve tested, it gently touches rather than bumps into obstacles like furniture. There’s also a Lidar scanner on top as well as a host of sensors around the vacuum. On the front there’s a camera which can be used as a live view to see what’s going on around your home, but it’s disabled by default for privacy reasons. Of course, I turned it on for testing purposes and to keep an eye on my pets when I was away. It also has a built-in mic and you can have a two-way conversation with others through the vacuum speaker.
While this may seem like a trivial use for the camera, its real purpose is to work with the Lidar sensor to recognize things like socks, cables, and other objects that might get stuck in the brush or wheels. of the vacuum cleaner – it can even detect pets. poo.
Most of the time it will simply avoid a recognized object and go around it. Over the few months of testing, there have been several updates that continue to improve bot obstacle avoidance.
Three buttons are included on the top of the robot vacuum that can be used to turn it on or off, start a cleaning, or return it to the charging station. Above these buttons is a semicircular LED light that sweeps back and forth with white when vacuuming, blue when cleaning, and green when charging. The light strip is very futuristic and reminds me of the Cylons from Battlestar Galactica.
The dust bin sits under a flap on the top of the device and can be emptied manually, but I never had to since the docking station automatically vacuums the contents after each cleaning cycle. The robot vacuum can mop and sweep hard floors with a small water tank and a semi-circular cleaning pad. The S7 mop system has a section in the center of the mop that uses sonic vibration technology to scrub hard floors 3,000 times per minute. You can choose from three brushing intensity levels and five suction power settings for a combination of three different cleaning modes.
The docking station is where the S7 MaxV charges and this can be set to only charge during off-peak hours like overnight. This was a handy feature for me since I have electricity at the night rate.
The Dock has three containers – one for fresh water, another for dirty water which it pulls out of the S7 MaxV when cleaning the mop and the third container holds the dust bag. With my daily cleaning regimen, I needed to drain dirty water and refill new water usually once a week. The app will remind you and a red light will let you know the docking station needs attention.
The docking station not only empties dirty water and refills fresh water, but also cleans the mop with a stiff bristle brush. I found that I had to clean the mop cleaner filter once a month. Although not a pleasant chore, it only takes a few minutes.
The free Roborock app for Android or iOS is easy to use yet incredibly comprehensive. If you prefer, you can set cleaning schedules and leave it at that, but you can do a whole lot more in the app.
The S7 MaxV will map and store your floor plan in the app. You can change the maps into rooms, zones and sections and even create no-go zones where you don’t want the vacuum cleaner to clean. It can detect furniture like sofas or TV cabinets, but if it misrecognizes, you can manually edit the map and correct the furniture types.
The app can display 3D maps of your home and not just the standard 2D maps. And, if you have an iPhone 12 or later, you can use its camera to create a raster map, to capture information about furniture and floor types, so you can start cleaning that can’t include, for example , than the area around your bed or your dining table. While this is pretty cool technology, it’s not a must-have feature.
Plus, the S7 MaxV works with Alexa and Google Assistant, so you can start the robot vacuum without opening an app, just tell it to start cleaning with your voice.
No matter how good a robot vacuum is, you’ll still need to do a thorough cleaning once in a while, as dust collects in nooks and crevices where it just can’t reach. However, a daily cleaning schedule can keep your floors clean and dust-free with little effort on your part.
Although the S7 MaxV is one of the most powerful robot vacuums on the market, it’s also incredibly quiet. Sure, it gets stronger at max suction power, but it’s not as strong as my Henry. Even at the lowest power setting, it easily removes large debris, as well as small dust and, most importantly, pet hair from hard floors. I don’t have a rug in my house but I laid down a rug to test its ability to pick up dirt. On the low-pile carpet, it automatically lifted the mop to ensure it didn’t get wet and increased the suction power. The latter is a setting you can enable, but if you don’t have a mat it can be disabled.
If you think it needs it, you can manually adjust the suction power to the quietest mode or the maximum suction power. The only time the system gets noisy is when it empties the bin into the dock, which takes a few minutes.
My daily cleaning schedule was set at 7am every morning. The results were outstanding and with little to no effort on my part. I’ve used a mop and cleaning routine and although the cleaning function isn’t as good as good old fashioned elbow grease with a sloppy wet mop for stubborn floor stains, it does an amazing job to maintain a high standard of cleanliness. The mop’s “sonic” technology really works and is much more efficient than typical robot vacuums that simply wipe your floors with a damp mop.
The Lidar sensor combined with the camera and projector can accurately scan and map your floors and detect things like furniture, even in the dark. This allows the robot to intelligently clean the entire floor in a systematic way rather than like dump robots that just bump into each other and keep going until the battery runs out.
The battery lasts up to 180 minutes between charges and takes up to four hours to fully charge. Actual usage really depends on suction power, type of cleaning, and even floor type. If you have a large floor area and it can’t complete cleaning on a single charge, it will return to the dock, charge, and then end the session.
The Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra is the ultimate solution to keeping your floors clean with the least amount of user interaction and maintenance. You can keep things very simple or dig deeper into all the features the system has to offer through the app.
The only two things I didn’t like were that the S7 MaxV is 96.5mm tall and couldn’t fit under my couch and the docking station takes up a lot of space. Despite these minor quibbles and its hefty price tag, the S7 MaxV Ultra is easily one of my favorite tech products this year and well worth the money for what you get.
Roborock S7 Max V Ultra Roborock
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