Hey guys, welcome to Robotobzor! Finally I got the Roborock S7, which went for sale in March 2021. So over a few weeks I tested the robot in different climates, to deeply analyze the functions. I’ll get ahead of myself here, but this robot has pleasantly surprised me, so I recommend watching the video from start to finish! I linked the store’s link in the description, where you can buy the robot in two colors: black and white. The current price is $600. And now, let’s get started!
Amazon: https://amzn.to/42tiYUu
What’s new?!
First let me tell you what changed in our Roborock S7.First is – an updated central brush, now made of thermoplastic polyurethane. The new updates help the robot get less hair and fur stuck onto it, and with that comes less manual maintenance.
Secondly, and this si more important, a new tech called VibraRise, which is short for Vibrate and rise. This makes the mopping container vibrate up to 3,000 times per minute, which helps get more dirt that may be stuck on the floor out. And when the robot goes on carpets or on the charging base, the container rises 5mm (0.1 inches) up, so that way the floor doesn’t get ruined from the moisture.
And lastly – Roborock S7 has an auto-cleaning base. This is the first Roborock to have an auto-clean base. Sadly, the robot is sold with a regular charging base. The self-cleaning station is sold optionally and costs $300.
So all of these new characteristics make Roborock S7 one of the best robot vacuums in the 2021. But first we have to know how much these additions affect the robot’s productivity. So all in due time.
What’s inside?
The robot came in this cool box:
Inside are these items:
- The charging base. In front of the clips we see brushes that clean the plug every time the robot rides onto it.
- A charger
- A mopping container with a microfiber cloth.
- The manual and instructions on connecting the robot to the internet.
This is everything. No spares at all, and the box looks kind of boring.
Design
Now let’s look at the vacuum itself. I got the model in white, and I think that this color is more practical. It’s harder to see fingerprints and scratches on the outer shell.
The first thing that I see, is the led indicator in front of the control panel. It lights up different colors depending on the robot’s status. For example, when it’s cleaning, it shines blue, and when it’s charging, it turns green. Looks pretty cool.
On the control panel are three buttons: return to base for charging, start/pause, and local cleaning.
On the right of the bumper is a wall sensor, and on the center is an obstacle sensor. Sadly, there is no camera, but that might change in the newer Roborock T7s, which is probably going to be released towards the end of the year.
The dust collector is right under the top lid. Next to it we see a Wi-Fi indicator that tells us the Wi-Fi connection, and a reset button. Here’s an interesting detail. There is an air inlet that you need to open if you have an auto-clean base.
Let’s come back to the dust collector. There is a label telling us that it’s ok to wash it, just make sure to dry it before putting it back in the robot. There is no protective shutter. The filter that releases clean air is on the side under the very top. Oh, and the HEPA-filter changed its spot. Now it’s under the top part. This is a huge benefit, as the suction power won’t decrease if the dust container is filled with dirt. The only filtration system is HEPA-filter, which sucks, at least add a net in front of the filter.
Here’s a cool detail, the dust collector’s side wall is scaled, which should be docked with the robot’s inlet, and hidden. You will probably need to buy a special dust container when buying an auto-cleaning base, or maybe it will already be in the kit, which isn’t likely. Hopefully we’ll know soon. The dust collector fits about 470 ml (15 Oz.).
The water container is conjoined with the dust collector, but it’s behind the container. It can be taken off with a button.
It also changed its look a bit. As we can see, there is no pump, which is actually already inside the robot, and the container only has a straw. When opening the valve, we can see an additional MESH filter, which prevents debris from entering the water supply, which is great. The container fits about 300 ml (10 Oz.) of water.
Now let’s look at Roborock S7 from below. It has 6 anti-fall sensors. On the front is a carpet sensor. There is only one side brush. The brush also changed, it became 5 sided and made of silicone. In the center is the new brush. The sides are pretty elastic, and is made well. The brush can be taken off from both sides for maintenance.
And here is our mopping platform. The cloth, like before, is attached through VELCRO and a slider. In the center we can see a loose part, which actually vibrates. The moving area isn’t that large, so later we’ll test how effective this actually is. But the cloth itself has gotten much denser.
Here’s an important detail, which was requested we test – can you replace the silicone brush to a regular bristle brush, which is in all other Roborocks. So the brush fit in the grooves, and the length didn’t change. But the brush’s bristles are longer, and so it spins worse. When I test it, I’ll show you the difference in cleaning quality.
Note that Roborock S7’s auto-cleaning happens through the main suction vents происходит через основное всасывающее отверстие, so between the brush and nozzle you will find a big gap. See for yourself. This also serves as a benefit, I’ll explain later.
In general, the robot’s construction is good. Its assembled well, and its full of helpful details. Let’s move on.
Technical features
Roborock S7’s characteristics:
- Battery Li-Ion 5200 mAh.
- Suction power up to 2500 PA.
- Battery life 180 mins.
- Cleaning area 250 Sq.m (820 Sq.f).
- Dust container 470 ml (15 Oz.).
- Water container 300 ml (10 Oz.).
- Obstacle size 20 mm (.78 inches).
- Size: 350*97 mm (13×3 inches).
In terms of characteristics, nothing changed really.
Functions
Roborock S7 is controlled through the Mi Home app, as well as the Roborock.
On the main page you can see the map your robot had built, and zoned into separate rooms. In settings we first see the option to control your map. Roborock S7 can save multiple maps. You can also change the robot’s name, turn off the light indicators, turn off the robot’s buttons from kids, who might want to have a little fun with your robot, turn on Do Not Disturb, and select area units.
There is a separate tab for carpet settings. Here I’ll go into a little more detail. The first point asks you if you want to turn on automatic power increase on carpets, which I recommend doing.
Below are VibraRise’s functions. The function “Auto-carpet” actually lifts the platform up as to not damage the carpet. Here’s how it works:
When the robot detects a carpet, it lifts the platform, goes around the carpet’s perimeter, therefore finding its corners, and cleans the whole carpet’s area. Then Roborock S7 gets off the carpet, and goes around the rest of the room’s area with a lowered platform. I have a carpet with medium sized fibers, and the lift really helps not get my carpet wet. So my results are- after several rides by the robot my carpet is clean and dry. Cool!
The second mode is called “Avoid carpets”. It’s recommended to turn on when you have fluffy carpets in your house, and the amount the robot lifts isn’t enough to save your robot. In this mode when the robot finds a carpet, it first goes around the perimeter, but with a lowered container. This way, Roborock S7 can vacuum and mop the whole area except for the carpet, and will remain untouched, so don’t worry about setting up a no-go zone.
And third, this mode is a little weird, but there is a mode called “carpet vibrating”. Here Roborock S7 completely ignores carpets, no matter if it’s mopping or vacuuming. I don’t know why this is needed, but it’s there.
The robot also remembers where carpets are on the map, and if you want, you can delete them, or modify the carpet size.
Let’s come back to the rest of the functions. You can choose the language and volume your robot speaks in.
In the cleaning schedule settings you can chose the time, date, days of the week, cleaning mode, and the needed rooms, as well as a specific point on the map.
You can also send the robot to a point for local cleaning, turn on manual controls, check the cleaning log, check the water level, and update the app when needed. I set the app to the latest version. You can also share controls and turn on “find my robot’.
Let’s come back to the main screen. Here you can pick one of the 3 cleaning modes: the full area, the needed rooms and the amount of the times the robot goes through each room (once or three times), and the cleaning zone on the map, and again the amount of time the robot goes through.
In the map settings you can set up virtual walls, no-go zones, and no-go zones only for mopping. You can also modify the rooms, separate them, combine them, and name each room.
You can also customize the cleaning sequence and even chose a mod for each room. This is very helpful. You can also manually adjust the suction power, cloth wetness, and chose a cleaning mode called “power clean”, in which the Roborock S7 only mops with vibration.
These are all of the app’s functions, and to be honest, this is everything you need to get the most out of your robot.
Testing
Navigation
Finally we can get to the tests. First let’s test Roborock S7 navigation in a room with obstacles. First the robot goes through the whole perimeter, and then goes through the area in a snake like pattern. The drying rack didn’t cause problems, and the robot cleaned around the box and around each chair leg. After cleaning the robot returned to base.
And in the rest of the house, I chose the “Auto-carpet” mode, as the guest bedroom and the master bedroom have fluffy carpets. So Roborock S7 cleans room after room first around the perimeter, and then in a snake-like pattern. Whenever the robot detects a carpet, it first cleans the carpet with the platform raised. Because of this, the cleaning speed suffers a little, but you don’t need to turn on the robot twice for wet cleaning and a separate dry one on carpets. The robot cleared 32 Sq.M (104 sq.f) in 37 minutes, while other robots can get this done in like 25-30 mins. But as I already said, the navigation is very good. There are no dry spots, no missed areas, and the carpets are dry and clean. Test passed!
Suction power
And here is the most surprising part. When I turned the robot on during my tests, I realized that the new brush may affect the suction power. But I was pleasantly surprised. Roborock S7 sucked dirt all the way to 10 mm (.39 inches), which is the same as the most powerful robots on our channel, who had 3000-4000 Pa. Let me remind you, that Roborock S7 has only 2500 Pa, like S6 MaxV, which could suck dirt only from 2mm (0.07 inches).
If I got this robot a little sooner – then it would definetly be the top powerful robot of 2021. The results are great, and the test was passed!
Vacuuming
Now let’s check, how Roborock S7 does with vacuuming a hard surface. We scattered dust, hair, fur, some random dirt, and even kitty litter. So the robot got all of the dirt without any problems, only leaving some dust in the corners, which is common for round robots. So as we can now see, the robot is able to pick up relatively large dirt, like kitty litter. The brush isn’t blocked, because there is a big enough gap between it and the auto-cleaning nozzle. This is a huge plus.
Let’s check on the dirt container and the brush. As you can see, most of the dirt, including hair and fur, is in the container.
The brush only has a few hairs stuck to it, which can easily be taken off. Oh, and note that there is no tool for cleaning the brushes and robot itself. I think it wouldn’t hurt to still have it.
Let’s test how a regular bristle brush will do, like the one that’s in every other model.
As you can see the results are the same, and no dirt is left. And now as for the brush itself, well here’s the problem I was talking about. There’s no space for the brush to move as the bristles are long, and so the dirt just collects in the brush itself. This is really unhelpful, and I don’t recommend replacing your brush with a bristle brush in this model. You can try to experiment and make the bristles shorter yourself by a millimeter, maybe ten it will work better. If you have done this, share your results in the comments below.
Carpet cleaning
So let’s put the old brush back in and test our robot on carpets. And as you can see, Roborock S7 does a great job. The increased power definitely contributed. But in my opinion I think that the old bristle brush does a better job on carpets. The difference is small, but it’s there.
Mopping
And now I’ll do two tests. First the basic check- how well the robot mops the floor. This it did well, only a small line remains along the baseboard, which is common in most Xiaomi vacuums that were on our review.
Now let’s test how the vibration contributes. Here I spilled sauce and coffee, after which the liquids dried for a few days. And here is where I have a double sided opinion.
First of all, the wheels aren’t made for these conditions, unlike a special crawling wall polisher’s. The wheels get sauce on them and drift, and the robot can’t clean in a full snake-like pattern to do a quality job. Take a look at the robot for yourself, after it’s done with cleaning:
Secondly, even if you need to clean the wheels from time to time, the vibrating platform doesn’t really show any good results. The robot could get rid of the stains only after 20 minutes. Robot polishers ca get this done in 3 times less time than this model. And because the vibrating space is really small, there’s no point in using this as a floor polisher.
I also wanted to test how Viomi S9 would do, which was also released in 2021 and is considered one of the best vacuums.
So this vacuum with a regular cloth and container could get the same stain out in 10 minutes. You can’t really compare it robot polishers, but this still proves that the vibrating platform only hurts the robot, and is just a way for the marketing team to get you to buy their product.
It’s possible that in some scenarios the vibrating platform actually does help, but for now, I can’t confirm that.
Vacuuming and mopping
I’ll also show how Roborock S7 simultaneously mops and vacuums. I have no complaints about it and the quality is actually really good. Test passed flying colors!
Obstacles
Now let’s see how well Roborock S7 goes over different obstacles. So even without the special mopping container, the robot still has problems going over objects. 15 mm (0.6 inches) is nothing to this guy, but 20 mm (0.78 inches) is much harder to get past, and this isn’t really good. The past Roborocks could do this, and were much better with obstacles. And with an installed container it can’t even go over 15 mm, as the container gets stuck on the obstacles. This is important to note.
Dark spaces
Roborock still has problems with dark spaces. It recognizes the black carpet as cliff, even though the sensors lag a bit and sometimes even drive into the dark carpet. But for some reason it starts going around in a circle, as if around a chair leg. So for now the problem remains, but it’s gotten better than before.
Noise level
And lastly I tested Roborock S7’s sound level in different modes. On minimum it got 62-64 dB. In medium mode it reached 7 dB, in Turbo mode it went up to 71 dB, and on max it rose to 74 dB. Yeah, it’s loud, but this is mostly because of the high suction power, so I’m not complaining.
Conclusion
Roborock S7 was thoroughly described and tested. Our algorithm gave it 84/100, 5 of which it got the auto-cleaning base. For now it’s at 79 without the base.
The overall rating of models that passed the Robotobzor test https://robotobzor.com/ratings/general-rating-of-robot-vacuum-cleaners.html.
Now I’ll give you my personal opinion on the robot. I liked that:
- It has a good LIDAR navigation.
- Has good suction power.
- The lift of the mopping container, thanks to which you can now clean carpets and the floor in one go.
- The new brush gets less hair and is easier to clean.
- Collects dirt well.
- The conjoined water and dust containers.
- All of the great functions in the app.
- Good mopping and vacuuming.
- Brand reliability.
- And the soon to come auto-cleaning base.
And as for the setbacks, I got this:
- The vibrating platform didn’t do anything.
- The robot is afraid of dark spaces.
- The robot is worse with obstacles.
- The auto-cleaning base isn’t everywhere, and there is no way to know when it will come.
Amazon: https://amzn.to/42tiYUu
All in all the setbacks are more of warnings than actual problems. Oh, and also the fact that they decided to wait to put the camera on the bumper in the upcoming model. If this robot had a way to identify objects, then I think that it would be the best robot vacuum cleaner at this time.
But in any case, for its price, this robot is really good for anyone who wants a vacuum that can also mop, and has a vacuum in their house. The lifting mopping container brings a new age of robot vacuums, that we hope to see more of.
On this note, I would like to end the review. Have fun shopping, bye!
