Roborock S7 UK Review (2024)

Every robot vacuum cleaner has to go through our challenging cleaning tests.

We spread 50 grams of oat flakes, sand and lentils one after the other on laminate and carpets (low pile/high pile). Then we check how the vacuum cleaner copes with it.

The Roborock S7 fulfils all requirements - at least on paper:

• 2500 Pa suction power

• A dust container with a capacity of 470 ml.

• Main brush made of plastic (hair can’t wrap itself around it)

• An oscillating main brush (better adaptation to uneven floors)

Cleaning test on the laminate

First, the Roborock S7 had to show what it’s got on the laminate.

The result was very good!

Neither lentils (100%)...

...nor oat flakes (100 %) stood a chance against the Roborock S7.

And what about sand?

The Roborock S7 hardly reached its limits with that, either! It removed a whopping 96% of the sand on the laminate.

The results speak for themselves: The Roborock S7 cleans hard floors without any problems.

The cleaning performance here is impeccable.

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The Cleaning Test on Carpets

Hard floors don’t pose a threat to the Roborock S7.

But what about carpets?

The robot vacuum cleaner has a carpet detection function. The Roborock S7 automatically increases the suction power to "Max" as soon as it drives onto a carpet.

Furthermore, the Roborock S7 is equipped with special " knobs". These "roughen" the carpet a little . In this way, the dirt can be vacuumed better.

Another novelty: The Roborock S7 sweeps the carpet’s edges first. That’s where a lot of dirt usually hides, so the robot vacuum gets a better hold of it. After that, the robot moves on to clean the rest of the carpet.

We test the cleaning performance on a high pile/low pile carpet.

The Roborock S7 came out with flying colours here, too!

Test result on a low carpet:

Test result on a high pile carpet:

Lentils

The Roborock S7 removed the lentils with gusto!

The vacuum-mopping robot had no problems cleaning both the high pile carpet (100%) and the low pile carpet (100%).

Oatmeal

It reliably removed the coarse oat flakes on the high carpet (49 %) and the low carpet (100 %), too.

Sand

Sand on a carpet is usually more challenging for a vacuum cleaner.

It takes very powerful suction to remove the heavy sand from the carpet fibres.

But the Roborock S7 did a great job here, too.

It removed 80% on the low carpet....

... and 90% on the high pile carpet. That makes the Roborock S7 one of the premium robot vacuums on the market.

How well does the Roborock S7 clean in Everyday Life?

We let the Roborock S7 clean our apartment over several weeks after the excellent results in our "extreme cleaning test".

Our hard floors (laminate, PVC and tiles) were a piece of cake for the Roborock S7.

The "Balanced" cleaning mode was utterly sufficient to remove 100% of the "everyday dirt".

The robot won’t miss a single spot in the apartment, thanks to the excellent laser navigation.

Long story short: We were thrilled!

Let’s cut to the chase.

The cleaning along the ledges is excellent.

The Roborock S7 moves very close to the ledges, thanks to the unique "wall sensors". The Side Brush sweeps out the dirt so that the robot can suck it up.

It also did a great job cleaning corners.

The result is very satisfactory, considering that it’s a round-shaped robot vacuum cleaner.

Only the D-shaped robot vacuums (e.g. Roomba S9) performed better.

However, these are relatively rare, as they have numerous other disadvantages.

Create a Good Starting Point

Before you send the Roborock S7 out to mop for the first time, you should wet clean your home very thoroughly by hand.

That way, the Roborock S7 has the best conditions for its first mopping trip.

Now you can let the robot mop your apartment every other day.

Then you’ll always maintain a certain "basic level" of cleanliness.

It’s entirely sufficient if you mop your home every few weeks by hand.

Always use a Fresh Mop Pad

We recommend washing the mop after each mopping in the washing machine at 40 degrees (with your dirty laundry).

The cleaner the mop, the better the mopping result.

Unfortunately, the delivery scope includes only one mop.

But: You can buy extra mops on the Internet.

Wet the Mop Before You Start Cleaning

We wet our mop thoroughly before we start cleaning.

This way, you make sure that the mop is wet from the first moment of the cleaning run...

...so that the robot creates an even mopping trace.

Use Special Cleaning Agents

First of all, Roborock doesn’t recommend using special cleaners. According to the manufacturer, this can damage the water container.

So if you put special cleaners (designed for mopping robots) in the water container, you do so at your own risk.

However, we have had excellent experiences with our vacuum-mopping robot (Roborock S5 Max). Adding special cleaning agents improves the mopping result by a bit.

Small tip: Alternatively, you can also put some cleaner onto the mop or directly on the floor.

Operation with buttons

You can control the Roborock S7 with three buttons that are on top of the robot vacuum.

(1) Power button - start/stop a cleaning process

(2) Home button - Return to charging station

(3) Spot cleaning / Child lock

Especially the child lock button (3) is pretty exciting. If you press it for 3 seconds, you - or rather, your children - can’t control the robot vacuum with the buttons anymore.

Therefore, children or pets (e.g. cats) can’t "accidentally" interrupt the cleaning process :)

Mobile App

Your Roborock S7 becomes "smart" by using a mobile phone app.

You can choose between two options:

• Roborock App (iOS / Android)

• Xiaomi Home (iOS / Android)

Both apps are identical in terms of functionality.

We recommend the Xiaomi Home App if you have several smart home devices from Xiaomi in use. This way, you can control all devices via one app.

The fact that Roborock releases bug fixes, updates, etc. faster speaks for the in-house Roborock app.

Installation

You have to do the following steps to set up the app:

• Download the app from the App Store.

• Sign up with an email address and password.

• Add your Roborock S7 via the menu item "Add device".

• Connect it to the WiFi.

• Done. Now you can start the first cleaning trip.

The setup of the mobile app went 100% smoothly. The app was ready to go after about 3 minutes ?

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Functionality of the Mobile App

The mobile app offers numerous functions and settings, making daily floor cleaning extremely easy.

The following functions are available in the mobile app:

Live Mapping

You can see your robot vacuum live in the mobile app.

The white lines show the area that’s already clean.

The “hazy” lines show where the Roborock S7 also mopped the floor.

Water Intensity/Suction Power per Room

You can set the water intensity or the suction power individually for each room.

Another special feature of the Roborock S7: The vibration speed of the mopping plate also depends on the water intensity level:

• “Low": 1650 vibrations / minute

• “Medium": 2300 vibrations / minute

• "High": 3000 vibrations / minute

Activating "Deep cleaning" (For Mopping only)

Here, the Roborock S7 turns off the suction motor and only mops your home...

...and that very "thoroughly".

The Roborock S7 will mop each path twice. It also reduces the distances between the mopping paths.

Single Room Cleaning

You don't always want the robot to vacuum/mop the entire apartment.

You can also use the "Single Room Cleaning" feature to let Roborock clean only one specific room.

Spot Cleaning

Did you drop some chips?

No problem! You can simply define a specific spot in the map that the robot vacuum should clean.

Setting up No-Go Zones and No-Mop Zones

You can also define areas where you don’t want the Roborock S7 to vacuum or mop.

That’s very practical: You can zoom in on the map, making it much easier to "draw" the areas.

Saving up to 4 Maps

The Roborock S7 can save up to 4 maps. That makes it very suitable for homes with several floors.

Separate / Merge Rooms

The robot vacuum automatically separates rooms during the map creation. That worked flawlessly in our apartment.

Nevertheless, you can also separate or merge rooms manually if you want.

Setting up the Cleaning Order

You can also set the order of the rooms where the robot should clean (for example, bedroom first, then the living room, then the kitchen, etc.).

Carpet Turbo

The Roborock S7 will switch to the highest cleaning mode ("Max") every time it drives onto a carpet if you activate this setting.

Dealing with Carpets when the Mopping Function is Activated

You can choose how the vacuum-mop robot should handle the carpets in the mobile app. The following options are available:

• Raising the mopping plate

• Driving onto the carpet

• Avoid the carpet

If the Roborock S7 mistakenly marks an area as a "carpet" on the map, you can edit that as well.

Timer Function

Here you can set when you want the Roborock S7 to clean your home.

Maintenance

Under the menu item "Maintenance", you can check the condition of the individual spare parts. You can also see valuable cleaning/maintenance tips here.

Room Naming

You can name the individual rooms in your apartment.

Voice Output

The Roborock S7 likes to share what it’s up to, "Start cleaning", "Cleaning finished, going back to the dock", etc.

You can switch off the voice output or adjust the volume in the app.

Language Selection

You can choose from many different languages (English, French, Chinese, German etc.)

Remote Control

You can also control the Roborock S7 with a kind of "joystick". It’s pretty entertaining, but we haven’t found an actual use for it yet.

Conclusion on the App

We'll make this quick and easy.

The app is currently the best on the market.

The range of functions is outstanding.

The operation is effortless.

But more importantly, the app runs smoothly and reliably - just like Swiss clockwork.

No bugs, no translation errors, no crashes.

In other words, the mobile app is really good, and no other app can hold a candle to it.

It certainly deserves our highest possible score!

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Voice Control with Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri

You can control the Roborock S7 via voice commands, too.

It works with Amazon's Alexa, Google Home Assistant and Apple Siri.

We tested the voice control with Alexa (Roborock Home Skill).

It worked wonderfully.

You can use the following commands:

Roborock relies on laser navigation (Lidar sensors).

The robot vacuum scans the room with a unique laser distance sensor (LDS). With this, the little housekeeper always knows where it’s at and where it has to go next.

The advantage: The robot vacuum can easily clean your apartment in absolute darkness, too.

It's remarkable how well the Roborock S7's navigation works.

It drives around the apartment without any problems.

Structured.

Seamless.

And fast. (The Roborock S7 takes about 1 minute for 1 m²!).

Long story short: The navigation is top-notch!

Dealing with Obstacles

The Roborock S7 also avoids „large“ obstacles. The vacuum-mopping robot is super gentle (almost too gentle) with furnishings.

It marks larger objects (doors (1), cupboards (2), table legs (3), etc.) on the map and avoids them during its cleaning trip.

The bumper comes into action now and then. But that’s quite normal - that's what it's here for ;)

Then the robot vacuum slightly nudges the object, recognises that there is an obstacle and looks for a way around it.

It doesn’t recognise smaller objects (e.g. socks, shoelaces, etc.) as obstacles.

Therefore, you should remove them before the robot’s cleaning trip.

In our experience, you’ll only need the "automatic obstacle detection of smaller objects" in very chaotic households. We can do without it because we clean up the floor as much as possible before cleaning. But that’s relatively normal since you can’t clean a floor that’s covered with things.

The Roborock S7 has a 5200mAh battery.

The robot vacuum can clean your home for up to 3 hours at a time (maximum cleaning area: 300 m²) in the lowest power mode ("Quiet") with this battery.

A full charge can take up to 6 hours (when the battery is almost empty).

But the robot vacuum also has a reliable "Charge & Resume" function. Thanks to this, the robot vacuum drives to the docking station to charge the battery whenever it runs low. Then it continues cleaning at the same point where it had to interrupt its trip.

The long-lasting battery, super-fast navigation and Recharge & Resume features make the S7 perfect for large apartments/houses.

Another advantage: If you use the "thorough cleaning mode" (only available for mopping), it won’t use much of the battery (because the suction motor is turned off).

The Robot Vacuum Cleaner

The robot vacuum itself has a round shape - as usual from Roborock UK.

It weighs 4.7 kg, has a height of 9.65 cm (3.8 inches) and a diameter of 35 cm (13.7 inches).

The Roborock S7 also stays below the “magic limit” of 10 cm (3,9 inches) height. Thus, the robot vacuum fits under most heaters, beds, etc.

The robot vacuum is available in the UK in two colours: white and black.

From a visual point of view, the Roborock S7 doesn’t differ much from its predecessors.

But it does have a few unique features in stock.

Firstly, the LED status light. It indicates what the robot vacuum is currently doing:

• White=Vacuuming

• Blue=Mopping

• Status when charging the battery (blue = battery is charging, green = battery is full)

This is quite handy, as you can quickly see the robot’s status without using the app.

Furthermore, you can also see wave-like design elements around the laser tower. These probably represent the pulsating mopping plate (sonic mopping).

That’s a cool effect.

The upper side is made of plastic and has a matte finish. The appearance looks quite like glass.

You get a glimpse into the inner workings of the robot vacuum if you open the lid (which is surrounded by a silver frame).

You can see a dust container, for example. You can remove it with a handle for emptying.

The bottom also looks very similar to the previous models but has one or two small changes.

The main brush is made of rubber. That prevents hair from wrapping around the brush (we’ll talk more about that in the chapter "Roborock S7 for hair").

The housing of the brush has also changed. It has a "swinging" installation now.

With this, the robot vacuum can optimally adapt to the surface and picks up dirt more effectively.

You’ll see most of the changes in the design at the back.

The mopping plate and the water tank are now permanently installed in the device.

The new arrangement simplifies handling immensely.

You can easily remove and replace the mopping plate and water tank.

To sum up:

The quality and design of the Roborock S7 are impeccable - as usual.

There's nothing to complain about here.

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Charging Dock / Auto-Empty Dock

The Docking Station

The charging dock has the following dimensions: Height: 10 cm (3.9 inches) x width: 12.7 cm (5 inches).

Thus, the charging dock is relatively small, so that you can put it under a cabinet, for example.

If you take a closer look, you can see two small brushes. They clean the charging contacts when the robot docks at the charging station.

A smart idea ?.

The charging station doesn’t have a cable management system in the back.

That’s a minor drawback.

At least they included a cable tie in the delivery scope. With this, you can stow away excess cable.

Another thing: The power cable is relatively short (approx. 1 meter). Thus, you have to place the charging station close to the socket.

Auto-Empty Dock

The auto-empty dock will be available in the UK in Autumn 2021.

This is what we know so far:

• The emptying station will be available in white and black colour.

• You can choose between a reusable container or disposable dust bags for the emptying station.

• and: It looks cool ?.

Of course, we will let you know as soon as we have more information about the self-emptying dustbin.

The Roborock S7 is currently only available in the UK without the emptying station.

The robot vacuum’s current RRP is in the higher price segment.

We don’t know the price for the self-emptying dustbin yet.

Whether there will be a somewhat discounted "bundle package" (robot vacuum + emptying station) is also unclear.

Is the higher price justified?

We think so!

The Roborock S7 even looks cheap if you compare it to competitor models with "similar" range of functions (e.g. Ecovacs Deebot T8 AIVI).

However, if you already have a Roborock S6 MaxV or a Roborock S5 Max (both are good devices), then you should think twice if you want to replace them with the Roborock S7.