Today I will review the Roborock S7 Plus, and the addition of the auto-empty dustbin makes the S7 Plus. You can buy the dustbin separately, so if you want to try out the S7 before committing to buy the dustbin, you can also do that.
Roborock allows you to buy the vacuum robot and dustbin together or separately. So today, I’m going to talk about the combination of these, and we’ll give you a final review of the S7. Many of you have been asking for that, as I’ve been running this in my house for about six months. So I’ve had plenty of time and opportunity to test it out, and I’ve also been testing it out for several months now with the auto-empty dustbin.
Roborock History
So a little bit of history for Roborock. It came initially from the company Xioami, the parent company of Roborock. They worked to produce the first robot vacuum for Xiaomi. In 2016, Roborock branched off into their own company, where they started designing robots like the S4, S5, and S6.
Fast forward today to the latest flagship today, which is the Robo Rock S7. So have they made some improvements and changes over the years? Well, we’ll talk about that in this article and tell you whether or not this is a good buy for you.
Roborock Auto Empty Dustbin Dock
The auto-empty dock was released several months ago, and I didn’t get this with my S7 at first. I’ve had the S7 for quite a bit longer, so the empty auto dock was nicely paired with the S7 right out of the box. The performance of the auto-empty dock has been outstanding after about three or four months of usage in my house.
Not once have I had a clog in the unit, and not once have I had it fail to empty out the dustbin completely. It has just been an outstanding and solid performer. Another thing to mention about the auto-empty dock is that it has a wide extraction port opening, which helps ensure that it gets everything out of the robot vacuum.
That was the unique design of the S7 and how it extracts all the debris from the dust through the actual roller brush opening. I was initially skeptical of that, thinking that it could only get some things past it, especially not with one try, but it has exceeded my expectations.
The other thing with the auto-empty dock is that it does come with a two-stage HEPA filter. So, other robot vacuums on the market claim to have a HEPA filter, but this is an excellent design HEPA filter in addition to the bag in the unit, which most robot vacuums with auto-empty docks only have a bag for filtration.
The auto-empty dock has two separate filters that give it HEPA filter status. This thing right will not stink up your house when it’s emptying your robot vacuum. Uh, so those are some of the features.
Features and Design for Roborock S7
Roborock did quite a bit to change the S7, not only to work with the auto-empty dock and the design, but they also introduced something that was a first in the market, which is the VibraRise mopping system.
On the back of the unit, you have a mopping pad that vibrates at ultrasonic speed. It also has the ability to lift itself, which is an essential feature, the ability to lift itself. You might experience this before as robot vacuums; when you attach their mopping pads, they cannot get across the carpet.
So if you have carpet between the dock and your destination, you’ll have a wet mopping pad being drugged across your carpets unless you want to pick it up. So the roller brush is another thing that was changed with the S7, a whole new design of the roller brush and the deck for the roller brush.
It is a floating design in which the roller brush sits on a deck with more movement up and down. Also, the roller brush is an all-rubber design similar to the ones in the iRobot models, and it works very well, based on my experience. Somehow the roller brush can avoid attracting hair being wrapped or tangled around it.
Since I’ve had Roborock S7, I have not had any hair tangled around the roller brush, which is a fantastic feature. In most of my other robot vacuums, I have to take the hair off of it after two or three cleanings because I have two girls in my house and a house full of cats. So, that is an excellent upgraded change with the roller brush design.
The S7 has a dedicated carpet sensor on the front of the robot vacuum that works well. It ensures that when it goes up on the carpet, it enables the rising mechanism of the mop so that you’re not dragging a wet mop cloth across your carpet. It also helps the S7 uniquely identify carpets on your map. This is the first of the S7 model from any of Roborock the ability to detect and show you where your carpet is on the app map.
Roborock S7 Performance Review
Let’s talk about performance, as that is what we most care about and how well all this works together, especially with the changes from the S6 to the S7. So the first test we’ll talk about is the tile pickup test. I use 130 grams of kitty litter scattered across my tile floor.
This test is to make sure that it can get down into between the grout, so that’s why I chose tile over my laminate. I’m pleased to announce that it picked up 125 of that 130 grams of cat litter and made it one of the best performers of any robot vacuum I have tested.
Next, we tested the carpet pickup performance. So I used rice on my carpet for the carpet pickup test, and I used 54 grams of rice in this test, and the Roborock S7 did really well. It was able to pick up 48 grams of the 54 grams of rice, making it one of the best performers on the carpet of any robot vacuums I’ve tested to date.
All the changes with the mopping attachment on the back and the VibraRise system work well. In the actual lifting of the mopping pad, I tested it on medium and low-pile carpets. I soaked the mopping pad, sent it out, and let the VibraRise system activate.
When it went across the carpet, using my hand, I felt right behind the robot vacuum to see if I felt any wetness on the carpet, and it did really well not to wet the carpet. If you have thick carpets, the VibraRise system doesn’t lift high enough to avoid those if you have thick plush carpets.
But if you have lower, medium piled carpets, the VibraRise system does a good job getting that wet mopping pad off the carpet. For the vibrated system related to cleaning and the mopping test, which is what we care about here in, the mopping system for the VibraRise did excellently.
For the next test, I used a hot sauce that was baked onto my floors. I send the robot vacuum out first in standard mode, which is a standard cleaning pattern that makes a Z-shaped pattern across the floor. In that standard mopping pattern, the Roborock S7 did about average compared to other robot vacuums.
However, when you compare that with the other option released with the S7, selecting the deep mopping option, the S7 makes tighter zigzag patterns. So the Roborock S7 is over the stain many more times, going back and forth, making the S7 one of the best mopping robot vacuums I have tested. So if you have heavy stains on your floors, make sure you choose the deep mopping option inside the app.
App for Roborock S7
So the app is really good and undoubtedly one of the best apps I’ve used for any robot vacuum. The app contains the full feature; all functionality is there, and it is effortless to map and navigate your house.
Roborock does an excellent job updating the firmware and its software with frequent updates and releases. They’re constantly fine-tuning the S 7 and all of their other robot. The app is one of the best and the leading on the market.
Drawbacks for Roborock S7
With all the good with the S7, there are a few cons and drawbacks to the S7. Number one, the floating roller brush design, is while I commend it for its design and ability to do well in all pickup tests.
That’s because the roller brush can drop all the way down on the floor for two reasons. One, to have a better suction here with the auto-empty basin, and two, to be able to get closer to the floor. And so with that, about four or five nubs stick down.
Some people have complained that they have scratched their hardwood floors. I have laminate floors in my house, and it has not done anything to scratch them. It’s difficult to scratch this kind of flooring, so there is no issue for me. However, some people may have more delicate floors in their houses, so it’s just something to keep in mind.
If you have delicate floors, when you get the S7 and maybe tested out in a small area before you go ahead and send it out for a whole house. Those nubs drag the floor, and you can hear them, especially across my tile floor. But again, it has yet to scratch any of my laminate floorings.
The next issue, which is with the side brush design, is an issue with all Roborock and other vacuum robots. It tends to get hair wrapped around it, which is a shame because the main roller brush in this does not, so I don’t have to clean it. One of the only maintenance items left for me to do with the S7 is about once a week; I have to flip it over and remove the side spinning brush to unwrap hair tangled around it.
I have tested other robot vacuums that have been able to not attract hair around the side spinning brush, quite like the Roborock side rotating brush does.
One of the things I found in my many months of testing is the new design with the mopping pad, which only allows one place for the water to come and drop on the mopping pad from the water tank. The water tank is separate for S7.
It uses a tube to drop water on the mopping pad based on the intensity of how wet you want the pad, and you can set that setting in the app. It only drops it in the very center of the mopping pad. The problem is that you need to pre-wet your pad to start mopping a space behind the robot vacuum for a small width.
I recommend you pre-wet the mopping pad on the S7 before starting the mopping process so you won’t have as much of a problem. Just something to note. Other robot vacuums have two to three different places where they drop the water across the mopping pad, so you get this even coverage instead of expecting the water to start in the middle and spread all the way out to the end.
If you purchased Roborock S7 without the auto-empty dustbin, you might be frustrated with emptying the dustbin inside the S7. When I first got the S7, I didn’t have the auto-empty dustbin, and they redesigned the internal dustbin in the S7 to allow for the auto-empty dock and into that redesign.
When I opened up the lid to the dust bin to dump it in my trashcan, I often had to reach up there and grab tangles of hair stuck up in the dustbin, not making it such a pleasant thing to do. When I could pair this with the auto-empty dustbin, it was nice to see that it thoroughly cleaned the dustbin inside the S7.
In fact, not only did it clean it out spotless, but it also cleaned my filter. That’s right. I haven’t cleaned my filter once since adding the S7 to the auto-empty dustbin. So if you buy the S7 and you’re frustrated with the internal dustbin for S7, the auto-empty dustbin is your answer to solve that problem.
I like the new roller brush design with the all-rubber roller brush design in the S7. I have seen a few people complain about it tearing up prematurely on them. The roller brushes are meant to be disposed of after certain hours of usage and replaced. It is a wear-and-tear item. However, these people are complaining about the roller brush tearing up on them after a month or two.
I’m pleased to tell you that after using this in my house for about seven months, my roller brush is not torn up. So, with that, it could depend on what people are vacuuming up if you’re allowing it to run over cords and things that it shouldn’t, and it’s getting wrapped around the roller brush.
I could see where that would tear it. So I recommend always making sure that you pick up any items on the floor before you send your robot vacuums out for cleaning.
Some things that are not really cons but can be considered for future improvements for the S7. Many people have requested a front camera or object-based recognition system across the front of the S7. In the new model, the S6 Max V has a camera-based system that can detect whether it will run over cords or other objects in your house.
One other thing I’d like for them to improve is the VibraRise. I would like to see the mop rise inside the S7, where it doesn’t have the opportunity to hit a thicker carpet. Right now, it rises a few millimeters, but more is needed for those people with plush rugs or carpets, and having that mopping pad increase a little bit would be a nice improvement.
My Verdict on Roborock S7
What do I think about the S7 and the S7 Plus with the auto-empty dustbin? Let me tell you, this is my daily go-to robot vacuum in my house when I want my floors cleaned.
The S7 is the one that does it, and the auto-empty dock is a welcome change to all of the other robot vacuums that are cookie cutters out on the market. They’ve brought some good innovation with the S7 and their auto-empty dock and hit the nail on the head.
While there are some cons and drawbacks to it, the same goes for all of the robot vacuums I have tested, and I’ll say that the S7 has the least of them. They’re all things you can work around, and at the end of the day, the performance of this thing is top-notch in vacuuming on the carpet and hard floors.
The mopping performance is excellent, and the auto-empty dock has made using the S7 an absolute breeze. The auto-empty dust bin has a three-liter dust bag, which has been enough for me to run for about four months. Your mileage may vary depending on how much square footage of our house.
The addition to the HEPA filter is very much welcomed, and I have checked it, and the HEPA filter is still looking relatively clean after six months. So do I recommend the S7 Plus?
The answer is absolutely recommended to get the S7 with or without the auto-empty dock. Whether you get the S7 or the S7 Plus with the auto-empty dock, you can’t go wrong with either of them, especially if you can live with some drawbacks or understand how to work around them. All right.
I appreciate you reading this article, and if you have any questions about the Roborock S7, go ahead and drop those in the discussion below.