The promise of robotic vacuums is to take the work of cleaning off your hands, but if you own one, you know that there’s still plenty of work to be done after the robot has done its job.
This may change with Roborock’s new flagship robot cleaner, the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra.
The robot itself is a cross between the Roborock S6 MaxV Ultra, sharing its cameras and smart object detection, and the Roborock S7, which has more powerful suction and the VibraRise mopping tech, which combines sonic mopping with an automatic mop lift while traversing carpets.
Like most newer Roborock vacuums, the S7 MaxV Ultra also creates a map of your home with support for multiple floors and the ability to avoid certain zones. The new ReactiveAI 2.0 obstacle avoidance system should make this one, well, better at avoiding obstacles — regardless of lighting conditions.
But what makes the new robot really interesting is the accompanying dock, the Empty Wash Fill Dock. Once docked, the S7 MaxV Ultra will get automatically refilled with water, and its dust bin emptied into the dock’s container. The dock can also wash the robot’s mop, self-cleaning itself in the process.
I own both the S5 and the S6 MaxV Ultra and I can confirm that they vacuum and mop well, and do a decent job of mapping my house and avoiding obstacles. However, the emptying of the dust bin, adding water, and cleaning the mop do add up to quite a bit of additional work, so if this new combo can consistently do all that by itself, it sounds like a winning combo.
The robot is smart, but the magic is in the dock.
Credit: Roborock
It’s worth noting that the auto-refill function for the water does have its limits; it’s good for up to 300 square meters of mopping, which is 50 percent more than its predecessor. The dust bag in the dock holds up to seven weeks of dust. Finally, while all of this does take a lot of work off your hands, you’ll probably still have to occasionally clean and service the robot.
The Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra costs $1,399.99 when bought together with the Empty Wash Fill Dock, but it can also be purchased separately for $859.99. It will be available in the U.S. via Amazon, in the second quarter of 2022.
