At $949.98, the Roborock S7+ is one of the most expensive floor cleaning robots we’ve tested, but it’s also one of the only models that can both mop and vacuum your floors at the same time. Whereas other hybrid cleaners avoid carpet completely while mopping, the S7+ automatically lifts it mop cloth out of the way when it detects carpet, allowing it to complete both tasks more efficiently. It also features a self-emptying dustbin, good battery life, impressive obstacle avoidance, and strong vacuum suction power. The S7+ won’t sanitize your hard floors (it only works with water and not a cleaning solution), but it still scrubs them until they shine. So if you’re looking for the ultimate two-in-one floor-cleaning robot, the Roborock S7+ is the best we’ve tested, and our Editors’ Choice award winner.
Roborock S7 Pricing and Configurations
The Roborock S7 works with or without a self-emptying base, but the $949.98 Roborock S7+ package we tested bundles the Roborock S7 and the auto-empty dock. You can also purchase both products individually. By itself, the S7 costs $649.99 and comes with a standard base station. The auto-empty dock costs $299.99. Whether you buy the bundle or each component separately, the cost is the same.
However, because the S7+ bundle comes only with the auto-empty dock (not the standard base station), you may want to purchase them separately so you end up with both docks. The only downside of buying them separately is that when switching from the standard base station to the auto-empty dock, you need to remove an air inlet cover in the robot. It isn’t difficult, but it adds another step to the setup process, which I describe in detail later.
Intelligently Adapts
The S7 works well on hard flooring and carpet, but is best for homes that have both. With four vacuum power levels—Quiet, Balanced (the default setting), Turbo, and Max—topping out at an impressive 2,500Pa of suction, it’s an excellent option for homes with pets and carpeting.
The robot’s differentiating feature is its ability to vacuum and mop simultaneously, without wetting carpet. While other hybrid models, such as the Ecovacs Deebot Ozmo T8 AIVI, can detect and automatically avoid carpet when mopping, the S7 goes a step further. When the robot senses carpet, it lifts its mopping plate by 0.2 inch and keeps on vacuuming. That way, it can mop your hard floors and vacuum your low- to medium-pile carpets in a single pass. It’s the only robot vacuum we’ve tested with this feature.
The S7 measures 13.9 inches in diameter and stands 3.8 inches tall, making it one of the larger floor-cleaning robots we’ve tested. A raised mapping sensor adds to its height. The Ecovacs Deebot Ozmo N8 Pro+ has a similar sensor and is a similar height. If you’re searching for a shorter robot vacuum capable of passing under low-profile furniture, we suggest the Eufy RoboVac G30, which stands just 2.85 inches tall.
This robot doesn’t come with a physical remote. You can control it using three buttons on the top, with your phone via the Roborock app for Android and iOS, and with your voice via Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri Shortcuts.
Spot Clean/Child Lock and Dock buttons flank the S7’s Clean/Power button on the left and right, respectively. Press the middle button to send the S7 out to clean and hold it to turn the robot on or off. Press the left button to initiate spot cleaning and hold it to turn the child lock (which locks all the buttons) on or off. To manually send the robot back to its dock, press the right-hand button. The clean/power button shines white when the robot has more than 20% battery, glows red when it has less than 20% battery, slowly flashes white when the robot is charging or starting up, and quickly pulses red when there’s an error.
Above the buttons is a crescent-shaped status indicator light, which shines white while the robot is vacuuming, blue when it’s vacuuming and mopping, orange when there’s an alert, and green when docking or charging.
A cover on top of the robot hides its dustbin, a system reset button, and a Wi-Fi indicator light. The dustbin features a small, washable air filter inside.
On the robot’s back edge is a 10.1-ounce water tank. In the box, you get a mopping plate attachment featuring a removable, washable cloth. When you want the S7 to vacuum and mop, just fill the tank with water, wet the cloth, attach it to the mopping plate, then slide the mopping plate along the bottom of the water tank until you hear it click into place. When successful, the robot will say “mop mount installed.” When it’s finished mopping, simply remove the mopping plate and toss the cleaning cloth in the washing machine, so it’s ready for next time.
On the bottom, it has a main brushroll, one side brush for edge sweeping, six cliff sensors that prevent it from falling down the stairs, and the aforementioned carpet sensor. When the robot detects carpet, it automatically increases its vacuum suction power, a useful feature not available on the Shark IQ Robot Self-Empty XL R101AE.
The auto-empty dock comes with one 3-liter disposable dust bag preinstalled and just one extra in the box. Roborock says each bag holds eight of dust, but that claim will vary depending on how often you use the vacuum and how much cleaning your home requires. Roborock sells a set of two replacement bags for $9.99, five for $16.99, or ten for $26.99.
Measuring 15.1 by 12.4 by 18.0 (HWD) inches, the auto-empty dock is much larger than the S7’s standard base station (3.9 by 5.1 by 5.9 inches). The larger dock has a two-chamber design with a washable HEPA air filter on the left that, according to Roborock, captures 99.99% of particles as small as 0.3 microns. The disposable dust bag sits on the right. When the robot docks after cleaning, the auto-empty function initiates automatically. It gets pretty loud for about 30 seconds—about the volume of an old-school standing vacuum—as it sucks all the debris from the robot’s bin into the dust bag while expelling clean air from the outlet atop the HEPA chamber.
Setting Up the S7 and Auto-Empty Dock
The S7 is simple to set up, but if you use the auto-empty base, it requires additional assembly.
The auto-empty base arrives in two parts and you need to tighten five screws to attach them. Fortunately, a screwdriver is neatly stored on the bottom of the unit, while the screws that require tightening are already inserted and marked with a screwdriver icon. This setup requires a bit more work than the Deebot N8 Pro+ auto-empty base, which comes fully assembled, but anyone should be able to do it.
Next, if you purchase the auto-empty base separately, you need to remove the dustbin that comes in the unit, then pop out the air inlet cover. This step is necessary so the contents of the bin can be sucked into the auto-empty base. I used the tip of a knife for this part, and that made it a lot easier. Just be sure to save the plastic air inlet cover, so you can put it back in the robot if you want to use the standard base station. Then insert the auto-empty dustbin back into the unit (not the standard dustbin you use with the standard base).
After that, find a spot for the base, plug it in, press the power button on the robot, and manually place it on the base to charge. Whether you’re using the standard or auto-empty base, Roborock recommends setting it up at least 1.6 feet away from objects on either side and 4.9 feet across from anything.
While you’re waiting for the robot to charge, you can download the Roborock app, create an account, and connect the robot to your phone. I already had the app and an account from when I reviewed the S6 MaxV, and it took only a couple of minutes to connect the S7+ with its companion app.
When you open the Roborock app, it asks which model you want to set up. Select the S7+, enter your Wi-Fi credentials, and press Next. The app instructs you to open the robot’s cover so you can see the Wi-Fi indicator light, then press and hold the Spot Cleaning and Dock buttons (which flank the power button) for three seconds until you hear it say “Resetting Wi-Fi.” When it’s in pairing mode, the Wi-Fi indicator light slowly flashes blue. When you see the flashing light, press Next.
From there, press Connect to Device Wi-Fi, then go to your phone’s Wi-Fi settings menu, tap the network that starts with “roborock-vacuum,” wait for it to connect, then return to the Roborock app. When the robot finishes connecting to your Wi-Fi, simply tap Use Now to complete the setup. In testing, the app prompted me to install a firmware update at this point, which only took a few minutes.
Vacuuming and Mopping Performance
The S7+ works quickly and efficiently. It intelligently navigates your home, first going around the edges of a room, then making straight lines to cover the middle, instead of haphazardly ping-ponging from wall to wall like some cheap robot vacuums.
It can vacuum my roughly 1,000-square-foot main level in an hour. After completing its first run, successfully navigating back to its dock, and emptying its dustbin, the robot still had 58% battery life. When simultaneously vacuuming and mopping, it moves a bit slower, taking upwards of 90 minutes to finish the same amount of space.
With its vacuum power level set to Balanced, it took 115 minutes to run down the battery. That’s a better result than we got from the Deebot Ozmo N8 Pro+ and the Shark IQ Robot XL, which, in our tests, cleaned for up to 96 and 97 minutes, respectively, in similar modes.
Keep in mind that increasing the robot’s suction power drains the battery quicker, and vice versa. Roborock claims the 5,200mAh battery offers up to 180 minutes of runtime, presumably in Quiet mode.
When the robot’s battery level dropped below 20% in testing, it navigated back to its base without issue and wouldn’t let me start another cleaning run until it charged. If it runs out of battery before completing a run, it will go back to its base and recharge, then resume cleaning where it left off.
I’m very impressed by the S7’s navigation and obstacle-avoidance abilities. In five full test runs, it never got stuck. Several times, I observed it wiggle its way past obstacles that have stopped lesser robots dead in their tracks, including bunched area rugs, long curtains, and messy cords.
However, it’s not the quietest robot vacuum I’ve tested, especially when vacuuming carpet. When vacuuming hard flooring in Balanced mode, it puts out around 58db of sound, surpassing the volume of the N8 Pro+ (55db), according to readings from the NIOSH Sound Level Meter app. Over carpeting, I measured its volume at around 69db, approaching the threshold the CDC says people typically find annoying (70db). If you’re sensitive to noise, as I am, you can always schedule it to clean when you’re not at home.
When mopping, Roborock says the S7 uses “sonic vibration technology.” The robot offers three scrub levels for this task: mild, moderate, or intense. Don’t bother with the mild or moderate modes; intense offers the best results by far. My only gripe is that the robot can clean only with water, not a cleaning solution. Roborock specifically says to avoid cleaning fluids and disinfectants that “may corrode the water tank.”
If you’re looking for a robot that can disinfect your floors, I suggest the $399.99 Bissell SpinWave Wet and Dry or the $299.99 Samsung Jetbot Mop, both of which support cleaning solutions and scrub your floors with spinning pads.
Still, despite mopping only with water, the S7 does an excellent job. After two passes with the scrub level set to moderate, grime filled its mopping cloth and my hard floors looked and felt a lot cleaner. After one pass with the scrub level set to intense, my floors were shiny and streak-free.
Moreover, its mop-lifting feature worked perfectly on both low- and medium-pile carpets. As soon as the S7 sensed carpet while mopping, it lifted the cloth mount and kept vacuuming. When this happened, I walked behind the robot to verify that it wasn’t wetting the carpet.
The automatic bin-emptying feature also worked without issue. After about half a dozen test runs, I checked the robot’s bin, and aside from some dust and dog hair stuck in the filter, it was completely empty, meaning its contents were successfully transferred to the bag each time.
Smart Features Aplenty
Connecting the S7+ to your phone via the Roborock app gives you access to a number of smart features.
With its raised Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensor, the S7+ makes quick work of mapping your home in its companion app. It mapped my main level after its first cleaning run.
Once it creates a map of your floor plan, you can merge, divide, and name the various spaces for area and customized cleaning. You can also create virtual walls and no-go zones to cordon off certain areas, as well as no-mop zones.
If you have an open floor plan, you might want to divide the space into different rooms. It can also be helpful to merge hallways with other rooms. In testing, I had no problem dividing my open-concept kitchen, dining, and living space into three separate rooms and merging my hallway and hallway bathroom into one room. It took me a couple of tries to name the individual rooms, but I was eventually successful.
The app offers full, room, and zone cleaning options. If you leave it on full, the default option, the robot will move from room to room until it has covered that entire level. For targeted jobs, you can select individual rooms on the map and send the robot straight there. The zone option even lets you draw a square around a space on the map you want the robot to clean.
Before sending the robot out to clean, you can configure the vacuum power and mopping scrub level for the entire space, or by room. When using the room or zone cleaning options, you can set it to make up to three passes.
The app also supports multi-level maps, allowing the robot to automatically recognize up to four floors. As it’s working and after completing a cleaning task, the robot shows its exact path on the map, so you can see where it is and what it has already cleaned. In the app, you can also set up a cleaning schedule and view a history of the robot’s cleaning runs.
In testing, the S7+ worked seamlessly with Alexa and Google Assistant. After linking the assistants via their respective apps, I could control the robot with voice commands such as, “Hey Google, tell my Roborock to start cleaning,” and, “Hey Alexa, turn off my Roborock S7.”
All the Bells and Whistles
Although expensive, the Roborock S7+ offers everything you expect for the price, including automatic bin emptying, smart features for customized cleaning, simultaneous vacuuming and mopping, and virtual boundary support. Most importantly, it performs as well as a $949.98 floor-cleaning robot should; the S7+ features impressive maneuverability, long battery life, and strong suction. The robot’s automatic mop-lifting feature, which allows it to scrub hard floors and vacuum carpets in a single pass without getting them wet, is truly innovative and allows for more efficient cleaning runs than the competition. All of these qualities earn the S7+ our Editors’ Choice award for hybrid robots.
The Roborock S7+ shares our Editors’ Choice distinction in this category with the Ecovacs Deebot Ozmo T8 AIVI, which costs $1,049.98 with its optional auto-empty station. The Deebot can’t lift its mop, so it requires two runs to mop your floors and vacuum your carpets. However, it also functions as a roving indoor home security camera and lets you view live video of your home remotely. Both are excellent options worth their premium prices. For a more affordable alternative, we recommend the $799.99 Ecovacs Deebot N8 Pro+, which offers many of the same features as the S7+, but doesn’t last as long or navigate as smoothly.
