Set and forget with the latest Roborock flagship cleaner
The Ecovacs Deebot Omni X1 is the slightly better mop overall but in every other way, the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra outclasses it. The S7 MaxV has more buying options, including one version without the fancy emptying dock; it’s easier to use and can even automatically avoid carpets when mopping, it’s an excellent vacuum cleaner and its app is brilliant and highly configurable. On balance, this mixture of features and quality of cleaning makes the S7 MaxV Ultra the most flexible and powerful robot vacuum cleaner. If you don’t need/care about the camera avoidance and don’t want the big dock, the regular S7 cleans and mops as well but is a fair bit cheaper.
Pros
- Cleaning dock is optional
- Powerful mopping and vacuuming
- Excellent app
- Very easy to configure
Cons
- Expensive
- Spot-clean button not very useful
The evolution of Roborock’s robots has been fascinating. From standard vacuums to powerful mops, with the Roborock S7, the company has pushed the cleaning quality of robots to the limits.
New models: Roborock S8 Pro Ultra review / Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra review
Now, with the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra, we go even further: a robot that can dodge problems automatically, clean itself and empty its bin.
Sure, we’ve had robot vacuum cleaners in the past that come with their own docking stations to empty dust, such as the iRobot Roomba i3+ and Roborock’s own S7 Plus, but the new S7 MaxV Ultra takes things to the next level as it also cleans a mop head and keeps the water tank fresh.
The new Empty Wash Fill Dock contains three tanks, one to collect dust (up to 7 weeks’ worth) one for fresh water to fill the tank and clean the mop pad, and one to take the dirty water away.
On the vacuuming front, this is by far the most powerful robot vacuum cleaner from Roborock (or any other brand) by some distance.
The new flagship has a whopping 5100Pa suction rating. That’s more than double that of the likes of the S7 and the S6 MaxV but that does come at a cost – the full S7 MaxV Ultra system is a dollar shy of $1,400.
In terms of regular vacuuming and app, the S7 MaxV Ultra is the best overall vacuum cleaner available, although the Ecovacs Deebot Omni X1 is arguably the slightly better mop.
Read our Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra for all the details…
Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra: Design and build
If you’ve seen one Roborock vacuum cleaner, you’ve seen them all. The Roborock S7 MaxV doesn’t look that different from the standard S7.
New rival: Ecovacs Deebot T20 Omni review
Both are circular robots with a single side-sweeping brush, a rubber floor roller that won’t get hair wrapped around them, and a clip-on sonic mopping cloth. Both have the LiDAR sensor on top, giving stunningly accurate mapping and navigation.

Both have the same set of buttons on top: dock, clean and spot-clean. The latter requires you to carry the robot to where you want it to clean, and then it will just do a small area around where you place it.
Budget rival: Yeedi Vac 2 Pro review
It’s honestly a feature that I’ve never used, as the in-app controls are better.

The MaxV part of the name is because, like its S6 MaxV namesake, it boasts the ReactiveAI Obstacle Avoidance System; a revamped 2.0 version, in fact.
That means, thanks to its array of RGB cameras, 3D structured light and an all-new neural processing unit, it can see objects in its path and adapts quickly to clean around them.
The S7 MaxV will recognize and position your furniture in the Roborock app, allowing for quick cleans around dining tables or sofas with just a simple tap of an icon in the app.
The S7 Max V takes the room recognition tech that has impressed with previous Roborock models and can even identify a room’s flooring materials, allowing for ideal cleaning patterns, specific suction power and scrub intensity.

At the back of the robot vacuum cleaner is a flip-up lid that houses the small bin. This lifts out for easy emptying, so you can clean the filter.
If you buy the standard S7 MaxV, then you’ll need to empty the bin after each clean.

On review, I have the Ultra model, which ships with a dock that automatically looks after the robot. This dock self-emptying the bin into a 1.8-litre bag, which should last around two months before needing to be replaced.
Expect to pay around $42 for a pack of 12, which is a pretty good price and compares well to the competition, such as the iRobot Roomba J7+.
The Ultra dock also has two water containers: one for refilling the S7 MaxV’s 300ml water reservoir and for cleaning the mopping cloth, and one for sucking up the dirty water.
Given that there’s only one mopping cloth in the box, the fact that it can be cleaned automatically makes the S7 MaxV able to run for longer than the standard S7; with that model, there’s a point where it starts to leave muddy rings behind.

There’s also the Plus model, which skips bin emptying but has the auto-filling and mop cleaning ability. This model is a good choice for anyone that doesn’t want to have to pay for bags.
The features available are similar to those on the Ecovacs Deebot Omni X1, although Roborock’s dock is a little messier to look at, as the water containers are plainly visible; Ecovacs hides its containers behind a flap.
Of course, the slight downside of such docks is that they’re properly massive. While the standard S7 MaxV has a dock that will fit underneath a sideboard, the Ultra needs space dedicated to its dock.
Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra: Features and in use
Roborock has just about the best mapping and navigation, which makes the S7 MaxV Ultra fantastic and finding its way around your home.
Thanks to LiDAR and those cameras on the front, the S7 easily navigated around our house, dodging common obstacles including cables, pet mess and shoes.
With all of this packed in, the S7 MaxV Ultra can mostly move around without getting itself trapped, a trick that not all robots are capable of. And, there’s little reason to tidy up or move obstacles out of the way as the robot avoids getting itself into trouble.
As with the older S7, this model has ultrasonic carpet detection, which is useful in two ways. First, this tech shows you on the map where carpet and rugs are, which makes it easier to place no-go or no-mop areas.
Secondly, the sensor can be used with automatic rules when the mop is attached. The default, is to lift the mop, but you can tell the S7 MaxV to back-off instead.
There’s a 5,100Pa suction motor in this robot, which is a huge amount of power. Vacuuming on hard floors and carpet is among the best that I’ve seen, with the S7 MaxV cleaning right to the edges of the room.
For the most part, you can leave the S7 MaxV to do its job, just occasionally getting out the regular vacuum cleaner to get into corners and to give a slightly deeper clean.
Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra: Mopping function
The sonic mopping made the S7 stand out from the competition, and the S7 MaxV has the same VibraRise sonic mopping. Using technology similar to that found in a sonic toothbrush, the mopping pad can vibrated up to 3,000 times per minute.
Roborock gives you control over the scrub intensity and the amount of water used, plus there’s a mop-only Deep Clean mode that drops the vacuuming.
Underneath the mopping pad is an ultrasonic vibration plate so, rather than a wet pad simply wiping away at your hard floors, the theory is the extra movement adds a bit of elbow grease to the process.
In the Roborock app you can choose between high-intensity scrub settings from 1,650 times per minute, up to to 3,000 times per minute.
When the S7 MaxV detects that it has left a hard floor area and his landed on a rug, or some carpet, the wet pad is actually lifted up to prevent it leaving wet marks. When the pad is lifted, the water flow is stopped and the vibration ceases.
This sonic mopping feature equates to a doubling of the pressure of both the S6 Max V and the S5 Max – which are also both excellent moppers already.
This mopping system continues to impress. While other robots can deal with basic marks on the floor, the S7 MaxV can clean tougher stains. For anyone with hard floors, the S7 MaxV leaves them vacuumed and sparkling.
The only thing I’d say is that the Ecovacs Deebot Omni X1 is a slightly better mop. It uses two spinning microfibre cloths to really agitate dirt and remove very stubborn stains. With the Ecovacs, you can go longer before you have to tidy up manually.
That said, convenience has to be taken into consideration, and it’s here that the S7 MaxV Ultra wins out. First, its VibraRise tech lets the mop lift off the floor, avoiding short-pile carpet automatically; the Ecovacs will happily mop your carpets.
Secondly, if you want to put in no-mop zones, then the S7’s app makes this easier, while the Ecovacs app is a touch harder to use. All of this makes the S7 nicer to use in many cases.
Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra: App and digital assistants
The Roborock app is one of the best in the business. Once the robot has performed its first clean, you get a map; multiple maps can be generated per home so that you can use this vacuum in multi-level homes.
Each map can be divided into rooms, which lets you set the cleaning order. While the cameras and obstacle avoidance are good, there may still be areas where you don’t want the S7 MaxV Ultra to go or clean, so you can add barriers and no-mop zones to the map.
New to this vacuum cleaner is the 3D map, plus the option to add furniture to your map. Adding furniture is a handy way of creating a quick cleaning zone. Tap my sofa, for example, and the app gives me a cleaning zone around. That’s great for quickly cleaning up just one part of the house.

Otherwise, it’s business as usual, with the option to clean everywhere, one room or a zone. For each cleaning cycle, you can set the vacuum power (quiet, balanced, turbo and max – I use max) and the mopping intensity.
There are also vacuum-only and mop-only modes; the latter is very useful for getting a particularly dirty floor back to its best condition.

Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant are both supported for quickly starting or stopping a clean.
Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra: Battery life and maintenance
Roborock quotes battery life at 180-minutes, although this is on the quiet, low-power vacuuming setting. Upping the vacuum power and attaching the mop reduces the battery life, but I was able to clean my entire ground floor on a single charge, with some juice left to tackle a couple of spot cleans. In effect, battery life is not a limiting factor with this robot.
Maintenance is largely taken care of by the dock: you just have to empty the used water bin and refill the freshwater bin, although the app will warn you when it’s time. The bag also needs to be emptied when full.

It’s worth checking the robot’s filter and cleaning this monthly, plus the app will warn you when it’s time to change the brushes and wipe the sensors, although there’s no harm in making this part of a monthly cleaning routine.
Buy now… $1,399 | Amazon