It took 97 days to come up with complaints for the Roborock S7
To preface this – I got one of these for free as a reviewer, however no monetary compensation and I’d say you should assume there’s incentive for me to direct you to purchase one of these.
TL;DR – all the problems encountered, and estimated cost of running for a year
Update also: resized photos as evidently they were too tiny, this is also a positive mostly review
We’re going to highlight two issues I’ve run across in 97 days of what I would consider slightly above average use. I’ve got kids, we’ve got mopping that gets done every time Rosie (the Roborock S7.)
Let’s get down to the problems….
Mapping inconsistencies
This has been unreproducible – it may be resolved, it may have been just me. I’ve asked twice in the past few months for Rosie to hit the kitchen and had it bizarrely do half the dining room and half the kitchen. When I looked on the map there was a sort of 45 degree room that had been created overlaying the kitchen and the dining room area and that was what was being worked.
This happened twice. I assumed the robot got turnt. No issues the past month.
No suction should equal an error
The last two times the Roborock S7 went out it didn’t do a good job. On inspection the dust bin was empty. That was odd. I discovered the unit had sucked up a lanyard holder the kids had dropped and was preventing the main brush from rotating. There was no error given that the brush was immobilized.
That’s not great.
The brush
The rubber rotator brush claims it still has 82% life after about 100 days of force use The unit is already showing serious signs of wear including the fins being pushed down (from wrapping a lanyard holder I’m guessing,) and just chunks missing.
Should be click to enlarge. I do not expect the rubber main brush to last to 200 days at which point it will still claim to have 60% life. This may not be much of an issue as it looks like a replacement parts kit might be fairly inexpensive, but I’m not finding a way to actually see the final price as AliExpress keeps claiming I need to fill out missing info.
The mop
It feels weird to note this, but the mop has ground itself flat. It’s still doing a good job, and washing it regularly helps a bit, but man, that thing is flat now.
It has scrubbed the dust and grime off the floor for 3+ months and has done a very good job. There’s not even a mop life estimator but I’m going to say you’re probably going to need a replacement at least once a year.
The replacement parts
So I got to here and finally found the replacement parts for the S7 if you can’t get a decent deal on the ALiExpress knockoffs…
The main brush comes in at $22.99. I’d say plan to replace that once or twice a year if you have kids. This is expensive, but we’re not talking iRobot/Roomba expensive. The side brushes (mine are fine, no issues I can tell) are about $15, my guess is you’ll need about one a year. My assumption is the mops are two for $17 and the filters are 2 for $32 but since the amazon page doesn’t directly mention the S7 (it’s the same mop, looks exactly like the filter) – I’m not linking it.
My assumptions on cost per year
I believe by 6 months I will require a new main brush and mop. ~$31.50 a year
I believe by 1 year I will require a new filter. ~$16.50
I believe I need one half of a side brush a year ~$4
I expect the battery to last 3-4 years, there are no replacement battery costs but I’m assuming about $30 based on other brands, so about $10 a year.
Electric is somewhere under $1
$63 a year, or $0.172 per daily run
I find this acceptable at the moment. I really dig my clean floors. I don’t find the non-suction no error a good indicator though – that needs to be addressed.
