Roborock Q7 Max robot vacuum cleaner in review: High suction power at a fair price

The scope of delivery of the Roborock Q7 Max includes everything that is necessary for its operation, but unfortunately not more. The charging station, a mop and mop holder, and a firm foil as moisture protection are included in the box with near plastic-free packaging. Depending on where the charging station is placed (on wooden, laminate or carpeted floors), it is worth sticking the moisture protection in the appropriate place. Once the charging station is in place, the Roborock Q7 Max can be quickly put into operation. The excellently translated operating instructions also help with this.

After setting up the app and the Roborock's WLAN connection, you can start right away. Our test device arrived with a battery charge of 45%, which means that the first tests can start immediately. When cleaning a floor for the first time, the vacuuming and mopping robot first creates a map via LiDAR. This works so accurately in the test that the floor plan of the building is subsequently perfectly recognizable. After the first cleaning is completed, the floor plan is automatically divided into individual rooms. Where the Q7 Max detects a passage of less than 90 cm (~35 in), it defines a room boundary.

Since the LiDAR also has some limits due to technical reasons, you might want to create and keep some order. We notice relatively quickly that cables lying around, glass doors and small objects are not detected by the LiDAR. This makes the Roborock Q7 Max a bit rambunctious at first, hitting glass doors and floor-to-ceiling windows or dragging cables and small carpets behind it. It is possible to enter no-go zones and invisible walls in the app to reduce such incidences. It should be clearly mentioned here that glass doors are not a big problem for the Roborock Q7 Max. There are robot vacuums that repeatedly try to get through a closed glass door much more often. Fortunately, the Roborock Q7 gives up quite quickly here and continues with normal cleaning. Finally, floor-to-ceiling windows were automatically entered into the map with borders after some time.

The Roborock Q7 Max creates an accurate map of the surroundings via LiDAR. While laser scanning is extremely accurate, it also has a few minor drawbacks. For example, the laser scanning may not be able to detect smaller objects as well as glass. However, the map created by the robot is relatively accurate. After some time, even objects that the Q7 Max only detects via collision detector are entered. But initially, you should still monitor the robot vacuum, because cables and small objects or carpets could also become a problem. Among other things, a doormat and a thin power cable were dragged along in our case.

Normally, after cleaning, the Q7 Max finds its charging station again without problems, even if you move it a bit. If the charging station cannot be found at all, the wiping and vacuuming robot returns to its starting point and stays there.

The clip sensors worked without problems in our test, so the Roborock Q7 Max did not go down the stairs. Since two of the clip sensors are located at the front and the sides, the robot vacuum cleaned almost up to the edge of the stairs. In doing so, the housing was already partially above the landing.

Once the room maps are created, it is noticeable that the cleaning is much faster overall. Thus, the time needed for a complete cleaning of the first floor dropped from around 90 minutes to about 70 minutes in the test with a floor area of around 81 m² (872 ft²). The intelligent pathfinding of the Roborock Q7 Max is probably responsible for this. After a short time, fixed obstacles are entered into the map and the robot elegantly avoids them. The app makes it easy to see how efficient the paths of the Q7 Max become over time, because they are saved in the diary.

The Roborock Q7 Max is a vacuuming and mopping robot with proven technology at a moderate price. The excellent navigation via LiDAR and the high cleaning performance on hard floors are particularly appealing here. With a good user manual, extensive app and Smarthome assistance in German and English, the smart vacuum robot collects additional points. The German voice output is also helpful and gives rejects about the Roborock Q7 Max's behavior. Unfortunately, it is still not a matter of course that apps and skills have a full range of functions in many different languages. Those who can do without a full feature set for the mopping function are probably well served with the Q7 Max. If used regularly, the robot vacuum can keep almost all floors clean.

The Roborock Q7 Max independently provides a complete and thorough floor cleaning. App, instructions and voice assistants facilitate the setup and hardly leave anything to be desired.

The amount of included accessories is somewhat unfavorable. There are no replacements for either the mop or the dust filter in the dust bin. If you want to clean either of them, the robot vacuum will fail for some time. This is especially annoying for the dust filter, which is rinsed out and then has to dry for hours. A set of original filters and mops cost around 55 Euros (~$59) at Amazon. However, the search for suitable replacement parts is difficult because there is usually little information about compatibility.

Those who want a docking station can buy it later or as a package with the Roborock Q7 Max+. Disappointingly, dust bags are used here and the docking station for the Q7 Max does not offer an automatic refilling of the water tank. Ultimately, the existing water and dust tank of the Roborock Q7 Max is enough for significantly more than 300 m² (3229 ft²) of cleaning. Thus, the added value of the docking station is only limited.

Note: The Roborock Q7 Max was provided to the author free of charge for testing purposes.