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Last year I did a lot of research on Reddit and other sites and finally settled on the Roborock S7 Pro Ultra. Some learnings I had along the way: - Software qu

by manmal 3y ago

Last year I did a lot of research on Reddit and other sites and finally settled on the Roborock S7 Pro Ultra. Some learnings I had along the way: - Software quality is crucial, and new models are often iffy. Badly programmed vacuums (and almost every brand has those) are incredibly annoying, because they get stuck constantly, fall down stairs, leave dirty areas, can’t find the way to the base station, etc. Roborock seems to be one of the few who nails this. - Suction power should be maximized, or you’ll spend time cleaning up after the robot. The S7 I bought has 5100Pa and I think that’s acceptable, but I still need to do two runs sometimes (which is low effort for me, but it means more noise). - Since we wanted a vacuum that also mops: Those mops, if not managed well, get moldy and start to stink after just a few days. Build layout and engineering quality are big factors here - ours almost never stinks even though it has no drying fan (some do). - A base station is needed for real hands-off usage, and those are damn expensive when bought afterwards. And do change the water tanks regularly, they can get quite smelly, fast. It’s the one non-negotiable maintenance we have to do every week. - I was looking for vacuums with explicit mention of HEPA filters, but it seems the more expensive ones have decent filters without ever mentioning HEPA. I’m still not sure what grade the S7 filters really are, but it seems allergy friendly (likely also owed to the mop and the usage of a filter bag in the base station). - Even if the manual says to wash the filter, don’t; they will often degrade. Better to use compressed air (carefully) to clean instead. Overall, we are still happy with the S7 Pro Ultra after a solid year of usage. It’s been a time saver rather than a time sink, and apart from getting stuck sometimes laying around, it has always done a solid job.

mehuln 3y ago
Checkout Matic at maticrobots.com. Few things: 1. We have HEPA bags - each bag acts as HEPA filter. 2. We found that more than suction power, the brush roll is more import for effective sweeping and vacuuming. It picks the dirt way better… so we have designed first of its kind to hair tangle-free brush roll. It is designed to be effective on all kids of surfaces. 3. We further improve efficacy with actuating cleaning head so it adjust the height for each type of surface with diff thicknesses. 4. The HEPA bags last a month if just vacuuming and about a week if daily vacuuming and mopping. It collects both wet and dry messes. It even has version of diaper salt and charcoal powder so it doesn’t smell or get moldy. 5. But the most important is completely Vision first perception with precision 3D system so that it doesn’t get stuck, chew wires, etc. Indoor world is entirely built by humans, for humans, to fit our vision first perception system. So we have given it a very similar perception system. 6. Private by design. It was built to work completely w/o internet connection.
- ratiolat 3y ago
  Looked very promising, but there are some hard blockers: 1. It's not shipping yet, meaning there are no trustworthy reviews. 2. It will be shipped to USA only. 3. It needs apple device for (full) control. Hopefully all of these will be adressed
  - mehuln 3y ago
    Totally understand. Here's a review from the first look demo that we gave to reporter from Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/matic-robot-vacuum-first-look/ https://www.wired.com/story/matic-robot-vacuum-first-look/ And, yes, we're starting with the US and iOS but will be adding support for both international and Android ASAP. Thanks!
- manmal 3y ago
  Sounds good, let’s see how it holds up in the real world ;) I’m not in the market for a vacuum RN btw.
  - mehuln 3y ago
    For sure! So far field trial results have been great, but we've got work to do before we ship. Lots of bugs to squash! Thanks.
- FearOfTheDuck 3y ago
  Looks cool! But disposable HEPA bags mean that the owner will be vendor-locked on them.
  - mehuln 3y ago
    Ultimately, we're striving for great user experience which we can do with the bags. Our goal is to make bags as cheap as possible and already it's a $3/bag which is way cheaper than any other robovac bags if we're not mistaken. That's also why we have all-you-can-clean membership plan -- it's optional and users can purchase bags a al carte, but with it's unlimited bags. mop rolls, extended warranty, and accidental coverage it's really a great peace of mind for our users. Our goal is to provide great customer experience first and formost with a higest quality product. Thanks!
Rebelgecko 3y ago
Fwiw, I've found that the main brush from the Q5 works better in my S7 than the factory one
a_t48 3y ago
The S7 Ultra has a $100 mop heater add-on that helps manage mop stank by drying it out after use.
- latchkey 3y ago
  Or just buy a S8 Pro Ultra.
  - a_t48 3y ago
    They have slightly different sensors - we actually wanted the MaxV so that we could check up on the apartment/cats in a pinch. It’s not as simple as “just buy the next model up” - my recollection of researching this was that there are a number of very similar models with different features - mop base, sensors, suction power. Even with buying a “flagship model” there were local maxima with other models.
deluxeroyale 3y ago
Great learnings, thanks for sharing. I have been eyeing the roborock series as there seems to be some sort of consensus on them being slightly better than the others, yet I get this review astroturfing vibe when reading reviews and posts. And like you mention in the learnings; mop gets moldy, dust bag emptying, huge basestation etc just misses the point somehow. I will probably end up getting one slimmed down version from roborock
- manmal 3y ago
  The mop doesn’t get moldy for me. What I meant is that there are such reports for other vacuums. The base station is sizable, yes, but tbf it does carry a lot of liquid and dust storage.
  - mehuln 3y ago
    Good to know. Thank you!
slowmotiony 3y ago
For the mop getting moldy problem, I recommend to simply get a pack of replacement mops from aliexpress for like $5 or something. After a cleaning cycle, throw the used one in the washing machine and replace it with a new one, it only takes 10 seconds of work and your floor remains bacteria-free. I have an S8 and it's a real life quality improvement, I love that thing
- mehuln 3y ago
  Ours self-cleans so eliminates the hassel of having to replace it after every cleaning cycele.

by manmal 3y ago

mehuln 3y ago

Checkout Matic at maticrobots.com. Few things: 1. We have HEPA bags - each bag acts as HEPA filter. 2. We found that more than suction power, the brush roll is more import for effective sweeping and vacuuming. It picks the dirt way better… so we have designed first of its kind to hair tangle-free brush roll. It is designed to be effective on all kids of surfaces. 3. We further improve efficacy with actuating cleaning head so it adjust the height for each type of surface with diff thicknesses. 4. The HEPA bags last a month if just vacuuming and about a week if daily vacuuming and mopping. It collects both wet and dry messes. It even has version of diaper salt and charcoal powder so it doesn’t smell or get moldy. 5. But the most important is completely Vision first perception with precision 3D system so that it doesn’t get stuck, chew wires, etc. Indoor world is entirely built by humans, for humans, to fit our vision first perception system. So we have given it a very similar perception system. 6. Private by design. It was built to work completely w/o internet connection.

ratiolat 3y ago
Looked very promising, but there are some hard blockers: 1. It's not shipping yet, meaning there are no trustworthy reviews. 2. It will be shipped to USA only. 3. It needs apple device for (full) control. Hopefully all of these will be adressed
- mehuln 3y ago
  Totally understand. Here's a review from the first look demo that we gave to reporter from Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/matic-robot-vacuum-first-look/ https://www.wired.com/story/matic-robot-vacuum-first-look/ And, yes, we're starting with the US and iOS but will be adding support for both international and Android ASAP. Thanks!
manmal 3y ago
Sounds good, let’s see how it holds up in the real world ;) I’m not in the market for a vacuum RN btw.
- mehuln 3y ago
  For sure! So far field trial results have been great, but we've got work to do before we ship. Lots of bugs to squash! Thanks.
FearOfTheDuck 3y ago
Looks cool! But disposable HEPA bags mean that the owner will be vendor-locked on them.
- mehuln 3y ago
  Ultimately, we're striving for great user experience which we can do with the bags. Our goal is to make bags as cheap as possible and already it's a $3/bag which is way cheaper than any other robovac bags if we're not mistaken. That's also why we have all-you-can-clean membership plan -- it's optional and users can purchase bags a al carte, but with it's unlimited bags. mop rolls, extended warranty, and accidental coverage it's really a great peace of mind for our users. Our goal is to provide great customer experience first and formost with a higest quality product. Thanks!

Rebelgecko 3y ago

Fwiw, I've found that the main brush from the Q5 works better in my S7 than the factory one

a_t48 3y ago

The S7 Ultra has a $100 mop heater add-on that helps manage mop stank by drying it out after use.

latchkey 3y ago
Or just buy a S8 Pro Ultra.
- a_t48 3y ago
  They have slightly different sensors - we actually wanted the MaxV so that we could check up on the apartment/cats in a pinch. It’s not as simple as “just buy the next model up” - my recollection of researching this was that there are a number of very similar models with different features - mop base, sensors, suction power. Even with buying a “flagship model” there were local maxima with other models.

deluxeroyale 3y ago

Great learnings, thanks for sharing. I have been eyeing the roborock series as there seems to be some sort of consensus on them being slightly better than the others, yet I get this review astroturfing vibe when reading reviews and posts. And like you mention in the learnings; mop gets moldy, dust bag emptying, huge basestation etc just misses the point somehow. I will probably end up getting one slimmed down version from roborock

manmal 3y ago
The mop doesn’t get moldy for me. What I meant is that there are such reports for other vacuums. The base station is sizable, yes, but tbf it does carry a lot of liquid and dust storage.
- mehuln 3y ago
  Good to know. Thank you!

slowmotiony 3y ago

For the mop getting moldy problem, I recommend to simply get a pack of replacement mops from aliexpress for like $5 or something. After a cleaning cycle, throw the used one in the washing machine and replace it with a new one, it only takes 10 seconds of work and your floor remains bacteria-free. I have an S8 and it's a real life quality improvement, I love that thing

mehuln 3y ago
Ours self-cleans so eliminates the hassel of having to replace it after every cleaning cycele.