I helped a friend persuade her mother to use a robot vacuum-mop to help her clean her home. The initial push back was steep, but the outcome was sweet and rewarding. Here’s a reference for those trying to persuade their seniors at home to accept a robot vacuum-mop into their house-cleaning arsenal.
The S7 MaxV Ultra is Roborock’s current flagship model and embodies the latest features and technologies in robot vacuum-mops. Look out for the new S8 coming to the region soon.
Robot vacuums have successfully captured the market for the young and tech-savvy professionals, because the robot-cleaners relieve them of the tedious and time-consuming chores of house cleaning to free up precious time from their busy schedules.
Another market which needs the help of robot vacuums, however, has seen limited success – seniors for whom cleaning is physically demanding and sometimes painful.
Useful features and advanced technologies to look out for when looking for a robot vacuum mop.
Two hurdles to seniors accepting robot vacuums into their house-cleaning toolkit is their skepticism on whether the robots can do a good cleaning job, and general apprehension/fear of technology.
With the rapid development in robot vacuum technologies and features, the former is a rather moot point since robot vacuums these days tend to be able to do a pretty good job at vacuuming and mopping the home.
Young Tech-Savvy Professionals Love Robot Vacuums
Robot vacuums have evolved rapidly over the last few years, in terms of features and performance.
Robot vacuums these days can both vacuum and mop the floor, with the advanced models equipped with docking stations that are able to automatically empty the dust bin, refill the mopping, and wash the mop cloth on the robot vacuum.
Many young tech-savvy professionals use robot vacuums to alleviate the traditionally menial and time-consuming chores of vacuuming and mopping their abode, freeing up valuable time for leisure and work.
An anecdotal evidence of how robot vacuums have penetrated the young-professionals market: I had lunch last week with 5 young professionals in their 20s-40s — ALL of them had a robot vacuum.
We actually spent some time exchanging notes on how we used our robot vacuums!
For seniors who are apprehensive about new technology – be it robot-cleaning technology or handling gadgets like smartphones (beyond basic calling etc) – the fear and apprehension of having to tinker with an app can be a deterrent to even trying out a robot vacuum.
I recently helped a friend persuade her mother to try using a robot vacuum-mop.
Both of us knew the robot vacuum would be a great boon to help make house cleaning less painful for her mother – who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and swears off domestic helpers.
But it was a monumental effort trying to convince her to even give the robot-vacuum a try.
Fortunately, after scrutinising the Roborock S7 maxV Ultra that we let loose in her house and inspecting the “aftermath”, she came to the conclusion that the robot could indeed clean properly, and that she would be able to manage the phone app for controlling the robot vacuum-mop.
So for those contemplating the idea of introducing robot vacuums to their seniors at home, here’s the kinda Q&A we went through with my friend’s mother to convince her.
The robot vacuum-mop that my friend got for her mother was the Roborock S7 maxV Ultra, so the features and specs in the Q&A were based on this model.
Freshly unboxed S7 MaxV Ultra.
Both of us have used different models from Roborock and were quite pleased with the performance and features so we decided to get her mother the flagship model.
How to Persuade Your Senior to Give Robot Vacuums a Try
Qn: Is this little thing powerful enough to suck up all the dust?
Ans: Most robot vacuums do a fairly decent job at vacuuming with suction powers of around 2,500pa. The S7 MaxV Ultra has twice that suction power, at 5,100pa. My own experience is that the floor normally already feels clean after vacuuming, even before mopping because usually floors FEEL dirty because of the dust and particles on the surface.
Qn: Can it really cover the whole house … will it leave gaps of uncleaned space?
Ans: The S7 MaxV Ultra has a PreciSense LiDAR navigation system that maps out your home accurately (both day and night) and you can see the progress of the robot’s cleaning on the map in the Roborock app.
Qn: Heard that a robot vacuum cleans the whole house with the same mop cloth?
Ans: This model has automatic mop washing technology – the robot goes back to the dock to get its mop cloth washed and resumes mopping from where it left off after the mop washing. So it does mop the floors with a clean mop cloth.
The model that my friend offered to her mother is the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra.
Qn: How does it wash the mop cloth?
Ans: The dock cleans the mop cloth using an active brush that rotates and removes debris off it. It will also self-clean the dock base and siphon up dirty water from the wash into the dirty water tank.
Qn: Heard that it’s very troublesome to empty and clean the dustbin, refill the water tank, and wash the mop cloth. My aged friends find it very painful to bend down and do these things with their robot vacuums.
Ans: The advanced models, like the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra have docks that are capable of auto-washing, auto-dust-emptying and auto-water-topping-up the robot vacuum so that you don’t have to do it manually. It’s all automated. You don’t even have to be in the house when the robot vacuum cleans the whole house. You can be doing taichi with your friends and remotely start the robot and complete the cleaning via the app.
Qn: Do I have to empty the dustbin on the robot after every clean?
Ans: For most robot vacuums, that depends on how dusty your house is and how frequently you vacuum your house – because that determines how fast the robot’s dustbin fills up. The Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra auto-empties the dust in the dustbin into a large dust bag in the dock after every vacuuming, so that you don’t have to empty the dustbin manually or frequently. I only change out the dust bag once every two months.
Qn: Is the app hard to use? You know I’m very nervous about installing and using apps.
At the top of the dock are (from right) the dust-bag compartment, the clean water container, and the dirty water container. At the bottom is where the mop cloth of the robot is washed.
Ans: We will install the app for you, and it’s very easy to use. Just start the app and click the “Clean” to get the robot to vacuum and mop the whole house. When you’re familiar, you can use the app to control the robot more – like only mop or only vacuum, clean only particular rooms or particular areas or spots, and various levels of vacuuming or mopping depending on how dirty your floors are. If you’re really averse to using an app, your children can also install the Roborock app on their phones and control your robot vacuum for you, or you can just press the buttons on the robot itself.
Qn: Can I monitor the progress of the cleaning using the app?
Ans: Yes, you’ll see a real-time display of where the robot is in a map of your house and where it has cleaned. You can monitor the cleaning remotely too (while playing mahjong) via the Internet.
Qn: My friend says the robot uses very little water to mop the whole house, will it be clean enough?
Ans: Isn’t it good to save water? Some mops just drag the mop cloth along when mopping the floor.The S7 MaxV Ultra has Roborock’s proprietary Vibrarise Sonic Vibration Mopping. It vibrates the mop head at up to 3,000 times per minute to mimic the action of scrubbing to clean deeply and effectively. There are various intensities you can set – for both vacuuming and mopping.
Qn: I don’t want my parquet floors in the bedrooms to get too wet though.
Ans: You can control how much water to use depending on the type of surface, less water for parquet surfaces, more for marble or tiled surfaces.
Qn: Is it noisy?
Ans: It’s ok. Of course if you choose the most powerful modes, it can get a bit louder because the robot is working harder. Oh the auto-emptying of the dust compartment into the dust bag in the dock is rather loud because it is blowing the dust from the dustbin in the robot into the dust bag in the dock – but that only lasts for a few seconds.
Qn: Will the robot crash into my chairs and tables or fall down stairs/steps etc?
Ans: Robot vacuums have sensors to detect walls and objects and avoid crashing into them. The S7 MaxV Ultra uses what Roborock calls a ReactiveAI 2.0 3D structured light obstacle avoidance system and a neural processing unit for more accurate detection so you won’t see them crashing into furniture or your legs.
Qn: Can the robot detect smaller objects and cables etc?
Ans: Advanced robot vacuums have a camera onboard that better detects objects and pets and avoids them. The S7 MaxV Ultra has DUAL cameras so it can see and bypass objects down to as small as 5cm (2in) wide and 3cm (1.1in) tall. It can also avoid items that are always on the floor such as cables and children’s toys etc. You can even view your apartment while the robot is cleaning the house. It has a microphone and speaker on board too so you can chit chat with whoever is at home via the Roborock app. For security, you can enable or disable this feature.
Belly-up, at the bottom of the robot is the mop cloth, side brush, main brush, and wheels etc.
Qn: What if the room is very dark, or at night, do I have to switch on the light for the robot to work?
Ans: No need, the S7 MaxV Ultra has an LED fill light, which it automatically turns on at low light areas.
Qn: I have carpets in the living room. Can the robot vacuum the carpet yet don’t wet the carpet by mopping it?
Ans: The robot is smart enough to detect carpets and is able to get onto the carpet (as long as it’s not one of those super thick types) to vacuum. It will also automatically pause mopping by raising the mop assembly while it vacuums the surface of the carpet and resume mopping when it leaves the carpet.
Qn: Is it a wet vacuum?
Ans: No, most robot vacuums out there are only meant to vacuum relatively dry surfaces.
Qn: Can it clean the sides of the walls and corners etc.
Ans: It can clean the sides of the walls but due to the design of robot vacuums in general, there will be some awkward corners that the brush and mop cannot reach. You will have to manually clean these places with a handheld vacuum and cleaning cloth. We do that once every few weeks because these spots are few and far between.
Qn: Is it very troublesome and tedious to move furniture around to let the robot clean properly?
Ans: Robot vacuums are smart enough to navigate around furniture and clean the spaces between them, as long as the gaps are big enough for the robot to get through. Their raison d’etre is to clean autonomously without you having to spend any effort supervising or helping it.
Qn: How frequently do I have to clean using the robot vacuum?
Ans: It’s up to you, you can use it as frequently as you want depending on how clean you want your house to be. It’s a robot, so it won’t complain like a human. And it consumes very little electricity. I clean twice a week while my friend sets her robot on schedule to automatically clean EVERY day at 7am!
Tags: appliances, mops, reviews, Roborock, robots, tech4home, TUCU, vacuum mops, vacuums