MOVA S70 Roller Review: Wiper Roller Power for the Mid-Range Segment

Vacuum and mopping robots with rotating cleaning rollers were previously considered the domain of high-end models. Devices such as the Narwal Flow 2 (Review | € 1,299.00 *) or the Mova Z70 Ultra Roller Complete (Review | € 949.00 *) often cost around 1,000 euros. With the MOVA S70 Roller, the Dreame subsidiary is bringing this technology into a significantly more affordable price range for the first time. For an MSRP of €599, you get a robot vacuum with 28,000 Pa of suction power, a 27-cm-wide HydroForce mopping roller, and a full-featured docking station that includes mop washing and drying. Our review will determine whether the combination of powerful suction and continuous roller cleaning truly delivers in everyday use.

Technical Specifications of the MOVA S70 Roller

Feature	Value
Model	MOVA S70 Roller
Robot Dimensions	350 × 350 × 90 mm
Robot weight	approx. 4.5 kg
Base Station Dimensions	340 × 255 × 503 mm
Max. suction power	28,000 Pa
Mopping technology	HydroForce mopping roller, 27 cm wide
Roller extension (MaxiReach)	up to 4.4 cm laterally
Roll mop stroke height	12 mm
Lift height of side brush	10 mm
Navigation	CovertSense™ (dToF sensor + cross-laser)
Battery capacity	5,200 mAh
Dust Bag Capacity (Docking Station)	3.2 L
Dust bin capacity (robot)	240 ml
Fresh water tank (docking station)	5 L
Dirty water tank (docking station)	4.5 L
Water tank (robot)	150 ml
Mop wash	Hot water up to 80 °C (4 settings: Ambient, 45 °C, 60 °C, 80 °C)
Mop drying	70 °C hot air
Detergent dosing	Not available
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz, MOVAhome app
Voice assistants	Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant
Price	Price not available *

What’s Included with the MOVA S70 Roller

• S70 Roller Robot Vacuum
• Base Station
• Ramp extension plate for the base station
• User Manual

Design and Build Quality of the MOVA S70 Roller

Visually, the S70 Roller has a deliberately understated look. The matte white (or black) housing appears simple and functional, without any flashy design elements. So if you’re looking for eye-catching accents, you won’t find them here. Personally, I see this as a major advantage. After all, this allows the smart home helper to blend unobtrusively into nearly any living space.

The circular robot itself measures 350 × 350 × 90 mm, which is pleasantly slim for a device with a mopping roller. This is great news for anyone with low-profile furniture, under which the robot should be able to navigate whenever possible. The slim design is made possible primarily by omitting a traditional LiDAR tower.

Instead, on the top, we find only a round control unit with two buttons for starting and stopping the smart home helper and for sending it back to its base station. A maintenance hatch here also provides access to the internal dust bin. The sensor unit used for obstacle detection is located on the front of the robot.

We also find the replacement for the missing LiDAR tower here. Behind a small, narrow viewing slit is the sensor responsible for navigation. On the side is another sensor that measures the distance to furniture and walls. On the back, we find the ports used to drain the internal dirty water tank and fill the internal fresh water tank.

On top of that, the charging contacts for recharging the battery are located here. The highlight on the underside is, of course, the 27 cm wide extendable cleaning roller. Here, MOVA has incorporated a scraping system designed to, in a sense, comb the sucked-up dirty water out of the roller and direct it to the internal dirty water tank. The main brush and side brush are also located here.

The latter utilizes MOVA’s proven MaxiReach system. This means that the robot automatically extends it in corner areas, which—at least in theory—promises excellent corner cleaning. The charging station is relatively large (340 × 255 × 503 mm) and visually resembles a slightly scaled-down version of its counterpart from the MOVA Z70 Ultra Roller Complete.

Since the housing is made of the same material as the robot itself, the two make a great-looking pair. The top panel provides access to the dirt and fresh water tanks, which offer a pleasingly large capacity of 5 liters and 4.5 liters, respectively. The flap on the front provides access to the 3.2-liter dust bag. The lower section houses the robot’s charging dock, where the battery is charged and self-cleaning is performed, among other functions.

Setup and Initial Operation of the MOVA S70 Roller

The initial setup is straightforward, so even those new to robot vacuums don’t need to worry about any major hurdles. Once everything is unpacked, start by removing the protective films. Next, attach the ramp to the charging station and then plug the station into a power outlet. The next step involves using your smartphone and the MOVA app.

Once you’ve created a user account, simply add the S70 Roller as a new device. To do this, just scan the QR code on the device. Once the Bluetooth connection between your smartphone and the robot is established, the S70 Roller will automatically connect to your network. It’s not rocket science, and thanks to the step-by-step instructions in the app, it’s done in no time.

Now the MOVA is ready to start its maiden voyage. During this initial run, it doesn’t clean the floor yet—instead, it first creates a map of the apartment. Overall, the S70 Roller performed well during the mapping run. The only thing I noticed was that it sometimes seemed a bit disoriented and had to find its bearings when entering a new room.

At the end of the mapping process—which takes only a few minutes—the robot returns to its docking station, and you can view a detailed floor plan of your apartment on your smartphone. If there are any errors in room assignment or if you want to add restricted zones later, you can easily do so even after the fact.

MOVA App

The MOVAhome app has a clean, organized interface and offers many customization options and useful features. You can choose from the classic modes: vacuuming, mopping, and a combined vacuuming and mopping mode. There’s also an automatic cleaning mode, in which the S70 Roller decides on its own which cleaning mode is best for the situation.

The suction power can be adjusted in four levels (Quiet, Standard, Intensive, Max), and the mopping moisture level of the roller can even be adjusted in 32 levels. This is convenient, as it allows you to adjust the amount of water to suit different floor types. In addition, four cleaning route options (Quick, Standard, Intensive Mopping, Deep Cleaning) are available. Rooms can be individually named and organized, and no-go zones and schedules can be set up quickly.

Thanks to a dedicated sensor on the underside, the S70 Roller features a convenient carpet detection system. For carpets, the app offers several behavior options (lift mop on carpet, clean carpets first, carpet boost, intensive carpet cleaning), which can even be customized individually for each carpet. We recommend selecting the “Clean carpets first” option.

This way, you’re on the safe side, and the risk of damp fibers is minimized. After all, the mopping roller cannot be fully retracted—it can only be raised by 12 mm. A roller cover, like the one on the Ecovacs Deebot X12 OmniCyclone (Review | € 899.00 *). Voice control works via Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, but Siri Shortcuts and a Matter connection are missing.

Navigation and Obstacle Detection on the MOVA S70 Roller

Instead of a traditional laser tower, MOVA relies on CovertSense navigation for the S70 Roller. A hidden dToF (Direct Time-of-Flight) sensor is located behind a wide viewing slit at the front and is supplemented by cross-lasers and a mechanical bumper. This approach enables the low profile of 90 millimeters but comes at the expense of 360-degree panoramic vision.

In practice, this results in occasional spinning motions to reorient itself. This behavior isn’t unusual; rather, it’s typical for models that don’t have a LiDAR tower. It’s not really bothersome, but the total cleaning time may end up being slightly longer than with comparable robot vacuums featuring a traditional LiDAR tower.

However, basic mapping and route planning worked reliably during the test. The robot rarely lost its bearings and always returned safely to the charging station. When it comes to obstacle detection, however, technical limitations become apparent. The S70 Roller does not feature AI-powered camera detection, as found in more expensive MOVA models.

Larger obstacles, such as chair or table legs, are reliably detected. With smaller objects such as cables, shoelaces, toys, or building blocks, however, the system performs only moderately well. Such small items are not always safely navigated around but are occasionally moved slightly or even sucked up.

It is therefore recommended to clear the floor of small items before starting a cleaning cycle. The robot can navigate door thresholds and edge transitions up to a height of just under 2 cm. The device lacks a dedicated climbing function for higher thresholds.

Suction Power of the MOVA S70 Roller

At 28,000 Pa, the S70 Roller’s suction power is on par with that of flagship models that, until recently, were priced in the four-digit range. The entire unit is powered by the same motor used in the flagship MOVA Z60 Ultra Roller Complete (Review | € 699.00 *).

In practice, it delivers impressive results—whether it’s fine dust, crumbs, or coarser debris like oatmeal and rice. The cleaning performance is particularly impressive on hard floors. The S70 Roller also performs well on short-pile carpets. Things get trickier as the pile length increases, so some debris tends to get left behind on long-pile carpets.

Given its price range, however, this is by no means surprising. The retractable side brush is used for cleaning corners. In this regard, the S70 Roller clearly outshines many other mid-range models. The main brush shows slight weaknesses when it has to deal with a lot of hair.

Since the S70 Roller doesn’t have an active anti-tangling feature, hair can quickly get tangled here. But that’s not really a big deal. After all, the main brush is easy to remove and any tangled hair can be cleared out without any trouble.

Cleaning Performance of the MOVA S70 Roller

One highlight of the S70 Roller is undoubtedly the HydroForce mopping roller. When you see the 27-cm-wide, extendable mopping roller, it’s easy to forget that we’re dealing with a mid-range model here. During cleaning, the rotating roller is continuously moistened with fresh water via a 12-nozzle spray system and exerts a pressure of 17 N on the floor. During the cleaning process, a scraper bar ensures that the collected dirty water is immediately directed into the integrated dirty water tank.

Unlike traditional mop pads, which tend to spread dirty water across the floor, this results in a noticeably better cleaning effect with an even, streak-free finish across the entire surface. Thanks to MaxiReach technology, the roller can be extended laterally by up to 4.4 cm to reach baseboards, furniture edges, and other corners.

In everyday use, the mopping roller performs very well on fresh dirt. Spilled liquids, everyday stains, and light soiling are generally removed reliably on the first pass. The system reaches its limits with dried-on, stubborn stains—such as sauce or ketchup residue that has been sitting for several hours.

In these cases, visible residue remained, which only disappeared completely after several cleaning passes or manual touch-ups. This isn’t necessarily due to a lack of hardware power. Rather, the S70 Roller lacks practical features such as automatic stain detection, detergent dispensing, or hot-water cleaning. If you want to use detergent, you’ll need to add it manually to the fresh water as needed.

Docking Station in Everyday Use

The base station handles the most tedious maintenance tasks fully automatically, reducing the effort required in everyday use to a minimum. After each cleaning cycle, the robot’s 240-ml dust bin is emptied here. The debris then ends up in the station’s 3.2-liter dust bag. According to the manufacturer, this is sufficient for up to 100 days of hands-free operation.

The mopping roller is then cleaned in a four-stage dynamic hot-water washing system at temperatures up to 80 °C and subsequently dried with hot air at around 70 °C. This reliably prevents unpleasant odors or mold growth on the damp roller—an issue that is often critical in mopping roller systems.

According to the manufacturer, the station’s 5-liter fresh water tank and 4.5-liter dirty water tank allow for the cleaning of up to 1,200 square meters in a single run, with a runtime approximately 30 percent longer than that of the Z60 series. However, some manual work is still required. The dirty water tank should be cleaned regularly, as visible deposits can form there after just a few passes.

The station floor also does not clean itself automatically, but can be cleaned manually in just a few minutes if necessary. As mentioned earlier, anyone expecting automatic cleaning solution dispensing will be disappointed. This feature is reserved for more expensive models in the MOVA series.

Conclusion

The MOVA S70 Roller features mop roller technology that was previously found almost exclusively in significantly more expensive models—and at an unusually reasonable price for this category. Its suction power and cleaning performance are largely impressive in everyday use—even in households with pets, where pet hair and paw prints are reliably removed. The low profile of just 90 millimeters also allows it to clean under furniture that remains out of reach for many competing models. If you have mostly hard floors and are looking for a noticeably better mopping result than with traditional mop pads, the S70 Roller offers a lot of technology for the money. But don’t expect miracles. If you frequently struggle with dried-on stains or are used to a floor with lots of small items lying around, you should take its weaknesses in stain removal and obstacle detection into account. In these areas, more expensive MOVA models, such as the S70 Ultra Roller with AI camera recognition, offer greater reliability.