Robot window cleaners haven’t earned their approach into our properties the best way robotic vacuums have, regardless of the same promise of relieving us from a hated chore. The Ecovacs Winbot X underscores why. While it does its job pretty nicely, the expertise could be clumsy and temperamental, and finally, the efficiency simply doesn’t justify the value tag.
Design
The Winbot X consists of two units: the robotic itself, and a “safety pod” that operates as a stationary tether to assist maintain the mop from falling off the window.
The Winbot measures 10.7 by 10.7 inches and weighs about 4 kilos. A big Start/Pause button with an LED indicator is embedded in its deal with. The socket for attaching the protection pod is adjoining to this.
On the enterprise aspect of the Winbot are a squeegee, suction fan, and a sq. cleansing pad that wraps across the edges of the robotic. A pair of driving treads and 4 edge-detection sensors allow the Winbot to navigate the window. At the underside are its energy swap and standing indicator lights for the Winbot and the protection pod.
The security pod is a round unit with an 8.2-foot retractable cable connected to a suction cup that’s about 5 inches in diameter. It has its personal energy swap and a pairing button for syncing with the mop. The two units come pre-synched, however some “malfunctions” can require you to disconnect and re-sync them.
The Winbot X additionally comes with a distant management, 4 alternative cleansing pads, and a bottle of Ecovacs Professional Cleaning Solution.
Setup and utilization
Before you should use the Winbot X, you could cost the 3000mAh Lithium Ion battery. It takes about 2.5 hours to achieve capability and offers as much as 50 minutes of cleansing time, based on Ecovacs. Most home windows take a fraction of that point to finish, so you may get a number of cleanings from a full cost. The security pod comes with a pair of AAA batteries preinstalled.
The mop makes use of a material pad round its perimeter that you just dampen with a cleansing resolution.
There are some parameters to concentrate on when utilizing the Winbot X: Windows should be be at the very least 19.7 by 19.7 inches and have a body no narrower than 0.2 inches. Ecovacs additionally advises you to seek the advice of glass producers’ care directions earlier than utilizing the Winbot X on frosted textured, patterned, or coated glass, as Winbot may harm such finishes.
I made a decision to make use of Winbot on a pair of standard-sized sliding glass patio doorways, which had been fogged with water spots, smudges, and fingerprints.
To put together for a cleansing, you connect a cleansing pad to the underside of the Winbot, give it seven or eight squirts of the cleansing resolution, and wipe off any extra moisture with a dry material. You then swap on the Winbot and the protection pod, and join the 2 with security pod’s tether. The security pod’s suction cup should be cleaned earlier than every use to make sure a safe attachment to the window (a microfiber material is supplied for this). It’s additionally a good suggestion to scrub the patch of window the place you propose to position the protection pod with a dry material.
EcovacsThe Winbot tethers to a suctioned security pod to maintain it from falling to the bottom.
I positioned the protection pod within the higher proper nook of the window and the Winbot’s indicator gentle turned inexperienced to point a safe attachment. I then positioned the mop in the midst of the window and pressed its begin button to start cleansing.
The Winbot X has two cleansing modes: Auto, really helpful for normal cleanings, robotically chooses probably the most appropriate cleansing path—both an N- or Z-pattern—relying on the form of the window. Deep-cleaning mode, which may solely be chosen from the distant management, cleans in each patterns for a extra thorough scrubbing. You may manually direct the mop utilizing the directional pad on the distant.
In Auto mode, it took about 10 minutes for the Winbot X to scrub every patio door, and barely longer in Deep Cleaning mode. That’s additionally about how lengthy it will most likely take for me to do the job by hand. Still, it meant I used to be in a position to get about 4 to 5 cleanings out of every full battery cost. I discovered early on, although, that the cleansing pads typically required greater than the really helpful eight squirts of resolution to get off probably the most cussed grime. The robotic did an honest job on floor smudges, although.
EcovacsYou can choose the Winbot X’s cleansing modes—and even manually direct—it utilizing its distant management.
The drawback with the cleanings was the frequent must attend to the robotic. The Winbot will cease cleansing and beep when it encounters any considered one of a number of issues, and its standing gentle will flip from inexperienced to strong pink.
This occurred virtually instantly throughout my first cleansing. While I used to be studying the troubleshooting information to find out the doable trigger, the protection pod out of the blue crashed to the bottom. It seems the protection pod’s lack of suction is a typical trigger for a “continuous red” alert, because it occurred a number of extra occasions in the middle of my take a look at cleanings.
I rapidly realized to only push the protection pod towards the glass to re-secure it every time the Winbot stopped, after which I may restart the cleansing with out additional incident. Ironically, I felt rather more assured within the Winbot X’s gravity-defying talents. Thanks to its highly effective vacuum suction, the equipment by no means a lot as slipped an inch, and I needed to give it a reasonably robust yank to take away it from the window after a cleansing job.
Verdict
The Winbot X is actually a novel concept, I’m simply undecided it’s a viable one. On the plus aspect, it’s simple to arrange and function, and it did at the very least pretty much as good a job cleansing my window’s as I might have. But the time I needed to spend resetting it after after every stoppage worn out any sense that I used to be being relieved of labor.
Then there’s the matter of the window-size limitations, which makes the Winbot X impractical for many house, rental, and even townhouse dwellers. Add within the consumables you’ll want to purchase repeatedly (cleansing pads and alternative fluids), and the value tag for having a robotic clear you home windows turns into important. Your cash would most likely be higher spent hiring a human to do the job.