iRobot’s most affordable vacuum is the tiny, new Braava Jet mopping robot

The $199 robo-vac gets in those hard-to-reach kitchen and bathroom crannies.

Read the whole story

 

[beebee]

Is this native advertising?

 

[tjones2]

beebee[/url]":7m89m86t]Is this native advertising?

Its this thing called a "review". You may have heard of the concept before. Its when a journalist for a news site tries a product, and writes about her experiences using it.

 

[Michael.phoenix]

But is it Kitty-Cat attack proof?

 

[pbarrette]

Wait:

Unlike the $299 Braava 380t that has two cleaning modes

Until now, the $375 Roomba 650 was the cheapest iRobot vacuum you could buy

I'm confused.

 

[SwordFishData]

Does it automagically return to a charging base? I've been contemplating one as a way to take stress off my significant other (and reduce the amount of cleaning I'm requested/ordered to perform), but having to recharge 4 times to clean a 750 sq-ft common area/kitchen would seem almost more fiddly than just mopping the area myself.

 

[Snarky Robot]

Michael.phoenix[/url]":32cx1sf3]But is it Kitty-Cat attack proof?

In my experience, short of using adamantium, nothing is.

My major concerns are a lack of docking station (isn't half the point of robot workers the lack of any sort of thought or effort?) and the shift to a razor/blades business model. If each "pad" only works once, and I want to dry mop and wet scrub once a week and "wet mop" once a month, that's 116 pads per year. Round up to 120. That's an additional $96 a year, without tax. And hell, I'd probably want to "dry mop" more than once a week. Not that I'm messy, but why not every day after I leave in the morning?

The lower entry point is nice, but if I'm going to move to automated cleaning, I might as well get one that can do it 5-7 times a week without spending hundreds "padding" their bank accounts. Any word on how long those pads last? Replacing them once a week wouldn't be terrible, but beyond that, I'm not really interested.

 

[Static and Noise]

pbarrette[/url]":3ammtjl5]Wait:

Unlike the $299 Braava 380t that has two cleaning modes

Until now, the $375 Roomba 650 was the cheapest iRobot vacuum you could buy

I'm confused.

The 380t doesn't do vacuuming it seems, only mopping. I think?

And gawd, just call the things Roombas, guys at Roomba! The iRobot naming scheme just seems cheap.

 

[Snarky Robot]

SwordFishData[/url]":2bysko61]Does it automagically return to a charging base? I've been contemplating one as a way to take stress off my significant other (and reduce the amount of cleaning I'm requested/ordered to perform), but having to recharge 4 times to clean a 750 sq-ft common area/kitchen would seem almost more fiddly than just mopping the area myself.

No recharging base. It goes back to where you plopped it down, and has a wall-wart for charging.

 

[Gary Patterson]

A relatively inexpensive device that might be able to clean my floors? I'm pretty keen. It mops? I'm very keen.

beebee is against it? I'm pretty much certain it's going to be a great device.

 

[apoclypse]

Went on the iRobot site but I don't think it's up yet. I see the bigger one but not smaller jet. Either I really need this so its a must buy for me. Especially at that price. I think this will be their breakout hit.

 

[so_cosmic]

tjones2[/url]":3akghno2]

beebee[/url]":3akghno2]Is this native advertising?

Its this thing called a "review". You may have heard of the concept before. Its when a journalist for a news site tries a product, and writes about her experiences using it.

Usually in reviews people discuss the performance of the product in question. The closest thing this transparent advertisement does to that is talking about how quiet it is. How well does it clean? How long does it take to clean a room? How does it handle weird obstacles in or on the floor? What if it shoots water onto a power strip? Your leather slippers? There's no critical thought at all.

 

[efbrazil]

This is the next generation of the mint cleaner that roomba bought a few years back. I bought one of those.

Here's a review: the design is a complete waste of money. It doesn't rub hard enough to mop anything up. The coverage area is too small for a sweeper, plus the pads just push dirt into objects like chair legs or walls or transition strips. Roombas are useful, this thing is not.

 

[guifa]

Isn't the main point about these robot cleaners that they just run on their own entirely and you only need to empty/refill like once every week or month or so and otherwise ignore them because they'll charge and all on their own?

I guess I fail to see the point in this one. If I have to regularly change the pad, plug it in manually, replenish water manually, and it only covers 200 sq ft (not enough for my kitchen / dining room) per charge, um... What's the point?

I hate to be that guy, but with a broom I can cover my whole kitchen and dining area in under a minute, and maybe five tops for mopping using one of the squeeze sponge mops.

Adding up refilling everything, charging, and running it twice, I just don't see what time it saves.

 

[SmokeTest]

beebee[/url]":glsm8tzd]

tjones2[/url]":glsm8tzd]

beebee[/url]":glsm8tzd]Is this native advertising?

Its this thing called a "review". You may have heard of the concept before. Its when a journalist for a news site tries a product, and writes about her experiences using it.

Except people have long given up on Roomba products.

http://youtu.be/KbOqsp3oUQI

Not to mention this things break more than iphone screens.

Funny, I have two Roombas, and love them. I'd much rather empty the bins once a day than sweep every day.

German Shepherds shed a lot.

 

[Dayvid]

beebee[/url]":3qvugpwf]

tjones2[/url]":3qvugpwf]

beebee[/url]":3qvugpwf]Is this native advertising?

Its this thing called a "review". You may have heard of the concept before. Its when a journalist for a news site tries a product, and writes about her experiences using it.

Except people have long given up on Roomba products.

http://youtu.be/KbOqsp3oUQI

Not to mention this things break more than iphone screens.

Eh, hardly looks like a product error. Obviously not something you want to happen, but the human overlord said vacuum at 8, so it vacuumed at 8.

 

[koolraap]

Operative Me[/url]":g8zndg1k]

SwordFishData[/url]":g8zndg1k]Does it automagically return to a charging base? I've been contemplating one as a way to take stress off my significant other (and reduce the amount of cleaning I'm requested/ordered to perform), but having to recharge 4 times to clean a 750 sq-ft common area/kitchen would seem almost more fiddly than just mopping the area myself.

No recharging base. It goes back to where you plopped it down, and has a wall-wart for charging.

Obvious solution to the problem is to buy 4 of them

 

[vanbarel]

beebee[/url]":2mc5kvyp]

tjones2[/url]":2mc5kvyp]

beebee[/url]":2mc5kvyp]Is this native advertising?

Its this thing called a "review". You may have heard of the concept before. Its when a journalist for a news site tries a product, and writes about her experiences using it.

Except people have long given up on Roomba products.

http://youtu.be/KbOqsp3oUQI

Not to mention this things break more than iphone screens.

Really? Mine broke after 7 years (and probably because of toddler intervention). First thing I did: buying another.

I still have some reserves on the mopping versions, but a Roomba (the cheapest one is now the 620) is one of the best help you may buy in a store for your house

 

[BronekK]

I wonder how it compares to another scrubbing robot - iRobot Scooba. It is not a mop obviously, the question is how effective (in cleaning dirty floors) they are in comparison.

 

[Azethoth666]

guifa[/url]":2equ7byb]Isn't the main point about these robot cleaners that they just run on their own entirely and you only need to empty/refill like once every week or month or so and otherwise ignore them because they'll charge and all on their own?

I guess I fail to see the point in this one. If I have to regularly change the pad, plug it in manually, replenish water manually, and it only covers 200 sq ft (not enough for my kitchen / dining room) per charge, um... What's the point?

I hate to be that guy, but with a broom I can cover my whole kitchen and dining area in under a minute, and maybe five tops for mopping using one of the squeeze sponge mops.

Adding up refilling everything, charging, and running it twice, I just don't see what time it saves.

I switched to a steam mop for all my tile and linoleum surfaces. No way can I downgrade to something like this. Tile and linoleum are kitchen bathroom and entry which means the dirtiest places. Not cleaning spots just does not fly in the kitchen.

I may get a roomba though to increase the default level of clean for the carpets.

 

[kanavsingh]

how much does it costs? does it have dedicated sensors? build quality?

 

[bicarb]

I have an ancient Roomba 530(?) and run it almost daily. Like another mentioned, it can fill it's bin with dog hair every day or two. My floors are all terrazzo & I'd love to buy a mopping robot to go with it, but this thing sounds like it's competing against the 15(?)$ 100 pack of Swiffer pads with the squirt stick attachment & fails miserably there.

It doesn't sound like it's for dealing with the hard to get stuff that turns mop water black, and it's too expensive for regular use because of the pad cost

 

[Tom the Melaniephile]

Need more performance and information for an actual review.

Example Okay, it charges from a "wall wart" - but this is a tech site. That LOOKS like a USB-C port. Is it the right form factor? Can I just plug this into my existing USB-C chargers? Or will it fit, but fry the robot? Or the charger?

 

[Eldorito]

Operative Me[/url]":1pqrk6ep]

SwordFishData[/url]":1pqrk6ep]Does it automagically return to a charging base? I've been contemplating one as a way to take stress off my significant other (and reduce the amount of cleaning I'm requested/ordered to perform), but having to recharge 4 times to clean a 750 sq-ft common area/kitchen would seem almost more fiddly than just mopping the area myself.

No recharging base. It goes back to where you plopped it down, and has a wall-wart for charging.

I'm going to become a billionaire when I invent a robot with a giant battery pack that roams around the house charging all other electronics

until it decides a cat needs charging, anyway.

 

[Red Zero]

Michael.phoenix[/url]":d7yi20b8]But is it Kitty-Cat attack proof?

It does spray water, so maybe it can fend them off on its own.

 

[Bagheera]

efbrazil[/url]":2m7juj5s]This is the next generation of the mint cleaner that roomba bought a few years back. I bought one of those.

Here's a review: the design is a complete waste of money. It doesn't rub hard enough to mop anything up. The coverage area is too small for a sweeper, plus the pads just push dirt into objects like chair legs or walls or transition strips. Roombas are useful, this thing is not.

+++++ I bought the Braava 320 last year. It's a piece of junk. From what I've read, the inexpensive Mint robots (marketed as Braava and having a square shape) are cheap but useless. The Roombas (expensive and circular shape) do their job well.

It couldn't navigate around basic pieces of furniture such as coffee tables and couches.

The mopping feature didn't do anything. The "sweeping" feature was just pushing a Swiffer pad around the floor. A big pile of dirt accumulated on the front of the robot. When it backed up and turned for navigation, it left a little pile of debris in its wake.

We used it about 10 times and haven't turned it in for six months. It's a waste of money. We're waiting until we have enough money to buy the expensive Roomba model.

 

[qutory]

Its rechargeable battery will let it clean up to 200 square feet per charge.

Overall, the Braava 380t is better suited to clean larger homes with many big rooms, because you can buy additional Navigation Cubes to allow the robot to cover 2,000 square feet in a single cleaning cycle.

With its rechargeable battery, the vacuum will be able to clean 200 square feet during the damp and dry modes and 150 square feet during the wet mode.

So which one is it? I don't expect the "Navigation Cubes" to provide it wireless electricity. And 200 sq feet is barely one room. It will take you more time to keep charging it for every room than to mop it yourself.

[later edit] I see now that it was comparing 380t to Jet

 

[qutory]

tjones2[/url]":1pdm4kj0]

beebee[/url]":1pdm4kj0]Is this native advertising?

Its this thing called a "review". You may have heard of the concept before. Its when a journalist for a news site tries a product, and writes about her experiences using it.

A review should cover the product in depth. This is just a poor presentation. You can read everything in this "review" if you go on irobot's website. For example I don't see anything mentioned about it lacking the scheduling feature which comes handy for these robots.

 

[Deleted member 448645]

More importantly, does it have a GPS tracker? Because if this cleans well and could follow my girlfriend it would be an instant buy.

She is... not clean, installing bright white LEDs in our kitchen was the worst mistake of my life.... Oh... there's coffee stains on this cabinet... and this cabinet... and this wall... the fridge... what the fuck... the coffee press is no where near any of this, HOW?! Yet, she still has a full cup of coffee when she's done and I know the press holds precisely one cup of coffee. I'm certain she's a witch, a non-euclidean witch.

 

[Statistical]

s

Each mode has its own pad, and they snap onto the bottom of the robot—if you want to clean your bathroom floor using wet mopping mode, just attach the wet mopping pad to the base. That being said, you will have to restock these pads when you run out—iRobot says they will sell in packs of 10 pads for $7.99 per pack.

So the inkjet business model.

A seperate pad for vacuum, damp wipe, and mopping at $0.80 ea. With each one good for only a max of 200 sq ft. Probably would need 4 to cover our downstairs so essentially it costs $3.20 each time we would clean or $150 a year. Doesn't really look that cheap compared to 380t when looked at it that way.

 

[Deleted member 14629]

This might be my entry point to robotic cleaning. The one thing I'm really bad about is mopping. This could definitely get "me" to mop on a weekly basis.

 

[apoclypse]

so_cosmic[/url]":3mjvsb4b]

tjones2[/url]":3mjvsb4b]

beebee[/url]":3mjvsb4b]Is this native advertising?

Its this thing called a "review". You may have heard of the concept before. Its when a journalist for a news site tries a product, and writes about her experiences using it.

Usually in reviews people discuss the performance of the product in question. The closest thing this transparent advertisement does to that is talking about how quiet it is. How well does it clean? How long does it take to clean a room? How does it handle weird obstacles in or on the floor? What if it shoots water onto a power strip? Your leather slippers? There's no critical thought at all.

Kind of agree but I bought it anyway.

It seems "reviews" nowadays are basically advertising for the product with basically no real testing done on the product in question. This is not something that Ars is just doing, I've seen it on many other sites as well across a whole cross section of products.

Not long ago I was interested in a buying a new audio interface for my home studio and Presonus was releasing and hyping their new 192 audio interface that was supposed to be phenomenal. A product that married features, audio quality and price into a device that frankly on paper looked great. All the sites the "reviewed" the product gave it a glowing review, touting it's zero/low latency when recording etc. Me being the cautious sort especially on an almost $1k investment decided to see what actual users were saying. Turns out the interface has unusually high RTL even for a USB interface in it's class, drive issues on Macs, and reports of power button issues. Now the power button issue I can give a pass since reviewers are probably going to get a good unit when reviewing but high RTL (super important when using VSTi) and no reviewer caught that at all. Yeah I don't think so.

Anyway my point is that if someone is doing and actual review and not a "review" I don't want a general impression of the product that I can get by watching Youtube videos. I want someone to actually use the product, observe what it does, how it works, what doesn't work and let us know what the real deal is, otherwise it comes off as native advertisement not an actual review.

Imagine going to TweakTown or Anandtech and reading a review where all you get is a recap of whatever is on the box. We want performance metrics, benchmarks, analysis of the included software and how well it works. That's what we come to sites like Ars for.

 

[Hopefully Smarter]

This is pony case where I might want to surrender to our robot overlords.

 

[macrumpton]

This is based on my 2 year experiences with the previous model:
First of all, unless it is an entirely different device than the old one, this is not a vacuum. It could be more properly called a sweeper, or a swiffer, since it basically pushes a rag around the floor, and dirt sticks to the rag.
That being said, for hardwood, linoleum or even better Terrazzo or tile floors it does a great job (although useless on rugs or carpets). It picks up loose dirt and dust and hair like a champ, making the rags really disgusting (better on the rag than the floor). When you have enough soiled rags, you just wash them, and you start again.
You can also use disposable swiffer pads.
You can set it to mop, which if you don't want to get the fancy resevoir pads, you can just squirt a little mopnglo every 5 feet or so and it will do a fine job of getting up moderate amounts of dirt and stains. The mopping has a scrubbing action that takes more time and uses more power and it will not pick up large amounts of tracked in mud, but it does a great job.

Plusses
Nearly silent.
Easily does 900 sq feet per charge sweeping, maybe 1/2 to 2/3 that mopping
It is very good at getting into most nooks and crannies.
It is easy to use
Cheap compared to robo-vacuums
Very little maintenance, just clean hair out of the wheel axels every month or so.

Minuses
Does not charge itself
Can get stuck under and behind things like vertical blinds and under couches with short legs.
The rags really get disgusting
Thresholds and rugs stop it.

 

[ClownRazer]

The point has been raised, but the question hasn't been asked directly: can the pads be cleaned/reused?

Is there a way the machine marks a pad as used (digitally in an embedded chip or mechanically somehow)

Do the pads have drm (can I put an old rag under there? Or a pad from a competitor?)

Echoing the sentiment of the weakness of this "review". On a tech site with an inquisitive/hacker reader base these questions are low hanging fruit.

 

[hansmuff]

Really weak submission, I'm a little shocked to see this on ARS.

 

[credible]

Tom the Melaniephile[/url]":377j2lhm]Need more performance and information for an actual review.

Example Okay, it charges from a "wall wart" - but this is a tech site. That LOOKS like a USB-C port. Is it the right form factor? Can I just plug this into my existing USB-C chargers? Or will it fit, but fry the robot? Or the charger?

If you're talking about the blue port on the front, that's where the water comes out. Please don't stick a charger in there. Or at least film it, please

 

[vintagedave]

I just wrote to the editors. Posting here because in the past, when I've submitted editorial concerns (once) and article suggestions (several times) I haven't even got an automated acknowledgement email, let alone a reply from a human.

Hi,

I just read your review of the iRobot Braava Jet, http://meincmagazine.com/gadgets/2016/03/ ... ing-robot/

I feel rather concerned about the article - it reads like pure advertising. Phrases like, "iRobot developed the Braava Jet by going to those most knowledgable about robot vacuums: current Roomba users." - that's marketing-speak 101. Or, "...the company decided against it for two reasons: simplicity and price. The Braava Jet was designed to be as user-friendly as possible..." - is this just regurgitating a press release? "...the Braava Jet is iRobot's way of making cleaning technology more accessible. " Really? You're writing that?

The article itself addressed nothing a real review of the quality Ars normally provides does. There were no tests - no photos, say, of a dirty floor and then how well it cleaned it, just photos of handles and dirty cleanings pads. Nothing about how it handles desks or feet. Nothing about power cords or if its water spraying can cause problems. (Can it accidentally spray on a wall? On a power multi adapter?) Then when there was information, like holding 150ml of water and being ok for 2000 square feet, it didn't address what that means. 150ml seems tiny. Does it just moisten the floor? What happens when it's empty? Does it have a home base to return to like other Roombas, to refill or recharge? Does it beep, do you have to manually pick it up? (And for that matter, what's 2000 square feet in metric units? I don't know and I'm sure not going to convert it after reading the quality of the rest of the review. Did this article pass by an editor, and they didn't think about the rest of the world?)

All up, not only did the review seem to not review the item, but it was phrased and strongly seemed to be reworked marketing material. I feel quite disappointed and concerned.

I've been trying to decide whether to buy an Ars subscription for a while now. So far no, because the articles are not always of interest (I would like to see more on desktop OSes, and technical use of computing - new versions of well-known compilers, new or changed languages, platforms, that kind of thing), though I admit you are wide-ranging, and not always of high quality (your Win10 review was fawning, not critical at all). I occasionally send in tips / suggestions for article content, and not one has been even acknowledged by even an automated email, yet alone resulted in an article. And then this article was atrocious. This is not the way to go to get a technical reader like me to subscribe.

In the past, when suggesting articles, or even writing with editorial concerns, there has been no reply - not even an acknowledgement of receipt of the email. Please do not do that again: it would be really nice to get an email at least acknowledging that this was read by the editorial staff, even if you do not put the time in to address the issues.

Cheers,

(vintagedave)