Hobot 198 review window washing robot

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We're not quite in the Jetsons robot housekeeper era yet, but there are a host of house cleaning robots out there that can automate some of you most dreaded chores.
And if you Don't do windows? The HOBOT 198 window cleaning robot may be able to help you.
I recently had a chance to test out the HOBOT 198 in my home to see how it works.

HOBOT 198 a relatively small robot scrubber, designed to adhere to windows and scrub them clean, either inside or out. The robot has two scrubber wheels that come with soft microfibre cleaning pads. There's a long power cord and a tether to keep the HOBOT from plummeting to its doom.

Getting going with this robot is pretty easy. You'll hook up the AC power cable, and add the scrubbing cloths to the wheels if they aren't already on there. They do affix easily.

If you’re using the Hobot outside or over a drop (think apartment balcony or second floor window) tie the safety tether onto something sturdy. Then, press the Hobot flat up against the window and flip the switch on. In a second, the robot will turn on its suction powers and hold itself against the glass. At this point you can let go.

Using the included remote control or the Hobot app, you can set a cleaning mode. The modes are… weird and not very intuitive. There’s three options: Up then Down, Left then Down, and Right then Down. Each is denoted by an arrow and two rings.

To me, none of these cleaning modes says “Clean my whole window” and frankly, I don’t really care whether it goes left or right first. The robot is smart enough to sense the window frame and edges, so it shouldn’t matter which direction it cleans in since it’s going to clean the whole window anyhow, right?

With that said, this device does do a great job of cleaning the entire window. It senses the left and right edges and the top and bottom, and cleans it quite thoroughly. I was quite impressed with the cleaning coverage.

Because this robot is corded and AC powered, it's rather limited in what and where it can clean. I'd love to clean the rear outside windows at my house, but since there's no AC plug anywhere nearby, they're off limits, unless I could connect a long extension cord, I suppose.

Hobot’s manufacturer recommends you clean with windows with Hobot’s help using the same cleaners you’d use at home.

I chose to use Windex; I sprayed cleaner on the top of the window and let it drip down. The Hobot was pretty good at wiping it up and it left a streak-free finish. I found on larger windows, sometimes the cleaner would dry before the Hobot got to it, so in a few cases, I followed it along, and spritzed more cleaner in front of it. That seemed to help.

Hobot’s microfibre cleaning cloths are washable and reusable. Hobot suggests you wash them in water under 40 degrees C (104F) and leave them to air dry.

A handy feature of the robot is that you can use it on floors, surfaces and even textured glass too, according to Home Robot Inc.

I tested it out on a glass coffee table. The first pass I tried it did great; it sensed the edges of the glass top and stayed on course. Second time around, the Hobot fell off the table and onto the floor. Good thing the drop wasn’t far. Third pass was fine too.

While this is a neat feature, I guess, I would have had the table cleaned in about 10 seconds using paper towel and glass cleaner; instead, the Hobot took almost two minutes.

Hobot does some rather random patterns when it comes to scrubbing the floors; it’s not nearly as linear or as efficient. That said, it did do a pretty thorough job on the parts that it did clean.

A legitimate issue is what happens to the robot if the power cord ever got kicked loose or you had an outage. Fortunately, the device has a battery backup that will hold it on the window for up to 30 minutes. Despite what you may think, this doesn’t mean you can pull out the AC power cord and use the Hobot wirelessly; there’s a failsafe to prevent this. If you try it will just stick to the window and beep at you.

I found this device surprisingly helpful. It does a really good job at sticking to the windows and cleaning them too, both inside and out. I experienced no falls, and the windows got clean every time.

If there’s a downside, it’s that Hobot needs to be constantly connected to AC power, and you basically need to supervise the cleaning, so I recommend doing the windows at the same time as you’re doing some other chores nearby. I also thought the control or cleaning buttons weren’t intuitive; the app (and remote) could use a bit of tweaking, in my opinion.

The fact that the cloths are washable is nice, plus you can use it on other surfaces, though it didn’t seem to have the easiest time with tables or floors. Even so, the Hobot 198 is a surprisingly versatile and useful device. www.HomeRobot USA.com