Review: Ecovacs Winbot, a Window-Cleaning Robot

 

While the actual process of make clean my windows is no big deal, the very idea of it inspires procrastination. The step-ladders, the Windex, the aching shoulders, the dull drudgery. I encumber wish for a magic djinn to appear and handle the project.

Enter the genie: the Winbot, a dedicated window-cleaning robot from Chinese comp whatever Ecovacs Robotics.

Winbot is a five-pound box that latches itself to your glass panes with an industrial-strength suction mechanism. Then, based on what its minuscule sensors detect, it scoots around on its caterpillar feet to wash and ironic your windows.

You start by spraying a bit of Ecovacs’ saying cleaner on the precedent line pad. Then, attach the include microfiber pads at either end of the robot’s belly. As it moves, the front pad scrubs and the belly pads handle the drying. There’s also a squeegee in between the cleaning and the drying pads.

Once it’s set up, you put the Winbot in the middle of the window, force come in it on, and the device calculates the distances to the window’s edges. Then off it goes, zig-zagging along back and forth, up and humble, cleaning the glass to a streakless excise in about five minutes.

There are two models, integrity for regular windows with frames ($300) and a model for fancier windows without frames ($four hundred) that’s much expensive since it uses extra sensors to keep from running off the edges.

It is non cordless — although the robot has an emergency battery pack to keep it from falling off the window, it draws its source via a six-foot cable that plugs into any socket. If your windows are near a power outlet, great. Otherwise, you will lease to invest in Ecovacs’ 59-inch filename extension cable, which has a proprietary conjunctive and costs an extra $60. The extension cable is necessary because the power cord attaches to a power brick, and if you don’t ware an extender, that brick will dangle below the Winbot as it cleans, weighing it down and possibly unhingeting the suction mechanism. Also, Winbot only works with clear, limpid glass — no frost, no stickers, no grooves. But if Winbot doesn’t get a heavily soiled area clean, an included remote control lets you redirect it to where it needs to go again.

Initial apparatus involves charging the 400mAh backup batteries (which took me about four hours), applying the Velcro-attached microfiber pads to the Winbot, and delicately spraying the front pad with Ecovacs’ cleaning formula. You can only use the federation’s own formula — it claims that ammonia- or acid-based solutions will upset the robot’s sensors.

Depending on how large your windows are, Winbot can motor from five minutes to “whatever” to finish its job. But that’s not counting the cartridge clip it takes to move the device to distributively side of the window and calibrate it for the pane’s dimensions. Also, if you have intercourse above the free-base level, you’ll need the “Safety Pod” supplementation — an anchor of sorts that keeps the Winbot from taking a fatal tumble to the ground — to use it on the outside of your house.

At this point, it’s becoming bonny clear: if you were to clean the glass yourself, it would take less time and involve much less of a hassle. So I had to ask myself, is it worth spending between $300 and $400 for the robot, plus another $60 for the almost essential extension cord, to accomplish what I’m too lazy to do myself?

The answer is easy: Don’t throw out the Windex just yet.

WIRED Robotic window-cleaner handles windows, mirrors and glass doors. Produces a streakless, residue-free shine. Turns a tiring chore into a relatively painless process.

TIRED High cost. Poor convention with a too-short cord. Ultimately just as time-consuming as applying a little elbow grease.

Materials taken from WIRED