iRobot Braava 380t Mopping Robot – Robotic Mop

Are you like me and hate mopping floors? How about if I could show you the best mopping robot that could do it for you with very little intervention from you?

Well today I’m going to be reviewing the iRobot Braava 380t Mopping Robot – Robotic Mop.

We’ll be looking at how it works, what kind of job it does, will it make your life easier, does it get your floors clean and what do the customers think about it.

Get more information on the iRobot Braava 380t Mopping Robot – Robotic Mop

iRobot Braava 380t Mopping Robot – Robotic Mop Review

This Braava 380t is not a vacuum and mop it is just a mop and sweeper, so you need to be aware of that before you buy, although in our opinion it’s the best mopping robot  and so we added it to our top 10.

What’s in the box

You get the iRobot Braava 380t Mopping Robot and the charging cradle with adapter. You also get the navigation cube with the batteries included that are required to run it. Included in the pack is 2 cleaning attachments, 1 of which has a water reservoir so that it can keep the cloth damp as it mops the floor. There are also 2 cloths a white one for sweeping the floor and a blue one for mopping the floor. There is also a spare wick which is situated in the attachment with the water reservoir, the water soaks the wick and it continually wets the cloth.

Let’s look at it’s features and we can expand on what they are:

• Northstar Navigation works like an indoor GPS to clean until the job is done
• Choose from two modes – dry sweeping or damp mopping
• Use with disposable or microfiber cleaning cloths to pick up daily dirt, dust and hair
• Turbo Charge Cradle recharges Braava in just two hours
• Reusable microfiber cleaning cloths included – one dry sweeping cloth and one damp mopping cloth
• A hassle-free cleaning option, Braava uses dry or damp cloths to mop hard-surface floors for you, keeping dust, daily dirt and smudges under control automatically
• Keep Daily Dirt In Check. Dry Mop Mode and Damp Mop Mode

To start with, this mopping robot doesn’t work quite the same as a robot vacuum in terms of mapping the area through on board cameras and sensors, the mopping robot uses a navigation cube which it uses as a location beacon, an indoor gps which helps it keep track of where it’s been and where it needs to go. It will work it way around the whole room, in sweep mode it can cover up to 1000 sq ft and in mopping mode 300 sq ft, because it moves back and forth more when mopping. If you have a large area to clean or 2 rooms you can buy another navigation cube which allows it to map over a larger area.

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There are 2 modes on this robot, there is the sweeping mode and the mopping mode. When you choose the sweeping mode the robot moves in long straight moves, backward and forward until it has covered the whole room, then it finishes off by going around the edge of the room.

You can use the white cloth that is included for this, which is washable and re-usable or you can also use disposable swiffer cloths, which will obviously work out more expensive. Although it is a sweeper mode there is no reason why you can’t use the blue cloth and dampen it in this mode as a pre clean to the mopping mode.

The mopping mode is only different in the fact that the movement is small back and forth, a normal type of mopping movement you would use yourself to mop, so it takes longer as it doesn’t go in straight long lines but it gives a better cleaning action when you want to wash the floor. You can use either of the attachments for your blue floor washing cloth, if you use the standard attachment you would just wet the cloth, wring it out and put it on. It will still clean the floor but if you have a large floor area it might dry out a bit by the time it gets to the end of cleaning.

If you use the attachment with the water reservoir it will keep dampening the cloth so hopefully it will help clean a little better. You just need to try both and see what works best for you. If the cloth gets really dirty it is easy to take it off and rinse it out in clean water, re-attach it then carry on. The cloths can get washed in your normal weekly wash.

The Braava 380t comes with a charging cradle, it has a turbo charging mode which only takes 2 hours. The difference with this irobot mop and an irobot vacuum is that it can’t dock itself like a robot vacuum, it has to be placed on charge and taken off. The charging cradle has the mop standing on it’s end to charge.You can use this cleaning mop on any hard floor, if you have tiles with a deep grout line it may push dirt into it and not get it out, but it does well on most washable floors. The thing to remember with this robot mop is that it isn’t a set and forget item, it’s like a dishwasher, it makes things easier for you but you have to set it up beforehand and sort it out when it’s finished.

Customer Opinion

There are a lot of good reviews for this mopping robot, most people are happy with the job it does and the fact that the job is done for them while they can get on and do something else.

Customers are happy at how easy it is to change the cloth if required and that it needs little maintenance.

One customer moistens the blue cleaning cloth with her floor cleaning product before setting off the machine and it cleans and leaves a nice smell too.

The negatives are that a few customers have had the plastic tray which holds the cloth break and have had to replace them.

Some customers have had problems with the robot not interacting with the navigation cube after a while.

Some customers have complained that it didn’t clean the floor well on tiles and left streaks.

Verdict

As customers have said, the iRobot Braava 380t Mopping Robot – Robotic Mop probably doesn’t do as well on tiles as it seems to on other surfaces. There are too many good reviews to ignore. This machine won’t do as good a job as you can but if you accept it’s limitations it can be a very useful tool to help you with your daily chores.

Buy the iRobot Braava 380t Mopping Robot at Amazon.com

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