Robot vacuum cleaners have been around for some time now and have gradually improved their capabilities over the years, but robot mops are less common. The Braava Jet M6, for example, is the only mopping model offered by iRobot, despite the company having several robot vacuum cleaners in its portfolio.
Available in three colour options, the Braava Jet M6 has some excellent features, but a big price tag too. So the obvious questions are whether it's worth that overhead and is it the future for reducing household chores?
Good design
- Three colour options: White with Silver lid; Black with Silver lid; Black with Rose Gold lid
- Compact base with excess lead storage
- Capacitive control buttons
Like many of the iRobot products, the Braava Jet M6 has a lovely design and one you'll likely be more than happy to have out on display in your home. Its base is far more slimline and compact than the robot vacuum cleaners from the brand, so it doesn't need as much room as say, the iRobot S9+, and the robot mop itself is reasonably compact too.
We had the white model in for review, which features a premium metal silver lid that covers the removable water tank. The mop itself is square with rounded corners and there's a slightly wider bumper at the front. Within this bumper, there's a spray hole for the water. Height-wise, the Braava Jet M6 is slim enough to slip underneath most furniture.
On the top of the Braava Jet M6, there are capacitive touch buttons: one for sending the robot mop back to its base; a Clean button for starting a clean (from the mop itself, not the app); and a Spot-Clean button.
The front of the 'bot has a slot for sliding in the mop pads, whether you use the single-use or washable ones, and there are dry pads and wet pads available too.
Excellent features
- Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa compatibility
- Imprint Smart Mapping
- Precision Jet Spray
The iRobot Braava Jet M6 has a number of features on board, some which it takes from the company's robot vacuum cleaners. Probably the smartest and most useful of them is the Imprint Smart Mapping, which sees the Braava Jet M6 learn, map and adapt to your home.
It's the same technology that's found in the iRobot S9+ and i7+, as well as the more recent J7+, and it means you can select which rooms you want cleaned and when. For example, you might only want the kitchen cleaned, but maybe only one part of the kitchen, such as the main food prep area, and this mapping tech allows for that.Â
Beyond that, there's a Precision Jet Spray that is designed to loosen dirt and sticky messes without getting on rugs or furniture, while the Maximized-Edge Design is set to enable the Braava mop to get into harder to reach areas, such as corners.
The 'bot will clean until it gets low on battery and then it will return to its charging base automatically, before continuing where it left off once it's ready. This is another feature borrowed from the company's robot vacuum cleaners.
There's also compatibility with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant so you can ask your Echo or Nest speaker to get the robo-mop to start cleaning once you have that setup.
Intuitive iRobot app
- Schedule, History, Automation
- Mapping and Cleaning preferences
The iRobot app is the easiest way to control the Braava Jet M6 robot mop. It's also where you'll find a number of other features, such as scheduling, the maps of your home created by the Imprint Mapping Technology, and your cleaning history.
It's an exceptionally simple and easy-to-use app, with everything clearly marked and intuitive. In the top right corner, there's the option to start a new job, where you can then choose to clean everywhere or choose specific rooms. You can then save the job you create as a favourite, which means just one tap when you open the iRobot app the next time to launch the same cleaning schedule.
| collection: | iRobot Braava Jet M6 robot mop app screenshots |
Tapping on Map under the picture of your robot mop in the app allows you to see the map of your home and add room dividers, labels, zones and thresholds. Keep in mind that you'll need to allow your robot mop to do a couple of runs to gather the data to map your home before this feature is available.
The scheduling feature enables you to set a start time, choose which days you would like the mop to clean, and select which rooms you want cleaned (or choose everywhere). There's also the option to automate cleaning when you leave home, for example, rather than choosing a specific time.
If you have an iRobot robot vacuum cleaner, like the S9+, you can also use the app to get the S9+ to vacuum your home first and then the M6 to mop straight after. It's a great pairing option.
Good cleaning performanceÂ
- 3x cleaning modes
- Reusable and single-use wet and dry pads
- Specific cleaning solution required
The iRobot Braava Jet M6 is a solid - and thankfully quiet - performer in terms of daily cleaning abilities. It isn't going to be scrubbing your floors Cinderella-style, though, so do manage your expectations, but it's brilliant at maintaining and offering surface-level cleaning. Just be aware that you'll likely need to do a more thorough mop yourself every now and then.Â
It avoids rugs and furniture no problem, so we didn't get any unexpected spray where we didn't want it. However, despite setting up Thresholds in the iRobot app, we did find the Braava Jet M6 struggled with the threshold between our kitchen and dining room, which is around 25mm - so a little higher than is standard between most rooms.
Depending on the layout of your home, you might find that the Braava Jet M6 has difficulty accessing floors on either side of rugs too. If you have a runner in your hallway, for example, and the floor is narrower than the robot mop's width, it's not going to be able to clean there as it will focus on avoiding the rug. You might also find it won't navigate to the porch beyond the runner if there is more runner than floor and therefore no access path.
The water tank lasts a lot longer than you might think, it's enough to manage our reasonably large kitchen without needing a refill and leaving plenty of water remaining. You can choose between a Washable or Single Use Wet Mopping Pad or a Washable or Single Use Dry Sweeping Pad, and it's possible to change the cleaning power in the iRobot app too.Â
The cleaning power options are: Standard (which is a balance between cleaning power and area covered); Deep (which uses maximum power but covers less area); Extended (which covers more area but uses less cleaning power). We used Standard most of the time and it was more than sufficient, though Deep was useful for the kitchen sometimes when there were tougher marks on our porcelain tiles. It's also possible to adjust the jet spray amount in the app.
One thing to remember is that you can't add your own cleaning solution to the Braava Jet M6, so if you use Zoflora, for example, you can't add that to the water tank. The company does offer its own cleaning solution that you can add to the M6, though you obviously need to factor that into ongoing costs.
Source : https://www.pocket-lint.com/smart-home/reviews/irobot/159854-irobot-braava-jet-m6-review-robot-mop
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