REVIEW – I’ve been spoiled by my robot vacuums, so why not continue that trend with a robot window cleaner? I was offered the Albohes Z5 robot window washer for review, let’s see if it’s a viable alternative to a bottle of window cleaner, paper towels, and some human elbow grease.
What is it?
The Albohes window cleaning robot is exactly what you would guess that it is, it’s a robot that has been designed to clean windows.
What’s in the box?
Albohes Z5 window cleaning robot
7 sets of cleaning pads
2 cleaning rings
Safety rope
Remote control
Power adapter and cable
Extension cable (4 meters)
Spray bottle for cleaning fluid
User manual
Design and features
The Albohes window cleaning robot is a white and grey plastic device that has a large knob handle on top, a power button, power jack, and status LEDs.
On the bottom are two circular cleaning pads with removable cleaning cloths.
The soft terry-style cloths pads are removable and replaceable. Seven sets are included with the cleaner.
The pads snap on to the cleaner with the plastic cleaning ring that is inserted into the cloth. You can also see the attached safety rope and carabiner. This is used to secure the cleaner if you’re using it to clean windows above ground level and want to avoid the cleaner falling on someone below.
A remote is included with the cleaner along with 2 AAA batteries. The remote is used to control the cleaner, or you can also use an app for your phone. I decided to skip the app and just did my testing using the remote.
I don’t do windows but I hope this robot does!
I decided to test the Albohes Z5 robot window cleaner on my largest window which is perpetually filthy due to bugs, birds, and all manner of outdoor dirt. I usually wash the window inside and out once a year and complain about it the whole time. So my hopes were high that I could employ the Z5 to do my bidding.
The first thing I had to do was get an extension cord, connect the included power adapter to the robot, and plug in the cable into the extension cord. Note: the Z5 has a built-in battery that will keep the cleaner from falling off the glass in the case of power loss. It won’t run/clean on the battery though. It has to be connected to power.
Then I pressed and held the power button on the Z5, placed the two dry cleaning pads against the glass and let the suction hold it in place. As recommended in the manual, you’re supposed to run the robot on the window with clean dry pads first to clean off any sand and dirt. I’m not sure about sand, but the window was definitely dirty.
With the robot stuck to the lower left corner of the window, I pressed the Auto Up button which is supposed to make the robot move up and then down. The robot wiggles back and forth as it moves across the glass and even dirty window, the robot held to the glass and never slipped. But it seemed to get confused and would only move across the glass for a short time and would then stop. I tried sticking the Z5 in different areas of the window and pressed the different auto movement buttons but it would not work unattended. It kept stopping in the middle of a session. I’m used to using a carpet cleaning robot which requires no intervention, but the Z5 didn’t seem to be that type of robot cleaner.
After let the Z5 move around the entire window it was time for the cleaning session. While the robot comes with a spray bottle, the bottle doesn’t come with any cleaner and there’s nothing in the manual that tells you what type of cleaner to use, so I decided to use good old Windex. The instructions do advise you to only spray just a few squirts on the bottom pad. You DON’T want to saturate the cleaning pads because it can cause the cleaner to slip on the glass.
See it in action
The robot didn’t have any problems sticking to the glass and never fell off accidentally. But as far as cleaning, I wasn’t very impressed.
The window in the image above may look nice and clean and I even thought it was and was pretty happy with the job the Albohes Z5 robot window washer had done.
But later in the day when the sun hit the window and I could see all the smears it left behind. UGH! It also did not clean off lots of little specks of dirt. I ended up getting a roll of paper towels and a bottle of window cleaner and washed both sides of the glass by hand. In the end, it took MUCH less time doing it myself than running the Z5 twice on each side of the glass and then being disappointed with the results.
What I like
- Nothing
What needs to be improved
- Takes too much babysitting
- Have to run it more than once to clean a window and it still leaves streaks and smears
Final thoughts
Robot floor cleaners are awesome but if robot window cleaners are all like this one, I’m going to stick with cleaning my windows the old school way, with my own two hands.
Price: $169.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Albohes.
Filed in categories: Reviews
Albohes Z5 robot window washer review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 10, 2018 at 11:00 am.
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