Yes, you should do a deep clean, every few months, to keep your investment working well.
I’m not lazy, but I live alone and need to prioritize how I spend my time. Cleaning is the least exciting item on the list, and so it often falls to the bottom. This is why I bought a robot vacuum, to take cleaning off the to-do list, forever. So there is no greater irony that you need to clean the robot, itself. Because I am overly bothered at the notion of having something extra to clean, I tend to grab the whole robot and tower, a grocery bag for trash and debris, drag it all into the living room and clean it while watching TV. It’s busy work.
Is it necessary to clean the robot?
You just spent a lot of money on a piece of technology. You spent a lot of time researching what to get, and hopefully protected your investment with a warranty. But anything that involves airflow for success, like air conditioners, heaters, air purifiers, vacuums and yes, robots, needs to be cleaned routinely.
Robovac combos (they have a mop, too) add another layer: water. Your mops are saturated with water, and so there’s the potential of mold.
if you want to keep your expensive floorbot working, I recommend a deep cleaning twice a year and regular cleaning every few months. I’m going to walk you through the steps on the Mova P50 I’m testing. Here’s what to do.
Routine cleaning every few months is a thirty minute operation
You’ll need:
- soft rags or paper towels
- rubbing alcohol
- cleaner (I use Lysol, but any cleaner, including diluted vinegar is fine.)
- soft articulating brush
- replacement filter
All robovacs are different, but also, largely the same. First, remove the robot from the dock, and then if your dock has removeable trays in the base, remove them. Some docks have more then one removable tray. Those trays should be rinsed off and dried before you replace them.
On the robot itself, remove the lid (usually this is simply held by magnets) and then remove the dust bin, entirely. Usually, instructions for how to empty the bin are on the bin itself, but most of the time it’s a latch that you release and dump the dust into your bin.
More importantly, the dust bin almost always has a small, rectangular filter on it. At best, you should replace yours. At worst, make sure you are giving it a number of hard taps against the inside of your trash bin to displace some of the dust. You can also try vacuuming it.
Make sure the container isn’t clogged in any way. The doors should open and close freely, without any debris in the rubber cowls or seals. Remember, every seal is one more reason your suction might not be optimal. This particular model has three doors and seals. If you see any stuck debris, take this opportunity to give the container a scrub with brush, and then dry it. If its not clogged, you can empty it, tap the dust off and be done. Replace the filter and then return the container to the robot.
Turn the robot over and remove the roller/s. Clean all three parts: the rollers themselves, the chamber the roller lives in, and the cover for the roller. Keep a spray bottle of cleaner available, and use soft rags or paper towels to clean them of all debris and dry them. Ensure that you remove hair or string from around the roller itself, as well as the ends of the roller.
Once they’re clean, put the rollers back in the chamber and ensure that the cover is put back on correctly, and that it is locked in place.
Now spend some time on the sweep, which is the two or three armed spinning brush at the front of the robot. Hair becomes tangled around the base of the sweep, use scissors to free the sweep of anything tangled at the base.
Even during a routine cleaning, it is worthwhile giving the dirty water tank a good rinse to free it of all dirt. I don’t recommend running these parts through the dishwasher, unless you can do so on a cold cycle. The heat some dishwasher now exude can warp your water tanks. Ensure the tank is dry before being returned to the tower.
One last step is to take a rag or paper towel, and with a small amount of rubbing alcohol, wipe off the sensors on the robot and in the base of the tower. This will ensure that oils that have collected on the robot don’t prevent the sensors from making good contact with one another.
Deep Cleaning takes an hour and should happen twice a year
You’ve done the lion’s share of work if you’ve done a basic cleaning. In this case, we’re going to clean the rest of the tower and robot.
First, as you clean the debris container, clean it entirely, regardless of what state it’s in. Wash and dry it inside and out, and on these occasions, replace the filter, don’t simply clean it.
With the robot turned upside down, use spray cleaner and the towel to clean the wheels. Make sure there’s no hair or string tangled at the base of the wheels, and if there is, cut it away.
Pull the mops off the magnetic mop heads. They’re held on by velcro. You might have a roller mop head instead, or a mop pad. They should all be removeable, and in most cases, machine washable. Once dry, trim any threads that are loose and reassemble in the vacuum.
With the robot right side up, give the whole robot a wipe down to ensure there’s no dust or pet hair.
In the tower, disconnect the ramp from the tower, and rinse and dry it off. In addition to cleaning the removeable disks, reach inside the dock itself and wipe it does. Make sure the ports for wet and dry evacuation are clean and clear of debris.
Remove the door to the front of the dock. Check if the bag needs to be replaced. The app should tell you when this is necessary, but if it feels full, you don’t have to wait. The better the airflow, the better the vacuum performance. If your vacuum has had performance problems, remove the bag entirely, and check the inlet in the tower it connects to. Make sure the tube doesn’t have debris in it. I’ve vacuumed it out before.
Check the cleanser container, if your tower has one. This is where the tower holds either a container you can fill w the cleaner of your choice, or are required to get a proprietary cartridge from the manufacturer. Check to see if you need a refill, and if so, take care of it. I use a generic cleanser for towers that have a refillable container.
Replace the cover and give the tower exterior a wipedown. It tends to get quite dirty with dust and pet hair.
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