Review: clean floors without lifting a finger thanks to the iRobot Braava Jet

I’m not a fan of mopping. I’ll sweep until there’s no dust left on the floor, and I’ll do it every day, but I don’t tend to mop a lot.

When I moved into the house we’re in now, I realized that I was going to have to find a way to embrace the mop. With no concrete driveway and kids bringing in muddy boots every day, wet mopping to get rid of big puddles and damp mopping has become a daily chore, and although I had thought about investing in a robot floor cleaner, I honestly didn’t think it could keep up.

But as I found out this past week when I put the latest iRobot to the test, not only can it keep up, I don’t have to think about mopping or sweeping at all when this little gem is around. The iRobot Braava Jet 240 does it all, and it does it so simply and easily, you’ll forget he’s running until you notice your floors are clean.

Features

I’ve tried a few iRobots over the past few years, and they all worked easily and efficiently, but the iRobot Braava Jet 240 is the model I see rolling in the door and fitting straight into my home. Here are a few features on the iRobot Braava Jet 240.

• 3 cleaning modes including dry sweeping, damp cleaning, and wet mopping
• 3 different easy install cleaning pads to go with the cleaning modes
• Precision jet spray to saturate dirty areas with water or cleaning solution
• Vibrating cleaning head thoroughly cleans floors
• Cleans floors in a pattern so it doesn’t miss an inch
• Learns your layout and avoids stairs, cleans along walls, and rugs
• Small and compact, it can fit under cupboards and in tiny spots
• Covers 150 to 200 square feet on a single charge

Appearance

The iRobot Braava Jet is small and very light. It’s made from a durable plastic, and the dimensions are 6.7 inches across, 3.3 inches high, and 7 inches wide.

The components on the Braava Jet are pretty simple too: you get an plug-in charger, 3 packages of different cleaning pads, a lithium ion battery, and the iRobot Braava Jet cleaner. That’s all you need to have sparkling clean floors.

Testing the iRobot Braava Jet 240

Because sweeping is the logical place to start when it comes to your floors, I took the iRobot Braava Jet out of the box and popped on a dry sweeping pad. The pad slides onto the bottom of the iRobot and when you’re done, you just tap the eject button and it pops right off.

Other iRobots come with a docking station you keep in a corner of your room. When they’re finished cleaning the iRobot heads back to the dock to recharge. That’s not how the iRobot Braava Jet works. It comes with a battery charger that reminds me of the charger that came with my camera, and you just pop the battery off the iRobot and onto the charger. It takes about two hours for a full charge.

To start cleaning, you just hit the clean button on the iRobot Braava Jet once to turn it on and once again to set it off on its path. That’s it.

Once it was finished sweeping up, I opened the water reservoir and filled it up. It doesn’t hold a lot of water, but it definitely seems to be enough to do the job for at least an hour. I changed to the damp mop and hit clean, then watched as the iRobot used the precision jet to saturate some seriously dirty spots. The best part of the precision spray is that it’s smart enough to spray only what’s in front of it: it won’t spray your walls, furniture, or anything else.

I watched the iRobot Braava Jet mop my floors for quite awhile, because it’s actually fascinating watching how it works in even, precise lines. It hugged the walls closely, even working around a board that was propped up against it and moving back toward the wall.

If you’ve ever used an iRobot, you’ll have experience with external virtual walls used to keep the iRobot in one area. They look like little blocks, but they tell your robot cleaner to stay put in one area. With the iRobot Braava Jet 240, you get an onboard virtual wall that tells it to stay in an area and not to go tipping over stairs or onto rugs.

When its finished cleaning and the battery is low, the iRobot Braava Jet will just shut off. I found it several times powered down in a corner, so I just recharged the battery, changed the pad, and it was off again from that starting point.

Clearly the iRobot Braava Jet will clean automatically, but how well does it clean? For sweeping, I think it’s pretty even. I can pick up more with a broom and dustpan than it can keep on its dry sweeping pad, but it still picks up a lot that I miss.

When it comes to damp mopping or wet mopping, hands down the iRobot has my trusty mop and I beat. Despite my best efforts, I always miss spots. The iRobot doesn’t. It doesn’t mind scrubbing a spot over and over to get it clean, while I tend to gloss over everything and move onto another area.

Here’s a video overview I did of the iRobot Braava Jet.

Overall thoughts

I could end this by saying, “I want one!” and anyone who saw the iRobot in action in my house this past week will understand and agree. It’s a cool little device that does its job and does it well.

There’s may be no extra bells and whistles like you’d find on other iRobots, but the Braava Jet really doesn’t need them. It’s the perfect choice when you want something that will keep your floors clean without you having to clean them, and I for one am not going to be sad on Mother’s Day when I get an iRobot instead of a spa day. For me, not having to clean the floors is like a spa day every day.

The iRobot Braava Jet is coming soon to Best Buy, so keep an eye out for it on Best Buy’s iRobot store.