My Robot Cleaner: Vileda Virobi

I am not sure if the hype about robotic cleaners has reached Pinas, but here in Spain, the home depot shops are brimming with robotized home cleaners. There are vacuum cleaners and floor polishers that are, well, robots. Too busy or too tired to clean? Well, these robotized cleaners will do the heavy lifting and cleaning for you. One only needs to switch on the robot cleaner, set the cleaning duration and leave the robots to do the dirty work. The only problem with there robotized cleaners are they are effing expensive! A ROOMBA robot cleaner costs 349€. That's close to 20k Pesos for a vacuum cleaner!

Sad. I wanted a robot cleaner so badly. Cleaning and housekeeping were never my strengths. I am a cooking & baking person. I usually just clean once a week and I so want to cut the cleaning time even shorter.

A few months ago, while I was checking the home cleaning section in a Superstore, I came across this little appliance that promises to clean while I lounge around.

The Vileda Virobo Floor Map

Normal price for the Vileda Virobo is 45€ but it was on sale when I bought it (which is why I bought one!). I got it for only 32€. Now, let's make one thing clear. This Vileda Virobi is not a vacuum cleaner. It's more of a floor polisher/floor mop. It will not "pick up" all the dirt and debris on the floor, but it sure does help supplement my once a week cleaning schedule.

Vileda Canada has a video on how the Virobi works:

Here's how I use it: I still clean using good old walis, yes I am too cheap to invest in a vacuum cleaner, and besides, my floors are wooden parquet and I live alone so I don't really find the need to splurge 100€ for a vacuum cleaner. But 1-2x a week I use the Virobi to "clean" the accumulated dirt in between my weekly cleaning.

The Virobi is rechargeable.

My Virobi while charging. After it's fully charged, you can remove the card and start using the Virobi. There are 2 settings, a 30 minute setting and a 120 minute (2 hour) setting.


Here's my Virobi in action:


Virobi under my bed. It's a crappy video haha sorry!

Here's a prettier video of Virobi in action from youtube:



Note: There's a special cleaning cloth that must be attached to the mop. Initially, the box will have 6 cleaning cloths included. But once you've dirtied them all and you need to replace them, you have to buy a new pack of cloths. A pack of 26 cloths costs 4€.


So is it worth the 32€ price tag? I think yes. Because it picks up dust, lint and hair pretty effectively. And it sure eases my guilt for not cleaning more. On Tuesdays I turn it on to clean the living room while I do other more important stuff (like reading or blogging :-)) . Thursdays, it cleans my room . And by Sunday, my cleaning day, I noticed that there are less dust and dirt to sweep away.


PRODUCT INFORMATION : VILEDA VIROBI ROBOTIC MOP
Made in Germany by Vileda
2 year warranty
Price: 45€ (Though I bought this on sale for only 32€)