Home Reviews ,,,,,Fascinated by the convenience of the automatic vacuum cleaners designed for floors that we have tried over the last year, we have decided to abandon ourselves completely on the sofa by testing a robot specially designed to autonomously clean mirrors and windows.
The one examined is Alfawise X5, a rather interesting solution especially from the point of view of the price, significantly lower than the better known Imetec Ecovacs and the like.
It is not the best on the market but it is among the most efficient among those that are positioned in the same price range, it is easy to use and will give you back the time wasted cleaning windows and mirrors on Sunday morning.
As did
The robot measures approximately 30 x 13 x 12.5 centimeters. It is essentially composed of a motor closed inside a T-shaped polycarbonate body which rotates two circular brushes. Each has a diameter of 14.5 centimeters and is covered by a very soft fabric hood that can be replaced and / or washed in the washing machine.
In the package there are two spare frames for the brushes and two additional fabric caps.
The handle of the robot has two openings on the sides that make it easier to grip while on the upper side there is the On / Off switch and the input for the power supply. On the sides there are two holes designed to accommodate and lock the safety rope.
How does it work
Once the power supply is connected to the window cleaner, simply place it on the glass or mirror to be cleaned, hold it still with one hand and turn on the switch. The motor will begin to suck, creating a sort of vacuum between the brushes and the contact surface. When the engine is at full speed (about 3 seconds from starting) you can let go as, despite its 930 grams, it will remain firmly glued to the glass.
At that point all that remains is to press the Start button on the remote control to start the automatic cleaning. It is also possible to stop it with the Stop key and move it manually through the directional arrows , thus reaching specific areas and maintaining full control of the robot.
At the end of the cleaning it is sufficient to stop the robot, hold it with one hand and then press the On / Off button for a long time to turn off the motor and stop the suction.
Precautions
Before starting the automatic cleaning it is good to check that the power cable is long enough to allow the robot to reach even the farthest point of the surface to be cleaned. Then do some tests and if necessary attach the extension cable included in the package that extends the power cable. If the electrical outlet is very far away, you may need an additional extension cable (not included in the package).
Also consider adding the safety rope if you intend to leave the house while the robot is dedicated to cleaning the windows: if the power fails, the system is equipped with an emergency system designed to stop the robot and decrease the suction power just enough to keep it glued to the glass for 30 minutes.
So if you are at home, perhaps in another room, you will have plenty of time to notice (even acoustically speaking, the suction noise is significantly reduced) and turn it off before it can fall. With the rope, which you will have to attach to a piece of furniture, a chandelier or a hook nearby, after 30 minutes you will not run the risk of the robot falling to the ground and damaging itself and / or the floor.
How is it going
The robot works pretty well. It can be used to easily remove some fingerprints on mirrors and glass simply by starting the “naked and raw” cleaning, while for deeper cleaning it is essential to accompany it to a dedicated detergent.
Unfortunately, there is no system to cram water and detergent and gradually release it during cleaning, so you must first spray some on the brushes or directly on the surface. Based on our tests we preferred the latter option, leaving the robot to draw some detergent when it passes over it: in the other case the risk is that there is not enough to clean the rest of the glass after the first few minutes.
However, this means that for important cleaning our presence will still be necessary: to disappear, relying on a similar product, it is only the effort … almost completely.
The main limitation of this robot is in fact in its shape: the round brushes cannot reach the corners, which we will necessarily have to clean by hand before or after its passage. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, there are also square-shaped models that we have not yet had the opportunity to try but which could win the comparison precisely for this particular, totally eliminating the manual intervention for finishing.
One last thing to take into consideration is the cleaning of glass and mirrors without frames. In cases like this, the safety rope is a must if you proceed with manual cleaning: with the automatic one it automatically recognizes the edges as soon as one of the two brushes protrudes a few centimeters, but by controlling it only with the remote control the percentage of risk of seeing it falling treacherously to the ground for a distraction is quite high.
Conclusions
This window cleaner is a good ally for those who need a big hand in house cleaning. With the right amount of glass cleaner the resulting cleaning is very good even if you have to deal with manual finishing at edges and corners if you want an optimal cleaning of the entire surface.
The presence of an emergency system in the event of a sudden power failure is ideal for avoiding the use of the safety rope, which in some environments may be impossible to secure. All in all it does its duty and does not need maintenance, except to wash the brushes after cleaning.
Price to the public
Alfawise X5 is on sale on GearBest for 133 euros. Thanks to our collaboration with the manufacturer, you can pay it 99.52 euros by entering the code MACITYCleaner . The promotion is valid on 50 units only.
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