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ILife Shinebot W400 Review - Tom's Guide
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iLife has carved out a nice little niche for itself in the robot vacuum world— their vacuums are relatively inexpensive, but offer solid performance. In fact, the company's iLife V3s Pro is currently one of our top picks on our best robot mops page. The iLife Shinebot W400 is the company's first robot that is solely for washing floors. Unlike the $169 iRobot Braava jet 240, it comes with reusable microfiber cleaning brush roll. But does it clean well enough to justify the nearly $100 premium?
DesignPlacing the iLife Shinebot W400 and the iRobot Braava jet 240 side by side, it's hard to believe they share a common purpose. The Braava jet 240 has a small footprint and more closely resembles a child's toy. Meanwhile, the iLife Shinebot W400 is tall, bulky and dressed in black with dark gray accents. Make no mistake — this robot is here to clean.
The iLife Shinebot W400 measures 11.5 x 11.1 x 4.6 inches and tips the scale at 7.72 pounds empty. It looks more like a typical robot vacuum than the 6.7 x 7 x 3.3 inch, rectangular iRobot Braava jet 240. The W400 cleaning behemoth is nearly twice as tall as a regular robot vacuum. The additional height allows for two onboard water chambers, one for clean and one for dirty water.
The Shinebot W400 is essentially two large pieces that snap together where the microfiber brush roll meets the magnetized scraper squeegee on the bot's undercarriage. Two wheels jut out slightly on either side of the scraper. A very small nose wheel guides it forward. The lower piece houses the motor, battery and brush roll, while the upper piece houses the two water tanks, the squeegee and a small, red filter vent.
Along the top of the iLife Shinebot W400, a silver button proclaiming "Clean" is placed front and center, flanked by a "Mode" button on the left and an "i" button the right. As you might expect, the Mode button switches between four cleaning patterns: Area, path, spot and edge. The i button replays voice alerts issued by the machine. There's also a silver eject button for separating the two pieces and a silver carrying handle.
The Shinebot W400 must be manually placed on its dock to charge. It must also be manually removed. While the dock prevents damage to your floors, we found it a little odd that iLife didn't give the bot the ability to navigate to its home base.
Setup & cleanupThere's no smartphone app to connect you to the iLife Shinebot W400; a small black remote does the job instead. Out of the box, the W400 required more setup than the iRobot Braava jet 240. In addition to filling the transparent clean tank with water — a more straightforward process than with the Braava jet — there is a thin magnetic squeegee scraper that must be attached. I was surprised at the amount of force required to remove this magnetic piece should you attach it incorrectly, as I initially did. A blue arrow on the underside of the W400 corresponds to a small hole on the scraper to show how to properly attach it, but the magnet is forceful enough to attach in any direction. Aside from the scraper, the numerous removable components of the Shinebot W400 come apart easily.
Preparing the W400 to mop is relatively quick, but cleaning up after it cleans is another matter entirely. After each use, iLife recommends cleaning the dirty-water tank, the microfiber brush roll, the scraper and the filter with running water. Then the parts must be left out to air dry. As I looked at the robot parts strewn across my kitchen counter, I realized that this endeavor was only slightly less cumbersome than wringing out a traditional mop.
iLife recommends replacing the microfiber brush roll and small filter after three to five months of use. Thankfully, a second brush roll is included in the box. While this a reasonable amount of replacement time, and much less wasteful than iRobot's disposable cleaning pads, the only place I found that sold replacement brush rolls was eBay.
PerformanceThe iLife Shinebot W400 cleans using only clean water combined with a roller brush and a stiff rubber squeegee. Whereas the iRobot Braava jet 240 pads include a water-activated cleaner, the W400 relies on good old-fashioned robotic elbow grease. I was pleasantly surprised with the bot's results using just water. The dirty-water tank captured way more dirt than I even thought was on my floors.
I tested the iLife Shinebot W400 and the iRobot Braava jet 240 in a 70-square-foot area of hardwood floor in my kitchen. The W400 cleaned the space in 13 minutes and 44 seconds. By comparison, the Braava jet 240 with its blue wet-mopping pad took 31 minutes and 9 seconds. My floors were noticeably wetter after the Shinebot W400 finished versus the Braava jet 240. Despite the Shinebot W400 leaving more water on the floor, the floors dried within a few minutes on most of the test runs.
When the Shinebot W400 was done cleaning the floor, I swabbed a damp, white paper towel over a section of floor. There was noticeably less dirt on the towel than after the W400 was done cleaning than there was after the Braava jet 240's wet-mopping mode.
Much like iLife's vacuum robots, the Shinebot W400 had a penchant for retracing its steps. On one run, despite my attempts to send it elsewhere, the machine focused itself on one small section of my dining room and continued to return there to clean — adding more and more water to that section of hardwood floor. Like the Braava jet 240, I wouldn't let the W400 clean without close supervision.
Though the bot was overly exuberant cleaning some areas, it was very careful to avoid all types of rugs. Unlike the Braava jet 240, the Shinebot W400 never attempted to journey on to the thin rug in our dining room or even bump against it more than once or twice.
The Shinebot W400 was louder than the near-silent Braava jet 240 while cleaning, but much quieter than a traditional robot vacuum. We could easily hold a conversation and hear the TV over the bot without pumping up the volume.
Bottom lineRobotic mops still have a long way to go before they are as independent and nimble as the best of their vacuuming counterparts. For $249, the iLife Shinebot W400 is an interesting value proposition. It cleans more thoroughly than the $169 iRobot Braava jet 240, but it requires more care and attention after it finishes cleaning your floors. However, it's less wasteful than the Braava jet as it doesn't need disposable cleaning pads nor does it immediately require purchasing reusable cleaning pads. Though the upfront cost is more than the Braava jet 240, the price evens out after a couple years of ownership. Plus, the W400 is the better floor cleaner — as long as you don't mind spending time cleaning the robot itself.
iLife Shinebot W400: Price Comparison
ILife Shinebot W400 Review: This Robot Mop Is A Diligent Scrubber
At a Glance Expert's Rating ProsThe iLife Shinebot W400 diligently scrubs away stains from your hard floors. But it can't get under most cabinets and between tight spaces, so it's less than ideal for small bathrooms and kitchens.
Price When Reviewed$219.99
Best Prices Today: iLife Shinebot W400 floor-washing robotThe iLife Shinebot W400 is a welcome departure from the typical robotic floor mop. Many of its competitors can be more accurately described as robotic floor wipers, because they don't achieve the same results you'd get with the exertion of doing the job yourself with a stick mop.
This floor-washing robot comes a lot closer to that goal. It diligently scrubs floors, providing the agitation needed to lift up stubborn stains and leave the surface spotless.
DesignThe iLife Shinebot W400 is a big bot. With a height of 4.72 inches and a heft of more than 7 pounds, it's a good deal more portly than the iRobot Braava Jet 240, which is just 3.3 inches tall and weighs less than three pounds.
A multi-function panel on top of the robot includes controls for starting and stopping cleanings, switching between the four cleaning modes (more on that in a bit), and getting voice alerts on the robot's status. A pair of indicator LEDs track battery and water levels. Mercifully, a retractable handle is included beneath the panel to make it less laborious toting the Shinebot W400 room to room.
The Shinebot W400 uses a rapidly rotating microfiber brush to agitate stains and dirt.
The Shinebot W400 uses a rapidly rotating microfiber brush and a scraper to scrub and remove dirt. Inside the robot, a pair of tanks with individual inlets and outlets keeps clean and dirty water separated. It's worth noting that you cannot add detergent to this machine's clean water tank. A dozen anti-collision and anti-drop sensors positioned around the robot enable it to safely navigate your household terrain.
The robot comes mostly assembled and ready to roll, along with several accessories. These include a charging dock and power cable, a remote control that includes most of the functions of the robot's control panel, a replacement microfiber roller, and a cleaning tool.
Setup and performanceFirst things first: the Shinebot W400 must be set in its dock to charge. It's noteworthy, though, that the robot cannot return itself to its dock when its battery runs low—you must pick it up and put it there yourself. The upside of this is you can put the dock wherever you have a safe, dry space near an electrical outlet, and you can even move it around since the Shinebot W400 doesn't need to "remember" where its charging dock is.
A fold-down handle makes it easier to carry the 7-pound robot from room to room.
To start a cleaning, you just need to fill the clean water tank—which pops up easily with a press of the tank-release button atop the robot—from your tap. You then press the Clean button on the robot or remote control, and a voice alert asks you to select a mode. The four options are:
While technically not a "mode," there is a fifth option: controlling the robot manually using the directional button on the remote. Each of these methods has its uses, but I generally found Path mode best for regular maintenance cleaning.
The Shinebot W400 uses a four-step mopping method iLife calls the TidalPower Cleaning System. A half-dozen small nozzles under the front end of the robot moisten the floor with clean water to loosen dirt and stains, the microfiber roller brush scrubs these free, the dirty water is sucked into the robot, and the scraper wipes off any residue left behind.
Clean water is kept in a separate tank from dirty water.
This is an effective tool. I used the Shinebot W400 first on my entryway, a high-traffic area regularly stamped with foot and paw prints and tracked-in gunk. It scrubbed the area clean, leaving it dirt free and gleaming. I got similar results in my bathrooms and kitchen.
I knew from the moment I unpacked the Shinebot W400, however, that its size would be a drawback. It's too tall get into the toe kicks under my kitchen and bathroom cabinets, and it's also far too bulky to get into such tight spots as between a toilet and a wall. To be fair, most of the robot mops I've tested can't do this either. IRobot's Braava Jet 240 is the only one that's been nimble enough for such maneuvers.
In lieu of app control, the Shinebot W400 uses its voice alerts to keep you updated on its status. Advisories that it is finishing a job or its battery needs recharging are helpful when your attention is on other business.
VerdictThe iLife Shinebot W400's four-step scrubbing system is extremely effective, and it comes pretty close to replicating the results of a push mop. Its ability to navigate independently and without requiring much hands-on intervention is also a big plus. Its bulk can be a hindrance, though, so if you're in an apartment or other home where most of your moppable floors are in bathrooms and kitchens with lots of tight spaces, it's probably not the robot mop for you. Look instead to the iRobot's Braava Jet 240. But if you have hard floors throughout your home in fairly open spaces, the iLife Shinebot W400 is well worth the investment.
ILife Shinebot W400 Review: This Robot Mop Could Be The Answer To Your Cleaning WoesT3
And so it came to pass that the bullet was bitten and a product request sent to iLife, the Chinese producers of what some users hail as one of the best – and cheapest – mopping bots on the market.
You won't find the Shinebot W400 in our list of the best robot vacuum cleaners. That's because it is a genuine mop-only robot that washes hard floors so you don't have to. At a shade under £300, it's relatively cheap to buy, too. But what's it like to own? Does it do as good a job as a mop and bucket and is it a viable alternative to some good old back-and-forth elbow grease?
Well I have one here staring at me on its charging base and it looks eager to please so I shall fire it up and see how well it performs on my own rug-strewn hard floor.
Best picks for you I want a shiny bot but where can I get one?The iLife Shinebot W400 is relatively easy to get hold of. In the UK, you'll find it at Amazon and the marvellously named Holy Dog Water, both priced at £298.
If you're living Stateside, your best bet is Amazon where it's selling for a very reasonable $229.99, the main iLife store where it's shifting at an even cheaper $174.99 or Walmart for $210.
And if you're Down Under, try Desert Cart for A£450 or Amazon for A$490.87.
iLife Shinebot W400 review: what is a robot mop?The majority of robot moppers are actually vacuum cleaners with a wooly or paper-type wet cloth that is attached to the rear of the vac. The idea is that, as the machine vacuums the carpet and hard floor, the wet mop follows through to give the floor an extra clean. This is a pretty decent thing to have if you have lots of hard flooring since one machine can perform both tasks at the time time. However, it's not very practical if you have carpet or rugs interspersed among your swathe of hard floor.
This is because some vacmops can't detect carpet so they will run willy nilly across carpet and rugs leaving a damp track behind them. Thankfully, Roborock recently addressed this anomaly with its cracking S7 vacmop. This clever little 2-in-1 bot features a rear-mounted mopping plate that automatically raises a few millimetres whenever its sensors detect carpet. You can read all about in our full-length Roborock S7 review.
By comparison, the iLife Shinebot W400 we're looking at here is a bona fide robot mop with a spinning nylon brush and a vacuum system that sucks up excess water. However, unlike pretty much every other robot mop on the market, it isn't terribly smart so it can't connect to wifi or an app. In fact it can't even find its way back to its charging base – you have to do it manually.
iLife Shinebot W400 review: features
(Image credit: iLife)
The very best thing about Shinebot W400 is that it's equipped with a nine-inch (23cm) nylon fibre roller brush that spins at great speed giving hard flooring a good seeing to. A system like this seems so much more efficient than a simple damp pad that spreads muck around to some degree. In fact, I think all dedicated mopbots should be made this way.
But that's not all. Instead of just having a clean water tank like most models (in this instance 0.85 litres worth), the Shinebot W400 also features a 0.9-litre dirty water tank and that means it must have some kind of vacuum system to draw in the filthy water, which it does. This is a very good thing because it theoretically means that less water is being left in its wake. The Shinebot's last aid to cleaning is a rubber squeegee-cum-scraper that helps remove any residue left by the brush and vacuum.
The Shinebot W400's wide roller mop cleans better than most pad-based mopbots
(Image credit: iLife)
In the pantheon of home robots, the Shinebot W400 is a rather dim one that can't connect to wifi or a phone app. In fact, as stated above, it can't even find its way back to its charging base. You literally have to pick it up from wherever it decides to stop and put it back on the base every time you use it. Luckily it comes with a 'User-friendly Handle' which is presumably much better than a non user-friendly handle.
The Shinebot W400 also ships with a cheap and chunky remote controller so you can steer it around the living room like an RC car, only much slower and more clunkily. I'm not sure why I would want to steer a robot around the room but, hey, it comes with buttons for the four main cleaning functions so I can control it from the comfort of my arse.
iLife Shinebot W400 review: cleaning functions
(Image credit: iLife)
The Shinebot W400 has four simple mopping functions. Path mode is ideal for larger swathes of hard flooring and is likely to be the mode you use the most. In this mode the bot moves in a logical up and down pattern and when it's finished it returns to where it started. Edge mode skirts around the edges of a room before returning to its starting point. Area mode is useful if you have an area you want the Shinebot to avoid. To initiate the process, place the robot in front of the no-go zone with its front facing away. It will proceed to clean the area dead ahead and return to its starting point. Finally, there's Spot mode which is a feature of all robot vacs and mops. In this mode the bot will move in a square spiral for two rounds before returning the same route to its starting point. In effect, it should clean the area three times. And that, in a nutshell, is how it works.
The Shinebot's UI is pretty straightforward – the robot and the remote controller share the same function buttons – and it even features voice notifications in a cute Chinese accent that, in some instances, is difficult to understand.
iLife Shinebot W400 review: navigation
Despite the simple guidance system, the Shinebot W400 is pretty nimble around furniture
(Image credit: iLife)
As mentioned above, this robot isn't truly autonomous because it can't leave its charging station or navigate back to it under its own steam. It does, however, have a few sensors on board that at least help it slow down when it senses a solid boundary. It also seems to navigate its way around a room surprisingly well, often avoiding chair legs with expert precision. If using it upstairs, make sure to block off the staircase because the W400 isn't equipped with a cliff sensor.
For me, the biggest issue with the Shinebot W400 is that it cannot avoid carpets and rugs unless they have a deep enough ridge that the bot can't transgress. For this reason I cannot recommend the Shinebot W400 to anyone with lots of rugs around the house – especially thin ones – unless you're prepared to lift every one of them off the floor.
iLife Shinebot W400 review: maintenance
The Shinebot W400 does require more maintenance than others
(Image credit: iLife)
The good thing about a pad-based mopping system is that you can simply remove the mopping pad, give it a rinse or put a new one on. As soon as you have spinning brushes and a vacuum system involved, you're into a whole new world of maintenance and that's the case here.
Firstly there's the dirty water container to rinse under the tap while water splashes all over your arms. Then there's the roller brush that may need removing to give a quick whizz under the tap and to clean the inevitable layer of damp fluff that coats the area around the brushes.
Whether all this faff is worth the time spent not having to mop the floor manually is open to debate. After all, with a mop and bucket all you have to do is pour away the dirty water. But then again, cleaning your hard floor with a mop and bucket is about as choresome as manually washing dishes. Swings and roundabouts spring to mind.
iLife Shinebot W400 review: performance
(Image credit: iLife)
While the Shinebot W400 did a pretty impressive job of mopping my hard wooden floor, it also trundled over every rug in the room dispensing water like there was no tomorrow. I was also concerned about the amount of water it left in its wake on my hardwood floor – more than the majority of pad-based mopping bots I've tested. Although the wood coped with a couple of mopping sessions, I'm not sure how well it would fair after a few months of regular mopping. In fact, I initially wondered whether the vacuum was functioning all, but was reassured when loads of dirty water poured out of the tank when it came time to clean it.
The Shinebot W400 performed especially well on smooth linoleum floor, clearing up most of the fresh paw prints my Labrador conveniently provided. However, it did inexplicably miss some of the stains so I switched it to spot mode and all was good again. I also tried the W400 on a section of tiled flooring and it performed really well, but only because the gaps between my tiles don't exceed iLife's suggested maximum of 10mm.
The biggest issue I have with this mopping bot is having to lug it from the charging station and back again after each task had been completed. For me it kind of defeated the object of having a robot do the task.
iLife Shinebot W400 review: verdictHaving used this robotic mopping system for a week, I've come to the conclusion that, while it is in no way perfect, it is a practical – and reasonably priced – option for anyone with lots of hard flooring who actively hates manually moping floors. Yes, you will have to carry it to its place of work and take it back to the charging dock, you will have to lift every rug in the room, and you can be sure it will miss some sections of flooring which you may have to address with a quick wipe using a sponge or paper towel. But on the positive side of things, it will ultimately save you a lot of time and effort, especially if you have a household full of kids and muddy dogs.
Want the very best hybrid robot vac and mop in one tidy unit? Read our full review of the new Roborock S7
iLife Shinebot W400: Price Comparison
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