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IRobot Braava Jet M6 Review – All The Mopping, None Of The Work
iRobot launched the Braava jet 240 a few years back; a product that we loved when we reviewed it but was of limited scope. IRobot has released other Braava models since then, but none have featured the advanced Imprint Mapping technology that iRobot uses in its Roomba line. That is, until the Braava jet m6.
Here's the concept.
Just like the high-end Roomba line, the iRobot Braava jet m6 is equipped with a single camera up top and a bevy of sensors in front and underneath to sense where it's at in your house. While it's cleaning, the Braava jet m6 makes a map of your home and then saves it for future use. Just like a Roomba, you'll be able to have it clean specific rooms at any time, including while away from home, and it even works hand-in-hand with the latest Roomba vacuums too.
The idea is to provide a mopping experience that functions like a premium Roomba would, and it mostly succeeds in this functionality.
It's actually a mop, not just a wet padThe Braava jet m6 looks quite a bit different from its predecessors in every way. Unlike the Braava jet 240, the m6 is designed to be used regularly and often. Owing to this fact is a large, removable water tank that sits under the spiffy-looking new lid. IRobot is upping the game by providing an actual sanitary cleaning solution that can be put in the tank, which is then later applied to your floors during the cleaning process.
That means the Braava jet m6 is actually a mop that sanitizes your floors, not just a wet pad that helps pick up fine dirt particles.
This is a huge differentiation from other robot vacuums on the market that feature mopping functionality, as none of those vacuums can have cleaning solution put into their water tanks. In fact, all other manufacturers of robot vacuums with mop attachments specifically say not to add anything to the tank other than water. That gives iRobot a huge advantage out of the gate.
iRobot offers both wet and dry cleaning on the Braava jet m6. The mop ships with a handful of each type of pad and the included pads are disposable. I found that each pad could be used more than once, depending on the cleaning job, but some homes will find that these are typically one-use pads. While additional disposable pads can be purchased, the reusable pads are far more economical in the long run and we highly recommend you invest in them immediately.
Braava jet m6 reusable pads - Amazon
Long battery life and rigorous cleaning abilitiesFrom within the app, users can select the amount of water/cleaning solution they want sprayed on the floor, as well as a selection of three different cleaning behaviors: Extended coverage (light mopping), Standard, or Deep clean. This can help regulate the amount of solution that goes on the floor as well as how much time the mop spends scrubbing the floor.
Extended coverage is rated to clean up to 2000 square ft on a single tank, while deep clean is designed to specifically clean a few dirty areas of the home.
Like a Roomba, the Braava Jet m6 can detect particularly dirty spots on the floor and go back over those spots several times to ensure they're fully cleaned. In standard mode, the mop will repeat the cleaning process on a detected dirty spot up to 3 times. Deep clean mode will bring this up to 5 times, while extended mode will only clean spots a single time to ensure the longest battery life.
All this is done in an automated fashion without user intervention, just as a robot vacuum. Ideally, you won't need to interact with the robot unless it's to refill the water tank or change out the wet or dry mopping pad. The Braava jet m6 has a rechargeable battery and a charging dock that it uses as a "home base" to begin and end every cleaning cycle, ensuring most of the daily use is an automated task.
iRobot just recently updated the Braava jet m6 to include a "smart charge" feature, which will only charge the battery long enough to finish cleaning your home. This is calculated by the average time it takes to clean your home and is done to reduce the total cleaning time of the mop, if it happens to need a recharge to finish cleaning the house.
Works best in simpler spacesCleaning behavior is similar, but also opposite, of the Roomba series. Instead of filling a bin with debris that's vacuumed up, the mop empties its tank onto the floor as it goes and ends when the tank is empty or all accessible areas are cleaned.
It's this last part that's particularly important when considering whether or not you should purchase the Braava jet m6. We're going to use my house as an example of one where a Braava jet m6 might be a more difficult purchase.
For the past 3 months I've had the Braava jet m6 set up in my dining room next to all my other robot vacuums. I had to move it around a few times to find an optimal spot for the dock as it needs a bit more room than the average robot vacuum does for the docking process. To make matters more difficult, my house is a crazy amalgam of hardwood, tile, area rugs, and carpeted rooms. At least in the case of a robot mop, that is.
While my home's flooring setup is fairly logical and doesn't feel out of the ordinary to a human, it's a difficult proposition to ask a robot mop to clean without running into problems.
The first challenge was in the configuration of my main hardwood floors. I have a large area rug in the living room that completely covers the hardwood between the dining room and hall. This makes it impossible for the mop to traverse the entirety of all the hard floors in the house without rolling up the area rug. This isn't a problem for those weekly mopping sessions, as I could just roll up the area rug and let the mop do its thing, but I ran into other unforeseen issues that brought cleaning to a screeching halt.
My hallway has a weird mix of baseboards; some original baseboards are flat and match the ones in the bedroom. Others were replaced at some point in the home's 50-years history with what's known as quarter-round style. While the Braava jet m6 is operating, it sees these quarter-round baseboards as something entirely different from what they actually are; an area rug.
This is because the Braava jet m6 is designed to tell carpeted and hard floors apart by the traditional transition strips that are placed between flooring types in most homes. That quarter-round curve is extremely similar to the edge of an area rug, but the detection of this shape seems to fight with what the camera on the mop sees as well, creating a confusing space for the mop.
The result was an inconsistent clean in the hallway. In fact, the robot automatically sectioned off the back half of the hallway because it experienced too many navigational issues and decided it wouldn't be able to finish up.
I've also got two transition strip issues in my house that didn't play nice with the Braava jet m6. The first is found in the area between the main hallway and bedrooms, where no transition strip of any kind separates the hardwood from the carpet. Since the Braava jet m6 relies in transition strips or edges to best detect the types of surface it's on, I had to make sure my doors were closed before running the mop.
Since there's no way for the mop to bypass carpets to get to other hardwood or tile areas in the home, you may end up like me with a bathroom that's inaccessible to the mop during regular use. My master bathroom, for instance, can only be accessed by going through the carpeted master bedroom first. For this room I had to pick up the mop and place it in the room, close the door and let it do its thing.
The other bathroom has a unique metal transition strip between the tile and wood. While we can cover the oddities of this design later, the fact of the matter is that the Braava jet m6 was easily able to get down into the bathroom but not able to get back up to return to its docking station.
Again, this was an issue when running the mop in a whole-home cleaning but can be fairly easily alleviated by manually placing it in this room, shutting the door, and running a cleaning cycle.
Long-term software and feature updatesWhile it wasn't available when we first started reviewing the Braava jet m6, iRobot has since released the "Keep-Out Zones" feature for the mop. This feature allows you to draw sections on the map where the mop should not cross which, in my use, helped alleviate the issues I described here.
This feature is also available on the Roomba i7 and Roomba s9, as of this writing, and makes a huge difference when the vacuum or mop regularly runs into trouble spots in the home.
As stated before, iRobot has also included a new Smart Charge feature that will give the mop a quick charge to finish cleaning extra-large homes. This reduces the overall cleaning time of the mop.
When the Braava jet m6 initially launched, it featured interoperability with a select few Roomba models. As of the most recent software updates, the Braava jet m6 now works alongside all Roomba 900-series vacuums, as well as the Roomba i7 and Roomba s9 via what iRobot calls Imprint Link.
What exactly does that mean? Simply put, the Braava jet m6 can be told to mop your home immediately after your Roomba finishes vacuuming it.
That's a brilliant strategy since the mop will operate best with vacuumed floors, as mops are obviously not intended to pick up debris. Selecting clean in the iRobot Home app from any Roomba or Braava will initiate the Imprint Link feature, and you'll be able to choose individual rooms for each robot to clean, or just have both robots clean the whole home.
Currently, each robot has to have its own map to utilize this feature, which adds a bit of additional setup on the front-end to get this working. IRobot is developing a way for robots to share maps, which should lessen the setup time for future owners.
We've also spoken with iRobot at length regarding future software updates and capabilities of the hardware inside each robot, and they've assured us that they've built a fair bit of overhead room into the hardware to allow for additional features to be added in the future.
The VerdictAs we've outlined, the question of whether you should own a Braava jet isn't necessarily an if, rather, it's which model you should choose. The smaller Braava jet 240 that we reviewed several years back is still a great solution for small apartments, as it's a less expensive product and is more of a drop-and-go nature.
iRobot's newer Braava jet m6 is designed for larger homes that want a bit more automation in their lives, but it's not going to work perfectly in every single home. Folks with plenty of hardwood or tile floors with no separation between surfaces in rooms will likely love the feeling of a regularly mopped floor without all the extra work.
Folks with homes like mine, which have several carpeted rooms and area rugs, might find the mop a bit more cumbersome than they'd like to deal with.
The Braava jet m6 is an exciting new entry into the world of cleaning robots and offers functionality that simply didn't exist before it, but its quirks make it a more difficult outright recommendation than we initially hoped. Future software updates will likely fix many of the odd issues I experienced but it ultimately cannot overcome any hardware limitations that might exist, such as the inability to identify carpets without having a large transition strip to stop the mop in its tracks.
If you're set on getting a dedicated, powerful robot mop though, this is the one to choose.
Braava jet m6 - Amazon
IRobot Braava Jet M6 Review - Review 2019 - PCMag UK
Robot vacuums are great, especially if you have a lot of carpeting or throw rugs, but if you have mostly hardwood or tile, you might want to consider a robot mop instead. They don't get much better than iRobot's latest, the Braava m6. With long battery life and the ability to cover 1,000 square feet in a session, the m6 is suitable for both apartments and larger homes. And if you have a mess that doesn't require mopping, that's OK, because the m6 sweeps too. It can even detect carpets and map out your home, so you can send it to specific rooms. At $499, it's more expensive that most of the competition, and really deep-set stains will still require some manual intervention, but the m6 is the best robot mop for keeping your floors squeaky clean on a regular basis, and our Editors' Choice.
DesignThe Braava Jet m6 is compact, at 3.5 by 10.0 by 10.6 inches (HWD). It weighs five pounds, making it easy to pick up and move around the house. The top panel holds a rear docking sensor, a camera, and a carrying handle. The top is also home to the lid that covers the water tank, above which you'll find Home, Clean, and Spot Clean buttons, as well as the RCON sensor (room confinement). Lights around the lid are solid when the robot is fully charged and blink when it's charging.
The front has a precision jet spray nozzle and a pad eject button. Flip the m6 over to find charging contacts, wheels, a pad reader, pad tracks, and cliff sensors.
You also get a home base charging station, which features cord storage, an IR sensor window, and a removable drip tray.
Accessories in the box include three wet mopping pads, three dry sweeping pads, and a sample bottle of cleaning solution. Additional cleaning pads come in packs of seven for $7.99. Both types of pads also come in washable microfiber versions.
Setup, App, and Voice ControlTo get started, plug in the charging station and attach the drip tray. Then download the iRobot Home app (available for Android and iOS) and create an account. Choose Braava jet from the menu, enter your Wi-Fi password, then press and hold the Spot and Home buttons on the m6 simultaneously. Once it beeps, select your model from the menu and wait for it to connect to your network, after which setup is complete.
The app is simple and inuitive to use. The main screen features a big Clean button to start and stop cleaning, above which you'll find the battery level indicator and the cleaning mode you're in (dry sweep or wet mop). The bottom of the screen has tabs for Schedule, History, Smart Maps, Help, and Settings. Tap the Schedule tab to assign the m6 to clean on a specific day and time. The History tab brings up a log of your cleaning sessions. Smart Maps shows the layout of your house, which takes a few rounds for the robot to learn. You can then label specific rooms to send it to if you don't want it to clean your entire home. The Help tab houses care and maintenance manuals, an owner's guide, FAQs, and warranty information. The Settings tab is where you can change your Wi-Fi information, switch the language, locate the robot, and perform a factory reset.
You can also connect the m6 to Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant via their respective apps. Once connected, you can issue voice commands through your phone or other compatible devices to tell the robot to start, stop, pause, or go back to the dock.
PerformanceI started testing by using the m6 to dry sweep my living room and kitchen. I simply slid the sweeping pad on the bottom, waited for the app to recognize the pad, then tapped Clean. While my apartment was already pretty tiday from testing lots of robot vacuums, the pad managed to pick up a surprising amount of dust and hair that was hiding around the kitchen and under the couch. It also displayed expert navigation chops thanks to its camera and sensors, so I never had to rescue it from any tough spots.
After the m6 finished sweeping, I swapped in a wet mopping pad and some of the included cleaning solution (you can also just use water). When mopping, the m6 sprays a specific area and goes over it a few times before moving on and repeating the process, picking up a lot more dirt and grime than I expected. Once it was done, the pad was completely covered in filth (gross, I know) and my floors felt notably cleaner.
The mop doesn't seem powerful enough to take care of truly deep-set stains, but I didn't have any to test it on. The good news is that if you run it regularly, you likely won't have any either.
Thanks to its laser navigation sensor, the m6 can recognize carpet. In testing, whenever it would get close to the rug in my living room, it would turn around and head back toward the hardwood floors. The Smart Map feature also worked well. After four or five runs, it learned the layout of my apartment and generated a floor plan in the app, allowing me to label the different rooms, and send the robot to specific ones.
The m6 also works in tandem with iRobot's Roomba i7 and Roomba s9 robot vacuums. You can link them in the app, and when the vacuum is done cleaning, the m6 will then go out and mop the freshly vacuumed areas.
Battery life varies depending on the cleaning mode you use, but either way, it's good. In testing, I was able to get in about 160 minutes of cleaning while switching between mopping and sweeping modes.
ConclusionsThe Braava Jet m6 is the smartest robot mop we've tested, and potentially a better buy than a vacuum if you have lots of exposed hardwood or tile in your home. IRobot's $200 Braava jet 240 and $300 Braava 380t are solid, significantly less expensive alternatives, but the jet 240 is geared toward smaller spaces like bathrooms and kitchens, while the 380t lacks app connectivity, smart mapping, and a host of other features you get with the m6. The iLife V8s is another solid option that doubles as a vacuum, but it too lacks much in the way of smart home functionality. That makes the Braava Jet m6 the most advanced robot mop you can buy, as well as our Editors' Choice.
iRobot Braava Jet m6 Specs Dimensions 10.0 by 10.6 by 3.5 inches Battery Life (Tested) 160 minutes Mop/Vacuum Hybrid No Scheduling Yes Virtual Walls Yes Remote Control No Phone Control Yes Best Robot Vacuum Picks Further ReadingIRobot Braava Jet M6 Robot Mop Review - Pocket-lint
Robot vacuum cleaners have been around for some time now and have gradually improved their capabilities over the years, but robot mops are less common. The Braava Jet M6, for example, is the only mopping model offered by iRobot, despite the company having several robot vacuum cleaners in its portfolio.
Available in three colour options, the Braava Jet M6 has some excellent features, but a big price tag too. So the obvious questions are whether it's worth that overhead and is it the future for reducing household chores?
Our quick takeThe iRobot Braava Jet M6 robot mop has some excellent features on board, like the Imprint Smart Mapping to map out your home, while iRobot's app is truly excellent for its ease of use.
There are definitely things to consider before investing though. For starters, the M6 is not cheap. While it's very good at surface-level cleaning when it has a clear run, it's not able to deal with slightly different floor levels, or slim areas around rugs. You also need to use iRobot's own solutions, which adds to the cost..
However, for those with the right home, this robot mop does a very good job of taking care of daily cleaning. It won't replace a cleaner and it won't take away the chore of more in-depth mopping entirely, but as a robot to keep on top of general day-to-day cleaning, it's a solid investment.
We love the iRobot Braava Jet M6 robot mop - but it's certainly a luxury rather than a necessity.
iRobot Braava Jet M6 - 4.0 / 5 FOR AGAINSTLike many of the iRobot products, the Braava Jet M6 has a lovely design and one you'll likely be more than happy to have out on display in your home. Its base is far more slimline and compact than the robot vacuum cleaners from the brand, so it doesn't need as much room as say, the iRobot S9+, and the robot mop itself is reasonably compact too.
We had the white model in for review, which features a premium metal silver lid that covers the removable water tank. The mop itself is square with rounded corners and there's a slightly wider bumper at the front. Within this bumper, there's a spray hole for the water. Height-wise, the Braava Jet M6 is slim enough to slip underneath most furniture.
On the top of the Braava Jet M6, there are capacitive touch buttons: one for sending the robot mop back to its base; a Clean button for starting a clean (from the mop itself, not the app); and a Spot-Clean button.
The front of the 'bot has a slot for sliding in the mop pads, whether you use the single-use or washable ones, and there are dry pads and wet pads available too.
Excellent featuresThe iRobot Braava Jet M6 has a number of features on board, some which it takes from the company's robot vacuum cleaners. Probably the smartest and most useful of them is the Imprint Smart Mapping, which sees the Braava Jet M6 learn, map and adapt to your home.
It's the same technology that's found in the iRobot S9+ and i7+, as well as the more recent J7+, and it means you can select which rooms you want cleaned and when. For example, you might only want the kitchen cleaned, but maybe only one part of the kitchen, such as the main food prep area, and this mapping tech allows for that.
Beyond that, there's a Precision Jet Spray that is designed to loosen dirt and sticky messes without getting on rugs or furniture, while the Maximized-Edge Design is set to enable the Braava mop to get into harder to reach areas, such as corners.
The 'bot will clean until it gets low on battery and then it will return to its charging base automatically, before continuing where it left off once it's ready. This is another feature borrowed from the company's robot vacuum cleaners.
There's also compatibility with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant so you can ask your Echo or Nest speaker to get the robo-mop to start cleaning once you have that setup.
Intuitive iRobot appThe iRobot app is the easiest way to control the Braava Jet M6 robot mop. It's also where you'll find a number of other features, such as scheduling, the maps of your home created by the Imprint Mapping Technology, and your cleaning history.
It's an exceptionally simple and easy-to-use app, with everything clearly marked and intuitive. In the top right corner, there's the option to start a new job, where you can then choose to clean everywhere or choose specific rooms. You can then save the job you create as a favourite, which means just one tap when you open the iRobot app the next time to launch the same cleaning schedule.
Tapping on Map under the picture of your robot mop in the app allows you to see the map of your home and add room dividers, labels, zones and thresholds. Keep in mind that you'll need to allow your robot mop to do a couple of runs to gather the data to map your home before this feature is available.
The scheduling feature enables you to set a start time, choose which days you would like the mop to clean, and select which rooms you want cleaned (or choose everywhere). There's also the option to automate cleaning when you leave home, for example, rather than choosing a specific time.
If you have an iRobot robot vacuum cleaner, like the S9+, you can also use the app to get the S9+ to vacuum your home first and then the M6 to mop straight after. It's a great pairing option.
Good cleaning performanceThe iRobot Braava Jet M6 is a solid - and thankfully quiet - performer in terms of daily cleaning abilities. It isn't going to be scrubbing your floors Cinderella-style, though, so do manage your expectations, but it's brilliant at maintaining and offering surface-level cleaning. Just be aware that you'll likely need to do a more thorough mop yourself every now and then.
It avoids rugs and furniture no problem, so we didn't get any unexpected spray where we didn't want it. However, despite setting up Thresholds in the iRobot app, we did find the Braava Jet M6 struggled with the threshold between our kitchen and dining room, which is around 25mm - so a little higher than is standard between most rooms.
Depending on the layout of your home, you might find that the Braava Jet M6 has difficulty accessing floors on either side of rugs too. If you have a runner in your hallway, for example, and the floor is narrower than the robot mop's width, it's not going to be able to clean there as it will focus on avoiding the rug. You might also find it won't navigate to the porch beyond the runner if there is more runner than floor and therefore no access path.
The water tank lasts a lot longer than you might think, it's enough to manage our reasonably large kitchen without needing a refill and leaving plenty of water remaining. You can choose between a Washable or Single Use Wet Mopping Pad or a Washable or Single Use Dry Sweeping Pad, and it's possible to change the cleaning power in the iRobot app too.
The cleaning power options are: Standard (which is a balance between cleaning power and area covered); Deep (which uses maximum power but covers less area); Extended (which covers more area but uses less cleaning power). We used Standard most of the time and it was more than sufficient, though Deep was useful for the kitchen sometimes when there were tougher marks on our porcelain tiles. It's also possible to adjust the jet spray amount in the app.
One thing to remember is that you can't add your own cleaning solution to the Braava Jet M6, so if you use Zoflora, for example, you can't add that to the water tank. The company does offer its own cleaning solution that you can add to the M6, though you obviously need to factor that into ongoing costs.
To recapFor those with the right home, and the right layout, the iRobot Braava Jet M6 robot mop does a very good job of taking care of daily cleaning. It won't take away the chore of mopping entirely, though, but as a robot to keep on top of general day-to-day cleaning, it's a solid investment.
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