iRobot Braava 320 Floor Mopping Robot

So glad I ordered this! Updating my review after almost a year of daily use.I am a graduate student and I just moved to a nice condo. No more ghetto apartments! My new place has all hardwood floors. I had never experienced this before and I was finding that no matter how often I vacuumed I got all kinds of particulates on my floors. They would stick to my feet and make the place feel dirty. Stuff like this really bugs me because I'm a big clean freak.Anyway, I must admit that this thing has it easy. I'm a single guy, no pets, the floors are not junked up with things (wide open), and I keep things meticulously clean/organized in general.I wanted to fix having to vacuum all the time. I went into this thinking I could run the Braava every 2-3 days and it would take care of the job. But turns out, I can run it every day and it will bring back a pad full of dust and dirt. I mean I seriously have no clue where it's coming from at this point. I don't even want to know how dirty my floors were before. I was worried about it being able to pick up larger crumbs, but it manages to well.My apartment is 3 rooms and since the Braava can't cross thresholds that means moving it from room to room. I originally changed the pad every time but that got annoying so now I just run it in all 3 rooms with the same pad. Probably makes it a little bit less effective but I'm gonna guess it's marginal, especially if you're using it daily. You do have to move the tracking cube along with it as well. The operation is really pretty simple. Push power. Push either wet or dry. It will play a song and then set off. It will clean the entire room, sing a song to let you know it's finishing...Drive back to where you set it down...and play a couple more tones to let you know it's no returned and shut off. If it get's stuck it will play a distress signal every minute or so until you fix it.As far as how good it actually navigates, it's very good and it doesn't miss many places. Nothing else to say.Concerning the pads/different mopping styles....The pads that come with it aren't feasible to use. It will pick up so much dirt in one cycle...errr, one room... that you'll be washing those two rags every day. Ain't nobody got time for that. The Swiffer dry pads work great. I ordered some big boxes of them off Amazon as well....I got about a year supply of pads -I typically use 1 or 2 of them a day. The dry mopping goes in parallel lines back and forth as a pattern. The wet mopping pads are also not feasible for the same reason, that they are non disposable. But again Swiffer wet pads work great. The wet mopping goes in a strange pattern, kind of reaching out side to side then backing up. The wet mopping is nice every now and then but because of the pads being more expensive, harder to store, more annoying to use, and rendering less performance out of the Braava...It simply isn't sustainable. I've done it very few times.Other things:It's not essentially silent like the video would have you believe...But it is certainly not loud at all, I can't hear it when it's running in a room adjacent to me, except for it running into things occasionally. It makes a Roomba sound like a category 5 hurricane fighting an F5 tornado.On which one to buy, the more expensive one has an extra tracking cube, yes...But due to thresholds in my place it wouldn't be able to really utilize them in different rooms anyway. The more expensive one has the bigger reservoir, which I also wouldn't use because I don't like the wet mopping feature and I like using Swiffer pads more than the ones it comes with...And putting water in there to dispense over a Swiffer pad doesn't make much sense to me...The more expensive one has a much faster recharge...But again this is rarely an issue unless you have a huge place for it to clean and need to recharge it during the day. I run it once during the day then let the 10 hour cycle charge over night. Only time it sucks is when I forget to plug it in at night. The last thing is that the more expensive one has a bigger coverage area...Which does seem to me like the only reason to buy it...For those of you with huge houses.I haven't run my vacuum in a long time. Just a dust buster to pick up the chunks/crumbs that are too big for it to pick up. My place is much cleaner now. The robot is just such a cool thing too. Interesting to watch it clean sometimes...and it sounds funny but it actually adds some 'life' to my typically 'dead' condo. For $200 bucks the thing has truly been awesome. I would recommend it to everyone.UPDATE: It's been just over one year and the battery has been obliterated. I started noticing a few weeks ago that it would just be stopped randomly when I got home in a room. Decided to pay more attention. It's the battery. I guess I hadn't noticed it if it was a slow decline, because I only ask of the robot to do my entire place once daily. But at this point it can't clean my whole place anymore without dying. 1 year warranty...I am always skeptical of people with tin foil hats talking about stuff programmed to break after X months/years...But it's an awfully crippling thing happening EXACTLY at 1 year out...I mean I am writing this Dec 15th and I purchased it Dec 8th last year...But again like I said it could have been a slow decline.But it doesn't matter...New battery is $30 and it's a price I'm very willing to pay to keep the thing going. Still one of the favorite things I have ever purchased.

I like having clean floors but don't like having to constantly sweep and mop, so I was looking for a robotic cleaner that might be able to do some work for me. I settled on this one and think it was good choice for what I wanted. It's not a "spray water on the floor, then mop with it" cleaner like the Scooba, but that product has such bad reviews that I didn't want to try it (plus it's more expensive). It's also not a vacuum like Roomba, but I wasn't looking for one (though I think this product would do even better if you vacuumed beforehand). Instead, the Braava is like a robotic Swiffer, and I don't mean that in a bad way: the dry pads can pick dust up off what appear to be even the cleanest of floors, and the wet pad does a decent job for ordinary mopping.My usual usage is this: use a broom half-heartedly to sweep up the floor, being sure to pick up anything big (it might drag it around and scratch your floor otherwise), then start Braava with a dry cloth. I often follow this up with a wet cloth in mopping mode. The dry mode goes in more or less straight lines, turning around when it reaches a corner or edge until the whole floor is covered. It does a great job of working around furniture edges and walls and making sure it gets as close to all sides as it can. In mopping mode, Braava goes forward and slightly to one side, then backs up a bit and goes forward and slightly to the other side, and it continues this (again working nicely around edges) until the floor has been covered. You can use either the included clothes (it comes with one dry cloth and one mopping cloth that you can wet with water), but it's also compatible with Swiffer dry or wet cloths. I like the idea of being able to reuse cloths, but if the floor is really bad they can be hard to clean (and when I do clean them, I think hand is better than machine), so I'll occasionally use a Swiffer cloth (or Target generic) instead. I've tried to save money by cutting my own microfiber cloths down to size, but that hasn't worked out as well for me, so I'll probably buy pre-made ones from now on. iRobot sells 3-packs of additional cloths, but I suspect most Swiffer-compatible clothes, reusable or not, will also work.If you're contemplating between this 320 and the more expensive 380, the biggest differences are: (1) the 380 has a slightly larger battery capacity so can mop or sweep for longer, (2) the 380 can optionally charge faster (about 2 hours as opposed to 10), (3) the 380 is compatible with multiple navigation cubes, which will let it clean in different rooms on the same cycle, and (4) the 380 comes with the Pro Clean pad, which has a reservoir you can fill with water to keep the mopping cloth wet throughout the cycle (the 320 comes with only the standard pad, but you can by a Pro Clean separately if you want). I do find the slow charge time slightly annoying if I want to sweep then mop more than one room right after the other, but otherwise it's not that bad and I think the 320 is fine for me.My only problem with the unit is its propensity to get stuck. It is slightly tapered in that (even ignoring slim front section where the pad attaches) the front is slightly less tall than the back, which is the ideal shape for wedging itself under my fridge or stove and requiring me to be there to free it when it starts beeping. Perhaps they tested other designs first, but it seems to me that if it were a uniform height, it would simply hit the fridge or stove before it even tried to jam itself underneath, then continue with cleaning as normal. This doesn't happen all the time, but I have resorted to putting physical barriers in these problematic locations to prevent this from happening. It is often capable of un-jamming itself, but sometimes it gets wedged in so hard it can't back out with enough force. So, I advise you to watch the Braava on the first couple sweeping and mopping cycles. If you have any problematic areas, consider blocking them off, or simply make sure you're around to hear it beep and set it free if it gets stuck.All things considered. It's a good time saver, despite a few problems. I used to steam mop my hard floors every week or two, but now I do it much less often (or when I have a bigger mess) because the Braava does such a good job at keeping it clean otherwise.UPDATE: After about a year, the rubber "tires"/strips that wrap around the wheel started getting too loose for the Braava to drive itself around. iRobot does not consider this a user-replaceable part, although it looks like it might be easy enough with the right supplies. I had to send it in at my own expense (fine, it was after the one-year warranty) and then pay them $30 to fix and ship it back, which they said they would do within 10 business days. It actually took them almost three weeks and I had to ask them twice about the status before they responded. Just a few months after that was fixed and returned, the "mop" button stopped working, but the "sweep" button still works fine. I hope the whole thing doesn't fail soon. I'd give it 3.5 stars if I could, but I'll still round up to 4 since it is otherwise a nice product.

I love this mop. It doesn’t come with the water tank for the mop function but I agree with other folk that a damp cloth (supplied) over what is there for the sweep function works well. Then you also don’t get the charger stand so you have to plug a lead into a hole. But it’s ovet £200 cheaper than the upgrade mode that has both of those features. I think a bargain.

This little bugger works very well indeed on my hardwood floors! I run it every 2-3 days and it keeps them nice and clean.Definitely spring for the reservoir pad for it if you are having it do a damp clean, tho - it really improves the quality of the job and you can set & forget it instead of having to pick it up and dampen the pad every 20-30min.Water works fine, but doesn't pick up oilier residue (like handprints) very well. I'm trying the Bona Hardwood cleaning solution now and it cuts oils but leaves streaks, so I will be trying the Clorox next.Tip: for extra cleaning pads, just pick up a cheap pack of microfiber cloths from the dollar store, cut them to size & seal the cut edges to prevent fiber shedding (I just used a glue gun). Much cheaper and works just as well as the Roomba brand cloths.The list of Braava compatible cleaning solutions used to be on the iRobot FAQs, but disappeared for no obvious reason. Here's the text:Below is a list of recommended solutions you can use with the Braava or Mint Robot iRobot Hard Floor Cleaner - Use 1/2 a teaspoon per reservoir pad. OR to make a larger batch, use 1.5 teaspoon per quart of water. Scooba® Natural Enzyme Hard Floor Cleaner - Use 1/4 a teaspoon per reservoir pad. OR to make a larger batch, use 3/4 a teaspoon per quart of water. Water Bona Floor Cleaner Products Clorox "Ready Mop"The following solutions are NOT recommended for use with Braava or Mint (even if diluted). Vinegar Bleach Ammonia Mr. Clean Lysol Dr. Bronner's Products Essential oils such as peppermint oil Pine Sol Anything soapy, such as Murphy's Oil Soap Polishes or waxes

Excellent for the price! When sweeping, does not pick up massive amounts of dirt at once, will just push it around if too much in one place. Ideal for keeping a place clean, and light cleaning. Picks up decent amounts of hair. VERY QUIET!! The wet function mops nicely, removing dirt that is not caked on too hard. Can't compete with a janitor, but sure is cheaper

Tried my 320 for the first time today in the bathroom. Other reviewers had indicated that it was intended for light mopping, nothing heavy duty. Well, I thought I'd test it out and didn't clean tough spots first. The darn thing got everything except a bit of stuff around the litter boxes. I was really impressed. It got stuck on one side of the toilet and I had to bail it out. But otherwise everything went very well.

I use it for the hardwood floor in the living room. It does clean very well. It can't really remove the marks left by my chilren's bare feet, but it's ok to keep the floor dust free if I use it every day. I bought some microfiber cleaning pads at similar size as backups to avoid washing them everyday but they don't work well on this machine when they are wet. Dry ones OK.