A square shaped robot that has a microfibre cleaning cloth underneath. It is not the best window cleaning robot, but it does a decent job at removing dust, fingerprints and light stains.
Hobot-298 Specifications
This is a square window cleaning robot with a size of 9.44 x 9.44 x 3.94 in. (24 x 24 x 10 cm.) and weight of 1280 grams. It can work on surfaces larger than 15.74 x 15.74 in. (40 x 40 cm.)
The power cord is 16.4 ft. (5 meters) long in total. There is 13.12 ft. (4 meters) long cord that goes from the robot to the power brick, then there is 3.28 ft. long cord 1 (meter) from the power brick to a power socket.
Hobot-298 has a replaceable 40 ml. water tank, which can be filled with either water or their specific window detergent. Which is then used to spray the cleaning solution automatically. It can be turned off when not needed.
They claim 64 dB of noise at 1 meter while the robot is working on a surface. I ran a test and found out that the robot makes 74 dB of noise.
It has anti-falling control algorithm, which constantly checks the power of suction and if the suction gets lower the robot will instantly stop and will start making a warning noise and light red.
It also has an embedded UPS which will make sure the robot is sucked to the surface for up to 20 minutes in case of AC power loss.
In addition, there is a safety rope with a buckle as a backup safety measure in case your robot loses suction and falls off. You attach this rope to some part of interior and the rope will make sure the robot won’t fall to the ground.
How can you operate the Hobot-298?
Controlling this robot is very easy and you have three different control choices.
The first one being the most simple and limited is the button on the robot itself. Push the button and the robot will either start or will stop working. This one is limited because you can’t change any setting.
The second one is the remote control, where you can choose various cleaning patterns, turn on and off the spray nozzle and manually move the robot around.
The third one is the control via a phone app. This one is basically the same as the remote control as you get all the same options, except you get the addition of notifications that will inform you of a completed task or an error from a distance.
How to use Hobot-298 for the best cleaning results?
As with most robots, you should first run it in the dry mode and let it get all the dust away. After that is done, turn the spraying on and let it run again.
Depending on how dirty your surface is, how easy or hard the dirty spots are, you might need to run cleaning more than once.
Turn on the spraying on when there is no dust left on the surface.
Hobot-298 cleaning performance
This is a robot that has a cleaning cloth underneath and moves it around the surface without pressing it too hard. Knowing this, don’t expect it to scrub hard stains.
If the dirt is dried hard to the surface, no matter how many times you will let the robot clean it, most likely, it will not clean it perfectly.
There is around 0.8 in2 (2 cm2) of triangle plot on each corner that this robot can’t reach, also 0.2 in. (5 mm.) on the edges aren’t getting a good clean either.
Windows Cleaning
I’ve read many reviews online before purchasing a windows cleaning robot and Hobot-298 was mentioned as the best one in most of the articles. So when I first got this I thought it will be the best. But to my disappointment it wasn’t.
When cleaning windows it can only take care of light dirt and dust. Anything harder, it won’t be able to clean. And still you will most likely need to do multiple cleaning tasks: first dry then wet to accomplish that.
Imagine it as if you hold a cleaning cloth and lightly pushing to the surface you do a wipe. This robot basically does that. If you’d be able to clean it like that, then the robot will be able too. If not, then it won’t be able to do that.
Mirrors Cleaning
Since mirrors usually don’t have any hard stains, it is mostly dust and fingerprints, Hobot-298 does a pretty good job.
My mirror had dust and fingerprint stains only. Running a dry cleaning in 2x mode and then a wet cleaning in 2x mode made my mirror clean.
Glass Walls with Cracks
You cannot use the Hobot 298 to clean your glass walls that have cracks, because once on the crack, the robot’s anti-falling control algorithm notices a drop in suction, it falls back and stops the cleaning task.
It doesn’t treat it the same way as it treats frameless glass edges.
Marble Wall Tiles
When testing Hobot-298 on marble wall tiles I’ve noticed that it can move freely without any problems.
I’ve used the robot to clean my marble tiles in the shower, where there are dried water stains. I ran the robot multiple times at 2x setting, but it wasn’t able to clean that dried water.
That didn’t surprise me though. To clean such stains you’d need a hard brush and some serious scrubbing.
Frameless Glass Walls
This robot detects edges and is capable of cleaning surfaces without a frame.
Hobot-298 Flaws that I’ve Encountered
When robot is cleaning a surface corner of which one edge is frameless and the other is with a low frame it loses suction because it runs over that low frame. Which results in an error and stopped task.
Review Summary
I’d consider this robot as something that will help you keep your windows clean rather than actually cleaning them.
If you have your windows dirty with some old stains that are dried to the window, most likely this robot will not be able to help you.
But if your windows aren’t that dirty and all you need to clean is dust, fingerprints and similar light stains, then this robot can be a good help for you.
If you need something that is a better at cleaning windows, check Hobot 398 review, another window cleaning robot from Hobot in a different form and working method.
Need Some More Info?
As always, if you have any questions related to this robot, do not hesitate to ask. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll test it and will let you know.