Hobot-388 is a tiny, good looking but pretty loud robot. It does a decent window cleaning job on easy to clean windows. That is – if used correctly.
Robot Specifications
Hobot-388 is 11.6 x 5.8 x 3.7 in. (295 x 148 x 95 mm) in size and weighs 915 grams. It’s cleaning base consists of two round cleaning pads that rotates clockwise or counterclockwise. These pads are washable and you get 6 extra pairs in the box. Also you get two extra plastic pad frames that you can use in case you break the ones that are on the robot.
Because of its shape, you can use this robot to clean rectangular windows only. According to Hobot, it is designed to work on any glass thickness.
This robot has a decent suction, but at a cost of noise. The working noise is about 80dB, which is fairly noisy.
It takes around 4 minutes to do a single pass on 10,8 ft2 (1 m2) surface.
There is also an internal battery, which you need to charge before using the robot for the first time. The battery will be able to keep your robot sucked to the surface for 20 minutes, in case of AC socket power failure.
It also has a safety rope, which you can attach somewhere, and it will keep your robot from smashing into the ground in case suction is lost. The rope’s length is around 14,76 ft. (4,5 meters).
Hobot-388 has an edge detection, which will make sure your robot doesn’t fall off.
Other robots with this safety feature are still able to clean the surface, but not the Hobot-388. I tried cleaning some glass without an edge frame and the robot couldn’t complete the cleaning task. It stops either once reached the edge or a bit later.
This robot has a spray solution reservoir, which you can fill with either water or specific cleaning solution. The good thing about it is that you don’t need to do manual spray before the task. The robot will do the spraying itself.
The reservoir isn’t big, but it can clean a few windows until you need to refill it. You can fill it with water or specific Hobot cleaning solution.
Hobot-388 power cord is roughly 16 ft. (5 meters) long.
This window cleaning robot can be operated with a start/stop button on the robot – although very limited functions. Then there is a remote control and a smartphone app.
How to operate Hobot-388?
This window cleaning robot can be operated with a start/stop button on the robot. This is very limited, and you can only make the robot to do one simple wet pass or stop the robot.
There is an included remote control, which gives you a lot more. You can move the robot around. You can turn on and off the spray mechanism. You can choose to do a single or double cleaning pass.
Lastly there is a smartphone app, which acts exactly the same as the remote control, but it also gives you notifications in case of cleaning task complete or some sort of an error.
How to use Hobot-388 for the best cleaning results?
I have used Hobot-388 for quite some time and only recently realized how I should use it for the best results.
Weather conditions are very important for this robot when using it to clean outside windows. Be sure that the humidity is low and that it is sunny.
I usually did the simplest method of operating the robot. Fill the cleaning solution reservoir, turn on the power, stick the robot onto the surface and push the start button on the robot.
Using the robot this way always made the cleaning result pretty terrible. Multiple spots of cleaning trails and it wouldn’t always clean the light dirt of the window.
What you actually need to do for the best results, is this: once you stick the robot onto the surface, you need to push the water drop button on the remote (robot light will be white). That means the robot is ready to do dry cleaning.
For the best results do a 2x dry cleaning (there is a 2x button on the remote). Once done, push the water drop button to enable spraying (light will become blue) and push the 2x button again.
Once you remove the robot after it finished the wet cleaning, take a wipe and clean that spot. If you don’t do that, there might be some stains left from the removal of the robot.
Yes, it takes quite some time for robot to clean the surface, but I’ve found this is the best way to get as clean as this robot can get. Otherwise, you will be very mad, because the robot won’t really do any real cleaning.
But it all depends on how dirty or clean your windows are. Sometimes it will be enough to do just a single dry pass. Sometimes a single dry and wet pass. Other time maybe 2x dry and 2x wet.
Who knows, maybe your windows are so dirty that you will even need to even more passes. But in that case, I might just try cleaning them manually by yourself.
Hobot-388 Cleaning Performance
It is worth mentioning that Hobot-388 does the cleaning while moving from left to right and right to left, gradually moving down, but it can’t do the cleaning from top to bottom and bottom to top while gradually moving right or left.
Hobot-388 will always finish the cleaning task at the bottom of the surface.
Window Cleaning
Since this is a window cleaning robot, this is where the product should shine the most.
I wasn’t happy with Hobot-388 performance when I first got the robot. But that’s because I didn’t know how to use it properly. Once I started using it correctly – the results were much better.
As long as your windows don’t have hard stains like dried bird poop, dried paint or something similar – the robot should do a decent job as long as you’re doing 2x dry and 2x wet cleaning passes.
Bear in mind, that it will take the robot approximately 16 minutes to properly clean 10,8 ft2 (1 m2) of window area. That is by using 2x dry and 2x wet.
It is worth mentioning that due to its shape and the way robot moves on the window it will not be able to reach the very corners of the window. The area is pretty small – around 0.08 in2 (0.5 cm2) in a shape of triangle. And the side edges of the window.
Mirror Cleaning
I used this robot to clean multiple big mirrors in my home. They were dusty and had some fingerprints on them.
Running 2x dry cleaning and then 2x wet cleaning, the robot did a good job at making my mirrors clean.
It can definitely clean your mirrors as long as they don’t have any hard stains. If you’d need to push a wipe hard and brush, then the robot will not clean such a spot. It can only push as hard against the surface as the vacuum motor is capable.
Frameless Glass Walls Cleaning
As I’ve mentioned above, this robot has an edge detection, but it can’t continue the work once it reaches an edge without a frame. It either stops instantly or a few moments later.
Marble Wall Tiles
This robot isn’t good for cleaning marble wall tiles, because the robot can’t really go up the tile – it slips down.
Glass Walls with Cracks
Sadly, Hobot can’t clean these either. That’s because once the robot is on a crack, it loses some suction, the robot won’t go further and will just stop next to a crack.
Hobot-388 flaws that I’ve encountered
The robot once bugged out and kept cleaning the bottom edge of a window nonstop, back and forth. I had to manually turn off the robot.
Never put the robot upside (with pads facing up) if you have cleaning solution in the reservoir, because it will spill on the ground or wherever you put the robot. Just get some sort of towel and put the robot on it with the cleaning pads facing down.
Sometimes Hobot-388 has a hard time climbing to the top edge of a window. While one of the pads is rotating up, the other one slips down. I’ve inspected the window and didn’t notice anything weird about it. I’m not sure why is this happening.
It feels like if the surface is “too clean” the robot struggles going up the surface. While one of the rotating pads is going up, the other one, instead of staying intact, is going down.
Review Summary
This is a decent robot if you need to keep your windows clean by removing dust or light stains. It might take a while for the robot to do the task when doing multiple passes, but I have yet to find a robot which is better and faster.
As always I will come back and update this article whenever I notice anything that is worth mentioning with this robot.
Do you need more info?
Do you have any specific questions about this robot? Maybe some questions about what I’ve written or something I’ve not mentioned? I still have this robot and I’m happy to do other tests to be able to answer as many questions related to Hobot-388 as possible.
If you do, leave a comment!
Thanks very much full your full review. I have many glasses with or without frame, is this robot good for all tasks?
Thx
It is not good for windows without frames, because the robot stops working once it reaches the edge.