We all need a helping hand now and then, especially when it comes to cleaning the house. The Hobot Leegee-668 vacuum mop robot does certainly help in this regard. If you’ve seen these little robot vacuum cleaners find their way around the house, it’s a lot of fun to watch. At least for the first bit, whereafter actual results become much more important. Having had the Hobot for a week and seeing it perform its duties around the house it’s fair to say that a) it actually picks up a lot of regular dirt, and b) it does need a bit of help to do so. 

Vacuums and mops

The Hobot Leegee-668 does two tasks, it both vacuums and mops the floor. It’s exactly what you need if you have a tiled house, but becomes a problem if there’s lots of carpets to deal with. Local distributor Solenco South Africa recommends the iLife A8 if there are carpets rather than tiled surfaces. 

The Leegee-668 finds its way by making use of seven laser sensors around the unit to plan its way around things. Make sure you keep these sensors clean, since if dusty it’s prone to stop before properly cleaning. 

If they’re clean the Hobot goes about its duty cleaning and mopping its way till it has navigated its way around the room. Yes, it does sometimes happen that it gets into difficult situations that it can’t get out of, and then it will start beeping to ask for assistance. The living room, for example, was cleaned best if all the chairs were moved out of the way so that the Hobot could get on with its job. 

Before letting it loose, you need to also feed it some water in its tank for it to wet mop properly, while a good clean of the vacuum trash bin also helps. Switch it on and place it next to a flat wall and it will start going about its business. The Hobot is quite loud and I preferred not being in the same room as the one it was cleaning , which means that you can’t really watch television with the Hobot going in the background. 

Keeps going till dust is gone

The robot has a ‘home’ charging station but I didn’t mount it as a permanent dock, just for charging. As far as how long its battery will last, the company notes 90 minutes of duty, but I clocked more than two hours worth of work easily. Once done and if not docked, it will start beeping for attention wherever it was mopping last, unfortunately quite annoying. However, it also means that it’s time for the most satisfying part of using the Hobot - opening up the bonnet and checking how much dust it has collected. 

When it comes to a weekly cleaning schedule, the Hobot helped a lot. It’s not going to be the solution if you are nit-picky about the cleanliness of your house, since it does miss things here and there. However, as an assistant I was more than happy to just let the Hobot loose and do selective vacuuming in the places it couldn’t reach. Yes, it’s a bit loud and requires a bit of care, but it sure beats a run with the vacuum yourself. Having said that, how much is this saving of time and effort worth? If you said R7 000, well click here to buy one now.