There are some appliances that it makes sense to combine. For instance, many of today's best robot vacuums have mopping capabilities, which means they can take care of all (or most) of your floor cleaning needs in one fell swoop. However, when Midea announced it had created a hybrid robot vacuum / washing machine, it felt like an odd combination. In fact, I thought it was downright stupid. As it turns out, I was wrong.
I should clarify first that the Midea WashBot in my head was not the Midea WashBot of real life. I was envisaging a robot vacuum with some kind of unwieldy washing machine hat. In retrospect, this was not an intelligent assumption.
When I headed to the Midea booth at IFA to check this new appliance out, it turned out to be a fairly standard-looking washing machine, with a little hutch underneath where the robotvac could dock to refill and recharge.
The two appliances operate largely independently. So why combine them at all? There are a couple of big benefits to this setup, which make combining a robot vacuum with a washing machine a pretty smart idea.
The first is space. Self-emptying robot vacuum docks can get very bulky – and especially so if they have mopping capabilities, like this one does. There needs to be space for clean and dirty water reservoirs, and a dust bin, as well as room for the robot itself to dock and charge.
As someone with a small kitchen, a robot vacuum dock takes up far more room than I'd ideally like to give over to another appliance, and I'm also limited by the fact it needs to be near a power outlet. By combining your robovac dock with your washing machine, you don't lose any floor space.
It won't be perfect for everyone, of course – the WashBot is taller than your average washing machine, so if you've got an under-counter machine at the moment, you won't be able to just swap it in. But if you're not height-restricted, it'll work well.
The other big benefit is that it means both appliances can make use of the same clean and dirty water outlet, so the robovac doesn't need reservoirs on its dock. Not only does that mean the dock part of the WashBot can be much smaller and more streamlined, it also means you won't have to manually fill or empty the water for the robovac. And what are robot vacuums for if not removing the need for human effort? (It is possible to plumb in some freestanding robot vacuum-mops, but it's a hassle.)
Feature focus
I don't have a complete spec sheet for the robot vacuum or the washing machine yet, but Midea did share a few details with me.
The washing machine premixes water with detergent to create a rich foam, which is then sprayed, evenly and under high pressure, into the drum and onto the wash load. The foam is meant to protect fiber elasticity and fabric coating on the clothes, and overall this setup is desinged to save on both water and detergent. Rather than traditional, clunky buttons, the WashBot is controlled via a sleek OLED screen.
The robot vacuum offers 200 RPM mopping and 10,000Pa of suction when vacuuming (that's in line with other premium robovacs). There's also an auto-cut feature to snip long hair and stop it tangling up the rollers.
The Midea Washbot has launched in Singapore already, and is proving popular. I don't have launch details for other territories, nor pricing information yet.
