Overseas, Makita has come out with a Roomba-like cordless robotic vacuum, called the RobotPRO (model RC200DZ). Judging from the product usage photos on Makita’s site, it’s designed for commercial environments, such as workshops, offices, warehouse floors, and production facilities.
According to a Japanese press release, Makita jointly developed the new robotic vac with Sharp.
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It can clean 300 square meters on (2) 3.0Ah battery packs, and 500 square meters when paired with (2) 5.0Ah battery packs. That’s around 57 x 57 ft, and 73 x 73 ft, respectively.
This vac is packed with some rather fancy features.
Although the new vac is powered by two 18V Li-ion battery packs, it doesn’t seem to be described as a Makita 18V X2 product, suggesting, along with other indications, that the batteries are run down sequentially, rather than in parallel. That seems like a good idea for a product like this, for 2 batteries to provide for longer runtime.
Dust collection capacity is 2.5 liters, and there are separate coarse and fine debris collection compartments, which are removed as part of a single dust box for emptying.
Runtime on (2) 5.0Ah batteries is around 200 minutes (3 hours 20 minutes).
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There are 2 travel patterns – one that systematically covers an open space, and one that sets the vac off in a random direction. There are bump sensors, 8 ultrasonic sensors, a gyroscope to ensure straight traveling, 4 infrared sensors to prevent tipping over, “stack detection” wheel sensors and a geomagnetic sensor, and it comes with tape for creating no-go “invisible wall” barriers.
You can turn the suction fan off, which means the vacuum will only collect larger debris and not smaller particles. This means it will collect “large visible dust,” while extending runtime by around 2 times.
There’s a timer function, and also a remote control. The remote has a “body position announcement function” which helps you find the vacuum in a larger or obstacled space.
The vacuum’s large brushes are removable and washable, and the dust box is also washable.
One last thing – it’s got a brushless motor, which likely contributes to the runtime.
Price: ~$1200 for the bare tool, $1400 for the kit
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Here’s a long intro of the new robot vacuum, as part of a longer Makita vacuum cleaner promo video:
First Thoughts
When digging deeper to understand some of the product features, I saw a comparison between this Makita RobotPRO robotic vacuum, and Roomba units. For one, the Makita vacuum is a lot bigger. It has a larger dust collection tank, and also I believe longer runtime.
Would a product like this do well in the USA? Actually, I think it might, although I wish I saw the vac being demonstrated in shop settings rather than cleaner-looking commercial spaces.
There seems to be a lot of innovation packed into this vacuum, and a lot of thoughtful features. While steeply priced, it’s easy to appreciate the effort that went into making this into a seemingly superior product.
It doesn’t have self-charging features, but you can swap the batteries quickly, or remove them for quick recharge. Assuming the 2 batteries work sequentially in a logical order, you can in theory squeeze continuous use out of the robotic vac as long as you don’t mind cycling the batteries back and forth to the charger.
I would say that this obviously wasn’t meant for major cleanup tasks, but its coarse dust and chip collection capabilities suggests that it should be fair at picking up larger bits of stuff.
It has a 2.5 liter capacity (about 2/3 gallon), compared to a Roomba’s less than 1 liter capacity. Roomba doesn’t openly disclose the specs, but I saw 0.65 liters spec floating around the web in a few places in the context of older models similarly sized to their latest ones. In other words, the Makita vac can pick up a lot more dust and debris before needing to be emptied.
Looks good. Pricey, but a solid-looking innovation I hope that Makita brings to the USA market.
Jimmie
Seems to me one of the biggest attractions of robotic vacuum cleaners (if you have a suitable floorplan) is that they’re largely autonomous. After you establish boundaries and a schedule, the vacuum will largely operate on its own…charging itself when necessary. By eliminating the self-charge capability, it seems Makita has eliminated this convenience.
Iron-Iceberg
On my Roomba you still have to empty the bin. On mine it is full just about every day. So swapping out the battery’s could be done at the same time but still it’s more work.
It should charge when docked.
If they made a dock that emptied the bin and you only had to dump it once a week that would be the best, or if you had a central house vac it could dock there and you would never need to touch it. Now that would be great.
BigDan
Would be an eye-turner if they built the dock to hook into shop-vacs/extractors which have the auto-vac feature, and then it could empty the roomba bin and charge it.
Roomba dock would plug into the shop vac auto port.
Roomba dock would know when to stop sending the signal to vacuum once the bin is emptied.
Roomba dock would charge the batteries through the shop vac ac connection.
Could be used on Makita’s, festool’s etc.
If iRobot can charge $800 for their newest model, surely this could go for that and be considered fair?
Charles
Guess what? Roomba came out with a self-emptying docking station! It’s $950 or so.
Toolfreak
I would say it’s actually pretty bizarre that there is no charging dock this thing goes into on it’s own to recharge the batteries once it’s done cleaning. Would be a huge selling point for commercial use and could always be optional.
BigDan
Take my money Makita!
WBC
Milwaukee, are you watching?
My new garage is 2400sq ft. My wife vacuums the house, but she isn’t going to come out to the new garage to vacuum that… and I am not one to do dilligent vacuuming on a regular basis. I’ve been looking at one of these robotic vacs for the new garage, just to keep the floors looking tidy.
The one thing that concerns me about the Makita is the height. This thing looks like it would get stuck under one of my sportscars, as it looks like it is about 7″ tall. I guess I’m stuck looking at units designed for residential use, as they’re typically low profile enough that they would slide under a low car.
Toolfreak
Look, something Milwaukee hasn’t come up with!
Pretty impressive for Makita.
duke5572
Makita was making a big line of innovative cordless tools when Milwaukee’s cordless division was still in short pants.
Lance
3200-5400 sqft cleaning capacity is pretty impressive and would cover a lot of large shop spaces.
Agreed that a charging dock would make this more useful. A slow charging system would be more than adequate, charging over a period of several hours. The integrated automatic shop/central vac evacuation would be the icing on the cake.
Hopefully the logic is much more advanced and/or more flexible than that of the Roomba I tried out. It went back to the store the next day. On the main floor of our house it constantly got stuck under the edge of couches, legs of dining room tables, and would only clean about 1/3 of the area before docking. Sending it out a second time would repeat the first routine, cleaning the same 1/3 of the floor again.
This was about four years ago, but was one of the higher end models. It also seemed to make as much mess as it cleaned up, since it would end up covered in fluff stuck to it from static buildup, and then would leave that fluff all over the things it bumped into while feeling its way around.
Jonathan
1st not tryin to Hijack the Thread.
At first look, it seems Advanced and spendy for a Robotic vac when you see Roombas selling for $199.
For Comparison sake of Similar technologies. Robotic Mowers
For an additional $220 Yyou can buy a Robotic Mower w/28v battery that returns to base to recharge autonomously. Will maintain and mow .25 acre approx 100′ x 100′. No switching out batteries to recharge.
Worx WG794 LANDROID M CORDLESS ROBOTIC LAWN MOWER available in the US from Amazon $999.
Husqvarna top of the line robotic Automower will maintain 1.25 acres with GPS and other bells and whistles for about $3,500
My intrest in the automowers is I seem them as future competition to my Landscape Maintenance company. (But I’ve already been diversifying).
Again similar technology but still apples to oranges.
Yet as other commenters have said that at this price point (776) you expect to spend little to minimal interaction. Auto charge and auto empty would justify a lot easier.
Disclosure while I’ve been an early adopter of tech, I’ve never owned robotic vac. So I’m not speaking from an experience point of view.
I will say that after close to 15 years of robotic vacs being for sale. With all the light spedd growth in technology, faster, smaller, more powerful. That is seems we are in the dark ages still with non commercial robotics, sensors and advances.
Jerry
I can see the usefulness of it. Instead of paying someone $50 a night to clean ulp work areas, pop in 2 batteries and go home, return to a clean floor in the morninf
John
Roomba/iRobot used to have a heavy duty model more suited to garages, workshops, etc that was called the iRobot Dirt Dog 110 which came with an oversized bin meaning it could handle bolts, screws, big stuff. I’d certainly pick one up for the garage workshop if they still made one but it looks like they discontinued that a long time ago.
Toolfreak
Must not have sold all that well. Youd think that companies would have bought them for spaces like warehouses, basements, arenas, etc. that often deal with more than dust and dirt on carpet and wood floors. This unit doesn’t really look focused on that level of commercial use, but between the robotic unit and the backpack vac, seems to offer a pretty good cleaning solution for in-house cleaning or for commerical cleaning services to use.
Jp
Do any of the makita vacuums that video have brush rollers built into the floor nozzle?
Chris Butigan
One step in the right direction…
Sled208
The videos show more of cleaning commercial buildings but largely foot traffic. I have a shop and a 3 car garage that get vehicle traffic and they frequently leave small clumps of dirt and small rocks on the floor. I wonder if this would vacuum that up? Sweeping is difficult for me due to a spinal injury and the dust it creates causes other issues as well.
Tommy
I think the biggest advantage of this is the battery platform that you have invested in, if you have the Makita platform it would be great to have this as an addition and cleaning is always a problem when your doing a project. another probable nice to have is probably the firmware update the could be use to add additional type of cleaning area and radio or blue tooth speakers for this when your using it at home or the garage.
Kevin
Will it handle water on the floor of my shop?
Stuart
There’s no indication that it can.
Brien
I actually bring a cheap bob sweep to my remodel sites and let it run at night to collect sawdust. I come back the next day and it’s like worker elves cleaned up for me. Not awesome but saves me some time. I would love a Dewalt powered version that could do a better job. I could care less about a home base just push the go button and I’ll find it the next morning. That would be great!