iRobot Braava Jet M6 review: Efficiently, effective and reliable

Should I buy the iRobot Braava Jet M6?

Yes. Buy it if you want to automate floor cleaning, if your house has a lot of flat floor surfaces, if you're willing to clear clutter like shoes and kids toys and you aren't starved for cash.

Price when reviewed

In Australia, the iRobot Braava Jet M6 retails for AU$1149. You can buy it through Amazon here.

Design and Build Quality

 The Braava Jet M6 mop looks the part dressed in a white curved shell with a shimmering circular ice white and navy blue status light. Everything feels like premium iRobot - from the robot to the charging station to the app.

The cleaning pads come off with the touch of button while the high quality water tank pops out for refilling at a tap with ease. I wouldn't expect anything to break easily, or fail.

The M6's primary mop is a rugged reusable microfibre cloth which can be easily cleaned. I washed it in the washing machine but the instructions say you do it by hand. The cloth did acquire an anaerobic odour (like an aquarium filter) after a series of basic hand washes. This was fixed with a proper hand or machine wash.

Disposable M6 mops are available but this would become expensive if used as a main cleaning option.

Credit: iRobot

As the name might suggest, the Braava Jet M6 sprays a jet of water of customisable quantity in front of itself which it passes over and then back in a sequence that doesn't miss any gaps.

Three different modes offer cleans that pay more attention to area coverage (extended clean) or detail (deep clean), or a balance of both (detailed clean). I found the balanced mode to be a good fit for my kitchen, dining, and living open plan space with the amount of water sprayed set to 50 percent of the maximum (there are three settings). The full water spray capacity left water behind the microfiber mop which dried to leave water marks.

iRobot offers a cleaning solution which can be mixed into the water tank for what it says is improved cleaning. I tested only the sample bottle which was good for one tank so probably didn't have enough runs with it to notice any improvement. If I hadn't read that adding substances other than this solution (or water) voids the M6's warranty, I would have mixed in vinegar or a solution that I presume wouldn't gunk up the unit.

Performance and features

We wrote in September that iRobot's i7 vacuum cleaner is the closest to 'independent hands-off cleaning you are likely to get'. The company's Braava Jet M6 mop extends that reputation by cleaning everything the i7 misses; coffee spills, muddy footprints, and food splatters. What's more, it does so fabulously.

The Bravaa Jet M6 has made history of my need to clean up the wet footprints I'm forever leaving on the inside of the back door, and of the coffee spill spots leading from the kitchen to upstairs. Over a three-month period, the device cleaned every spill my three-year-old and five-month-old have left behind them along with countless daily splattering from home-cooked meals.

Credit: iRobot

Since I ran the Bravaa Jet M6 in tandem with the Roomba i7, I was able to take advantage of a linking feature called Imprint Link. This allows the mop to run after vacuuming has finished. You can customise which rooms should be vacuumed and mopped.

Annoyingly, linked cleans can not yet be scheduled. This shortcoming means you must set separate scheduled start times for the vacuum and mop such that the floors will be vacuumed by the time the Braava Jet M6 heads out to mop. For me, this looked like a 5AM daily vacuum and a 5:30AM mop.

The M6 uses the smarts of iRobot's high-end i7 and s9 vacuums to fully mop even significantly large areas to a point where even dried-on juice stains are eliminated. The unit routes around tables and chairs with ease, leaves carpets and mats untouched, and cleans to a high standard whether on its fastest or deepest mopping modes. Like its vacuum brethren, the M6 will head off to finish cleaning routines it started but required a recharge to complete.

Smart maps, a feature of iRobot bots like the i7 and M6, create blueprints of your floorspace that highlight clutter and soiled areas, and allow cleaning to be done by rooms which can be set up in the app after the bots have made some training runs. You can also set up "no-go zones" that prevent the i7 and M6 from entering areas they shouldn't.

Cleaning routine times vary according to the size of the area to be cleaned and the amount of soiling (iRobot's high-end bots can detect dirt levels) but it is slower than robot vacuuming. The i7 cleaned the same area in 20 minutes that the Braava Jet M6 took 35 minutes to complete. To me this time difference scarcely mattered; the M6 is close to silent and wouldn't wake a sleeping baby (yes, I tested this).

The Bottom Line

The iRobot Braava Jet M6 cleans floors efficiently, effectively, and reliably, and is built with a mind to minimise user input and making easy such interventions as refilling the tank and cleaning the mop cloth.

Credit: iRobot