Roombas get a lot of attention for their ability to easily and autonomously suck up dirt, dust, pet hair, and anything else that might be infiltrating your carpet. While you can use Roomba vacuums on hardwood floors, they can't handle cleaning up liquids or really scrubbing hard surfaces. iRobot announced its newest device today that addresses this issue: the Braava Jet Mopping Robot. iRobot has other hard surface-friendly devices including another Braava, but it's hoping the tiny Braava Jet will make the case for robotic cleaning devices to folks who live in tighter quarters.

iRobot developed the Braava Jet by going to those most knowledgable about robot vacuums: current Roomba users. The company asked users where they felt their robo-vacuums could improve, and it found that while Roombas basically solved the issue of cleaning carpet around the home, users still had to mop hardwood and tile floors, specifically those in their kitchens and bathrooms. Also, hardwood is becoming the default flooring choice for new homes.

iRobot's answer to these concerns is the Braava Jet. The tiny square robot is designed to get into tight corners of rooms and smaller spaces, and it's easy to use since it has just one button on its top that's used to start and stop the device. iRobot told us there was temptation to connect the Braava Jet to a smartphone app, like the Roomba 980 that was launched last year, but the company decided against it for two reasons: simplicity and price. The Braava Jet was designed to be as user-friendly as possible, and it's also iRobot's most affordable robo-vac at $199.

Unlike the $299 Braava 380t that has two cleaning modes, the Braava Jet has three: dry sweeping for picking up hair, dust, and other particles; wet mopping for cleaning floors with water and detergent; and the additional damp scrubbing mode, which uses only 60 percent of the water that wet mopping mode does, making it powerful enough to clean hardwood floors but gentle enough to not damage them. The vacuum knows which mode to clean in by the disposable pads on its underside, which actually do the cleaning. Each mode has its own pad, and they snap onto the bottom of the robot—if you want to clean your bathroom floor using wet mopping mode, just attach the wet mopping pad to the base. That being said, you will have to restock these pads when you run out—iRobot says they will sell in packs of 10 pads for $7.99 per pack.

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Every time you start a cleaning cycle, the Braava Jet uses a combination of its bumper, wheels, and interior gyroscope to navigate the room. It also uses iAdapt technology to map out the room it's in, so it knows where it needs to clean, where it has already cleaned, and when it's finished. This is a nice perk of the newer iRobot devices, since the Braava 380t comes with the extra NorthStar Navigation Cube that's tasked with mapping out the home. Overall, the Braava 380t is better suited to clean larger homes with many big rooms, because you can buy additional Navigation Cubes to allow the robot to cover 2,000 square feet in a single cleaning cycle.

We checked out all three cleaning modes and were surprised at how quiet the Braava Jet was most of the time—the loudest noises were from water spraying during the wet mopping and damp scrubbing modes. With its rechargeable battery, the vacuum will be able to clean 200 square feet during the damp and dry modes and 150 square feet during the wet mode. Also, the battery is removable, and its charger is a brick-like AC adapter, so there's no docking station for the Braava Jet.

The little robot was pretty quick to clean the entire floor of a small bathroom. The mode that takes the longest time is wet mopping, since the robot sprays water, mops it up in a V-like motion (pulling forward, back, and then forward again on an angle), and continues to do that until the entire floor is clean. According to iRobot, the Braava Jet's interior reservoir can hold just about 150 millilitres of water, which will be enough to go through one full cycle of wet mopping. All that water that the Braava Jet cleans up gets soaked into its absorbent pad, so it doesn't move the liquid around on the floor. However, the vacuum was designed to do an "even cleaning" of the room it's in, so it won't focus on an area that might have a deep stain.

The Braava Jet is also equipped with iRobot's virtual wall feature. Pressing and holding the robot's one button will signal it to draw an invisible wall parallel to the back of the device. This means the vacuum won't go beyond that virtual wall, ensuring that it will only clean a certain area and stay out of another part of your home you don't want it to cover. When the robot finishes its cycle, there's a lever underneath its top handle that you can pull to release the pad from the bottom—you don't have to touch it yourself.

Robot vacuums aren't cheap, but the Braava Jet is iRobot's way of making cleaning technology more accessible. Until now, the $375 Roomba 650 was the cheapest iRobot vacuum you could buy, but the $199 price of the Braava Jet may be attractive for new customers. Its small size also makes it more appealing for apartment dwellers who have smaller rooms—and more tight places they couldn't (or don't want to) clean on their own.

The Braava Jet is available now on iRobot's website for $199.