Who needs two iRobots when Moneual has one ‘bot to vacuum and mop?

By Matt Davis January 6, 2014

moneual takes aim at two irobots vacuum header — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Check out our full written Moneual Rydis H68 review.

The robot vacuum cagematch just got a lot more interesting at CES 2014, where relative newcomer Moneual has pulled the wraps off the Rydis H68 Pro vac. We reviewed the company’s first offering, the Rydis MR6550, last year, and found that it improved on iRobot’s designs in some ways. It’s clear that Moneual’s engineers have been busy, because the H68 is stuffed to the gills with new features like integrated wet-mopping, a true multi-room mapping system, and a pile of new cleaning modes to get it done just the way you want.

With its wet-mop and vacuum capabilities in the same box, the H68 aims to take the place of two iRobot devices (the Roomba vacuum and Scooba mopping robots). It has independent vacuum and mop cleaning modes, as well as a combined automatic mode. It also claims to have the largest water tank among similar-sized devices, which means more automatic mopping action between refills.

One of our gripes with the original Rydis was that the bumbling random path it takes around the room isn’t very efficient. Moneual has addressed that in a clever way with the H68’s visual mapping system. It uses an upward-facing camera that figures out the shape of the room, keeping track of landmarks on the ceiling to determine where it’s been, and where it still needs to go. The new cleaning modes that use room-mapping will sweep in a very orderly fashion, leaving the traditional straight vacuum lines in your carpet instead of the random spirals and splines left by a random-coverage robot vac. This should make for much speedier and smarter cleaning, and Moneual claims that it will allow the H68 to intelligently cover a whole home.

With all the new goodies Moneual’s thrown into the new Rydis H68 Pro, we can’t wait to get our hands on one. It will be available for purchase before Mother’s Day 2014 at a retail price of $499.99.

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Matt Davis is a tech wonk, musician, home hacker and family man. He is driven by a love for trivia and an obsessive need to…

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