As a proud owner of the Braava M6 I was originally debating whether or not I should purchase the reusable pads for my mop or continue to use the single-use pads. I went through the original pads fairly quickly as the mop did manage to get in places I don’t typically cover (notably underneath a fairly low bookcase that I couldn’t reach with my old mop. So, I was debating whether or not I would want to spring $25 on reusable pads since that was quite a bit of money on a machine that is quite expensive on its own.
My biggest concern was durability and whether or not it was simply as convenient as the throw away pads I had been using before. So, I went ahead and purchase a single pack and when they arrived I tested them out and found they cleaned just as well with one noticeable downside. If you’re someone who runs your bot quite often such as M/W/F (as my current schedule is set to) you will hate having to clean your pads. The issue isn’t the process it simply comes down to routine you can throw these into the washing machine like you would a t-shirt or a rag but doing so for a single pad (since your other one has to remain on the bot) would be a waste of water and electricity. I also, needed access to the mopping pad more frequently and I didn’t wan’t to keep running the wash or have to clean it by hand (which is a major pain I will add).
So, I found myself more frustrated during the week solely because I didn’t want to hand wash my reusable pads everytime I needed to run the mop and using my washing machine for a single pad was an incredible waste.
A Solution Of Some Sorts
I out of frustration of needing to wash my pads by hand to reuse them ended up with another solution simply purchase another pack. Which, while this sounds like an affiliate marketer trying to scam you it actually works quite well. I, now have 4 pads to swap in and out on my 3 day cleaning schedule that means I can go an entire week without needing to wash my pads (which aligns with when I would do laundry anyway (once a week)). So now, I can toss my M6 Reusable Pads in the wash along with my towels and rags that I use.
Personally, I think iRobot should offer a 4 pack (2 wet and 2 dry pads) at a slightly discounted rate. I would also suggest to not purchase these at full-price at the time of writing Amazon has them on sale for $16.99 instead of the retail price of $24.99. I found walmart.com also routinely has them on-sale for around the same price which is how much my second pack cost me when I purchased it.
How Many Times Can They Be Washed?
iRobot claims 50 and even if we take their number as the truth you end up saving money with these pads over the disposable. A pack of 7 wet pads will cost you $7.99 the same for the dry pads.
To illustrate the cost savings let’s simply look at the cost of the wet mopping pads over 50 runs.
Disposable: $7.99 for a pack of 7 (assuming it’s not on sale) which is around $1.14 per pad. You would need to spend $57 to get 50 runs out of disposable pads.
Reusable: $12.50 (assuming the 2 pack is purchased at retail price). $12.50 / 50 (number of runs) = $.25 per run. Essentially, you’re going to end up spending 4 times as much if you use the disposable pads over the reusable pads.
Now, while we didn’t factor in cost of water or electricity for the pads to be cleaned it’s important to note these figures vary greatly depending on your location and you shouldn’t be cleaning these pads individually throw them in with your towels to conserve on water and electricity.
So, Should You Buy Them?
Yes, functionally I found no difference in the cleaning, but I did end up saving quite a bit even though I bought 2 packs to save myself some time when it came to cleaning them. You’re reducing waste, you’re saving money and all you have to do is toss them into the washer with your towels to keep them clean I highly recommend purchasing the reusable pads for your Braava M6.
