Cleaning robots: sizing your fleet for 3,000 m²

Three figures, not a catalogue

To know how many robots you need, and which ones, three figures are enough: the robot's hourly output, its battery life on the function you will really use, and the width of the narrowest passage it has to get through. The rest, screen, design, number of sensors, matters for comfort of use, not for sizing.

First question: scrub, or only sweep?

A dry robot that sweeps, vacuums and dust-mops covers far more area per charge than a robot that scrubs. On a Kleenbot C40, for instance, the manufacturer's battery life goes from twelve hours sweeping to five hours scrubbing, and the area treated per charge from 3,000 m² vacuuming to 2,500 m² scrubbing. If your floors need daily scrubbing, size on scrubbing mode. If weekly scrubbing is enough, size on dry mode and schedule the scrubbing on a long slot.

The calculation for 3,000 m²

Take a 3,000 m² office floor, cleaned at night on a six-hour slot, 1.20 m corridors, 80 cm doors.

With a Kleenbot C30, a dry robot at 600 m²/h: 3,000 m² require five hours of effective work. With six hours of battery life in sweeping and vacuuming, one robot is enough, provided you accept that it does not scrub. It is compact (61 cm) and gets through every door.

With a Kleenbot C40, four functions at up to 1,100 m²/h: under three hours in dry mode, one robot is more than enough. In scrubbing mode, the area per charge drops to 2,500 m²: either a stop at the station during the night to recharge and refill water, which the robot does on its own, or a second robot if the slot is short. Its 65 cm minimum passage is compatible with 80 cm doors.

With a Kleenbot C55, sweeping and scrubbing in one pass at a theoretical 2,376 m²/h: 3,000 m² in a little over an hour, but it is a 150 kg, 86 cm wide machine designed for halls, car parks and shopping centres. On a partitioned office floor it will not get everywhere and its real output will fall. The C55 makes sense from large open areas upwards, not at 3,000 m² of offices.

Field corrections

Manufacturer outputs are measured in a straight line on clear floors. Allow a 30 to 40% margin for U-turns, obstacles, areas to go around and trips to the station. Also check the maximum slope while cleaning, often only two degrees, and the threshold height, usually fifteen millimetres. A door threshold that is too high or a slightly steep ramp cuts your building into two zones and changes the number of robots.

What Agilitia does before recommending a model

We measure your areas and passages, spot thresholds and slopes, and run the shortlisted robot on your premises, on your floors, before any decision. The sizing comes from that demonstration, not from the data sheet.