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Now you can play Candy Crush Saga AND do a spot of vacuuming from your smartphone – thanks to Botvac

 

You’ve got to love the robotic vacuum cleaner. No trailing wires; nor heavy bags to dump; not to mention their portability. Soon, they’ll reach a price that is suitable enough for most users. Neato is one company which has made robotic vacuums worthy of their premium price tag. Their latest model, the Botvac Connected, does everything your typical robotic vacuum cleaner does – and more besides.

 

As well as the usual sensing technology, the Botvac Connected has WiFi capabilities. After linking it up with your WiFi box (in the same way you can access the internet on your PC or smartphone), you can control Botvac through an iPhone or Android smartphone. The ‘phone app has details of your cleaner’s battery life and cleaning status.  You can move the vacuum cleaner to a given spot with your smartphone, like a radio-controlled car.  Or you can let it clean its merry way for an hour.

 

Better still, if you’re away from home and able to find a suitable WiFi hotspot, you can switch your Botvac Connected cleaner on several miles from home. After returning home, your carpet is cleaned. If you wanted to, you can put your feet up and play Candy Crush Saga (other smartphone games are available) whilst Botvac does the rest. This time-lapsed video clip shows you how.

 

What’s in the box: features of the Botvac Connected Robot Vacuum

 

  • Ultra performance filter;
  • Spiral blade, combo, and side brushes;
  • Charging base;
  • Power cord;
  • Boundary markers;
  • Brush and filter cleaning tool;
  • OLED display on vacuum cleaner;
  • iOS and Android compatible smartphone app.

 

Price:

 

The Recommended Retail Price for the Botvac Connected Robot Vacuum is £599.  Online, the lowest price we have seen is £499 (from Thurgo, Exeter).  The most common price is £549, as charged at Maplin and The Wright Buy.

How a Blue Peter approach is used in decommissioning the Dounreay nuclear power station

Blu-Tack Blob
Holy Atomic Blu-Tack, Batman… The versatility of Blu-Tack and its imitators never ceases to amaze us at Clean Hire. Image by Lucie Lang (via Shutterstock).

Blu-Tack is great for a number of uses. Apart from sticking posters on to walls and mounting keys, it is good for picking up fragments of dust. It is also good for picking up drawing pins and loose staples, though awful on carpets. Over at the Dounreay power plant, Caithness, in the Scottish Highlands, scientists have found a novel way of picking up nuclear waste. Their methods are more Blue Peter than Star Trek. Continue reading “Blu-Tack’s Role in Nuclear Plant Decommissioning”

Sir James Dyson aims to muscle in on electric car revolution

Not the Dyson car (though you get the idea).
If successful, the Dyson battery-powered car could be as much a feature of our streets as the Ford Fiesta. This, obviously, is not the prototype. Image by Zdenek Rosenthaler (via Shutterstock).

Imagine its 2030. The new names in motoring could either be Tesla or any present-day market leader that has dared to go for electric cars. If James Dyson succeeds, his electric cars could also be seen on the M62 motorway. (Your Uber cab could become your Hoover cab). Continue reading “Would You Buy a Dyson Electric Car?”

A look at Hoover’s best-selling vacuum cleaner

Your parents might have had one in the pantry. There’s half a chance your grandparents – or even your great-grandparents had this model of vacuum cleaner. For the second model in our series of iconic vacuum cleaners, we look at the Hoover Junior. Continue reading “Iconic Vacuum Cleaners: The Hoover Junior”

Toasty toes and clean floors are possible with Evri’s floor cleaning slippers

Pink Slippers: imagine these as floor cleaning slippers?
Could you imagine seeing these with a brush below the soles? Image by Maya Kruchankova (via Shutterstock).

In October 2015, we looked at the engineering marvel that was a pair of vacuum slippers by Alexander Yurkin, Victor Oshlykov, and Timothy and Alexander Smagin Krivenkov. In this blog post, we wondered if floor cleaning slippers were around the corner. Quoting from our 13 October 2015 entry:

Could industrial vacuum slippers be considered?

If popular enough to grace the shelves of Argos stores from Penzance to Wick, an industrial version could be likely. These could use safety shoes instead of slippers and become a boon in tight corners, and designed for small offices. There could be scope for a wet and dry version for the home market known as the Moppasin.

Over six months on, we are halfway towards the development of anything like the (as-yet-uninvented) Moppasin. This in the form of a pair of floor cleaning slippers, which aren’t far off the mark. Better still, they are available now from Amazon.co.uk and other fine online retailers. Continue reading “Floor Cleaning Slippers: A Brush With Cosiness”

A feast of vacuum cleaner video clips

Vacuum Cleaner Video Clips image.
Spring cleaning? Our selection of vacuum cleaner video clips should provide some inspiration. Image by Voyagerix/Shutterstock.

You’ve got to love YouTube. It is a dependable source for cat videos, 1980s music clips, and tracking down obscure sitcoms of questionable quality. On the odd occasions when Clean Hire has too much time on their hands, it’s a chance to look at full-frontal images of vacuum cleaners (You’re fired! – Ed). Before you is a selection of vacuum cleaner video clips. Some of which include images of Hoover Juniors and Henrys in full flow. In some cases, images of vacuum cleaners have been disguised to protect innocent parties, leaving you to enjoy their roar, whine, and growl. Continue reading “Vacuum Cleaner Video Clips”

Clean Hire looks at Two Bettys, the Minneapolis creatives’ cleaning company

Minneapolis, the home of Two Bettys, the creatives' cleaning company.
Minneapolis: birthplace of the late great Prince Rogers Nelson, and the home of Two Bettys, the ethically aware creatives’ cleaning company. Image by Rudy Balasko/Shutterstock.

Cleaning is seen as a low-level job on these shores. It is characterised by its low hours, low wages and (allegedly) low skill levels. It is seen as a dead-end National Minimum Wage job with few prospects. Without cleaners, mice will be seen in our kitchens, and alleyways could be rat-infested without refuse operatives. On the other hand, it could be used as part of a stable income for pursuing other projects. A group of artists did just that in Minneapolis, where Two Bettys have wowed customers and helped the state’s creatives. The creatives’ cleaning company has gone from strength to strength in the last year. Continue reading “Meet the Creatives’ Cleaning Company”

A look at Numatic’s iconic Henry vacuum cleaner

Numatic International's iconic Henry vacuum cleaner.
Iconic: Numatic International’s Henry vacuum cleaner.

It is often said that Britain has no manufacturing industry to speak of. Most of our cars are in foreign hands though some of them are produced on our own shores. The railways, Association Football, and cricket, have been exported far and wide and improved upon outside our island. If you say our manufacturing output sucks, this could be true of Numatic’s products in another sense. In this case, we refer to Henry, the first of a series of iconic vacuum cleaners manufactured and created by Numatic. Continue reading “Iconic Vacuum Cleaners: the Henry HVR200”

Cleaning show’s Mancunian move pays off

EventCity, Trafford Park: the Manchester Cleaning Show venue.
EventCity, Trafford Park: the Manchester Cleaning Show venue. Image by Rept0n1x, 2013 (Creative Commons License – Attribution-Share Alike).

BCCE Ltd, a company jointly owned by Quartz Business Media and the British Cleaning Council, have had a brush with success at the Manchester Cleaning Show. The company, which organises similar events in London every two years, were most impressed with their Manchester début yesterday. Their favoured venue, close to MediaCityUK, made for excellent press coverage in the national media. Continue reading “Cleaning Show’s Brush With Success”

Introducing Tennant’s battery powered sweeper-scrubber

Energy Efficient: the battery powered Tennant M17 sweeper-scrubber. Image courtesy of Tennant/BusinessWire.
Energy Efficient: the battery-powered Tennant M17 sweeper-scrubber. Image courtesy of Tennant/BusinessWire.

With the power of standard petrol-driven ride-on sweeper-scrubbers, Tennant’s latest addition to the fold is the revolutionary M17. Their latest sweeper-scrubber is a battery powered one with greater energy efficiency than its predecessors. As a fume-free model, the Tennant M17 is a boon for large indoor spaces, which ensures clean air in the workplace and public buildings.

The Tennant M17 comes with a number of features that improve upon its predecessors. This include:

  • The Pro-PanelTM touch screen interface;
  • ec-H2OTM Technology with Severe EnvironmentTM switch: energy efficient detergent-free cleaning;
  • DFSTM (Dual Force Sweeping) technology: dual counter-rotating brushes, designed to capture large and small debris in a single pass.

The Pro-Panel screen is more intelligent than your usual display. Instead of a multitude of controls, everything is on an easy-to-use control panel. There are programmable Zone Settings which enable you to clean efficiently. With the Pro-ID setting, you can program the M17 to the skill levels of each operative (like permitting access rights to certain programs). There is also 28 different language options.

If you wish to clean efficiently, Tennant M17’s bristle power makes that possible, thanks to ec-H2OTM Technology, with its Severe Environment switch. The battery powered M17, whilst in this mode, can clean any floor with a single pass – without detergent. With ec-H2OTM technology, a single tank of water can last three times as long as sweeper-scrubbers.

As well as the digital wizardry, the battery powered sweeper-scrubber’s piece de resistance is its Dual Force Sweeping technology. Its dual counter-rotating brushes can pick up the largest and smallest of particles with ease.

The Tennant M17 is ideal for indoor and outdoor use. It is designed for cleaning:

  • Car parks, garages, and forecourts;
  • Warehouses, factories, aircraft hangers and exhibition halls;
  • Bus, coach and railway stations.

Contact us and as soon as Clean Hire offer the Tennant M17 battery powered sweeper-scrubbers, you’ll be the first to know on our website under the industrial cleaning machines section.