Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni – a window cleaning robot that does its own laundry

In the Netherlands we famously don’t close our curtains. Big windows, everything on display. Nice for the neighbors, less nice when the low winter sun hits the glass and shows every streak, fingerprint and souvenir from the local seagulls.

The Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni is a window cleaning robot. You stick it on the glass, it clings on with suction, sprays, scrubs its way down the pane, and then goes back to a station that washes its dirty cleaning pads for you.

So the robot cleans the window and the station cleans the robot. I just watch.

What is the Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni?

Ecovacs is the Chinese company behind the Deebot robot vacuums, and it has been making Winbot window robots for years. The W3 Omni is the newest one at the top of the range. The big change is the station.

Older Omni models already had a station that stored the robot, its cable and its power supply. The W3’s station looks like a tiny front-loading washing machine. Ecovacs calls the feature Vortex Wash: 16 high-pressure nozzles and four spinning scrubbers clean the wiping pad in about a minute, then a scraper squeezes out the dirty water. Ecovacs says it’s the first window robot that washes its own pads. The station can also clean itself afterwards.

How does a window cleaning robot work?

You put the robot on the glass and press start. A fan creates enough suction (Ecovacs quotes 10,000 Pa) to hold it in place while it drives across the glass. Three nozzles spray cleaning fluid ahead of the pad, and Ecovacs’ WIN-SLAM 5.0 navigation plans the route. Near the frame, a separate edge scrubber called TruEdge drops down and spins at 200 RPM to get into the corners.

It runs plugged in or on battery (up to 130 minutes, says Ecovacs). The thing everyone asks: what if it falls? On paper there are a lot of answers. One cable carries both power and a safety rope rated for 100 kg. The 10 kg station grips the floor with its own suction foot. And if power runs low, the robot should stay stuck to the glass for more than 30 minutes. You get eight cleaning modes in the app, from a fast touch-up to Heavy-Duty.

The good and the not-so-good

Scott Hunt at CyberShack used it on windows, sliding doors, mirrors, balcony glass and a shower screen, and gave it 4.5 out of 5.

The good:

• He found it cleaned better than he did by hand, with almost no missed spots along edges and corners.
• He trusted the safety setup after a few runs. Once stuck on, it was very hard to pull off.
• The pad washing means you never touch a dirty, wet pad.

The not-so-good:

• It left a faint outline of the pad where it finished, which he had to wipe off by hand.
• It sometimes thought it was stuck on certain window designs, and once got hung up on a roller blind.
• On soapy shower glass it slid on the first pass. Very dirty glass needs Heavy-Duty mode or a second run.
• It’s about as loud as a vacuum on high, and you shouldn’t leave it alone while it works.
• When Reviewed tested the older Winbot W2 Omni, gaps between panes made it lose grip. Window robots like big, smooth, single panes.

Who is the Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni for?

Homes with a lot of big glass: floor-to-ceiling windows, sliding doors, conservatories, or high windows you can’t safely reach. If you have a few normal windows with small panes, skip it. A squeegee and ten minutes are cheaper, and Ecovacs sells simpler Winbots without the washing station.

If you like your chores done by robots, the Roborock Saros Z70 does the same thing for your floor, and the Tineco PURE ONE Station is a stick vacuum that cleans itself.

Where can I buy the Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni?

Ecovacs sells the Winbot W3 Omni on Amazon US. It was about 550 bucks at the time of writing (October 2026).

Clean windows without the ladder. Take my money.