Why a Cleaning Robot's Spec-Sheet Coverage Is a Lie (and How to Discount It)
Rated m²/h is a peak, measured on an empty floor. In production you get 45–75% of it. Here's how to haircut the number so your ROI math isn't fiction.
By WhichBot Team
Operations gets sold on a number: "cleans up to 2,000 m² an hour." Then the robot lands, and a year later the payback that looked so clean never showed up. The culprit is almost always the same — a fleet sized on spec-sheet coverage that production never delivers.
Why the number is a peak, not a promise
Rated m²/h is measured the way every vendor benchmark is: an open floor, no people, no furniture, full speed, full tank. Your building is none of those things. The gap between rated and real is where the robot's hour actually goes:
- Productive cleaning62%
- Edge & detail passes14%
- Docking & charging12%
- Slowing for people / obstacles12%
On a real commercial floor, roughly a third of the rated hour is spent not cleaning open area — which is exactly the third the spec sheet ignores.
The haircut, by environment
The right discount isn't one number — it tracks how "clean-friendly" your floor is. The more open and uninterrupted the space, the closer you get to spec:
Warehouses and big-box floors sit near 75%; offices and hotels near 60%; anything chopped into small rooms with thresholds near 45%.
The honest brands make this easy
The tell of a vendor worth trusting is whether they publish a measured number next to the rated one. PUDU, for instance, quotes both a rated figure and a fleet-measured real figure for the MT1 — so you can see the derate instead of guessing it. When a data sheet only gives you a single "up to" number, that's your cue to apply the full 45–55% haircut before it touches a payback model.
| What the sheet says | What to plan for |
|---|---|
| "Up to 2,000 m²/h" | ~900–1,100 m²/h effective |
| Rated 1,600 m²/h (with a measured figure) | Use the measured figure |
| Runtime "up to 4 h" | Plan for one mid-shift charge |
The takeaway
Size the fleet on real coverage and the payback in every one of our case studies holds. Size it on the spec sheet and you'll under-buy, miss your cleaning window, and quietly keep the manual labour you bought the robot to remove.
- The Fleet & ROI Planner bakes a realistic derate in, so your payback math starts honest.
- Or tell us about your site for a vendor-neutral shortlist sized on real numbers.
Frequently asked questions
- Why is a cleaning robot's real coverage lower than the spec sheet?
- Spec-sheet m²/h is a peak measured on an open, empty floor at full speed. Real sites add docking, charging, edge and detail work, and slowing for people and obstacles — so effective coverage lands at roughly 45–75% of the rated figure.
- How much should I discount rated cleaning-robot throughput?
- Discount rated coverage by 25–40% for a normal commercial floor, and by about 55% for bold 'up to' theoretical maxima. Open hard floor sits near the top of the range; small rooms and clutter sit near the bottom.
- Which brands publish honest throughput numbers?
- PUDU publishes both a rated figure and a fleet-measured real figure for models like the MT1, which makes the derate transparent. For brands that only quote a peak, apply the 45–75% haircut yourself before trusting any payback math.
- Does spec-sheet coverage affect payback?
- Directly. Payback is upfront cost divided by labour displaced, and labour displaced scales with real coverage. Size a fleet on peak numbers and you under-buy, miss the window, and keep paying for manual top-up cleaning — which erases the saving.
Put these numbers to work
See which robot fits your facility and what it would save you.
Run the Fleet & ROI Planner