Report by Jonathan Townsend
There’s a particular moment — usually late afternoon, when the Sydney sun hits at just the wrong angle — when you realise exactly how long it’s been since your windows were cleaned. I’ve spent years reviewing robot vacuums and mops, but windows remained the one chore technology hadn’t cracked for me. Then the ECOVACS WINBOT W3 OMNI arrived, suction-cupped itself to my glass like a small, determined limpet, and quietly got on with the job.
Unveiled at CES 2026 in Las Vegas and launched in Australia this month, the WINBOT W3 OMNI is ECOVACS’ flagship window-cleaning robot, and the first to pair the robot with a genuinely clever multi-function station. ECOVACS has pitched it squarely at the modern Australian home, where large glass doors connect indoor living with outdoor entertaining spaces — and after testing it, I can see why. Here’s how it fared on my windows.
Setting up: simpler than it looks
The W3 OMNI comes with a base station that does far more than charge the robot. Pull out one drawer and fill it with clean water — it plops straight back in. The drawer beside it collects the dirty water once the robot has done its job. Then you squirt a little of the ECOVACS WINBOT cleaning solution into the top of the robot itself. You don’t need a great deal, and a bottle lasts a long time.
The masterstroke is the station’s Vortex Wash system — essentially a miniature washing machine for the cleaning pad. Open the side door, pop the pad in, close it and press start. Sixteen high-pressure nozzles and spinning brushes wash the pad thoroughly in one minute flat, leaving it damp and ready to clip back onto the robot. No hand-wringing dirty pads at the sink — for me, this is the feature that separates the W3 OMNI from every window robot that came before it.
On the glass
Place the robot on the window, switch it on, and its powerful fan suctions it firmly to the glass. It tells you when it’s securely attached, so you can confidently let go — and off it goes. Guided by ECOVACS’ WIN-SLAM 5.0 navigation, it methodically covers the whole surface, works right into the corners with its TruEdge scrubber, and then returns to the exact spot where you placed it. On a large window, that’s a genuine relief — no chasing it to the far corner. It stays suctioned to the glass until you take the handle and switch it off, so it knows you’re in control before it lets go.
There are multiple cleaning modes: a thorough clean, an edge clean, and a fast clean. For inside windows, the fast clean is absolutely fine; for outdoor glass, you’ll want the thorough setting. A window roughly 1.8 metres high by 80 centimetres wide took around four to five minutes — hardly a lengthy process, and it’s genuinely fun to watch it work.
The battery delivers up to 130 minutes of cleaning — more than two hours — or you can plug the station into the mains. The combined power-and-safety cable extends generously, so tall windows are no problem. And this is the best part: you can walk away, get on with something else, and come back to move it to the next pane.
The honest bits
A little patience is required the first time you use it. The voice instructions are clear, but once the robot’s fan is running, they can be hard to hear — a minor niggle. There’s also a companion app for finer control, such as targeting corners, though the robot is so self-sufficient I’ve barely needed it.
And it’s worth being honest about who this is for: the W3 OMNI shines on large expanses of glass. If your home has only small windows, it’s more machine than you need. But with big windows — it will happily handle glass well over two metres tall and several metres wide — it comes into its own.
The verdict on ECOVACS WINBOT W3 OMNI
The ECOVACS WINBOT W3 OMNI cleans my windows as well as any professional window cleaner — and I never had to climb a ladder or wring out a filthy cloth. At $1,299, it’s an investment rather than an impulse buy, but for homes with large or hard-to-reach glass, it’s the most complete window-cleaning system I’ve tested. Weigh it against the cost of a professional window cleaner a few times a year, and the maths starts to look very reasonable.
At a glance
- Battery: Up to 130 minutes cordless, or mains-powered via the station
- Station: Vortex Wash pad cleaning (16 high-pressure nozzles, one-minute cycle), clean and dirty water tanks, automatic cable management
- Navigation: WIN-SLAM 5.0 with 1 mm obstacle avoidance
- Edge cleaning: TruEdge scrubber, spinning at up to 200 RPM into corners
- Spray: Three-nozzle wide-angle spray technology
- Safety: 12-stage protection system, including 10,000 Pa suction and a 100 kg-rated safety cable
- Connectivity: ECOVACS HOME app via Wi-Fi/Bluetooth
- Price and availability: $1,299 AUD / $1,499 NZD, available online and through major retailers
