Worth buying a window-cleaning robot for a two-storey house, or am I wasting money?

[madeleineus]

Hi all, first post here so go easy on me.

We've just moved into a two-storey semi in the Midlands, and the upstairs windows are a real pain to clean. I'm not tall enough to safely do them from a ladder on my own, and paying a professional every few months adds up quickly. I've been eyeing up window-cleaning robots for a while, but I'm not sure if they're genuinely good or just another gadget that ends up in the loft after two uses.

For context, my windows are standard double-glazed uPVC frames, roughly 1.2m x 1.2m panels. I've read mixed reviews — some people swear by them, others say they get stuck on window edges or leave streaks unless the glass is spotless first. A few neighbours have tried cheaper units and mostly complained about the robot not gripping properly on dirty glass and about tangled cables.

I recently got my hands on a stonebotclean unit (the X11 Pro model, though I believe they do a few variants) and after a couple of test runs I'm pleasantly surprised — it coped reasonably well with reasonably grubby glass and the edge detection seems decent, though it's clearly not a substitute for a proper wipe on very stubborn marks like bird droppings. I'm still early days with it though.

For anyone who actually uses one of these long-term:

1. How do you find the maintenance? Any issues with the pads or the pump over months of use?
2. Is it normal that I still need to spot-clean the corners by hand?
3. And honestly — does it save you real time, or do you still end up doing the big windows manually?

I'd really value some real-world opinions before I decide whether to keep this or send it back and just stick with the ladder. Cheers.