Why are HEPA bags not reusable?

Our co-founder Mehul is a father of three kids and two of them had asthma when they were young. In our research we realized that most families with young kids and pets rarely have time to, or remember to, change vacuum filters or wash them. When these filters get clogged, they just spew dirt and pet hair back into the air and kids just breathe it. Hence, building a HEPA filter into the bag where with each new bag, a new fresh filter that traps allergens, microbes, hair, and dust was an important benefit to many parents with young kiddos.

1. Even those with dust and hair allergies, emptying dust bins and having dirty blow back at you isn't really a healthy thing.

2. Instead, our bags get sealed as you remove it from the Robot and don't require you to clean after cleaning it.

Our HEPA bags collect both dry and wet waste - even dirt and dirty water go into the same bag. This is because the dirty water tank on a mopping robot gets moldy, smelly, and requires lots of maintenance. Dirty water is trash, and it's easier to throw trash away. We include salt that turns water into gel and antimicrobial powder that kills bacteria right into the bag itself.

Our onboard bag is 1L in size — in a home with 3 kids and pets, it easily lasted a week. On average customers use 2 bags/month, but for many it lasts significantly more. And, the robot tells you when the bag is full, you do not need to keep checking it or remember how many uses you've had.

1. Typical robot vacuum bins are 250ml-400ml, so our bags are at least 2.5 to 4x larger.

2. Those robot vacuums with self-cleaning bins have bags that are 2.5L to 3L, but they also cost 3x, so we provide more value to customers at the same cost.

Even then, we are working on "vacuum-only" bags for pet owners that would be significantly cheaper. This is because we realized that for users with very furry pets, they needed a cheaper solution.

And, our goal is to further reduce the cost of even the main bag as we scale and improve design. We're a relatively tiny team of 70 people who have spent 8 years building a robot that we believe does all the right things for customers.