The short version
Both of these are compact 4-in-1 commercial floor cleaners — scrub, sweep, vacuum, dust mop — aimed at the same buyer: a facility with too much floor for a mop and not enough for a ride-on scrubber. Everything we checked on 2026-08-26:
- Bare robot, they’re close. CC1 lands at $22,000–$22,500; Phantas at $23,800. About $1,300 apart on a $23,000 purchase — close enough that price should not decide this.
- The dock is where they diverge, and it’s a transparency gap, not a price gap. Pudu publishes à-la-carte accessory prices you can add up: $1,244 for the no-plumbing Mobile Water Station, $2,899 for the Self-Cleaning Docking Station. Gausium’s WS-03-S workstation has no published price on any channel we could load. You can only infer roughly $5,800 by subtracting one seller’s number from another’s.
- The coverage figures are not comparable and the comparison flatters Pudu. Gausium publishes a theoretical column (1,188 / 1,674 m²/h) and a practical one (350–700 m²/h). Pudu publishes a single 700–1,000 m²/h band with no such split. Lay those side by side naively and the more honest manufacturer looks worse.
- One reseller sells a dock-inclusive Phantas for $6,101 less than its own parent site charges for the robot alone. RobotLAB’s store lists Phantas from $29,600; its sister storefront Robot Depot lists Phantas plus docking station at $23,499 — with a 3-month warranty instead of the free 12 you get elsewhere. It’s sold out. Ask anyway.
- The support gap is bigger than the price gap. Pudu opened a US headquarters in Richardson, Texas in April 2026 and has named US distributors. Gausium’s own contact page lists Shanghai, Hong Kong and the Netherlands — no US office, no US entity, and an Americas WhatsApp number with a Mexican country code.
If you only remember one thing: get the workstation quoted in writing before you compare anything, because on one of these platforms it’s the single largest unpriced line item.
What each robot actually costs today
Every figure below is from a page we loaded on 2026-08-26. Sellers who blocked automated checks (RobotShop, Robots International) are omitted rather than guessed at.
| Pudu CC1 | Gausium Phantas 1.3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest live robot-only price | $22,000 (Homery) | $23,800 (Hero Robots, in stock) |
| Second source | $22,500 (Robotvacuums.com, incl. install + 2yr) | — |
| With-workstation listing | not offered as a bundle | $29,600 (RobotLAB) |
| Bundle outlier | — | $23,499 incl. dock (Robot Depot, sold out, 3-mo warranty) |
| Step-up model | CC1 Pro, $24,000 at three sellers | — |
| RaaS / month | “Request a quote” (RobotLAB) | $829/mo, 36 months |
| Manufacturer’s own price | none published | none published |
Two notes on that table.
The CC1 Pro is a real second product, not a trim label. It’s a separate SKU (Homery 10110000039) at $24,000 from three independent sellers — unusually consistent pricing for this market — and RobotLAB describes what the $2,000 buys: proactive stain detection, self-monitoring against secondary contamination, and automatic dust-tank disposal. If auto dust disposal matters to you, that’s the cleanest apples-to-apples upgrade number in this entire comparison.
Our previous cheapest CC1 price is gone. On 2026-08-05 we recorded NVC Robotics at $19,900. As of today every URL on nvcrobotics.com returns 404, including the site root. We verified that independently. Anyone still quoting you $19,900 is citing a dead store.
The workstation: the actual decision
This is the part buyers underestimate, so start with vocabulary, because both vendors are sloppy with it and the words are not interchangeable.
A “charging pile” or “charging dock” charges. A “docking station” or “workstation” handles water. Pudu’s own documentation says it outright — “CC1 Docking Station Product Introduction (optional, also known as the Workstation)” — while Gausium sells the two as separate products with separate spec sheets. Comparing a “$1,000 dock” to a “$2,899 dock” is comparing unlike things.
Pudu: three products, two of them priced
| Product | What it does | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Charging Pile | Charging only | not published |
| Mobile Water Station | Charging, water supply and drainage, detergent addition — no plumbing required. Trolley case, 30 L clean + 30 L waste | $1,244 |
| Self-Cleaning Docking Station | Charging plus automatic rinsing of brushes and cleaning modules, running wash cycles during idle time | $2,899 |
| Docking Station (plumbed) | Auto fill, drain, charge, and “automatic injection of cleaning agent”; needs 0.1–0.6 MPa supply and a sewage outlet under 0.5 m | not published |
The Mobile Water Station is the genuinely differentiated product here and it’s the cheap one. It does detergent dosing and full water handling without touching your plumbing — which, in an older building with no floor drain anywhere near where the robot wants to live, is the difference between a deployment and a construction project.
One honest caveat: both Pudu stations show “Unavailable” at Automation Hub, the only US seller publishing their prices. The prices are real and quotable; the stock is not. Mobotics USA lists the same parts with no prices at all.
Gausium: two products, neither priced
The CD-04 dock charges, full stop — its spec page lists no other function. The WS-03-S workstation does the real work: auto charging, water refill, sewage discharge, suction-pipe rinse and squeegee rinse. On capability, it’s the most complete station in this comparison.
On price, Gausium publishes nothing, and neither does anyone else. Hero Robots’ configurator literally offers “Add: Workstation (Charging+Water Supply/Disposal)” with no price next to it. RobotLAB folds it into $29,600 without itemising. We recorded the CD-04 at about $1,000 back in July, but that came from roboticfloorcleaner.com — whose DNS no longer resolves. We’re not repeating a price whose only source has gone off the internet.
So the delta is computable on one platform and not the other:
- CC1: $22,000 bare → +$1,244 (no-plumbing) or +$2,899 (self-cleaning) → $23,244 to $24,899. Add it up yourself.
- Phantas: $23,800 bare → workstation quote only. Subtracting RobotLAB’s $29,600 from Hero Robots’ $23,800 implies roughly $5,800, but that’s an inference across two different vendors, not a price anyone quoted.
Before you budget the Gausium workstation, read its installation spec, because it is a building requirement rather than a delivery: 23 kg, 100–240 VAC at about 8.1 A, water pressure 0.15–0.6 MPa — meaning both a water source and a floor drain — ground- or wall-fixed, and 2.0 metres (6.6 ft) of clear space in front of it. That last one has killed more deployments than any spec on the robot itself.
The coverage numbers are not the same kind of number
Read this before you build a productivity model.
| Theoretical | Practical | |
|---|---|---|
| Phantas — scrub / dust mop | 1,188 m²/h (12,788 ft²/h) | 350–700 m²/h |
| Phantas — vacuum / sweep | 1,674 m²/h (18,019 ft²/h) | 350–700 m²/h |
| Pudu CC1 — all modes | (not distinguished) | 700–1,000 m²/h published as one band |
Gausium’s own spec table has two columns, and its practical figure runs as low as 29% of its theoretical one for vacuuming. A manufacturer publishing a derate that severe against itself is rare enough to be worth crediting.
Pudu publishes 700–1,000 m²/h without saying which kind of number it is. It may well be a realistic working figure — we have no basis to say it isn’t, and we found no independent instrumented throughput test for either machine. But it is not a like-for-like comparison against Gausium’s 350–700, and treating it as one hands Pudu a 2:1 advantage that the documents don’t support.
There’s a tell worth noting: on RobotLAB’s own CC1 Pro comparison table, the “Sq Ft Per Hour” cell reads “Contact for details” — while competing machines in the same table are given numbers.
What it costs to run
Pudu publishes the better maintenance documentation, and it isn’t close. The CC1 Operation Guide gives an explicit wear-tiered replacement schedule:
| Part | Interval |
|---|---|
| Squeegee rubber blades | 1 month (high wear) / 2 months (medium) / 3 months (low) |
| Dust mop rake rubber | 1 month / 2 months / 3 months, same tiers |
| Side brush | when bristles no longer unfold properly |
| Roller brushes | when bristle height reaches the indicator line |
| Dust box filter | when suction drops after cleaning |
It also specifies the chemistry: non-foaming neutral detergent, pH 6–8 only. Strong acids, strong alkalis, and detergents containing active agents are prohibited. Defoamers are allowed. Gausium publishes no equivalent schedule and no detergent spec we could find.
The thing the self-cleaning dock does not fix: Pudu’s cleaning cadence still calls for the trash box, filter sponge, dust box and brushes to be serviced every two days or several times daily, the dirty-water tank daily or every other day, and the suction pipe weekly. The dock automates squeegee and brush rinsing. It does not automate the daily human touch, and no vendor page says otherwise clearly enough.
Nobody publishes a spare-part price. Not Pudu, not Gausium, not Mobotics USA, not the Pudu store. Part names are public; prices are quote-only across the board. Budget them as an unknown and get them itemised in your quote — at a one-month squeegee interval in a high-wear site, that’s twelve sets a year on a part whose price you cannot look up.
Warranty and service
| Pudu CC1 | Gausium Phantas | |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturer’s published warranty length | none stated anywhere | none stated anywhere |
| What resellers offer | 1 yr mfr + 1 yr reseller (Robotvacuums.com) | 1 yr free (Hero Robots), 3/5 yr extensions sold |
| Bundle trap | — | Robot Depot bundle: 3 months only |
| Manufacturer service plan | PUDU Care, two tiers, US/Canada only | none published |
| Plan pricing | no dollar figure published | n/a |
Neither manufacturer publishes a warranty duration on its own website. We re-checked Pudu’s support page and PUDU Care page and Gausium’s FAQ today. Every warranty number in this market comes from a reseller, which means it is a reseller promise, not a manufacturer one — and it changes when you change sellers. That’s the single most important line in this section.
Pudu at least publishes plan substance: PUDU Care Standard covers four preventive maintenance visits a year plus unlimited on-site repair with a 2-hour service response; Basic covers two on-site maintenance visits. There is no price on the page. Gausium’s FAQ, by contrast, redirects warranty questions — and requests for the user manual — to “your service contractor” and “your local dealer.”
On RobotLAB’s multi-brand service plans: the widely-repeated “$199/mo” figure appears in that
page’s <title> tag and not in the visible page, which lists four tiers (Basic, Silver, Gold,
Platinum) with no prices at all. We checked this twice today because we’d previously recorded it
both ways. The visible page has no prices.
Which one fits your building
Price won’t decide this. Geometry will.
| Pudu CC1 | Gausium Phantas | |
|---|---|---|
| Footprint | 629 × 552 × 695 mm, 75 kg | 585 × 445 × 619 mm, 65 kg |
| Minimum passage | over 700 mm; 750 mm+ for corridors | 650 mm |
| Threshold | 8 mm while cleaning; 20 mm passage only | detects obstacles from 20 mm |
| Max slope | 8° transit, 3° while cleaning | 5° |
| Water | 15 L + 15 L | 11.5 L + 10.5 L, plus 6 L dust bag |
| Runtime | 5 h scrub / 9 h silent mop, <3 h charge | 4.5 h scrub / 10 h dust mop, ~2 h charge |
| Noise | under 70 dB(A) | 60 dB or less in quiet mode |
| Elevators | optional paid IoT/elevator module | bespoke integration, extra cost |
Choose Phantas for tight, quiet, occupied buildings. A 445 mm body through a 650 mm gap goes places the CC1 physically cannot, and 60 dB is the difference between cleaning around people and cleaning after them. Older corridors, restrooms, between-desk runs, libraries, clinics.
Choose CC1 for larger open floors. 15 L + 15 L against 11.5 L + 10.5 L means meaningfully fewer dock cycles per shift, and the tank advantage compounds exactly where the floor is big enough to matter.
Watch the slope limit. The CC1’s “cleaning not supported above 3°” is stricter than it sounds — ramps, garage aprons and drainage falls are out. Check your building’s actual grades before signing.
Neither does elevators out of the box. Both are paid integrations; Pudu’s reads productised (a named module), Gausium’s reads bespoke. Multi-floor marketing language does not mean included capability on either platform.
The labour comparison, with an honest caveat
Facility-management ROI pitches all run through one number: what an hour of cleaning labour costs. The federal figure is BLS’s Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners (SOC 37-2011), May 2025 release:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Employment | ~2,209,760 |
| Mean hourly | $18.64 |
| Mean annual | $38,760 |
| Median hourly | $17.71 |
| Median annual | $36,840 |
Read this caveat before you use those numbers. bls.gov returned HTTP 403 to every
automated request we made today — five different paths, plus the DOL-sponsored CareerOneStop
mirror. These figures come from BLS’s indexed data rather than a page we loaded ourselves, and they
are the only numbers in this article we could not fetch directly. They’re internally consistent
($18.64 × 2,080 = $38,771) and we’re citing the canonical URL, but confirm them in a browser
before putting them in a budget. Everything else on this page, we loaded.
Two structural warnings that apply regardless: BLS computes annual wages by assuming a 2,080-hour year, so the annual figure is arithmetic rather than an observed salary — and a robot does not replace a cleaner. It replaces the floor-care portion of a cleaner’s shift, which is a fraction of what that person does. Model it against your own loaded hourly rate and the hours actually spent on floors, not against a headline salary.
Two things that would make us pause
Resellers in this category are disappearing faster than prices change. In the 21 days since our last check, one cited seller went entirely 404 (NVC Robotics) and another’s DNS stopped resolving (roboticfloorcleaner.com). Both Pudu station accessories show Unavailable. The one dock-inclusive Phantas bundle is sold out. Treat every number here as the opening of a negotiation, not a shelf price.
There is no independent reliability record for either machine. No instrumented throughput test, no meaningful user-review corpus, no recalls or safety notices that we could find — which is an absence of evidence, not evidence of absence. You are buying on documentation quality, and on that axis Pudu is measurably ahead: published wear intervals, a published detergent spec, published passage and slope limits, a named US headquarters. Gausium publishes a better spec sheet and a more honest efficiency figure, and almost nothing else.
Our read
At roughly equal bare cost, buy the one whose total you can actually calculate. Today that’s the CC1: $22,000 plus a $1,244 or $2,899 station, from published prices, backed by a US office in Richardson, Texas and documentation that tells you when the squeegee wears out.
Buy the Phantas when the building demands it — 650 mm doorways, 60 dB requirements, occupied daytime cleaning. It is the better-designed robot for tight quiet spaces and the more honest spec sheet in the category. Just go in knowing that the workstation is quote-only, the warranty comes from your reseller rather than from Gausium, and there is no US corporate office behind either.
And on both: get the dock, the consumables, the service plan and the warranty in one written quote. Four of those five have no published price anywhere. That is the real cost of a commercial cleaning robot in 2026 — not the sticker, but everything the sticker doesn’t say.