Your rights in Spain when a robot breaks

When you buy a new robot from a business in Spain, the seller is responsible for any lack of conformity that existed at delivery and shows up within three years of delivery: en un plazo de tres años desde la entrega.¹ For second-hand goods, seller and buyer can agree a shorter period, but not under one year.¹

For the first two years, a fault is presumed to have existed at delivery unless the seller proves otherwise.² In the third year that presumption no longer applies.

This matters for connected robots. When the sales contract includes a continuous digital service for a set period, the seller is responsible for faults in that service during that period, and for at least three years from delivery if the period is shorter.¹

• Repair or replace, your choice. You choose between repair and replacement, unless one is impossible or disproportionately costly compared with the other.³
• Free of charge. That includes shipping, transport, labour and materials, within a reasonable time and without major inconvenience to you.³
• Money back if that fails. You can ask for a proportionate price reduction or end the contract if repair or replacement is impossible, isn’t done in a reasonable time, the fault comes back after a repair attempt, the fault is serious enough, or the seller says it won’t fix it.⁴ Ending the contract isn’t possible for a minor fault.⁵
• The clock stops during repair. The guarantee periods are suspended from the day you hand the robot over until you get it back working. For a year after that, the seller still answers for the fault that was repaired, and a defect of the same origin is presumed to be the same fault.⁶
• Paperwork. Delivery counts from the date on the invoice or receipt, or the delivery note if later. When you hand the robot in, the seller must give you a document with the date and the fault, and another when it returns the robot, describing the repair.⁷
• The producer, if the seller can’t be reached. If going to the seller is impossible or an excessive burden, you can claim directly against the producer.⁸
• Five years to act. The right to claim expires five years after the fault appears.⁹

A brand’s own (commercial) warranty is binding on the terms it states and advertises. Its written terms must say clearly that you keep your free legal remedies from the seller and that the commercial warranty doesn’t affect them.¹⁰

That is worth knowing, because several brands we scored advertise a commercial warranty shorter than the legal three years: eufy Omni C28 (12 months), Narwal Flow (Basic Dock) (1 year), Lefant M3 Max (1 year), iRobot Roomba Plus 515 Combo con Base AutoWash (2 years), SwitchBot Robot Vacuum K11+ (2 years), Ecovacs DEEBOT T90 PRO OMNI (2 years) and Ecovacs WINBOT W2S OMNI (2 years). Those terms don’t shorten your three years with the seller.

Going beyond the legal minimum is rare. None of the 20 robots we scored is covered for four years or more. Husqvarna adds six months to its mower if you register it. Mammotion LUBA mini 2 AWD 1000 and Dreame L50 Ultra AE explicitly cover the battery for the full three years.

The producer must guarantee an adequate technical service and spare parts for at least ten years from the date a product stops being made: durante el plazo mínimo de diez años.¹¹ Spare parts can’t be marked up when they’re fitted in a repair, and the parts price list must be available to the public.¹¹

Our criterion R3, “parts in practice”, checks what that looks like when you try to order: for each brand, can you still buy parts, for delivery to Spain, for its model in the same category launched at least five years ago? Of the 16 robots whose brand had a model that old, five come from brands that still sell the battery (for a corded pool robot, the power supply) and at least half of the key modules for it (Husqvarna Automower 405VE NERA, Bosch Indego S+ 500, Gardena SILENO smart sense 600 m², Maytronics Dolphin S2000 and Cecotec Conga X100) and three from brands that sell the battery or some hardware (Worx Landroid Vision Cloud 800 m², HOBOT HOBOT-2S and iRobot Roomba Plus 515 Combo con Base AutoWash). For four, only wear parts such as brushes and filters are left, and for four, nothing we could order.

This is not a legal finding. The ten years run from when a model stops being made, which brands rarely publish, and our check covers what we could order online, not what a brand’s service centre holds. But it shows the gap between what the law promises and what an owner can actually buy. How R3 works.

Directive (EU) 2024/1799 sets common EU rules to promote repair. Member states had to apply them from 31 July 2026.¹² As of 20 October 2026, EUR-Lex lists no Spanish measure transposing it.¹³ Two parts matter for robot owners:

• Repair extends your guarantee. When repair is the remedy under the legal guarantee, the seller’s liability period is to be extended once by 12 months, for sales contracts from 31 July 2026.¹² Spain hasn’t written this into its law yet; its existing rules already stop the clock during a repair and keep the seller liable for the repaired fault for a year.⁶
• The duty to repair after the guarantee covers listed products only. Manufacturers must repair goods for which EU law sets repairability requirements, listed in the directive’s Annex II: washing machines, dishwashers, fridges, displays, phones and tablets, tumble dryers and a few others.¹² Vacuum cleaners are on the list through the EU vacuum cleaner regulation, but that regulation excludes robot vacuums.¹⁴ Robotic lawn mowers, pool robots and window robots aren’t listed either.

So for the robots we cover, the stronger tools today are the Spanish rules above: three years of guarantee and ten years of parts.