Skylight robot insurance needs three covers, not one: the machine itself, third-party damage to glass or property, and water damage from a failed run. General equipment policies usually miss the third, which is the one that gets expensive.
Robots get insured as generic equipment and then a claim gets declined because the policy never contemplated a machine that carries water onto a roof. Read the exclusions before you sign, not after an incident.
What should the policy cover?
- Theft and vandalism, including during transport.
- Accidental glass damage caused by the robot.
- Water escape damage to the building below.
- Third-party injury if a machine is dropped or falls.
- Battery fire, if the insurer will carry it.
Battery fire cover is the hard one. Lithium packs on a roof or in a van are a risk insurers price carefully, and some simply exclude it. If yours does, that is a gap to know about.
What do claims usually look like?
| Incident | Typical cost | Covered? |
|---|---|---|
| Theft of robot | 9,000-15,000 EUR | Usually yes |
| Cracked atrium pane | 2,000-8,000 EUR | Often excluded |
| Water damage to shop below | 5,000-40,000 EUR | Check carefully |
| Battery fire in transit | Varies | Frequently excluded |
How do you reduce the premium?
Document your procedures. Insurers discount operators who can show a pre-run checklist, a wind limit, a tethered recovery method and a service log. Those documents are not paperwork for its own sake; they are the evidence an assessor asks for after an incident.
Keep the machine serial numbers and purchase invoices together. Two claims in our experience were delayed for weeks because the operator could not prove the robot on the roof was the one insured after a fleet swap. Boring detail, real money.
Who can skip extra cover?
An operator cleaning their own single building, with the robot staying on site, carries far less transport and theft risk. Even so, keep third-party glass and water cover, because one cracked pane costs more than years of premium. If you run a fleet across client sites, full cover is not optional and should be written into each service contract. Our team can share the documentation format we see accepted most often.
Key Takeaways
- Insure the machine, third-party glass and water damage separately.
- General equipment policies often exclude water escape.
- Battery fire cover is frequently excluded; check it.
- Documented checklists and logs lower premiums.
- Self-operating single sites can skip transport cover, not third-party cover.