First, the honest framing
Unitree does not publish a monthly maintenance schedule for its humanoids. What it publishes — in the official G1 User Manual (the V1.0 PDF filed with the FCC) — is a maintenance chapter built around inspection before and after every use, plus condition-based battery and storage rules. The manual’s own words: routine inspection before and after operation “can greatly improve the reliable performance of products, reduce potential safety hazards and extend the service life span,” and “it is recommended to do the above inspection before each use!”
So a monthly routine is our construct, not Unitree’s — what we’ve done below is turn the official per-use checklist and storage rules into a calendar you’ll actually keep. One more disclosure: there is no public R1 user manual at all. The R1’s FCC filing contains no manual exhibit, and support.unitree.com hosts only an SDK development guide. Everything here is documented for the G1; for the R1 you’re extrapolating from its sibling’s manual, because that’s genuinely all anyone outside Unitree has.
The per-use checklist (the actual official one)
Powered off, before each session — and this is the list worth printing:
- Body and joints: look and feel. The manual says to check “the body, joints, connections, and foot end parts” visually and by touch; cracks or damage mean replace and contact Unitree after-sales.
- Screws: “Ensure that the screws of all connecting parts are locked, especially the screws of joint connectors and battery locking knobs.”
- Foot pads: check for obvious damage and replace worn ones — the one wear part the manual names outright.
- Optics: camera lens clear of foreign matter, nothing obstructing the head-mounted LiDAR.
- Cooling: intake and exhaust unobstructed — then, after power-on, “listen carefully with ears” for the fan running clean, with no scratching sound.
- Batteries: interface free of foreign matter and deformation, packs seated so they can’t loosen — and a pack with a visibly damaged shell “is forbidden to be used.”
- Remote: joystick centered, no sand in the rocker, keys responsive.
If you run the robot weekly, this checklist is your weekly maintenance. The monthly layer is everything below.
Monthly: the battery rules that actually save the pack
The G1 runs two quick-release 9,000 mAh packs (about 2 hours of combined runtime), and the manual’s battery-care section is condition-based, not calendar-based. The storage rule, verbatim: “If you do not use the battery for a longer period of time, please check the remaining battery power regularly, if the power is less than 30%, please charge the battery to 70% before continuing to store.” No interval is given — “regularly” — which is exactly why a monthly reminder is the right way to run it. Same 30%→70% rule Unitree gives Go2 owners, same logic: over-discharge “damage[s] the battery,” and a flat pack in a drawer keeps draining.
The charging rules are stricter than most owners expect, and they’re all in the manual: battery off and out of the robot before charging; official charger only (“strictly prohibited” otherwise); wall power connected before the pack; let a hot pack cool to room temperature first; storage kept inside 0–40 °C; and when the indicator goes dark, “manually disconnect the power” — Unitree explicitly tells you not to leave a full pack sitting on the charger. When the last battery cell flashes mid-session, stop and shut down — the manual’s stated risk is the robot falling over from low power, which on a 35 kg humanoid is a repair bill.
Storing the robot itself for a while? “Please take out the battery pack in a timely manner,” and always shut down in damping mode (L1+A), suspended or seated — otherwise it “will fall heavily to the ground.”
Monthly: clean it, because it has no IP rating
Neither the G1 nor the R1 publishes an IP rating, and the G1 manual doesn’t hide behind one: “G1 is not dustproof or waterproof.” Storage must be dry and cool, out of sun and rain, “so as not to shorten the service life of the parts due to water ingress and rust corrosion.” No running in rain, snow, fog, on wet ground, gravel, or dusty environments — that’s the operating-conditions section, verbatim in spirit and nearly in letter.
Cleaning is deliberately boring: power off, dry soft cloth, wipe the body, “pay special attention to the camera and radar.” No solvents, no water. If your monthly wipe-down finds grit near the battery interface or the fan vents, that’s your environment telling you it’s out of spec.
Monthly: firmware — and the calibration trap
Updates ride over-the-air through the Unitree app, and the manual makes current firmware a precondition of operation: “Ensure that the firmware has been updated to the latest version” sits in the pre-power-on checklist. A monthly check is the sane cadence for a machine that also warns you to use “Unitree Robotics authentic parts” only.
The trap to know about: do not recalibrate the joints as “maintenance.” The manual is explicit — “G1 has been calibrated by default after leaving the factory. Do not recalibrate the joints for normal use!” — and says to consult official support before touching calibration at all. A monthly recalibration habit borrowed from hobby servos is exactly the kind of well-intentioned tinkering that ends in a support ticket to support@unitree.cc.
What this costs when parts wear out
Replacement economics, checked 2026-08-05: Unitree’s official shop sells the R1 battery at $500, but lists no G1 battery at all — the only G1 packs we found were resellers at $750–$800 (Robots International lists it at $799; RoboZaps at $750–800, noting Unitree publishes no capacity or cycle-life specs for it). Warranties are short for the money: 8 months on a standard G1 (18 on G1 EDU), 8 months on the R1 (6 on R1 AIR, 12 on EDU) — and the detailed warranty brochure both spec sheets point to isn’t published anywhere. Reseller policies fill the vacuum: RoboStore’s terms void coverage for misuse, unauthorized modifications or repairs, improper storage, and third-party accessories — which makes the manual’s storage and official-parts rules a warranty defense, not just good practice.
What Unitree doesn’t publish
The gaps, plainly: no monthly (or any calendar) maintenance schedule; no R1 user manual; no lubrication schedule for any joint; no battery cycle-life, watt-hour, or calendar recharge interval; no IP rating; no published per-component warranty terms. The per-use checklist, the 30/70 battery rule, and the dry-cool-clean storage rules are the entire official maintenance canon for a $13,500 robot — follow them monthly at minimum, and let the checklist’s look-listen-touch habits stand in for the service manual Unitree hasn’t written yet.