Customer Reviews

iRobot 330 Scooba Floor-Washing Robot

5 star:		(96)
4 star:		(56)
3 star:		(31)
2 star:		(28)
1 star:		(76)

 

 

It meets the 80/20 rule. It does 80% of the work that you would do if you did a thorough, good clean yourself. However, I usually don't do a thorough good clean myself on mopping floors since I left the navy.

obviously, make sure that your floor is swept before starting Scooba. (I use my Roomba since I am doubly lazy..) Scooba won't get into the corners, but neither do I when I mop.

The point is.. I don't like mopping. Neither does my wife. The hardwood floors never get mopped. I have a dog & 2 cats. Thus, the kitchen floor always looks like &*$(#! most of the time. Now it doesn't. It looks great. I'd suggest it for people that hate mopping & just want someone (or thing) to do it..

The first time I had scooba clean, it ran, but no water came out, and ittold me to check the tank, so i fiddled with it (pulled it apart & put it together again) and it worked. perhaps I didn't put the little rubber tube in right or didn't snap things together right the first time.

It works great on mud, dried food & dried spills. It missed some hardened, caked on gunk that would take a bit of scrubbing with a brush, or, scrubby part of your mop, but I didn't expect it to get those. In my case, it got up things like hardened jelly & stuff, but whatever the trash can has been grinding into the floor for the last couple years, it couldn't get up.

When you are done with Scooba, you do have to empty it out, give the tank a rinse, and clean the brush & a removable tube, to me though, thats easier than cleaning a mop. Though some people don't clean their mops, I would strongly suggest it with scooba.

You also need to buy their special cleaner, which to me, isn't that bad, since if you didn't use it, you'd be using another cleaner anyway. Scooba is quite efficient, as well. it uses 1/8? cup of cleaner and a quart or so of water on my floor (200 Sq. ft). If I were mopping, I'd be using more of both. I tried vinegar, which did pretty good, but the clorox appears to work better. I bet if you used Scooba more often, then vinegar would be fine.

The best time to use Scooba, in my opinion, is right before leaving in the morning, watching the TV downstairs, or going to bed (provided that 45 minutes of hair dryer sounding noise in another room doesn't bother you). That way the floor is dry when I come back to it. Some people have complained that it leaves the floor too wet after a mopping, but, to me, it appears the same as after when I mop myself.

so, in summary, if you just want the floor mopped. get Scooba. If you a perfectionist, its not for you.

I was impressed with the ease in which the Scooba operates. Every part is clearly marked on the machine and the directions are uncomplicated. The first time I used my Scooba, it started out working fine. But then the "Check Tank" light came on without any apparent reason. I opened and closed the tank, making sure it was securely locked and it started right up again. I left the room and, when I returned after the cycle was completed, the floor was VERY wet. When I emptied the dirty tank, there was barely any water in it! It was obvious that the vaccum system that squeeges the floor and sucks the dirty water back into the machine wasn't working properly. I called Customer Service and they were very helpful and immediately sent out a replacement part at no charge to me.

Actually, it turned out that the machine was working fine. When I opened and closed the tank, the vaccum portal had some water around the opening and didn't seal properly when the machine started up again, making it impossible for the machine to create enough suction. I recommend that anyone having this problem wipe the vaccum opening free of any water or debris and close the tank carefully to assure a proper seal.

I've owned my Scooba for a couple of weeks and have used it several times since without any problem. It gets the floor much cleaner than I would myself and I love knowing its cleaning my dirty kitchen floor while I'm taking care of business elsewhere. After the cycle is completed, I take an old towel and, using the moisture left on the floor after the cleaning cycle, mop the corners with my foot. It's quick and easy! It goes under my baker's shelf without any problem and cleans the dog's feeding area beautifully. One rainy morning, the dog left muddy footprints all over the kitchen floor so I put my Scooba to the test and it passed with flying colors!

I think I'm in love! Prior to getting my Scooba, I paid my teenage daughter to do the mopping and other house cleaning for her allowance. Believe me, I'd much rather be the employer of "Scooba," my personal and pleasant Merry Maid! She does a MUCH better job and she doesn't grumble and complain when I request that the floor be mopped. Scooba hums instead of whistles while she works, which is music to my ears! (I'm giving my daughter her notice this week.)

I have two children (1 and 10 year old boys) and three large dogs (great dane, mastiff, and shar pei), needless to say keeping floors clean is a struggle. I also happen to have an obsession with clean floors.

Every floor in my home is hardwood. I run it twice a day (once per level) and now all of my belongings are no longer covered in dog hair and I can walk around in bare feet without feeling yucky. If it only went up and down steps it would be perfect!

Another bonus side effect is that, when you run it every day, it keeps all that dust and dirt from just floating around your house and clinging to other stuff so I have to clean less often in general.

I suppose if I got out a bucket, sponge and set of knee pads I could do a better job but really who needs that in thier life? I do suggest moving or stacking things like dining room chairs as the scooba'll get all tangled up in the legs and shut off.

The only annoying thing was, when I firtst tried to start it up I kept getting the check tank warning for no apparent reason. However, a quick search on the irobot site gave me a solution to the problem. (you have to use a turky baster to force water through the pump to get it going)

This is the best $300 I ever spent.

Here are the most critical actions when using this great device. One - before you buy, read the specs. Two - after you buy read the owners manual. Three - do what the owners manual tells you to do. If you do all of this, you will have clean floors without a lot of elbow grease on your part

Let me explain. If you buy a Scooba that the manufacturer says will do 250 sq. ft., believe it. If your floor is really 350 sq. ft., don't write a one star review when the battery dies before completing the job. If you don't follow the instructions and prime the pump, don't write a one star review when the robot doesn't dispense solution. If you don't clean the device as instructed, don't complain when it gives you all sorts of warning lights and sounds. In short, use it as intended and you'll love it.

Bottom line: I vacuum my floors with a Roomba and then I follow that with a Scooba wash and my floors have never been cleaner. Every couple of months, I get into the corners with a sponge, but that's about it. These are great products (Roomba AND Scooba) and they really do work. I use mine on linoleum, ceramic tile and slate without any problems.

Suggestion: about every 4th use, run a white vinegar cleaning instead of using the Clorox solution. The Clorox does a great job, but I suspect that it has a small amount of something to make the floors shine, and this seems to build up and feel a little slippery under bare feet. No big deal, but the vinegar does seem to "refresh" the floor a little.

I ordered the Scooba thinking that this would be a great Christmas gimmick for the family. What's better than a toy that mops floors? Trouble is, the unit did not function ... would not spray the cleaning solution after about 3 feet of travel. I called iRobot Customer Service and they had me squirting water into valves and passageways trying to flush out the system. No luck. I visited a Scooba internet discussion forum board and read all the posts, and discovered that I was not alone. It would seem that a pretty high percentage of machines do not function right out of the box.

Being unable to get the machine to work, I paid to send the unit back to iRobot, and they sent a new one. THE NEW UNIT DID NOT PERFORM EITHER. Again, called iRobot Customer Service and they had me squirting water into valves and passages, cleaning this, adjusting that ... all to no avail. This time iRobot emailed me a UPS shipping label to send the unit back. I made sure that the customer service agent understood that I expected to receive a functional unit this time. It must work right out of the box. No excuses.

The THIRD machine arrived at it too did not function properly. It would dry up after about 3-6 feet of travel. I visited the web discussion forum again and did A LOT of reading. I have performed many checks and flushes with this unit, finally discovering that the clean water tank does not vent properly (forms a vacuum after a little water is pumped out) and no cleaning solution will flow. Today I left the clean tank filler cap off when I started the machine and it seems to be working just fine.

When it works, it works great.

My issue is why should I have to engineer workaround solutions for this machine's shortcomings? IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK THAT A $300 MACHINE FUNCTION PROPERLY STRIAGHT OUT OF THE BOX? I don't have to do carbureator adjustments on my new car. I didn't have to engineer repairs on my new central vacuum system when it was installed. New should mean "perfectly functional", shouldn't it?

By the way, DON'T ORDER THIS FROM AMAZON. If you get frustrated with the Scooba and want to return the machine, you won't be able to after 30 days. Read the Amazon return policy! My suggestion: order from Hammacher Schlemmer. You'll pay a little more, but they have a lifetime return policy, no questions asked. (So what is "lifetime" for a Scooba? Hammacher gives the Scooba 4-years). Hammacher has been in the mail-order business for many, many years. They have an excellent reputation.

I decided to write this review after 3 months of extensive use of my Scooba with at least weekly run.
I have good experience with my Roomba 4210 and iRobot in general when I had problems with my Roomba.

My Scooba did not work right out of the box, it did not squirt any water at all. This is the no. 1 complaint from Scooba owners. Here's what I did following many tips from other reviewers:

1. Use syringe to squirt water into the blue "nipplet" - the little nipple insertion where the water drips from the tank to the base.
2. Pour half cup of water on the floor and let scooba run over it.

After doing those two tips, the scooba pump started to work and I watched this robot prep,wash,vacuum and dry my floor without blinking my eyes. Amazing. The Clorox Scooba solution is also good for linoleum and most tiles.
The only drawback for the Scooba 5900 is its limited coverage, inability to work on textured tiles and noise but in overall I'm very satisfied. Roombareview is also full of knowledgeable people to help you with your robots. Good job, iRobot !

I bought this yesterday, charged it all night and had a test run this morning... WOW!! My husband and I watched (in awe) as it went through it's entire cycle. It did fabulous. We have three kids and two Great Danes and, right now in Indiana, lots of mud and dirt being tracked in. We have cream porcelain tile in our kitcen and it always looks dirty. This Scooba did as good a job as when we mop ourselves. Of course you may have to do some touch ups every now and then around the edges and in tight corners... but it did great. Part of the secret is that it is always cleaning with clean water and "scooba" solution. We were very impressed with the battery life also.

Don't forget to prime the pump when you get it (before the first use). I read this tip in one of the AMAZON reviews and it also had a reminder in the box. Believe it or not I still forgot (I was so excited to get it going). I will not work if you don't do this the first time. (light bulb moment) I remembered that I was supposed to prime the pump (instructions in box for this) and it worked beautifully.

Plan to stay out of the room for awhile so the floors can dry when it's finished.

This is one of those purchases that you stand back and say WOW this was totally worth it!!

This is a great concept; the execution is lousy. Like most of the other reviewers, I thought this gizmo was the greatest thing since sliced bread. After several months of infrequent use (maybe 10 cycles altogether) the "check tank" error message began to appear intermittently. The machine had been scrupulously maintained per the instructions. Initially, clearing the feed valve solved the problem. After a few more uses, it refused to start. I haunted the self-help sites and diligently applied every fix I could find. Nothing worked. Scooba powers on, "check tank" light comes on, then nada. All valves were clear. I finally called iRobot to find out about repairs. Get this: there are NO service centers and iRobot does not offer repair service. Pretty remarkable for a $300+ gadget that comes with only a one year warranty. Run a search on "Scooba check tank error"; there are literally thousands of entries, so mine was not an isolated problem. So there it is; for the money you may get light automatic floor cleaning for a year (if you're lucky); after that, you've got an expensive doorstop. And you're on your own as far as repairs go.

My scooba stopped putting down cleaning solution after I had it about six months. I played email tag with technical support for several months after that, trying to fix it. Finally, iRobot said that I had a non-functioning unit, and the only way to get a new one would be to ship my existing unit back to them and pay $179. So, I'm already out about $300, and they want me to pay $200 more? I am extremely dissatisfied with the product and the company, and would not recommend IRobot products to anyone.

I bought this product 14 months ago. While it was working, I was not impressed: it's very loud, doesn't get in corners, battery doesn't keep a good charge (30 minutes then recharge for hours) and I always had to run over it again with a mop. After about 4-5 months the battery quit and the company sent me another one at no charge. However, now it's 2 months after the warranty expired, and the motor has died. The company offered to send me one at discounted price, but at roughly $300 a year, I said no thanks. Don't waste your money on this expensive, sub-quality product till the makers can get it right.