Customer Reviews

iRobot Scooba Floor Washing Robotic Hard Surface Cleaner

5 star:		(80)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(48)

 

 

It does a nice job mopping flat sealed surfaces, as long as you "scooba-proof" the room first. I did find that you can't let it roam around rooms as large as those you can let the Roomba go in, as Scooba does need to go over the same spot a few times to really get it clean, and also as the cycle is only 45 minutes. I also found that it can be much more temperamental than I expected, stopping mid-clean because it got stuck in a transition area (like between tile and wood), stuck on a flat rug it didn't detect, didn't like the amount of cleaner you put in, or needs the dirty water and filter's checked. I've also found it doesn't always obey the virtual walls. Unlike the Roomba, there is no mechanism for it to clean corners, so those you have to manually mop. It sucks up most of the water, leaving the floor in a damp-dry state - I read people saying the floor is dry, but that has never been the case with mine. Because you're stuck with only using the Clorox cleaner (which is pretty general-purpose), you have to manual go over those floor types you want to shine or polish (like hard wood) with something else. It is a lot quieter than I expected, and on those times when I had an issue not covered in the manual and had to contact their phone support, they were very responsive. All in all, if you understand that it is an in-between the full manual-cleaning maintenance product, and you like the Roomba quirks, Scooba is a good product.

I've had my Scooba for about a month now and have been running it almost every day. I LOVE it. It gets my floors cleaner that I have ever been able to get them with a broom and mop. It was able to get up fine construction dust after our remodel that I could not clean up any other way. It cleans both my hardwood floors and my tile floors with grout. It scrubs the grout! No more scrubbing on my hands and knees! And it vaccuums up dust bunnies, pet hair, etc.--you don't have to sweep the floors before using it. In fact, I DON'T SWEEP MY FLOORS AT ALL ANYMORE! I don't have to--I just run my Scooba every day!

You have to use the Clorox solution that comes with it to run it; IT WILL NOT RUN WITHOUT IT. But you can use half the recommended amount and it will work, and the solution smells great. Buy lots of extra bottles of the solution, as you will need it. The reason Scooba can get your floors so clean is because it squirts out the cleaning solution mixed with water that you add, then scrubs the floor, then squeegees the floor and sucks the dirty water up into a separate storage tank for the dirty water. So you are not washing your floor with increasingly dirty water as you do using a broom an mop.

Just like the Roomba, the Scooba is round and it cannot clean all the way into corners, so you do have to do a little bit of clean up after it is done, but it washes 95% of your floor, and it is sparkling clean when it is done. I set it to clean before I go to work in the morning, and I come home to a clean floor every day. Heaven! Well worth the steep price. It is different from Roomba in that it does not sense that your floor is clean and stop. Instead, it goes until it runs out of washing solution, about 45 minutes. But running it regularly has given me floors so clean I could literally eat off of, something I have never had in 20 years of keeping house. And it does it while I'm gone! Is there such a thing as the perfect product?

Please click "See all customer images" at the top of the page to see all of the detailed pictures I submitted of my Scooba.

Opening the Scooba box, I could see that this robot was much more complex than the vacuuming robots (I own the Dirt Dog and Red Roomba).

Scooba is the same width and height as its brothers, Dirt Dog and Roomba, but it weighs a tiny bit more.

The Scooba is easy to open, the handle doubles as a latch to flip up the tanks and makes you feel like you're popping the hood of a car. The tanks separate from the Scooba so you can fill and empty them. One tank is labeled "clean", the other "dirty". You fill the "clean" tank with the Clorox solution and cold or warm water and when the Scooba is done cleaning, you will find all the gross dirty stuff that it mopped up in the "dirty" tank.

Scooba warns you to only use the Clorox solution it came with as other solutions might corrode the moving parts of Scooba. At first, I thought I would just use my own solution, but I'm going to stick with the Clorox solution from iRobot since it smells so nice (my fiancé always complains of the smell of Pine Sol or tile cleaner) and seems to really get the job done.

Each replaceable part has a yellow label with the part number ... these guys think of everything! The filter, brushes, and hose are easy to put in and take out.

When you turn on Scooba, it begins as all other iRobots do, it does circles and then goes off in a straight line, changing direction when it taps walls or cabinets. I specifically say "tap" because my other robots, Dirt Dog and Roomba, more so bump into walls ... I can usually hear them bumping into the closet doors and walls from another room if the house is silent.

I intentionally did not mop the tile for two weeks. We had two parties within this timeframe. The floor looked pretty disgusting, to say the least. There were black marks everywhere from people dragging who-knows-what in from outside. It looked like someone stepped on spilt soda and danced all over the tile. I let Scooba loose, crossing my fingers in hopes that it would remove these marks from the floor (I know from experience that I would have to scrub it if I were using a regular mop). Scooba got the small marks out in one pass; the more nasty ones took two passes, max. I was pretty impressed.

Scooba cleaned for about 45 minutes until its battery died. I limited it to only a small space, about 10x10, but it could have done probably about 15x15 in that amount of time. The floor looked awesome! It even cleaned the tile around the trash can, which has some really gross gunk stuck to it that I can't normally get out with a mop. I charged Scooba again, which didn't take long ... maybe an hour? And off it went again, to clean the rest of the tile. It crawls a little bit slower than the vacuuming robots, which is good though, since it's cleaning the floor not vacuuming.

I couldn't find any documentation on this, but I think that the Scooba spot cleans. I know that the Roomba Discovery spot cleans since my friend has one. It will detect extra-dirty spots and do circles around that area to really get the job done. Well, Scooba did this quite a bit ... I thought maybe it just did it randomly, but it did spot cleaned in the same spots a couple of times, especially where there was lots of gunk stuck to the tile - so, I don't think it's a coincidence.

Time to empty the dirty water ... ewww, the water came out completely black. It looked like I was changing the oil on my car. Just disgusting. I took the time to clean the filter too, all I had to do was run some water through it and all the dirt, hair and gunk washed right off. The vacuum hose and brush was just as easy too, just run some water through it and viola!

Scooba lets you know what it needs, just look at the little digital display near the power and clean button. It will tell you when you need to clean the tank or filter, if the battery is not snapped into place right, if the left/right wheel is malfunctioning, if the battery is too hot, all sorts of cool things.

If you have a big house like me (2000 square feet) with all tile, it might take you about 2 or 3 charges to clean the whole house (my entire house is tile, except the bedrooms, which there are 4 of). The battery doesn't last as long as the vacuuming robots, but you have to take into consideration how much more work the Scooba does. Scooba vacuums any dirt or dust, lays down the cleaning solution, brushes the floor and vacuums up the dirty water in a single pass.

Scooba left a little snail trail, it didn't completely dry the tile, but it was pretty close. The snail trail dried anyways within 2 minutes.

This is so much better than mopping because when I mop, it just makes the bucket of water filthy and then I'm just swashing dirty water around the floor. But the Scooba picks up the dirty water and really leaves the tile nice and clean. No more dirty feet or socks!!

The price may seem a little scary, but wow, am I glad I spent the money on the Scooba. My floors have never been this clean, ever! All of my friends were completely skeptical, but their jaws were on the floor when they saw what these little robots could do.

** UPDATE **
So, the Scooba just cleaned my entire house yesterday without needing to recharge! I charged the Scooba up for about a day and it cleaned every bit of tile in about an hour and a half or so. I only had to stop to clean the tank once. I am so pleased with this, I can't wait for my floors to get filthy again!

Please click "See all customer images" at the top of the page to see all of the detailed pictures I submitted of my Scooba.

If your idea of "mopping the floor" is filling a bucket with soap and water, then pushing a spongemop around a few times (a 5-minute job), avoid the Scooba. It's not for you. You've been warned.

If, however, you are comfortable with, say, sweeping the kitchen floor, making sure all electrical cords, etc., are out of the way, filling a small robot with water and cleaning solution (a one-minute job), then letting this little doohickey get your floors cleaner than they've ever been (really) while you do something else, buy the Scooba.

Some are amazed by the fact that a round object cannot clean into a corner, pick up croutons or a mound of cat litter. It's not *meant* to do that. It's meant to clean the floor of dirt that you can't necessarily see.

First, I will confirm what others have mentioned: Scooba works well, cleaning floors effectively. It is a real pleasure to be free of one of the most loathsome of chores. I can't understand wanting a Roomba, since vacuuming is such an easy, painless task anyway; but floor washing, with the (momentarily) clean water, the dirty water, and all the rest, is an entirely different order of unpleasantness and complexity.

What was unexpected is the degree to which I have instinctively anthropomorphized little Scooba. He is truly my floor-cleaning friend, my buddy, my loyal helper, and I feel a tremendous rush of goodwill towards Scooba, as he industriously washes away my nasty dirt, then chirps happily when he's finished.

The kids are locked in their rooms, playing video games, doing drugs, downloading porn, who knows what. The wife is coifing her hair, painting her face, making cryptic remarks from the bathroom. The cat is perched on the mantle, giving me the evil eye. But Scooba! Loyal helper! He's sleeping under my table, flashing his green light benevolently, charging up for the next time that duty calls.

I own 2 Roomba Schedulers and love them, so I was really interested in the Scooba. I love my Roombas so much that I gave my parents and my brother each one as presents. That being said....

Living in Florida I have a house that has 2400 sf of tile floors alone so the Scooba would be perfect. I really wanted to wait until the *second generation* to buy one, but the prices dropped from $399 to $299 at many retailers so we said - why wait??!!!

The Scooba is not as awesome as the Roombas but it initially did a pretty decent job on the floors. I have 2 incontinent dogs so it was a godsend. At any rate, after 2 months of using Scooba once every 2 weeks and fastidiously following the instructions, it started to only work for 30 seconds then stop and flash Service Code 1. The iRobot site was (very) unhelpful so I did a Google search and found that I was not the only one this had happened to. I back-flushed the vacuum system and found it had *eaten* a chunk of grout!!!! I don't know if this was the cause of death, but the vacuum part of the Scooba flat out is not working, and it fails diagnostic codes 11, 12 and 13.

I called iRobot and they told me to exchange it at BestBuy where it was purchased. I then called Best Buy and they said they weren't carrying it anymore. What does that tell you?

Beware...

Signed,
A dedicated ROOMBA (not Scooba) fan.

I'm delighted with my second floor-cleaning robot! Scooba has done a wonderful job of cleaning my floors, inlcuding refinished hardwood. The floors didn't look dirty, but emptying the dirty water from the tank told the truth - ugh!

Just like Roomba, this is a well-made, serious piece of equipment, with features that are well thought out. It's a piece of cake to prep Scooba, and then empty it when the room is finished. I've done my 12 x 20 kitchen on a single fill, and covered my large living room, dining room, and entry by refilling the tank midway. The battery runs for about three tanks, so you can cover a lot of ground.

Keep in mind the limitations that other reviewers have highlighted - Scooba requires a neat floor without cords or excessive obstacles, it works more slowly and methodically than Roomba, it won't get a small triangle of floor at each inner corner, and it requires a special cleaning solution (actually, mine came with the direction that plain old vinegar will work, cheap and unscented). If you keep your floors NEAT, Scooba will keep them CLEAN!

I thought Roomba was the greatest thing ever until I bought Scooba. Scooba does a great job, a mop or any other floor cleaner could never compare to this. It is very efficient, and sucks up its own water. The floor behind it is completely dry. It is very similar to Roomba in floor coverage, as well as size, although it is just a bit bigger than Roomba. It is very easy to maintain, and I use it on hardwood floors because it does such a great job drying the floor afterwards that it isn't harmful to the wood. Using Scooba makes your floor cleaner than it has ever been before! I have had Scooba for a bit over a month now, and I don't know how I functioned without it! This is a very worthwile purchase for anyone with non-carpet floors! I would recommend this to anyone...it's even worth having to eat peanut butter sandwiches for a month if that's what it takes to pay for it! :)

I got this robot along with iRobot Scheduler for my aunt because she had a backache.
My aunt was, at first, very skeptical about the performance of these little round gadgets because she was a very hard working, obsessively-clean, non-machine-relying housewife. However, after using these robots for only for weeks, she already fell in love with them. In fact, she now calls them her favorite "children".
I know that this sounds a bit weird but it was a metaphor used by my aunt to shows her appreciation towards these robots.
The most amazing performance by the iRobot 5900 Scooba was from the fact that it succesfully removed a hard-bound sticker on the floor which my aunt scrubbed so many days to get rid off. She told me that after seeing what the robot has done to her floor (which is now glazing-shiny), she can finally get her tiresome hands off from wiping the floors.

You should also appreciate the fact that these robots can reach beneath sofas and beds (which is unreachable by adult humans). However, since these machines are still robots, you will face situations where only you can clean the house by yourself (at least once a month). These gadgets should greatly assist you in cleaning the floors, but it will not permanently replace human touch. Also, buy Chlorox refills from iRobot web site because they are much cheaper than if bought individually, even from our dear amazon.com!

I've owned the Scooba for about 3 weeks now and it's been fantastic, it does a great job cleaning the floors, and it's really easy to use and to clean afterwards. I recommend that you start the Scooba on the dirtiest spot you have because it will start going round and round at the beginning until it "bumps" with something, then it will continue on different patterns like heading for the wall and clean that perimeter. I suggest that you place your dining room chairs over the table upside down like they do in restaurants when they close, that will allow the Scooba to clean more effectively instead of getting "stuck" with the chairs, when Scooba finds a chair, depending on its size it will likely clean "a lot" under that chair because it's kind of trapped. About the virtual walls, I haven't found them as necessary because if you don't want the Scooba to get into someplace you can just put a physical barrier there, like a box, a large bag, whatever you find handy... so don't spend your money purchasing extra virtual walls, one is more than enough, also notice that these virtual walls are battery operated they use the fat "D" batteries not included. About the rechargeable battery, it will take about 3 hours to charge and will last for about 2 cycles (one after the other otherwise it discharges by itself), if you don't use the Scooba for a day the battery will discharge so you need to charge it I would think every time before you want to use the Scooba... I think purchasing an extra battery could also be a good idea if you intend to use it a lot. There's someone that asked if they needed to purchase the Roomba as well, the answer to that is that they have different purposes, the Roomba is like a vacuum cleaner great for places with carpeting and rugs, and the Scooba does have a vacuum for the floor (that's why no need to sweep the floor prior) and also washes the floor, but it's good only for tile, mosaic, linoleum floors, not for hardwood floors. By the way the Scooba does sound like a vacuum cleaner while functioning, that's why everybody complains it's noisy, I can be on the phone with someone and they immediately think I have the vacuum on, yes, it is kind of loud. If you have a very large area to clean you can put the Scooba to work for 2 or 3 cycles and you can start it on those parts of the house where it hasn't been before. Did I mention it does a great job cleaning under the bed? just make sure it doesn't end its cycle there because it would be difficult to retrieve the Scooba from there. If everybody in your house works and don't have a lot of time for doing sweeping and mopping this is a really great machine for you, and if you do have time for cleaning floors, wouldn't you rather do something else with your time?