iRobot Scooba Floor Washing Robotic Hard Surface Cleaner
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of iRobot Scooba Floor Washing Robotic Hard Surface Cleaner
Customer Review: Don't do it
Summary: 1 Stars
I purchased my scooba last year. In the past year I have not been able to use my scooba at least half of the time. I have had to update software when the battery died, I've called customer support repeatedly and get "push this button, push that button". Sometimes it works, sometimes I have to let it sit and keep coming back to try again. Now the battery is dead, again. Customer support says "sorry, you're out of warranty. You have to buy a new battery." Save your money. This product is bad, but customer support is even worse.Customer Review: Don't do it!!
Summary: 1 Stars
I have two Roombas and while one battery does not hold a charge, the other Roomba will do a quick "sweeping" of a couple of rooms while I'm doing work in another room, so it's useful.
The Scooba, though, is a disaster. The battery I got with my Scooba (in Nov. 2006), never held a charge through a cleaning cycle and the charge has gotten shorter and shorter. My parents and a friend of theirs had the same problem with their Scooba batteries. iRobot agreed to replace my battery (July), but at the same time claimed that they didn't have one in stock and didn't know when they would get one--and this is when a replacement battery is listed as "in stock" on their website! So, clearly, the Scoobas have problems, but iRobot isn't willing to follow through on its warranty. I meanwhile have the bulky Scooba and battery charger to store, along with the boxes of cleaning fluid which I bought (and had to buy from iRobot)...while they simply don't get around to sending the replacement battery they agree that they owe me in exchange for the defective one they sold me. By the way, the Scooba is messy (pour in water, pour in their cleaning fluid, pour out dirty water, pull out several different parts to clean between uses), awkward to use (it's heavy, the battery is hard to extract), and takes up a lot of space, also an ugly blue on blue for their high-end model, and doesn't do corners...and gets stuck under the toe kick in our kitchen. All around, just not worth the time. Much easier to get a mop out--or even hand wipe.....and I say that even though I'll do anything rather than mop! iRobot Scooba Floor Washing Robotic Hard Surface Cleaner, Blue
Customer Review: Don't throw away your mop!
Summary: 1 Stars
I had high expectations for the Scooba floor cleaning robot. Even at $400, the promise of eliminating manual mopping of my kitchen's linoleum floors was attractive. I was ready to jettison my Swiffer WetJet and move into robotic age. Alas, all is not as it seems.
I was greatly disappointed in the capabilities of the Scooba vacuum. So much so that I kept it less than 24 hours before returning it to my local Sharper Image store. Here is why:
The target cleaning environment was a combination kitchen and breakfast nook area with linoleum floors. The kitchen area was a rather complex series of angled cabinets and center islands. The breakfast nook area was a nearly square floor space with slight nooks and crannies in two corners.
To give Scooba the highest chance for success, I decided to clean only the square breakfast nook area. Using some furniture and the included virtual wall, I sectioned off the breakfast nook for testing. I removed all of obstacles in the room. Scooba had free reign of the floor. The cleaning area is just under 200 square feet.
The Scooba documentation also claims that you do not have to sweep your floor before running a cleaning cycle. To test this, I left a few clods of dog hair and some small sprigs of grass clippings on the floor.
The results: After running the 45 minute cleaning cycle, Scooba had "cleaned" about 90% of the room. During the cleaning cycle, I noticed that it covered some areas of the floor several times while missing others. Consistency is not one of Scooba's strengths. Scooba completely missed one whole wall edge in the room, yet cleaned the opposite wall edge three times during the cycle! It is also very noisy during the cleaning process; noisier than my full size Dyson vacuum.
Given iRobot's experience in robotics, it is extremely disappointing to see the lack of coverage on such a simple room geometry. If the Scooba couldn't cover 99+% of a square room, it likely would fair very poorly in the more complex portion of my kitchen.
For those areas Scooba covered, it cleaned reasonably well. In an area with no debris, the floor was clean, similar to cleaning with my Swiffer WetJet. Conversely, while it would pick up the dog hair and grass clippings on one area of the floor, it had the tendency to drop them back on the floor when it was changing direction.
The Scooba is also supposed to dry the floor immediately after cleaning it. It doesn't do a real good job here either. After the cleaning cycle completed, there was still enough water on the floor to warrant drying with towel. I don't have this problem with my Swiffer WetJet.
Finally, the documentation lists several components of the Scooba that should be cleaned after each 45 minute cleaning cycle. These components include the filter, vacuum tube, and brush assembly. This cleaning itself took an additional 15 minutes, far longer than the 10 seconds it takes to remove a Swiffer WetJet cloth and toss it in the garbage.
On the plus side, the Scooba is easy to setup and use.
Bottom Line: After 60 minutes (45 minutes of the cleaning cycle and 15 minutes to clean the machine), I ended up with a floor that was 80-90% clean and 400 less dollars in my pocket. I still had to go back and manually clean the rest of the floor. I think I'll stick with my Swiffer WetJet. It is much cheaper and faster.
I know of others that have had success with iRobot's Roomba vacuums, which is why I gave the Scooba a try. Unfortunately, my experience with Scooba was not positive. Given it's $400 price tag, iRobot needs to seriously tweak the Scooba software alogrithms before it is ready for prime time.
Customer Review: Dont buy it!! It doesnt last more than a few washings
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought my first Scooba from Linens and Things. I was impressed with it the first time I used it. Then a couple of weeks later, I tried it again, and it wouldnt work. I called IRobot customer support and she couldnt resolve the problem. Luckily, I was able to go to Linens and Things and get another one. I hoped I just got a lemon. The next one worked great for the first time too. A couple of weeks later I tried again and it wouldnt work. I charged the battery for over 24 hours (it should only take 16 hours max, per the manual). But when I pressed Power, it wouldnt turn on. Customer Service could not resolve my problem and told me to ship it back. Of course, I get stuck with the shipping costs. 2 units, and neither worked after the first week. Coincidence? I dont think so. DONT BUY IT. Its not reliable!!Customer Review: Dreadful support
Summary: 1 Stars
Didn't last much over a year, just long enough to see the warranty out. Poor technical support. Never again.