Review of iRobot Scooba Review

The Scooba is a robotic floor washing, hard surface cleaning machine. This gizmo replaces your mop and bucket! The Scooba is battery operated and is rechargeable. Fill the tank, press the clean switch, and empty the tank when it’s finished. The Scooba is safe for many types of hard flooring surfaces including marble, tile, linoleum and sealed hardwoods.

The Scooba measures about 6 inches total in height, enabling it to get under furniture, cabinet edges, and other hard to reach areas.

Priced from about $299, the Scooba is backed by a 1 year manufacturer’s warranty. The Scooba weighs about 12 lbs.

iRobot Scooba Features:

• Four step cleaning process
• Cliff sensing technology
• Can use tap water, water and vinegar, or Clorox Scooba cleaning solution
• Virtual wall

Four Step Cleaning Process:

The Scooba has a four step cleaning process. The stages are prep, washing, scrubbing and drying. Turn the Scooba on when you leave your home, and come back to a clean and dry floor. The Scooba runs for approximately 45 minutes without recharging the battery.

Cliff Sensing Technology:

The Scooba has built in technology that senses the edges of the floor, it senses carpets and rugs, so it doesn’t try to wet clean these surfaces, and it senses ledges and stairs, so it doesn’t fall off the edge of a flooring surface and break.

Cleaning Solutions:

There are a couple of options for cleaning solutions with the Scooba. You can use the Clorox Scooba cleaning solution available from the manufacturer, you can use diluted vinegar and water, or you can just use plain water with the unit. The Scooba has a separate tank for the clean water (and cleaning solution), and another tank for the dirty water. This is a great feature, you aren’t trying to clean your floor with increasingly dirty water they way you would with a mop.

Virtual Wall:

The Scooba comes with a “Virtual Wall”. The virtual wall marks off areas that are off-limits with an infrared beam. (The virtual wall does require 2 D batteries that must be purchased separately.)

iRobot Scooba Recommendations:

Reviews for this product are mostly positive. The negative reviews seems to be not so much about the robot’s cleaning ability, but more about robot’s that (for whatever reason), didn’t seem to be working properly. There were a few reviewers that said the robot was unreliable, and only worked for a few times, and then they got error messages. One reviewer also pointed out that there seemed to be a lot of refurbished models available, and he thought that was an indication that there may be a manufacturing problem with the Scooba.

The one fairly minor obvious drawback to the Scooba is the round design of the robot. Because it is round, it can’t reach all corners effectively. A little bit or touch up work probably has to be done. Reviewers who liked the product really like it. They liked the fact that you turn fill it up, turn it on, and come back to clean floors! One reviewer said her floors were so clean she could eat off them. Another reviewer said the first time she used the unit; it basically could only get one large room done. (The robot senses areas that need extra attention, and may spend more time get a small area clean.) She said the next time she used it; it got most of the flooring in her house done!

Reviewers all liked the fact that it was easy to use. It has a digital display that tells you what it needs. The display will say if the battery isn’t in place correctly, or if the battery is too hot, or if a wheel is malfunctioning, or if it is time to clean the tank or filter.