Scooba Blog

As an iRobot customer, I have been a one-person publicity campaign for their products, telling everyone I know about them and even given them as gifts to my family. I must admit that after my recent today, my story is not quite so positive and I am more likely to discourage my friends from investing their money in irobot products.

I bought a Scooba over a year ago because I had been so happy with my Roomba. I don’t use the Scooba nearly as often because most of my home is carpeted. I was surprised to find that I was getting a message that my charger was no longer working and when I talked to Customer Service, I was told that when that happens, the entire machine along with the charger and the battery needs to be replaced. So basically, I am looking at having to invest the same money all over again in a machine that may have the same problem after my 90-day warranty is up. If this were a cheap little purchase, I wouldn’t care, but I’m not willing to take the risk again.

Unless somebody has another solution, my Scooba will end up on the trash heap. Oh yes, and then there is the box of cleaning solution I bought which is useless to me!

So I too bought a Scuba. Worked great for a few months then it went tits up. iRobot offered me a great opportunity to buy another one for some discounted price. My problem is that the product is a failure and I need more than a chance to buy another one that may die in a few weeks. By the way I am out $250 and they want me to buy another one? In the mean time, I own two vacuum iBots. They also went tits up. One had a dead battery so I ordered a new one. Worked for a few months. Both went crazy. I am so disgusted that I have asked for a return address so I can ship the dead Bots back to iRobot. My local enviros won’t let me toss them into a land fill so disposal is a problem. Maybe they can take them back and send them back to the ChiComms where they came from.

I had my Scooba less than a year when it stopped working. I asked for a refund but irobot chose to replace the machine instead. In the meantime, I was without a robot for 2 months. Now the replacement has stopped working after 5 months. All of my friends have replaced their unreliable Scoobas with Hoover Floomate and they are very satisfied with the product.

I have had to return a few Scooba’s, but am up and running again. I really like the fact that it saves me time and does a decent job, however, shared the feelings of those not thrilled about having to buy a $10 bottle of cleaning solution. Talk about price gouging.There is NO REASON they need to charge such an exorbitant mount for a bottle of floor cleaner. Clorox makes another floor cleaner for $2.69/bottle, but they can’t recreate that in a non soapy solution. I don’t think so! And I’m one of the suckers who keep buying it because I don’t like using vinegar. Shame on both of these companies.

I have had my scooba for over 4 years and have been making my own cleaning solutions without any problems. I even used Murphys Oil Soap with another brand name cleaner and after properly diluting
the solution, I obtained excellent results on my hardwood floors. I am now using the scooba on my kitchen floor which has 11″x11″ glazed terra cotta tiles with grouted joints and the unit does a great job! The important thing is to thoroughly clean and rinse the unit and wipe down all the expendable and external parts.
Don’t over charge the battery, 4 hours should be more than enough.
Good luck.

I got a Scooba for Christmas a year and a half ago. At first it worked great. But after about a month the check tank light started coming on all the time no matter how much solution and water there was inside. I was able to lift up the back wheels and get it to start anyway, but it got to where it would only run for 5 minutes and then stop. I called and they sent me a new one. Repeat story, repeat story, repeat story…. The problems have varied somewhat, but the check tank light is the most prevalent. Finally when I called today to get my latest machine replaced they said I was out of warranty and they could only offer me a discount on a new one. Here’s the thing. Out of the 18 months since I got the machine it has only been in service for about 9. And no individual machine has ever worked for more than 4 months without at least needing a replacement part. Other people must have a lot more money than I do if they think it’s acceptable for a product that costs $300 to work for only 3 or 4 months. After reading so many positive comments I might have thought I was crazy except that I have at least two friends who have had the same problems that I have and they just gave up and threw their machines away. Apparently, I’m more stubborn than the average. I really wanted to make this thing work long term. It just won’t.

Bob Writes:

My Scooba worked fine for about a year then the yellow check tank light came on. I spoke with I Robot’s tech. and tried a number of things he recomended. It didn’t fix the problem,so he suggested I buy a new robot. I’m very disappointed in IRobot. I’m very handy with mechnical and electronics and can fix anything given the right information. Does anyone know how the permissives for the check tank indicator and how to jumper them out.

I bought my first scooba in December of 2007 I am now on my third replacement. They have all failed. irobot acts as if this is really unusual and other people do not have these problems. But reading blogs online it seems pretty commonplace.

When I bought my scooba it came with a little red roomba. This worked good until recently. I decided a month ago to upgrade to the new 500 series roomba. It failed within a month and they sent me a replacement but a lower model so it does not work with the remote control which is why I upgraded in the first place. The little red roomba now goes in circles and they told me to send it back.

One other big problem is that I live in Hawaii and the shipping of these things back is expensive. I think I am totally getting the run around. I hope that another company comes up with a competitive product soon!

Unless you are prepared to buy at least two of each, one as a backup while the other is in the the shop and you don’t mind dealing with tech support A LOT because they do not take your word that it is hosed they make you tear it apart and try this and that until there are no more hoops then they tell you to Fed Ex it on your dime back to them. I would seriously consider not get attached to these things in the first place.

Sad but true.

Aloha

We recently purchased the Scooba and are now happy with the robot. Initially the Scooba wouldn’t work… it would just say “I’m stuck”. We then read through some irobot blogs & one recommended almost dropping it from 2 or 3 inches off the ground. And since we were frustrating, we tried it. And it worked! We now have to sometimes lightly “push down” on the top of it when we start it but other than that it works great. It’s just nice to be able to let the irobot clean the floor while we attend to other chores. On another note… another blog recommended charging the irobot 3 hours before use (and not leaving it charged in overnight except for the 1st night). We have followed this advise and so far have not had any battery issues.

I purchased a re-manufactured Scooba from Woot.com for $100 as a Christmas present for my wife. I can honestly say that it was the best $100 I’ve every spent.

We have run it about 3 times a day since we opened the box and my floors have never looked better. You would not believe the grimy black water that came out of the tank the first three or four runs.

As far as solutions go. I have a cheap linoleum floor in the kitchen and nice hardwood floors throughout the rest of the house. I’m sensitive to a lot of different detergents but had no problem with the Scooba Clorox. My only gripe is that I can’t buy it at any local stores (that I’ve found) so I’m going to have to order more on-line.

We used the vinegar solution when the clorox ran out and from what I can tell, the clorox works wonders on both the kitchen and hardwood floors. It doesn’t smell bad and it leaves no residue.

The vinegar has the disadvantage of smelling bad and seems to leave a slightly tacky residue, but does give the hardwood floor a nice sheen. I will probably end using nothing but clorox for the kitchen and going back and forth for the rest of the house.

My prediction is that every household will eventually have something like this. It will become part of the arsenal of home appliances - refrigerator, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher and now scooba/roomba. My kids will not know a time when these things weren’t in the household. Great work iRobot!