Does it lessen our Workload?
Hi Folks.
Got another review for you, this time from KDKA, a CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh. Here is a link to the review.
Some snippets:
…there is no question the Scooba gets up dirt, but smears the dirt in tougher jobs. You can see it does a decent job. Getting it to finish the job is the problem…I found it pushed a lot of the dirt which it is supposed to pick up into the corners and where all the walls and the floors meet
So, did it lessen her workload?
“It actually created more work because once it was done, I had to clean all the parts off, dry it all out, put it all back,”
For those who have the Scooba, whats your opinion? Has it lessened your workload, or are you better off just scrubbing the floor?
I love the Scooba I have. I would not let a floor get horribly dirty before I used the thing on it. For normal dirty floors such as my kitchen, it does a GREAT job. I like that I can set it, forget it and then just clean up the parts afterwards, which takes me less than 5 minutes. My kitchen flor is used by our family of seven, plus a dog and six cats. I can use it once a week and the floor is still easy to clean. I like that I can use it more often without adding significantly to my workload. It’s a wonderful thing to have, especially considering I can be cleaning my floors when I’m not even home!
Comment by Molly Phifer — March 11, 2006 @ 11:11 am
Definitely lessened. Obviously, this reporter hasn’t used the scooba over time. Yes, it will blow crap into corners. This is why I do a quick sweep over using a 3′ soft floor sweeper. Sweeping takes about 3 minutes and allows the scooba to do a much better job (with less clean-up). Overall.. a DRAMATICALLY reduced workload. And the type of work even changes.. instead of back-breaking scrubbing.. its just a bit of wiping down/cleaning up a robot.
The only thing I’m ticked about is the level of customer support over at iRobot. I had a malfunction in the battery charger.. it’s taken two months to get a replacement. It finally came in Friday. I’m STILL waiting (at about 3 months now) for a new virtual wall since the one they sent me was defective. iRobot.. you listening? Your products are great.. your support is greatly lacking.
Comment by Ian — March 14, 2006 @ 3:46 pm
Trouble with the battery charger ‘tray’ or the wall-wart?
The virtual walls have been on backorder since the Scooba came out. Presumably they didn’t start manufacturing them in Asia when the Scooba was released. Ours have finally shipped (in the last week, they haven’t arrived yet).
We love our Scooba. With ~800 sq ft hard surfaces on our main level, it makes a big difference. We sweep sometimes, just let it go at other times.
The only problem we have running Scooba is in a dark room. The smoke detector is above the door, so Scooba stops at the brightest part in the room, and we can hardly get the door open to retrieve Scooba.
Comment by tedder — March 14, 2006 @ 6:43 pm
I’ve found that if I either run the Scooba every two to three days, or run it twice in a row once a week, I get pretty good performance out of it. It seems to work better than the alternatives for me, anyway. Mop and bucket might perform better, certainly cheaper, but I hate doing it so much that I don’t mop more than once a month, if that. I also have a Hoover floor cleaner, but the thing is very noisy, takes over an hour of manual labor to clean the floor, and does a comparable job to the Scooba.
Overall I’ve found the Scooba when used regularly does a pretty good job for not much hassle, though it does cost for the convenience.
Comment by Chris — March 28, 2006 @ 11:08 am
i dare say that love is too weak a word to describe how i feel about my scooba.
i use it every day, it takes a minute or two to fill, and about 3 minutes to empty, clean the trap/filter thingies, and wipe down.
love, yes, love this thing. i really have a great fondness for my roomba, but scooba……::swoon:: it’s love…….
Comment by gena — March 28, 2006 @ 2:39 pm
I can’t say enough about my Scooba. It does a far better job on my floors than I ever had the time or willingness to do. I have five young children and a dog in my household, so I use it just about every day. It has saved me tremendous amounts of time since I have tile in my kitchen, hardwood in three other rooms in my house. I find Scooba very quick and easy to clean after it’s completed it’s job. Since it is round it obviously does not get corners very well, but then neither did I with my mop! I love that I am talking about my mop in past tense!!
Comment by julie — April 11, 2006 @ 1:32 pm
Just got the new Scooba. They must have everything in stock because it came in real fast from iRobot directly. Can’t get the fluid in Canada, which is a good thing because it STINKS!
I’ve never dealt with such a cloying scent. It stays in your nose an hour after you leave the house. Fortunately, they now say you can use white vinegar, which got my scientific brain working. I can understand their reluctance about the solution. You can’t have ammonia, chlorine, or slippery soap.
And here is my big heresy which allows me to keep the Scooba and not have the house smell like a brothel, or a pickle factory. I use the ZEP hardwood cleaner at Home Depot. I checked it out, and it works in a side-by-side demo. It’s milder than vinegar, but a bit less concentrated, so I put in a full Scooba cup. The water comes out just as dirty.
I am keeping some of the original fluid to put in it if there is a warranty thing…. This is anonymous, right?
Comment by harold — April 26, 2006 @ 11:26 am
Definitely lessens the load. Yeah, it smears heavy stains, but I tend to run 2-3 tanks due to a large kitchen & laundry room, and that’s been enough to pick up its own tracks. It’s real fast to rinse & reload, and I go off & do other things for the 20 minutes it runs.
Comment by Keith — May 19, 2006 @ 10:04 am
I use Scooba on a 10×12 kitchen with a white floor and separate laundry room. A truly enjoyable robot experience.
I prefer it to Roomba so far, mostly because the clean-up seems easier and less “dirty.” The dust and dirt that ends up all over the Roomba’s cleaning elements get suspended in solution in the Scooba, so what you end up with is larger particles that rinse away cleanly.
Scooba’s cleanable parts are also easier to deal with, without small bits that try to get lost every time I clean to rollers.
With dogs and cats, running Scooba every 2nd or 3rd day works well for me. Based on my experience with Roomba (Discovery), these bots seem to work best (and remarkably well) with moderate levels of dirt.
Comment by Jesse — June 4, 2006 @ 9:12 pm