Scooba Blog

We got a scooba lucke dout actually a Target near us couldn’t sell theirs they marked both units down three times. So we got ours for $150.00 (300 to 250 to 200 to 150) I’m thinking about buying the other one and selling it on ebay for $50 more just to have that 50 pay for the solution.

The solutions not bad but people will have issues. the vinegar trick is in teh manual. I knwo many peple don’t want ot read that far but they offer you that choice they don’t force you to use clorox solution if they did they’d not print the vinegar water solution in the manual. So come on lets be rational educated people here before ya go blasting something cause ya didn’t want to read the owners manual. Don’t get me wrong vinegars not ideal smelling but it’s still a choice.

As for hardwood we have a 3000 sq foot house the floors rarely if ever get cleaned.

So the wife picked up the clearanced scooba now nick named scooby and figured if it sucked we’d take it back.

She’s done the kitchen which is lame lino.. And all but one room of the first floor which all rooms are hardwood. And I have to say I haven’t seen the floors this clean since we moved in it did an amazing job you could tell the floors were clean. The only caveat to hardwood flooors look around after it’s used to see if you have any water that soaked into the wood if so dry it and reseal it if you plan to keep using your scooba cause ward in teh wood too much is bad.

But our floors look great and wife is quite happy as is everyone else in the house.

On to another robot. The Scrubbing bubbles shower cleaner not a full bot but does the same and I was skeptical but it works I’m seeing grout coming white finally and the shower curtain has stopped sticking to istelf from the mold that grows.
All in all i’m happy to say we’ve moved on to using some of the labor saving clean devices of the new age and they work quite well. I only wish everyone else the same good fortunes.

I sadly returned my Scooba today to The Sharper Image. (By the way, they were really nice and no-questions-asked about the return).

I love robots and I love Scooba theoretically, but my expectations were too high. For $325 with tax, I really wanted it to clean well.

And it was only so-so. It got our dining room and kitchen floors pretty clean, but left a border of dust and dirt behind along the edges of the floor next to the walls. The Clorox solution also smells way too strong. If you’re not sensitive to smells, it probably won’t bother you. But I was annoyed.

We also tried it in a small, closed off area of our gallery space, which had more industrial-sized stains on a concrete floor (spilled drinks, scuff marks, dirt footprints). The Scooba really didn’t make any difference at all. I was wondering if the stains were just permanent, but then I whipped out the old Swiffer Wet, and it dissolved most of the stains with a little elbow grease. It was not as cool as Scooba, and I had to spend my own time cleaning instead of the robot’s time; but with the Swiffer it actually got clean.

So now I’m sad that it didn’t work out, and I’m going to keep my eyes peeled for the second generation scooba to give it another shot.

Thanks to Adam who wrote in with a review:

I sadly returned my Scooba today to The Sharper Image. (By the way, they were really nice and no-questions-asked about the return).

I love robots and I love Scooba theoretically, but my expectations were too high. For $325 with tax, I really wanted it to clean well.

And it was only so-so. It got our dining room and kitchen floors pretty clean, but left a border of dust and dirt behind along the edges of the floor next to the walls. The Clorox solution also smells way too strong. If you’re not sensitive to smells, it probably won’t bother you. But I was annoyed.

We also tried it in a small, closed off area of our gallery space, which had more industrial-sized stains on a concrete floor (spilled drinks, scuff marks, dirt footprints). The Scooba really didn’t make any difference at all. I was wondering if the stains were just permanent, but then I whipped out the old Swiffer Wet, and it dissolved most of the stains with a little elbow grease. It was not as cool as Scooba, and I had to spend my own time cleaning instead of the robot’s time; but with the Swiffer it actually got clean.

So now I’m sad that it didn’t work out, and I’m going to keep my eyes peeled for the second generation scooba to give it another shot.

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?

CNN Money is featuring a review of the Scooba. Read it here

Some Excerpts:

I tested the Scooba on my kitchen floor the day after it had been mopped by a professional housekeeper…the silicon-based robot picked up more dirt and left the floor much cleaner than the carbon-based humanoid did.

On the downside, at nearly 15 inches wide, Scooba is not going to crawl behind the toilet or wiggle into recessed corners. It’s slow by human standards. And I wish it had a laser-pen sensor so I could guide it to messy areas.

A local ABC News affiliate has a review of the Scooba, available here

Here’s a snippet:

Both our testers also say the Scooba will miss certain spots.

Lisa Tabb, Fairfax: “It just doesn’t seem to get around certain corners that the manual mop could.”

The final verdict was split. One tester claimed that the Scooba “cleans better than just the human mop” while the other disagreed.

I thought I would post my impressions of the scooba after having run it now for about a month. It’s definitely worth the money and does a fanatastic job. However, I have run into a few problems.

1. The darn front wheel collects hair. The girls in my family shed hair like alf. This hair loves to get tangled in the front wheel. The best solution to fix this, is just to sweep before I run the scooba. It’s easier to sweep before running the scooba than it is to dig the hair out of the front wheel. The scooba does a better job anyway if you sweep first. I have a giant 2 1/2foot soft sweeper, so this is pretty easy.

2. My virtual wall or virtual wall sensor in the robot died. I’ve been waiting about 2wks now for iRobot to send me a new virtual wall, as they are on back order. So, I end up having to create “physical walls” using floor mats.

3. My external battery charger has died. It won’t successfully charge the scooba battery. It keeps clicking off like every 30 seconds. Luckily, I can use the charger built into the scooba to charge the battery.

So my recommendations for scooba users:

1. Sweep first! It’ll save your scooba some pain and you’ll end up with a cleaner floor.

2. Make sure you fill the tank all the way up when you add the solution. A little bit can make a big difference. You can see if there are any ‘bubbles’ in the tank by looking behind the filling ports.

3. Don’t try to do too much floor at once. The scooba definitely performs best when he goes over all spots twice. The first time over a stain, he’ll soften it and the second time over he’ll remove it. If you give the scooba too much room, he won’t ever hit the spot again.

Overall, a fanatastic product. I haven’t used a mop since buying it.

Ian

Chris Cooke filmed a fantastic video of the Scooba in action. For those who have not purchased one yet, and are interested in seeing it work, I urge you to check out the video. Downloaded the video here, or a mirrored copy is available here. Just a warning for those on dial-up, the video is 20MB.

Chris has also started a wiki page containing his impressions. Check it out here.

Stephen Manes from Forbes reviewed the Scooba, available here

I added a smattering of cat litter, some New Year’s confetti and a splotch of Cap Jempol Chili Sauce to the existing grime on the bathroom floor tile……It’s [Scoobba] too wide to make it behind my toilet and too tall to get all the way under my bathroom console. That made for trouble, because the Scooba blew litter and hair it hadn’t picked up yet into areas where it couldn’t go.

Hope everyone is enjoying their holidays! There are a few people who have posted comments on some older posts, but I think they deserve their own post.

From Sarah:

I have a Scooba and it does not avoid the carpet. My carpet is divided from the kitchen linoleum by a thin metal strip. There is no height differential. The carpet is beige and the linoleum is white. The Scooba just zips right over the threshold. Until I get another virtual wall (it needs more virtual walls to come with it standard!), I just put an object there or stand there and let it bounce off my feet.

From John:

Scooba F O R C E S You To Use Clorox Solution

Got my Scooba today, will be sending it right back. We do not use smelly cleaning solutions in my house.

I had assumed I could just use water w/ the product - who cares about voiding the warranty - my right. Well, there is a sensor that detects for the product. Not only that, it is quite accurate. I tried 1/4 recommended mix , 1/2, 2/3, but would only work with the exact specified mix amount. Got a “check tank” error otherwise.

Really sucks! It is amazing that they would implement technology to enforce a marketing arrangement. Is this even legal?

Thanks so much for your helpful comments.