Scooba Blog

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.

Lance Ulanoff from PC Magazine has a review of the Scooba that you can read here

I’ve been worried about the noise after watching the online videos, but Lance says it’s not too bad.

The Scooba’s 80-dB whirring is louder than the slosh of a mop, but not annoying.

On getting stuck:

I also had to move my virtual wall halfway through because the Scooba, just like its brother Roomba did, got stuck under my hutch. Oddly, it never stopped trying to clean and the “I’m stuck” light never came one, but make no mistake—it was stuck. I pulled it out, turned the robot around, and then, to prevent the Scooba from rolling under the hutch again, I put the virtual wall in front of it. I used some furniture to block the den entrance. The Scooba really should ship with two virtual walls.

On cleaning the Scooba:

The brush chassis slides out sideways and then comes apart so you can clean the brush. The wire mesh filter and rubber vacuum port slide out; cleaning them is a matter of dumping out the dirt. But cleaning the roller takes time. I also had to wipe down the Scooba’s bottom. Part of it was covered with wet dirt, including the edges of the squeegee.

Edward Baig from USA Today got to play around with a final engineering prototype of the scooba. Read his article here

A few points:

Though it cleaned admirably, Scooba missed a few spots in my kitchen. It won’t eliminate deep scuff marks, and it failed to fully remove a red cupcake icing stain.

A couple of times, Scooba’s “I’m stuck” button lit up accompanied by error codes. One code indicated I needed to inspect the wheels. Scooba also got stuck under a cabinet. It fought to escape, but I finally had to jerk it out.

I think Time is the first to give an initial review of the Scooba (someone correct me if i’m wrong). Anyhow, here it is.

It looks like the device works well:

..it managed to cover every inch of the kitchen floor in that time [20 minutes]. The linoleum that had been greasy and sticky, with the occasional crusted food spot, was buffed to a smart shine.

Something new to me:

They also suggest that, if you’re out of the solution, running the Scooba with plain water will work to at least some extent.

I’d be interested in comparing the cleaning results with solution compared to without!

On battery life:

The Scooba cleans up to 200 square feet on a single tank of cleaner in an estimated run time of around 45 minutes. Its battery lasts a little longer than that, but only a little…

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, been a little busy.

From Yahoo News:

iRobot Corp today announced the iRobot Scooba Floor Washing Robot has been honored with the International Consumer Electronic Showcase (CES) “Best of Innovations Design and Engineering” Award in the Home Appliance category. Scooba is the first floor washing robot available for home use. The robot was selected as a winner from a pool of more than 1,000 entries from 164 companies.
….
“This marks the second year in a row that CES recognized an iRobot product as one of its most innovative technologies,” said Greg White, executive vice president and general manager, iRobot. “The Scooba builds on the success of the Roomba Vacuuming Robot, taking the utility of home robots to a new level.”

I received an email from Ted (thanks!) about the shipping on preorders:

So the early preorders were being charged shipping, even though the
email said they wouldn’t. I contacted customer service, they said it
would be fixed (of course).

They also sent out an email today apologizing for the site troubles at
the scooba store.