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iRobot's award-winning floor washing robot preps, washes, scrubs and dries up to 500 square feet in a single cleaning cycle. The Scooba 350 uses only clean solution to wash sealed hardwood, tile and linoleum floors. Scooba cleans hard-to-reach places like under cabinet edges, tables and chairs. Uses clean tap water, water and vinegar or deep cleaning, fresh scented Clorox® Scooba Cleaning Solution. 4-stage cleaning process preps washes scrubs dries. Preps - picks up dirt, sand and crumbs. Washes - uses only clean solution to wash floors (mops just spread around dirty water). Scrubs - powerful brush removes dirt, grime and stuck-on messes. Dries - lifts dirty water from floors
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Technical Details
- Floor-washing robot cleans sealed hardwood, tile, and linoleum floors- Can handle up to 500 square feet on a single battery charge
- Uses water, water and vinegar, or Clorox Scooba cleaning solution
- Preps, washes, scrubs, and dries; cliff sensor; 1 virtual wall included
- Measures 14-3/4 by 14-3/4 by 3-1/2 inches; 1-year warranty
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By M. Kelley (Boston, MA United States)
I purchased my Scooba a few years ago after some success with the Roomba vacuum cleaner. Of course, short term success sometimes isn't the best thing to use as judgment when buying technology as I ran into some quality control issues with my Roomba 560 machine. All has been fixed, some under warranty, others out of pocket expense but I am back to being a happy Irobot customer. I waited quite a while to review Scooba because it is not something I use as often as Roomba. I wanted to make sure I had enough experience with it as well as time so I could see what (if anything) would go wrong with it.
I am happy to report that I have had no major issues with Scooba since buying it. I am not talking about quality of its ability to clean my floors but rather in quality control of its build by Irobot. To date, the only thing I had to replace is the battery (my fault...more on that later). Compared to what I replaced on Roomba, this is a miracle!
Using Scooba is much more involved than running Roomba. Outside of the occasional brush cleaning and emptying of the dirt bin, Roomba can stay out of site out of mind and run when you want it to. Scooba requires the user to do several steps to get it run. I'll quickly walk through them.
1. Add solution and water. This is the easy part. You can either use a solution made specifically for Scooba or use a specific amount of vinegar. You get a measuring cup which will give you the exact amounts for each method. I use vinegar as its cheaper and seems to clean just as well. It might smell for a bit but only lasts for maybe an hour or so.
2. First time use or after prolonged periods of no use you have to prime Scooba. What this means is you have to manually add water to the main line that draws water out of the clean tank. Scooba comes with a suction cup ball thing that you fill with water and then attached to the main line (a little plastic piece) and force water into it. If you don't prime Scooba properly, it will just run around your floor without putting any water down. Sometimes this takes one or two tries to get it to work right. If you use Scooba on a regular basis, there seems to be no need to prime it every time.
3. Clean cycle - once Scooba is filled and primed...it will do its thing. Not much to say here except that Scooba doesn't seem as "smart" as Roomba and I find it has a tendency to go over the same areas more often, although I still usually get close to full coverage.
4. Clean Scooba tank- After Scooba is done, you will want to empty the dirty water chamber. Otherwise, if you leave it.....well....the smell....don't want to go there.
5. Clean other parts of Scooba - I would recommend cleaning all of the brushes and areas underneath as well as make sure all of the suction areas are free of dirt, hair, whatever or you may run into some issues later on. Since Scooba is actually sucking up water it puts down, it picks up other stuff as well if on the floor. Luckily, most of the stuff is blocked out by a filter screen that can easily be removed and cleaned after each use.
So that's it but with this model, you will need to manually return Scooba to a charging cord as it does not have a nice charging dock and auto return like the Roomba I have.
So how does it clean?
I would give it a B+ overall for its cleaning ability. Overall, the dirty water I dump out of it is clearly dirty and my floors are left with a nice shine when I use the vinegar/water combo. I have even used Scooba on my hard wood floors, however I usually follow it up with a cloth to dry the floor off more quickly than it would on its own. As far as getting dirt off the floor, Scooba can usually get most stuff up but it may take one or two passes. Luckily, Scooba seems to pass over the same spots several times so most of the stuff on my floor usually gets picked up. Battery life is very good with Scooba easily able to dispense an entire tank of solution on one charge with power still leftover. My kitchen (where I mostly use it) is 26' X 13" and I add a small bathroom as well so it is a decent size area.
Some of my issues are as follows:
1. Scooba is BIG. It is much higher than Roomba so it cannot get underneath some things that Roomba can get to. Overall, its not a huge deal but I have to remember to manually clean under things like the kitchen cart since Scooba cannot do it.
2. Scooba cannot climb over any minimal size threshold which prevents it from going into any other room. Sometimes this is fine if I just want to clean the kitchen but if I want it to get my hardwood floors, I have to pick it up and move it over the tiny little threshold that separates that rooms.
3. Floor vents tend to get Scooba stuck more often than not. Roomba is very smart and easily backs off of things like metal floor vents but Scooba seems to get confused and will ultimately get stuck 3 out of 5 times or so.
4. Scooba seems to leave behind more water that I would have thought. I still have to wait quite a while for my floors to dry as some areas are pretty wet especially if Scooba has gone over an area a few times. I would say that the dirty water tank is maybe 1/4 full when the clean water is completely drained. It seems like Scooba's vacuum just isn't strong enough to suck up all the water it puts down.
5. Suction - I learned after maybe 20 uses that Scooba can get clogged even if you do regular cleanings. I was noticing that way more water was being left behind and the dirty tank was virtually empty when Scooba was done. I immediately though Scooba's suction pump had gone so started doing some research. I found some very helpful tips to try before I went screaming to Irobot. The first one I tried happened to fix my problem. I filled the dirty water tank with clean water and then shook the living daylights out of it. A ton of gunk came out that must have been clogging the pipe that sucks the water in. I was very happy that this was the problem as it took no longer than 5 minutes to fix...and lots of internet research.
6. Battery issues (my problem but still a nuisance) - my battery would not hold a charge for more than 10 minutes after I inadvertently left it unplugged for several weeks. I tried all the tips and tricks to reset Scooba, do this, do that...but nothing worked. I bought a replacement battery from Amazon (a 3rd part battery) and it is working very well and even lasts longer than the stock one. My issues really comes down to the type of maintenance a person has to do with these types of batteries (NiMh). Caring for a battery should not be like caring for a pet. However, you have to remember to either use Scooba on a regular basis or make sure you follow the storage instructions for your battery or you risk a short lifespan on the battery. I believe I paid around $45 for the replacement so its not bad but its still $45!!
7. Scooba is NOISY!!!! Tough to watch TV in a room that is near the room Scooba is cleaning. Much louder than Roomba!
Overall I am very happy with the build quality of Scooba. Just like Roomba, I have a few small areas that I have to remember to clean on my own (corners and under stuff that it can't get to) but it does what it states it will do...cleans your floors for you. Your involvement is a little more than what you have to deal with Roomba but its still a lot better than getting a bucket, mop, etc.. And doing it all yourself. Just remember to clean it and try some of the troubleshooting tips out on the internet before you throw in the towel!
By PC (New York, NY United States)
I really hope the company looks at these reviews. I would give this product 5 stars were it not for the "small" but extremely annoying design issues. First of all it does get stuck in the least likely places such as between the legs of a chair. My guess is that there's nothing one can change to avoid that. If space openings roughly match the Scooba's width it'll likely get stuck there - unfortunately. This is not a huge issue. Once it gets stuck a couple of times you find ways to rearrange furniture to prevent the device from going there the next time.
Much more annoying is everything related to the tank design. Latches, handles, sensors are a nightmare. The pull-up release handle and the latch on the tank is in my lowly opinion the height of design incompetence. The latch would release on its own in the middle of cleaning causing Scooba to stop and complain that the tank is open. Ironically some time later the latch got stuck so I could not take out the tank. No amount of pulling on the handle did the trick. The flimsy handle finally broke off. I now have an invalid device that still works but looks like it fought in a war.
While it was still brand new it would frequently stop and signal for you to "check tank," while there were no obvious reasons for it - solution tank still full, dirty water tank still with plenty of capacity. This is by far my biggest problem with the device because what I was really hoping to accomplish is leave it cleaning when I depart the house in the morning and come back to clean floors when I return. Instead you come back and find this thing either stuck, with a popped tank, or just a bogus "check tank" signal and you realize that it didn't get even 5 minutes into its cleaning. You now have to "jiggle the handle" and listen for an hour to its - fairly loud - operation when you want to relax after work.
All of these issues are made all the more irritating since I took extra care to avoid them by thoroughly cleaning it on a regular basis.
I would still recommend it to anyone who likes clean floor, has a LOT of patience, but doesnt have time or energy to swiffer. If iRobot folks could put their heads together and fix these rather basic design issues I would be a much bigger proponent. Until then swipper the floors to avoid the frustration.
By Mark Chad (Eveleth, MN)
My husband bought the scooba for me for christmas and it was awesome. It swept the floor and mopped it. It worked great. Then only about 4-5 months after having it things literally started falling apart. The valve crumbled apart when i tried to clean it. Then the handle stopped working to open it so we had to use a knife to open it then finally the handle fell off. Now we are left with a pile of parts. I tried emailing the company and the website is a joke.They put you through hoops just to tell you that you can't email them without an account even when you do have an account it says you don't have one. So i called the company and they were not helpful and told me there was nothing i could do except by a whole new body and tank without the battery for $180. I think its a great idea but a complete rip off. By the way my husband spent well over $200 on this just to use it for 5 months then toss it.
By rane (silicon valley, south bay area ,CA)
Love the idea!
One thing that I wish I knew was that although this robot is rated to clean the square-footage of our floor, it must do it in 2steps (it'll stop and you must change the tank). The next size up would do our whole floor in 1 go. Since this is a second home, it is difficult to baby-sit it than if it was at our main home. Also, you need to clean it out right when it finishes cleaning, again not ideal for running as we walk out the door because it can't set until the next visit. For these reasons, the vacuum would have been a better match. (Plus we could also use it at the main house).
Problem with OUR robot, is that the suction drying does not work. So the floor is left wet to air dry. Not critical, as it leaves the floor clean, and I usually run it when I'm stepping out for a bit. Still, a bit annoying because I paid a pretty penny for something that is supposed to vacuum, scrub, wash, and dry all in the same pass!
Since the hardwood floors are not at our main house, I'd be open to swap this mopping robot for a similar-rated vacuum (with auto dock and auto scheduling).. good option for someone who hates mopping as much as I do!
I simply would get more usage from a vacuum (dog hair!).
Also, I msut say our dog is frightened of everything from Vacuums to Water, but does not mind this floor robot ! Great job on the design!
I really wish they named this Scoomba for consistency with roomba. Also I hate the confusion with utterly unrelated "scuba". Anyway, it is Very common for people to refer to is as scoomba.. it's natural. Easier fo rbrand recognition, too. Well, we can't all be in charge! Anyway product is cool.
By Dan Z (Northeast Tennessee, home of the free)
What it is good at:
Cleaning lightly soiled smooth and flat hard floors.
What it is not good at:
Cleaning heavy dirt or heavy spots, such as jelly.
Cleaning hardwood floors with distinct seams between boards (leaves dirty fluid in seams).
Cleaning textured or rough-surface tiles (leaves dirty fluid on surfaces).
Cleaning tiles that have grout between them (leaves dirty fluid on grout). Because of this it is useless on these floors. You have to wash by hand anyway to clean the grout.
A time saver for some chores, but certainly will not eliminate all your work.
-dan z-
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