iRobot Scooba 380 Floor Washing Robot
Price:
Product Feature
- Preps, washes, scrubs and squeegees sealed hardwood, tile and linoleum floors
- Cleans beneath cabinet edges, tables, chairs and other hard-to-reach places while automatically avoiding carpets and stairs
- Ideal for homes with larger areas. A full charge allows the Scooba 380 to clean 850 square feet (3-4 rooms)
- Autonomous cleaning pattern covers each area of floor an average of 5 times
- Sensors allow the Scooba 380 to avoid stairs and ledges
Product Description
iRobot Scooba Floor Washing Robot is a cleaning breakthrough that wet-cleans your floors automatically so you can have cleaner floors whenever you want them, without having to do it yourself. Just push a button and Scooba uses a breakthrough 4-part system to sweep loose dirt and debris, spray fresh cleaning solution, blast away spills and stains, and squeegee up the water to leave floors virtually dry all in one pass, so it's even safe to use on wood floors. And because Scooba always cleans with clean water, there's no re-deposit of dirt while cleaning, so you'll get cleaner floors, anytime, automatically.iRobot Scooba 380 Floor Washing Robot Review
We've been using one of these beasts for about a year now and I have few complaints. It's not perfect but it does a good job. It and a regular Roomba 420 clean our floors well and manage to keep a large kitchen, den, breakfast room area clean even with two kids and a dog running in and out of them all day.To address some of the specific points in other reviews:
1) if it's leaving a large amount of water behind something is set up wrong. Try pulling the squeegee tight so that it is completely straight, or perhaps replacing the cleaning unit;
2) we use vinegar on our hardwood floors with no problem. We use the cleaning solution only on the marble floors;
3) if the battery is running out before cleaning is complete the battery needs to be replaced. Ours always empties the tank completely;
4) yes, the multi pin plug is a pain to connect, it takes at least 3 seconds to orient properly...
My only complaint, and the reason it does not get 5 stars, is that the thing is stupid compared to the regular Roomba. It gets stuck where a regular Roomba would not have problems. Better status indicators would also be a help, in particular, it would be nice to have the same charging / charged indicators so that you can tell when it is fully charged if you want to run it twice in one day (without buying another battery and the standalone charger).
Update 10/10/2012
We are now on our second Scooba and have been running it for about a year and a bit. Our first one stopped charging properly. At first playing with the charging plug would work, eventually nothing at all. The newer models seem to have a slightly better charging plug, maybe this has been addressed. The newer model is also slightly smarter than the old one. It doesn't spend as much time repeatedly washing the same areas any more.
The main reason for this update is to point out something that generally seems to be ignored with the Roomba's and Scooba's: they all take ongoing maintenance and have ongoing supply costs. You should be prepared to buy replacement parts at least once a year. The Scooba wears out the rubber parts that contact the floor and it will stop handling solution properly if the tank get's too dirty inside. I've found no real effective way to clean the tank after a while. Hot water works some, banging it in various ways helps some, but sooner or later you are likely to need a new tank. Overall, the cost probably comes to $100 a year which, for me, is ok given what the Scooba does. When you first get a Scooba (or Roomba) you will get a discount code for your first purchase on the iRobot site. Use this first purchase to stock up on supplies; get a new cleaning unit, the refurb kit, and cleaning solution. After that some of the supplies (batteries in particular) can sometimes be found cheaper here on Amazon.
Update 10/4/2013
We are now on Scooba Number three since this spring. Number two had the vacuum stop working. You can buy 3rd party parts to repair the thing but the repair is complex and the parts are relatively expensive. When Woot had a refurb on sale that included the external battery charger for not much more than the cost of the repair I jumped on it. Unfortunately, the 2nd battery arrived pretty much dead (which was likely the reason the thing was a refurb in the first place!). That all aside, I've finally figured out one thing you can do to extend the life of the tank. The major reason these things will stop taking up water (other than dead vacuums) is that the internal channels in the tank get clogged.
Our dog has a doggy door and she drags in mulch and dirt from our many flower beds. Our Scooba then sucks up a lot of this dirt even if I run the Roomba prior to the Scooba (usually a day apart for any given room). To remove this built up gunk I used a childrens plastic drinking straw to push into the interior of the tank and loosen it all up. In particular, pay attention to the two 1/2" or so somewhat oval ports that connect to the brush. By using a straw that is designed to bend I was able to get it around the tight bends and deep into the tank. All kinds of dirt and grime got loosened up and after washing the tank out with copious hot water the Scooba is once more sucking up water properly.
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