iRobot Scooba 450 Floor Scrubbing Robot

We’ve never had a robot-anything before (vacuum or floor scrubber) and we finally took the plunge on the Scooba based on the reviews. It does a terrific job on our ceramic tile floors, which are flat and smooth – perfect for the Scooba! If you have tile floors, buy the Scooba, and the dry-dock charging stand, and the cleaning solution. It is much easier (and your floors will be cleaner) than wet-mopping or Swiffer/Bona. Details below: I agree with other reviewers who note the seemingly haphazard pattern of cleaning (or lack thereof) and I encourage everyone (especially engineers) not to watch and try to discern the algorithm. The reviewer who said the algorithm is dumb also agreed that his floor was dry and clean at the end -- and that is what counts. It is fun to watch Scooba approach walls slowly (after he has found them once), then run along the wall perimeter, so you know there is a brain inside. Once you have your area sized properly, the Scooba will do a great job. You will be dumping out dirty grey water (and dog hair, in our house) from the tank so you can see for certain how well it is working. I also agree with the reviewers who like the smell of the “official” floor cleaning solution. At 40 cents per cleaning (or less if you use less solution – see my tip below) it is nice touch at minimal cost. We also splurged on the charging stand; certainly a big profit-maker for iRobot, but extremely convenient (it fits in the back of our laundry closet this way). Because it tilts the tank up–away from the fill port–we leave the unused water and cleaning fluid inside the clean tank for the next time. (We always slosh out and empty the dirty water tank thoroughly!) Our bottom line: 1. Once you get the area set correctly, Scooba does a great job. You know that you have the area correctly sized if there is very little water left on the floor at the end (a few quarter-sized spots here and there) so it has time to do all three passes (soak, clean, and squeegee) in forty minutes. (Read: soak, scrub and suck). 2. You will end up using him frequently to keep up; we do the kitchen every other day and one other area every week. After ignoring our kitchen for weeks on end in the past (we aren’t neat-freaks) it surprised us to find ourselves running the robot every other day. But as long as we keep up, we never have to vacuum up dog hair or do a major cleaning. It is easy and our floors look great, which is exactly why you buy a Scooba. 3. You will quickly develop a routine (put the stools, trash cans and the dog bowls up on the counters, move chairs out, set the “virtual wall”) and then fill the clean tank and turn the Scooba loose. When we first began using our Scooba, we ran over the floor with a towel afterwards to pick up the wet spots left over, but now we just ignore them and let them dry. They don’t leave any dried-up marks or residue behind. Cleaning the Scooba dirty tank and brushes afterwards is essential, but that is the only part of the job that takes any real effort on your part. 4. We drain and slosh out the dirty water tank multiple times to make sure we get it empty, but we don’t even bother opening the clean water tank afterwards. We know we will be using it again within a day or two so we just put the robot onto the charging stand, and then “top it off” and add one capful of new cleaning fluid (instead of two) when we are ready to run it again. Since the charging stand keeps the tank tilted up we know it won’t leak out the fill port. And we use less cleaning fluid that way. (This is not recommended by the iRobot folks; they want you to dump out both tanks.) The Details (more information than you probably want or need): The first time we used it, our floors were pretty awful (hadn’t been cleaned since Christmas) so we ran the regular upright vacuum first and pulled the dog hair clumps off the chair legs and such. We weren’t completely satisfied with the Scooba’s first pass, but we knew there was a lot of set-in crud on the tile, and the dirty water tank was really filthy. Our first three runs were an exercise in figuring out how to divide our house. We have ceramic tile floors (18-inch squares, very flat and smooth) throughout our kitchen, dining and entry areas. The kitchen is complicated by a center island, eat-in nook with a center-post table, walk-in pantry, and adjacent laundry room and bath, so it was very hard to determine the actual floor area and I’m too lazy to do the math. We turned the Scooba loose on the entire area for the first run (including the adjacent laundry and bathroom) and he did the entire area with only a tiny bit of water left in the (clean) tank when he finished. But he also left some wet areas behind on the floor so we figured that this was too large an area (even at the “big room” setting) so he hadn’t finished the “suck” pass. Maybe he got lost and confused by too many turns. For the second run we closed the pantry and bathroom doors and he did very well, getting up nearly all the water and leaving everything dry with only a few spots here and there. But this time he still had almost a third of the clean water left over in the tank. The third run (just right!) we opened the pantry back up and kept the bathroom closed off, and he did great—nothing but a few small wet spots left behind here and there and everything was really clean. There was still some water left in the tank, but we just left it for the next time. Our conclusion is that once you figure out the optimum area the Scooba will do a great job; you don’t want too big and you don’t want too small. By the way, our dog is very sensitive (read: scared) of many noises, the smoke detectors, the treadmill, and even the waffle-maker signal makes him tremble and hide—either in your lap or in the farthest room, sometimes behind the toilet. But the Scooba doesn’t bother him. He sniffed at it once and has ignored it ever since. Follow-Up, Several Months of Use Later: We still run the kitchen every other day and continue to be very happy with Scooba. My suggestion is to run it frequently so you don't need to vacuum first (it gets all the dog hair by itself without vacuuming). The brushes are soft and not designed to really scrub hard; remember that the design is to soak, then run the (light) scrubbing brush, then suck up the dirty water before it dries. This is why it is important not to select too big an area. The brushes will not pick up ground-in crud, so the more frequently you run it the better it will perform.

The unit was great. For about four months. Then it stopped putting down water. After weeks of going back and forth with iRobot, we were able to get a software patch that worked. This software patch got us another three months of a functioning unit, though it wasn't as effective as it was before the software patch. So three months after the software patch, the unit stopped putting down water. Again. We were asked to do another software patch. It didn't work this time. So we were sent a new part to fix it. That didn't work. Finally, after three weeks of back and forth, we were able to figure out a work around to get the unit working. Basically the solution was to pull out parts while charging. Once the unit was fully charged, we were to put the various parts, e.g. water reservoir, solution, and sweeping blade, back in to the unit. This procedure worked for six more months. And now the unit has stopped working again. iRobot is now telling me that the unit now needs to be replaced, but is out of warranty now. The cost of replacing just the core body? No battery, tank, blades, etc? $399. The unit should have been replaced when it started having issues. It wasn't. We were given band-aids until we were out of warranty. I have bought four other Roomba units in the past, so I'm a fan of the product concepts. The Scooba is a no go for me, and so is iRobot.

I had read many, many reviews for the scooba- both tech expert reviews and customer reviews. I vascillated a LOT over whether to purchase the 450 or wait until the next model comes out. I noticed that Irobot comes out with new models about every 2 years and the 450 came out in spring of 2014- so, wait another year or not? I ultimately decided to 'take the leap' and purchase the 450, mainly because I LOVE my Roomba so much and I also HATE to mop. I recieved my scooba 2 days ago and here is my preliminary review ( will update as needed ) : Personally, I would rather have the bad news first so- The negative complaints from most seem to hold true. The bad: The battery runs out FAST. Do not plan on the scooba to mop numerous rooms on one charge, it just won't happen. 2 small rooms or one large room will be about it. It also takes quite awhile for the battery to charge. I am used to my Roomba- a charge lasts quite some time and it charges relatively fast. This is quite annoying and a must fix by Irobot. I get that the scooba is heavier and requires water but, for the cost, a fix is really required. It is expensive! Another complaint I have already found is really a problem- if your floor is not flat FLAT, you will have an issue. With my kitchen grout my scooba has stopped saying it was stuck 😣, more than once. This is really annoying. I can understand a gap, but grout? It doesn't happen all the time but enough to make you have to keep an eye on it. Also, if your floors have any slope, forget it. The hallways in my historic home are slightly sloped and there was no way was the scooba going to get anything done on them. My scooba moaned and groaned and spun slowly in small irregular circles and did not accomplish anything except dump water on the floor. Again, my hall floors are very slightly sloped. An average person would never even notice but the scooba acted like it was Mt. Everest. My Roomba flies through the hall no problem. More power is a must for the scooba. Talking about noise- this sucker is LOUD. Not jet engine loud but don't expect to watch TV in the same room when it is running. Lastly, for the cost, it is ridiculous that the scooba does not include the drying/docking stand. To have to purchase it seperately is insulting. The annoying: Does not get corners ( fairly obvious ). It can leave a moderate amount of water on the floor ( not a huge big deal ). You have to use Scooba's cleaner or plain water. Period. Don't think you can trick it- you will loose your warrenty and it will stop working. I would like to use something with a bit more 'teeth' than the scooba cleaner even though it is not a bad product and seems to work fairly well, I just like a good clean smell like pinesol etc.. I have not used just plain water and can't begin to imagine I would so I am stuck ordering the proprietory Scooba cleaner. Annoying. It also does not have as low of a profile as the Roomba so it cannot fit under a number of things. The good: It cleans. Good. Quite good, actually! I was surprised at how good quite frankly. I will confess that I do have house cleaners ( I hope they will not read this ) but the scooba seems to clean the floor better than they do. I was very surprised. The floors were thoroughly cleaned ( which I was skeptical of at first since it has a weird cleaning pattern ). Since this is the most important thing I was happy enough as to deal with the other issues and not return it. Also, cleaning the scooba is super easy. It's actually easier to clean the scooba than cleaning the Roomba. I put the docking station in my laundry room and just dump the dirty water in the sink, rinse the easily ejectable parts, snap it back together and drop it into the (optional) docking station. Overall: The scooba works well in ideal situations. It does not go over slightly raised items/bumps/barriers which can be good and bad. There are certainly things that Irobot needs to fix by the next model of scooba but the company seems to take into account and address issues that people complain about in the real world. I think the next model will (hopefully) address the charge length, the power/motor strength, the noise, the cleaning additive choices and a free docking station (!). If scooba improves the way I believe it will I will get the next model and give this one to my daughter. One FYI: some people complained that when they tried to use their scooba it said that the tank was empty. This happened to me also but after 4 or 5 restarts it worked fine. I believe the internal pump just needs to be primed- Irobot should make people aware of this, it would probably save themselves some frustration from customer complaints and returns.

Wonderfull. Better than expected. Cleans very well . Recharge fast, easy to use and To sanitize the parts. 👍🏼 👍🏼

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Returned unit. Leaves floor wet, streaked and incomplete job in general. Also, not capable enough based on room size(s) and to do a job requires recharge and refill. Disappointment. Back to manual cleaning.

Tried many rooms, the robot has an odd pattern of soak in, scrubbing and squeegeeing, at the end it leaves pools of water and streaks all over the place. It does not come back to clean the water. I have tested the robot in small to medium size rooms the biggest was 4x5 meters. Same result on all of the areas. Called the support and their response was: "With the limited space to keep the water and cleaner on the Scooba it is limited to cleaning 300 sq ft or less, with the odd shape of the Roomba you may need to close the space down more as you are nearing the maximum ability of this robot." For my basement I would have to divi it up in six - seven sections. That is more than a day that I will have to clean/fill/wait to charge and change the robot location in other words to baby sit the robot just for the basement. Attached it the area deemed to be to big for the robot to handle.

This product has a few prerequisites when it comes to operating optimally. First of all, its important that your floor is clean (vacuumed/swept) before you use the scooba. I know it indicates that it has a vacuum setting on it, but if there is lots of dust/pet hair on the floor while its cleaning it will impede the ability to squeegee the water back up. Second, this product seems to be designed to work best on a super flat floor - i.e. linoleum or sealed hardwood floors (not tile). My floor is hardwood but is over 10 years old and obviously the wood has shifted and settled slightly over time, giving the floor a slightly less than flat surface. The first cleaning session I was kind of disappointed with the performance; there was lots of water left on the floor, almost none picked up in the dirty water tank and the floor didn't seem much cleaner. However, after running it a second time over the same area the result was much more satisfying. It left far less water (due to having picked up much of the dirt and debris from the first run), sucked up much more water (squeegee was less clogged with debris) and the floor looked much cleaner. I would recommend this product with an asterisk of caution; keep your expectations in check - this is not something you can just set on the floor, push "GO" and have it work miracles. There is some prep work involved like keeping the floor swept/vacuumed and removing any furniture and/or objects that could get in the way. Tighter areas are harder for it to clean well - the easier it can manoeuvre around your room, the better the result will be. It operates best on flatter surfaces. And you may have to run a cleaning session multiple times over one area to achieve the best result - which is still better than having to do it with a mop or on your hands and knees.