We have had Roomba for 4 years and Scuba for 2 years... I buy the reconditioned ones for gifts. I am thrilled with both machines and could not live without them. My advise buy it, read the manual, follow the cleaning instructions. Being a Virgo I clean them after each use. Second, buy the replacement packages like filters, new brushes,etc. After 4 years I bought a new Roomba battery. I had failed to remember the instructions that if you are not going to use the Roomba for some length of time, take the charged battery out. If you need more than 45 minutes of Scuba time then buy a spare battery and charger. If you haven't used your Scuba for awhile remember to use the little blue bulb and prime it. Amazon offers all the replacement parts... Back to the Virgo part, I probably own 6 vacuum cleaners and 3 carpet/upholstry shampooers... you can never have too many tools to make your life easier. Yes, I do have one daughter-in-law who tossed hers in the trash... wish I had been there to retrieve it...

I brought a Scooba and it never worked well. It fails o clean for more than a few minutes and then quits. The manufacturer will not stand behind their product. It is a piece of junk. We are back to mopping floors. It works much better and is not the hassle that the Scooba was. Total waste of money.

I love the idea of household robots and purchased the Scooba for cleaning the hardwood floors in my house. It did not last long -- just long enough for the warrantee to expire before it broke down.

That is when I found out there is no service for these units. There is an email help system, which is prompt & courteous, but outside of sending a new tire for the unit there is no actual service for these units.

I was offered a replacement at a discounted price, which was a nice gesture, but I do not feel that these units, without an actual service option, are worth the money.

Unfortunately, a bucket & mop is still the best option at this time...

I have owned two Roombas and already knew that iRobot is one of the most customer-oriented companies out there, so this purchase was a no-brainer. I have enjoyed using this product. As with all of the iRobot products, battery life seems to be a problem. The company replaces batteries quickly, but this will be an ongoing expense when the warranty is up. When I purchased my first Roomba, I found that I had to be inventive to clean the brushes. I was amazed to find that the company took my suggestion of combining a letter opener with a brush cleaner similar to the one that came with my dog's brush into a single product. This company does listen to its customers. The Scooba is easy to clean and the case of Clorox cleaning products lasts a very long time.

Evertime I try to use the scooba to mop the floor I spend so much time getting it ready, dealing with error messages, then cleaning up after it, it makes cleaning the floors complicated and much longer than it should. The oldfashioned mop is so much cheaper, easier and quicker to use. I have also had battery problems, which many other people have also had. They have a lot of technical problems they need to work out. If you spend $300 on a product it should work for years, irobot should extend the warranty and stand behind their products. My scooba is going in the trash.

A design flaw in Scooba's battery charging circuit, will destroy the battery if left connected to the power supply for an extended period of time, which in my case was about a month. I discovered this design flaw after the warranty period, because all previous charge cycles were done by removing the battery from the robot, and placing it in the charging station. The charge station will cut off properly when the battery is full. I only had at most 7 discharge cycles before the battery failed to hold a charge. When I phoned iRobot concerning this issue. I was at first told there was a design flaw in the software that caused the battery to be overcharge, and that I'd be sent a software update to fix that problem. But when I asked for a replacement battery, I was told that since I was outside the warranty window, I would need to purchase a new battery for the unit. Their explanation for why the battery failed changed to, you didn't use the product often enough, that is why the battery failed. Being an electronic design engineer with 25 years experience in circuit and software design, I found that comment to be pretty ridiculous for a product that has a nickel metal hydroxide battery.

My advise, go out an buy a good mop, and forget about this product. You can use that money to buy something more useful, and avoid the hassle of fooling with iRobot's customer service. You'll also save the expense of another battery when yours fails after a few uses.

I have a Roomba, Scooba, and Dirt Dog. These products do a fine job when they work. Except for the new Dirt Dog (so far) they are plagued with battery problems. The quality of batteries in these devices are absolutely the pitts. Do not throw away the box that your little robot came in as you will eventually need it to send it back to the factory. We have replaced batteries, under guarentee, in the Roomba and Scooba. If accidentally uplugged, the battery in the Scooba will be totally dead in one day. Works fine as soon as recharged overnight. The Scooba's tank has to be pried open with a kitchen knife per iRobots suggestion to get it open when it jams. My advice to iRobot is to correct the problems in their present products before coming out with new products. Especially the pathetic batteries.

bought a reconditioned Scooba at significant savings and while there was a good bit to learn from the user forums at irobot that didn't show up in the manual, I'm delighted. It took a couple of moppings to get the tile floor really clean (I have two dogs) but hey, they were moppings I didn't have to do! Corners, touch ups...I do have to do. Remove the chairs, take up the cords, clean those brushes and ports afterwards! Sweep before you run it. Some say it's okay on laminiate if you use vinegar instead of Clorox solution. I've tried it once in a month and have been happy.

This is really a FUN product and it does pretty much as advertised. What impressed me most was the customer service. After comlpeting two great cleaning jobs on tiled kitchen floors, Scooby-Doo as we called it, died, right in the middle of cleaning the bathroom. Customer service walked me through several attempts to solve the problem, then decided to send me a brand new replacement at no charge...can't beat that for service.

Scoobs seems to clean well, but it does not dry as well as they say it will. I have to get on my knees with a towel to dry the floor.

In the start we just look at the machine and said to our self "not possible to get clean tiles"
WE WERE WRONG !
Just perfect, and it saves a lot of time.
Remember that its a machine, and they need cleaning, and thats no problem at all.
Easy 3 min job, and you are all set.
And the cleaning solution just smells nice.
We now have 3 of them working for us (big house) and still no problems.

When i can get it to work its fine, but usually I can't get it to work. I have emptied so many full tanks of the cleaner down the drain.

Using canned air and turkey baser trick to get the thing to lay down the cleaner. And even then I think it only half works.
Because only one side is cleared with the turkey baser.

i have returned 3 of Scooba to irobot before the first year. Then its out of warranty. All of the Scooba robots that I got have the same problems. And I have only gotten maybe 10 cleaning total in 2 years. When I bought it I also got 4 large bottles of cleaner. I still have 3 full ones left.

I am not sure that Scooba really picked up the dirt; I think that Scooba/Clorox solution dissolves the dirt to smaller particles and the dirt is still in the house. It dose not take much dirt to make water look brown. And why Scooba will not work with anything but there cleaner.
.

Also it can't be used on Pergo or other laminate flooring.


I had to hire the cleaning maid to do the floors, and cleaning with Swiffer WetJet gives the same results with out having to clean the equipment. º

I wanted the robot to work; I would have bought more for my Mom and family as gifts. Trust me the scooba is not ready for prime time.

I've owned by 5900 for 14 months. In that time I've only used it about 20 times. It worked great for the first few months. Then the battery started acting up. It would stop 5 minutes into cleaning. I kept the battery in the charger as the documentation recommended. After contacting iRobot, they sent a new battery and recommended against the documentation and to remove the battery 8 hrs after putting it in. So now I have a new battery and a couple weeks later the vacuum fan started making noise. It would leave excessive water on the floor. Next problem, all the lights are on and it does't start (Service code 8, Power, Clean, Check Tank, Check Brush and I'm stuck). I follow the customer support recommendations for taking everything out of the Scooba, including the battery, waiting ½ hour and put it all back in. Same problem and the Customer Rep says that the 1yr warranty is over and that all they can do is offer me a new one at a slight discount from full retail.

I cannot recommend it. It's cool and works well for a couple months, but it doesn't last. With only 20 washings until it died, it's about $18 per floor wash. I've made the mistake of recommending this early on to my friends and now they are having problems also. Most of them start having problems about 6 months to a year after purchase.

It was disheartening when the Scooba didn't work the first time I tried it. It didn't put out any water. I went searching the net and found some posted comments about the problem Scooba has with its valve. You have to unstick it if your "check tank" light comes on. Once you do that, it works fine ever after (or until it dies, which mine hasn't done yet).

Here's the fix: Get a drinking straw and, while there's cleaner and water in the tank, blow air into the tank via the little black valve (a dot-like rubbery circle). You'll see the water bubble if you're getting through the value and that lets you know the water will now flow.

If you have trouble taking the battery out for recharging, just be aware that you need to have the unit standing upright to pull it out (at least that's the case with mine).

I also found that putting the brush back in was impossible for me until I discovered that the unit should be sitting flat for that, and then you slide the brush in through the side opening.

All this may be in the manual, but I lost mine before using Scooba the first time so I had to learn this stuff by trial and error.

The cleaner costs too much on Amazon. You can get it cheaper right from iRobot in packages of nine 32-ounce bottles.

The cleaning ability of this critter has really surprised me. I'm also impressed with the battery life. I think it lasts more than 2 hours on a charge, so I just started it up when it was finished with the kitchen and had it clean it all over again. And I must have a pretty dirty floor because I've had to empty the dirty water and refill the clean water tank as many as three times during the cleaning cycle.

Bottom line: my floor has never looked so clean before. But be aware: you'll have to wipe up in corners and along baseboards and cabinet lines, etc. I just wet a paper towel and put some of the cleaner on it. That cleaner is good stuff. Some people think it has too much fragrance, but I'm very sensitive to fragrances and it doesn't bother me at all. I don't even notice it when in the house as it's cleaning. But if I go outside and come back in, then I'm aware of it. It dissipates rather quickly.

I also have the Roomba and love it. My Dirt Dog is on its way to me; just ordered it.

I've had my Scooba for over a year now, and it has just never worked right. It's been really frustrating, especially since I paid $350 for it. I had such high hopes because I really value my Roomba red, which works well. Frequently the Scooba won't start, and I've done troubleshooting many, many times with iRobot over the phone. On the rare occasion that it does work it leaves a pretty thick layer of water and cleaning solution on my floors, which worries me since they're sealed bamboo. If you have a pet that sheds, like I do, you really have to sweep before using it, or use a Roomba, since the Scooba's vacuum component doesn't seem to work well either. Honestly, I'd recommend Gaiam's far more low-tech version of "Swiffer" (with re-usable cloth covers and a tank you can put your own cleaner in). The Scooba has just been too much frustration for too much money.

Although my Scooba worked well when it was operating, after around 5 uses the battery failed. This, in itself, was not a problem as things can go wrong with anything. The problem is that I contacted iRobot 6 weeks ago and they have still not shipped me a replacement. They are on back order and iRobot says that it will be another two weeks.

I would consider this pretty unacceptable, especially as their website says that they have them in stock. I asked about this and was told that new retail batteries and warrantee exchanges are separate.

There has been a very high failure rate with batteries (they even have a dedicated phone menu item for battery problems) so the chances of you spending hundreds of dollars for one of these and then winding up with a doorstop for a couple of months are pretty high.

Battery is completly useless after only a few uses. Later we find out that the battery has to be completly discharged after each use. The overall performance of the machine is ok, but not nearly as reliable as the Roomba.

When I purchased Scooba, I expected nothing but the same great experience I had with the Roomba products I have used over the course of this year. I have been extremely disappointed with Scooba's incredibly touchy behavior. The tolerance for error when mixing the cleaning product with water to fill Scooba is absolutely horrible. I am successful getting Scooba to actually clean my floors maybe 10% of the time most of the time it just dumps dirty water on my floors. I plan on taking this to the better business bereau because It now just sits in the closet, as I would rather clean my floors on my hands and knees than deal with the frustration of Scooba's error messages over and over and over.

When I purchased Scooba, I expected nothing but the same great experience I have had with the multiple Roomba products I have used over the couse of several years. I have been extremely disappointed with Scooba's incredibly touchy behavior. The tolerance for error when mixing the cleaning product with water to fill Scooba is absolutely nil. I am successful getting Scooba to actually clean my floors maybe 10% of the time. It now just sits in the corner, as I would rather clean my floors on my hands and knees than deal with the frustration of Scooba's error messages over and over and over.

i highley recomend this item quality construction and if you need others things they sell they easy to obtain.

I have two Roombas and while one battery does not hold a charge, the other Roomba will do a quick "sweeping" of a couple of rooms while I'm doing work in another room, so it's useful.
The Scooba, though, is a disaster. The battery I got with my Scooba (in Nov. 2006), never held a charge through a cleaning cycle and the charge has gotten shorter and shorter. My parents and a friend of theirs had the same problem with their Scooba batteries. iRobot agreed to replace my battery (July), but at the same time claimed that they didn't have one in stock and didn't know when they would get one--and this is when a replacement battery is listed as "in stock" on their website! So, clearly, the Scoobas have problems, but iRobot isn't willing to follow through on its warranty. I meanwhile have the bulky Scooba and battery charger to store, along with the boxes of cleaning fluid which I bought (and had to buy from iRobot)...while they simply don't get around to sending the replacement battery they agree that they owe me in exchange for the defective one they sold me. By the way, the Scooba is messy (pour in water, pour in their cleaning fluid, pour out dirty water, pull out several different parts to clean between uses), awkward to use (it's heavy, the battery is hard to extract), and takes up a lot of space, also an ugly blue on blue for their high-end model, and doesn't do corners...and gets stuck under the toe kick in our kitchen. All around, just not worth the time. Much easier to get a mop out--or even hand wipe.....and I say that even though I'll do anything rather than mop! iRobot Scooba Floor Washing Robotic Hard Surface Cleaner, Blue

I used my Scooba only a few times and the battery stopped holding a charge. I sent numerous e-mails to the company asking for assistance and did not receive a response. I packed the battery up along with a copy of the sale receipt and mailed it to the president of the company. They replaced my battery. I used the Scooba twice after that and then it stopped laying down liquid and kept giving me a "check tank" code. Once again I e-mailed technical assistance at Scooba many times, never received a response. I followed all "trouble shooting" suggestions in the manuel, nothing worked. I will not be sending this back as I don't want to waste money on postage since this seems to be a completely useless product.

I bought both Scooba and Roomba but I regret the decision. With Scooba I had the battery problem. The manufacturer says that the battery should last hundreds of cleaning cycles when used according to their tips. After following all their instructions, the first Scooba battery lasted 10 cleaning cycles. I got a replacement battery from irobot which has lasted 20 cycles. Now the unit is out of warranty which means I have to buy a new battery at irobot store for $69.99.So I do not believe any of their claims concerning the battery.The Roomba did not give me battery problems but it stops every 5 minutes in the clean cycle asking me to clean the filter. After struggling a lot with this I finally figured out that it works continuously only if you select Max cycle. I don't think these units are made well and the expense is not worth it.Don't buy!

I waited to do a review till I had this product for a year. Heard some pro and con comments and wanted to be fair. I think most people would like it a lot if they took the time to learn to use it effectively I found that it is better to do a smaller area at a time so you don't have to keep emptying and refilling it. It does a good job then and the little bit of wet it may leave behind is not more than I would do myself. You have to do corners and behind toilets of course but that's a minor inconvenience when I think of the back breaking jobs is saves me. My floors feel and look clean and are never sticky after I use this and I have a dog that is in and out all day.

I love this product. My wife is happy and she makes my life so sweet.

After loads of on-line research, I bought my Scooba less than 4 months ago through the Amazon Marketplace. MISTAKE! I called IROBOT yesterday because my robot is VERY noisy (like can't hold a conversation or watch TV in the same room kind of noisy). The staff at IROBOT very politely informed me that although my robot is defective (they listened to it over the phone), it is not covered under their warranty. I am shocked! I can't believe that they will not stand behind their product if it is not purchased through one of their "authorized dealers." They are willing to exchange it for me if I am willing to cough up another $179 plus shipping. What a racket! I found nothing on their website that stated these limitations to their warranty, so I feel misled and let-down.

I really wanted this product to be worth the money. The cleaning is not bad and I love not having to store a filthy mop, but based on my experience with a robot not working as it should after only 4 months of limited use and the lack of support from IROBOT, I certainly could not recommend it to anyone.

Before you buy, make sure amazon.com is the authorized dealer of the iRobot.

I Only used my scooba for 4 months, then it broken for no reason!!
It showed error code 4, then I tried to contact iRobot customer service for repairing, but they said I need to pay extra $179.99 plus shipping, only because I bought it on eBay!!

They said because I did not buy it from "authorized dealers", so they won't provide Warranty!! I even provided my order record to them to show I only purchased it for 4 months. However, they refuse me again!!
iRobot corporation is a manufacturer, not a retailer. I don't think they have any exception to refuse any warranty repairs for a customer who didn't use their product more than 1 year. If I bought it from eBay, but I request walmart to repair it, then they can say I didn't buy scooba from them so that they can refuse me. However, hey...iRobot is the manufacturer, it's their problem, I even did not use it for more than 4 months, and they refuse to responsible to their product?

A $[...] value product for only good for 4 months, then ask [...] for repairing!!
Wow, such a great company and super awesome support and warranty!!

I bought a scooba 5900 from Sharper Image last spring. Thankfully, I also got the extended warranty. I returned my 7th one this past weekend and since Sharper Image does not sell the Scooba anymore, I got store credit for the purchase. As I noted in the title, the Scooba is great when it works. It really does clean wood and tile floors. We used ours about once a week to clean up the kitchen and dining area and occasionally to clean tile bathroom floors (we have four kids under 5). There were two main reasons we returned our 7 robots. First, eventually (~2-3 months) the batteries simply failing to hold a charge long enough to comeplete a cleaning cyle and second the mechanism that pumps the cleaning solution either stopped working or in one case never worked. I am considering getting one of the 5800 series, but I will only do so if I can return it locally and get an extended warranty. We also have a roomba and it has worked much better. I am a fan of irobot, but the scooba has too many faults. Hopefully they will come out with a newer model soon.

I looked forward to this for a long time only to be highly disappointed. I loved my Roomba when I had carpet, so when I moved to a hardwood floor apartment, I couldn't wait to buy Scooba.

This thing never released any solution, the cover would NOT open without a fight and between the preparation for cleaning followed by the cleaning of the Scooba afterward...it's more of a PAIN than it's worth! I am angry also because this was delivered to me, so now I have to lug it back to the store by myself.

Seriously, it's back to Swiffer for me.

Simplicity is best sometimes. Especially when a product is not yet ready for market like this.

I love my Scooba so much. You can't know until you try one. I felt that I got a very good deal buying it through Amazon, as the IRobot direct site doesn't always have specials. She is worth every penny.

Just remember this product can be a little touchy. It has a filter, rubber part and brush that all need to be rinsed and set firmly back in place or it won't be able to pick up water. Its tires and sensors need to be clean. My worked great for a number of months and just recently it wasn't working well. Turned out it had a pebble stuck in it but now it is back to normal. You have to be the sort of person who can troubleshoot and not give up. My biggest problem is it gets stuck under my kitchen cupboards, so I put shoes and other items there so it won't get stuck. Sometimes it pushes the shoe along and gets stuck anyway *sigh* I do fuss with this thing but I still love it and it does a much better job of cleaning than I do. Wet swiffer sweepers can't clean the grout in ceramic flooring and this Scooba 5900 does a great job.

UPDATE: After 9 months the battery went dead. I bought it at a kitchen site online and IRobot did honor my one year warranty. They sent me a new battery and an computer update for the machine. Now it works fine and the update is supposed to make it so the battery can sit in its stand for 2 weeks. I don't take chances, after 4 or 5 days I remove the battery off of the stand.
For those of you who have problems you need to look at the Irobot troubleshoot site. It does help. Much better than throwing it in a closet.

I like the Roomba vacumn better, it is much less touchy and works well. The Scoomba is a touchy complicated little thing and should be about $150.

I have had 2 of these pieces of crap now. My unit was a scooba 5900 that is no longer being made due to all the problems with this unit. The first one i had just stopped working after 40 days. The second one just stopped washing the floor no water out of it what so ever! I wrote scooba and they are replacing it again with a 5800 series since they no longer manufacture the 5900 cause its a piece of crap. Which is also 100 dollars less than the one i have now. I wanna see what they are going to do about the difference. I recommend not buying this product it really is not worth the money or headaches. If u decide to buy one of these make sure u buy it from a store like Target not mail order cause when u use it and u see what iam talking about u can return it and save the shipping cost. Also if it breaks like mine has. U have to eat the shipping costs to send there piece of garbage back. I bought mine direct from IROBOT. On there 30 day free trial. MIne broke on day 39!!!!! All they would do is exchange it. I honestly wish i never bought this product i kick myself in the butt you have no idea what a bad decision it was to purchase this item!!! I REGRET IT SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got this as a gift for my hardwood floors. I already have a Roomba which does a wonderful job or getting in and around stuff. Literally you set it down and it does it's thing.

The problem with the scooba is:

It is literally faster, easier, better to clean the floors with a mop. It is a decent first generation product, but I don't recommend buying this. It has several design flaws which need to be rectified before you can actually begin to replace the mop (I never expected the product to do corners, tight areas, and low-height clearances and stairs and stuff..lets be realistic..)

The screen gets dirty if you don't roomba the floor first. it is flat out a poor design for the screen filter. or just poor suction so it doesnt use the whole screen.It stops mid-cycle almost every single time. So you have to babysit it.

It seems to stick along the -edges- since I have to babysit it. I watch it, and it does up around the walls and stuff several times, and completely avoids the big open areas where you get the most foot traffic. It also have a -very hard- time making the transition between rooms so it will do like 1/2 of the area, and totally miss the other half sometimes it does them both, but it is a rarer occasion.

When I first got this, I literally went through the whole bottle of solution just trying to get the 400 sq ft of floor downstairs clean. It was like 6 complete cycles.
Before the floor got clean..and im not -that- dirty. there were tracks where i had walked acrossed the floor with wet dirty shoes (not muddy) on and it left spots on the floor.. It took 6 times to remove those..

It gets stuck in certain areas the roomba finds its way out of. I thought I was ALL set as I had roomba proofed my house. I plunked this sucker down, and it failed miserably. It can't find it's way out of corners that only have a single entrance point.

It bumps objects a LOT harder then the roomba does. It can get stuck because it hits objects like chairs so hard that it moves them an inch or two, and it can't bump its way back out.. The roomba doesn't do that..

It doesnt detect edges or go over transitions very well. I can't use it upstairs in my house because it hits the stairs and gets stuck on the edge of them. It also can't go over the ledge between the hardwood and the linoleum in the kitchen like the roomba can. If you just put it in the kitchen,it gets stuck on the transition coming off the linoleum. which it only like a .5" drop at most. The roomba doesnt have an issue with this.

It gets stuck in about a quarter sized whole in my tile around the fireplace where the tile has chipped and disappeared.The roomba makes it over this with no issues.

It leaves streaks.

The cleaning solution is pretty pricey.

It will not self-charge on the base like the roomba does so you actually have to take the battery out, and let it charge, instead of coming home, having it already charged, empty, and clean it, and restart it.

The pros are, it does actually -clean- the floor but you have to run it daily to keep the floors clean since it doesn't do a thorough job and since it doesnt do all the areas you are constantly fiddling with it. It doesn't save you any if much time or mess, over hand mopping.

The design of the solution containers is not only messy, but it can get stuck trying to open it, You end up with a dirty sink,since you have to open it over the sink or risk having the dirty solution dump on your floor which is actually gross.

I would have sent this product back had it not been a gift.

I just purchased my scooba from amazon.com and I didn't have to charge for the full 24 hours like recommended I guess mine had a charge still to it not sure. The recommended cleaning time takes about 45 min mine cleaned for an hour and fifteen minutes! I had just mopped my floors the day before so I didn't expect them to be dirty or so I thought! I couldn't believe when I emptied the dirty tank just how dirty the tank was! I also liked the fact that you don't have to sweep before hand!

The only draw back to the scooba is it does not go flush with underneith the cupboards where the baseboards are it totally missed cleaning straight along so I did have to get the broom out and sweep in that area and then take a sponge and clean around the edges in fact I had to do that around my whole kitchen and breakfast room edges along the walls. But that took me less then five minutes which wasn't bad but buyers should know that you will have to clean along the edges of the walls and underneith the cupboards where the baseboards are.

Another thing that I don't like is there is no shine to the floors with the clorox cleaning! But I have to say my floors are clean!

Overall I am very happy with my scooba and plan to use it a couple times a week.

Had to return it. All it did was beep, it never moved. Called help line twice, and got no assistance