Scooba the Floor Scrubber - Robotic Floor Washer

iRobots -the maker of the Roomba Robotic vacuums- makes other innovative robotic floor cleaners including the Scooba, a robotic floor washer. Scooba the floor scrubber offers hands-off floor cleaning of sealed hardwood floors, most sealed tile floors, and linoleums, and it does a good job at it too.

The Scooba floor scrubber begins its chores by sweeping your floors free of dust and debris before it moves on to scrubbing it clean. Using clean water throughout the process, the Scooba gently but very effectively scrubs your floors clean with rotating brushes and your choice of cleaning solution, white vinegar and water or just plain tap water.

Once the Scooba has finished cleaning your floor it very considerately squeegees it somewhat dry. The Scooba is in effect a better floor scrubber than I am, and is also much better at showing up for work at this particular job. So if you're anything like me, the Scooba will greatly improve the cleanliness of your floors, as well as the quality and quantity of your spare time.

Available in 3 options, the Scooba robotic floor washer comes in model numbers 330, 350 and 380. The big difference between the models is in battery capacity and the surface area each floor scrubber can cover on a single charge.

The most affordable Scooba model is the Scooba 330 floor scrubber, which is capable of washing up to 250 square feet on a single charge. This robotic floor washer comes with the basic Scooba, 1 Virtual Wall, 4 packets of Scooba cleaning solution, and a Standard Scooba battery and Recharger.

The Scooba 350 cleans up to 500 feet of floor area on a single charge, but does require a water change halfway through. The 350 comes with 1 Virtual Wall, 4 packets of cleaning solution, an advanced power supply battery and recharger. The 350 is known as the intermediate package.

Covering 850 square feet of floor space on a single charge, but with one water change halfway through, the Scooba 380 floor scrubber is the Premium package. The Premium package includes 2 Scooba Virtual Walls, 4 packets of Scooba cleaning solution, an advanced battery, charging base and storage mat.

The only differences then is in bin capacity, battery size and regular longevity, number of Scooba Virtual Walls it comes with, and whether or not it comes with a charging dock and rubber storage mat. The charging dock according to consumer reviews does not work very well, and the rubber storage mat is unnecessary and not worth the additional cost. Also the 330 has blue casing, while the 350 and 380 feature sleeker black and gray casing, which if it wasn't for the significant price difference might be an obvious choice.

However, if you'll only be using the floor scrubber on one room at a time and on no room larger than 250 square feet, then the least expensive Scooba 330 may be just the robotic floor washer for you. It does only come with 1 Virtual Wall unit, but they can be purchased separately if more than one is needed, and for much less than upgrading to the 350 would cost.

The Scooba is as smart as the Roomba when it comes to avoiding stairs and other drop-offs, but unlike the Roomba Robot Vacuum which easily transitions itself from floor to carpet and back again, the Scooba floor scrubber senses and avoids carpeting and rugs. Scoobas do come with at least one Virtual Wall to block off entries to other noncarpeted floors where you may not want the Scooba to wander off into. This also lets you keep the Scooba at work in one room at a time.

The Scooba is an excellent floor scrubber, working its way over your entire floor an estimated five times scrubbing up most dried on spills and stuck-on food residue, pet stains, mud and other grime. However, Scoobas do not do corners.

Unlike the Roomba Robot Vacuum from iRobot, the Scooba does not have a scheduling option. This probably shouldn't be considered any sort of drawback.

The Scooba is a self-automated floor scrubber, a robotic floor washer, but it does need filled with cleaning fluid and clean water at the beginning of each use, and it also needs emptied and cleaned afterwards, every time, even if all you do is rinse out the dirty water. Rinsing out the brushes well is also a good idea.

As far as the corners go, it really isn't a big deal to take a cloth or devoted dishtowel and clean up the corners very quickly and easily. A small amount of moisture is generally left on the floor which can be used, and no matter what floor scrubbing method you use, corners will need hand-cleaning to get them right anyway. This actually provides you with the perfect opportunity to regularly clean out those corners, avoiding the build-up of gunk which usually occurs.

Now, I said that the Scoobas will leave a small amount of moisture on your floors. This should be no more than you would leave on the floor yourself using a mop and bucket method. There is a problem some users of the Scooba floor scrubber experience involving an excess of remaining moisture. This is not a system failure, just a wet seal. Moisture on the seal prevents a tight closure, which causes the Scooba to lose vacuum power. To avoid this situation just use a towel to wipe up aby water drops around the closure and seal of the Scooba before closing it.

All that said, it's pretty much the extent of your hands-on participation. Just like manually mopping a floor, you have to get the cleaning water ready and clean out the bucket and mop when you're done. But with a Scooba robotic floor washer, all the back-breaking, sweaty in-between, actual floor scrubber work is done for you, just as well as if you'd done it yourself. Minus the corners.

Compare the Scooba to the Mint Automatic Floor Cleaner. You may find the Mint's simplistic approach better suited to your needs than the Scooba. If you haven't experienced a Robotic Vacuum Cleaner yet, take a look at my hub on the Latest Roomba Models, and on the brand new smart robot vacuum The Neato.

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