iRobot 330 Scooba Floor-Washing Robot
by iRobot
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List Price: Our Price: $229.00 You Save: $170.99 (43%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Home See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of iRobot 330 Scooba Floor-Washing Robot
Customer Review: A WARNING ABOUT THEIR WARRANTY REPAIR- BUYER BEWARE
Summary: 1 Stars
I have nothing but GREAT things to say about the product itself. It does a fantastic job and now my kitchen floor gets cleaned far more often than I'd scrub it on my own.
HOWEVER, their Customer Service and Warranty Repair policies leave much to be desired. It's a VERY long and drawn out story. But the short version is this...
I received it as a gift for X-mas 07. Early April 08 the battery died. Warranty Repair dept. said they'd ship me a new one. I received an e-mail then saying it was backordered. After lots of phone tag and e-mails back and forth, I finally pointed out that they had them listed on their website as available and ready to ship.
I finally got my replacement battery after almost a month. It was refurbished and not the same model as the one I originally had. I had a 100 minute battey, they shipped me a 50 minute battery. I did not find this out because they told me. I found this out by chance. After further research it was confirmed that they sent me a cheaper battery than the one I originally had. When I called, they basically told me too bad.
I had to escalate this from a person on their 800 line to a supervisor and finally via a written request to a manager. The manager said that even though they have new 100 minute batteries on their website available, they would not send me one. I was stuck with the 50 minute battery. They made no apologies for sending the wrong one and in fact stated they knew they sent the wrong one.
The particular SCOOBA I have was purchased because it came with a 100 minute battery. A less expensive model could have been purchased with a 50 minute battery, but that's not what I wanted. But it's now what I am stuck with.
I also asked to have my entire SCOOBA replaced if that was the only way I could get my 100 minute battery replaced. I was told if I were to do that under warranty, they would replace it with a re-furbished SCOOBA and a 50 minute battery.
I have since called my local news. They are investigating what happened and hopefully, I will get my 100 minute battery. That's all I want.
After telling my Mom about my ordeal, she said she also had to have her battery replaced under warranty. When she looked, sure enough... they sent her a 50 minute battery too.
The product is great. But if it breaks down... you will be downgraded to a lesser model.
I'm really disappointed that a company with such a great product will not stand behind their name.
As for me, I will not be buying the Roomba I so badly wanted and my husband will not be buying the Dirt Dog or the one the cleans gutters. It's really a shame.
Buyer Beware.
Customer Review: My new best friend
Summary: 5 Stars
We hav owned Scooba for about 8 weeks. I purchased it after getting a green light from hubby to get it as an anniversary present. Who knew that the 8yr mark was the robot-mop anniversary? I was in shock at the sticker price, because we are more of the hearty handshake kind of gift-givers.
Upon arrival, it didn't work. I had read all the reviews and tried to prime it myself with a turkey baster. After a few failed attempts, I called Jennifer at IRobot customer service. She was awesome and dropped a nasal apsirator thing in the mail. But by the time I had hung up, I evidentally did something right with the turkey baster and scooba was working like a champ.
We have a VERY small kitchen. It is the thoroughfare to the garage and the backyard and we have two small children who run through the space approximately 875,000 times an hour. I could never keep the back and white checked vinyl flooring clean. Scooba was a last ditch effort to try before ripping out the floor for tile. But I still would have had to keep the tile clean...
anyhow, I have used her 4 times a week or so since arrival. It's amazing. I am very impressed and I'm a bit of a clean freak. She gets the floor cleaner than it has ever been. The only way previously the floor shone is if I scrubbed with a magic eraser every inch, then mopped, then mop and glowed. Now the floor gleams.
I have a confession though. I am not one for manufacturer's recommendations. I use Lysol, windex, comet, whatever on my floor even though scooba VERY clearly says not to and that it will void the warranty. I prefer to live life on the edge however. The little bottle of cleaner it came with lasted about a week, and I had tons of cleaning supplies in the house and didn't want to wait for new cleanser to arrive.
I actually think Lysol works the best, with a bit of comet sprinkled here and there if we have a particularly dirty section of the floor.
I clean the filter and the little tubey thing after each use and have cleaned out the brush twice since owning it (once a month.)
I am a happier person. My floors are happier. My kids are happier because I'm not freaking out about the dirty floor. I'll let them cook with me again and not lose it when an egg drops on the floor.
I have not tried it on our hardwood. It doesn't seem necessary to me so far, because it does such a good job in the kitchen and bathrooms.
I also want to add that we are landscaping right now so she has been used a lot this past week since there is a thin layer of brown dirt over everything.
she rocks. I'm okay never getting another anniversary gift again.
Customer Review: I'd give 3.5 if I could
Summary: 4 Stars
The Scooba 5800 joined our family as a gift to my wife. We already have a Roomba 550 which handles all of our vacuuming needs, so a scooba seemed like just the thing for our mopping nightmare. We have white linoleum floors covering about a third of the main portion of the house, and marks and spots would show up constantly making mopping almost a nightly job for my wife and I. Knowing that she could spend that time doing something else, this sounded like a perfect gift.
When we first got the unit, it wouldn't work. A call up to the friendly iRobot people pinpointed the problem almost instantly and after a clever use of a turkey baster to clear the pump valve, we were in business. Using vinegar and water we set it to clean the floor and watched it as we did our Roomba when we first got it. Since we only had one virtual wall, we also wanted to make sure it didn't get on the carpet.
It started in the center of the room doing its normal outward spiral followed by some room crossing and then some edge following. The thing that intrigued us about this unit is that, unlike the Roomba we were accustomed too, this seemed much more random in its choice of actions. The Roomba will adapt to its environment such as chairs and other furniture and will do its best to get areas clean. The Scooba, on the other hand, seems to favor a Random approach which will either leave ares touched only once or sometimes not at all.
It was also marginally successful at drying the floors after a good scrubbing. It would scrub about 85-90% of an area, and only completely dry about 75-80% of the same area. The remaining area wasn't soaking wet, but there was some liquid still on the floor.
We weren't expecting a mop replacement with this unit, just as we weren't expecting a vacuum replacement with the Roomba. In both cases we were pleasantly surprised by its capabilities and slightly puzzled by some of is simple limitations. Overall this was a great robot, but it may end up being replaced with a more advanced model in the coming years.
Pros:
* Good cleaning of a given area
* Vinegar and Water provide a very cheap solution to the Clorox iRobot suggests
* Rechargable battery
* Good drying capabilities
* Audible alerts to let you know what its doing
* Very good at not getting on carpet
Cons:
* Size means it can't get into all corners
* Doesn't dry all the areas it mopped
* Won't get off many black scuff marks caused by shoes, but will get some
* Very random and not very adaptable cleaning behavior
* Would like to see a better vacuum feature to get lint and other small particles off floor
Customer Review: Not bad on my linoleum & hardwood floors.
Summary: 4 Stars
It meets the 80/20 rule. It does 80% of the work that you would do if you did a thorough, good clean yourself. However, I usually don't do a thorough good clean myself on mopping floors since I left the navy.
obviously, make sure that your floor is swept before starting Scooba. (I use my Roomba since I am doubly lazy..) Scooba won't get into the corners, but neither do I when I mop.
The point is.. I don't like mopping. Neither does my wife. The hardwood floors never get mopped. I have a dog & 2 cats. Thus, the kitchen floor always looks like &*$(#! most of the time. Now it doesn't. It looks great. I'd suggest it for people that hate mopping & just want someone (or thing) to do it..
The first time I had scooba clean, it ran, but no water came out, and ittold me to check the tank, so i fiddled with it (pulled it apart & put it together again) and it worked. perhaps I didn't put the little rubber tube in right or didn't snap things together right the first time.
It works great on mud, dried food & dried spills. It missed some hardened, caked on gunk that would take a bit of scrubbing with a brush, or, scrubby part of your mop, but I didn't expect it to get those. In my case, it got up things like hardened jelly & stuff, but whatever the trash can has been grinding into the floor for the last couple years, it couldn't get up.
When you are done with Scooba, you do have to empty it out, give the tank a rinse, and clean the brush & a removable tube, to me though, thats easier than cleaning a mop. Though some people don't clean their mops, I would strongly suggest it with scooba.
You also need to buy their special cleaner, which to me, isn't that bad, since if you didn't use it, you'd be using another cleaner anyway. Scooba is quite efficient, as well. it uses 1/8? cup of cleaner and a quart or so of water on my floor (200 Sq. ft). If I were mopping, I'd be using more of both. I tried vinegar, which did pretty good, but the clorox appears to work better. I bet if you used Scooba more often, then vinegar would be fine.
The best time to use Scooba, in my opinion, is right before leaving in the morning, watching the TV downstairs, or going to bed (provided that 45 minutes of hair dryer sounding noise in another room doesn't bother you). That way the floor is dry when I come back to it. Some people have complained that it leaves the floor too wet after a mopping, but, to me, it appears the same as after when I mop myself.
so, in summary, if you just want the floor mopped. get Scooba. If you a perfectionist, its not for you.
Customer Review: Should work right out of the box ... but don't hold your breath
Summary: 2 Stars
I ordered the Scooba thinking that this would be a great Christmas gimmick for the family. What's better than a toy that mops floors? Trouble is, the unit did not function ... would not spray the cleaning solution after about 3 feet of travel. I called iRobot Customer Service and they had me squirting water into valves and passageways trying to flush out the system. No luck. I visited a Scooba internet discussion forum board and read all the posts, and discovered that I was not alone. It would seem that a pretty high percentage of machines do not function right out of the box.
Being unable to get the machine to work, I paid to send the unit back to iRobot, and they sent a new one. THE NEW UNIT DID NOT PERFORM EITHER. Again, called iRobot Customer Service and they had me squirting water into valves and passages, cleaning this, adjusting that ... all to no avail. This time iRobot emailed me a UPS shipping label to send the unit back. I made sure that the customer service agent understood that I expected to receive a functional unit this time. It must work right out of the box. No excuses.
The THIRD machine arrived at it too did not function properly. It would dry up after about 3-6 feet of travel. I visited the web discussion forum again and did A LOT of reading. I have performed many checks and flushes with this unit, finally discovering that the clean water tank does not vent properly (forms a vacuum after a little water is pumped out) and no cleaning solution will flow. Today I left the clean tank filler cap off when I started the machine and it seems to be working just fine.
When it works, it works great.
My issue is why should I have to engineer workaround solutions for this machine's shortcomings? IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK THAT A $300 MACHINE FUNCTION PROPERLY STRIAGHT OUT OF THE BOX? I don't have to do carbureator adjustments on my new car. I didn't have to engineer repairs on my new central vacuum system when it was installed. New should mean "perfectly functional", shouldn't it?
By the way, DON'T ORDER THIS FROM AMAZON. If you get frustrated with the Scooba and want to return the machine, you won't be able to after 30 days. Read the Amazon return policy! My suggestion: order from Hammacher Schlemmer. You'll pay a little more, but they have a lifetime return policy, no questions asked. (So what is "lifetime" for a Scooba? Hammacher gives the Scooba 4-years). Hammacher has been in the mail-order business for many, many years. They have an excellent reputation.