Since I’m a lazy bachelor, I hate mopping the floor and the waste of time it is. So I’m interested in a Scooba, especially this one (German amazon link). The user reviews there are quite positive, whereas on amazon.com (for a slightly different model) they are not overwhelming.
About half of my 70 m[sup]2[/sup] (ca. 753 sq. ft.) appartment has a laminate floor, the other half tiles. As you can guess, I’m not that anal about the cleaning power, i. e. it would be no problem if some small specks of dirt remain (because that happens too if I’m cleaning my floors with a mop), as long as the general functionality is given (translate to: the Scooba should be able to clean the floor as effective or better than myself).
So, does anybody here have experiences with a Scooba which they can share?
I have had one for about six months, and I love it. I have terrazzo floors. It doesn’t have a lot of “scrubbing” power, like you could do yourself with a mop, but for semi-daily maintenance, it works great. I wish I’d bought one earlier. =)
While it will sort of vacuum for you as part of its process, I’d suggest a quick sweep or dust-mop of your floors to get up the big chunks prior to letting scooba do its thing. If you stay on top of it though, and let it run every couple days or so, you can probably skip the sweep, as it does a fine job picking up small grit or daily tracked-in dirt.
I have read reviews with people having various problems with their irobot products, but I’m hoping that with proper maintenance after each cleaning cycle (I rinse each filter and removable part, including the brushes and holding tanks) that mine will hold up well. So far, no problems at all.
You could get a sweeping robot as well. the Dirt Dog.
Be sure to buy a programmable station, so the robot powers itself and does its thing daily on the hours you programmed.
It doesn’t seem to be available in Germany, but anyway, I might have admitted that I’m lazy, but I’m not lazy like a bone.
I have learned from further research that this is not necessary (or better, makes no sense) for the Scooba (in contrast to the Roomba), because a full charge lasts longer than the used water, and you have to change it manually anyway. And the Roomba will have my whole working day to do its job, so no time programming necessary.
Do you have any pets (the kinds with fur)? I’ve thought about buying one for my mom, but she has a pair of cats that enjoy shedding in the kitchen, and I’m worried it’d be harmed by errant fur.
Three cats, actually. And sometimes I wonder how they could have any hair left on their bodies considering how muchthelittlefurballsshed.
If I keep up with the scooba every second or third day, it can handle the amount of hair it scoops up. Since the battery is good for about two full tanks worth of cleaning, I take a few minutes to rinse the hair out of the filter at each tank change. If I let it go longer than three days, I either run a quick dust mop, or my roomba (yeah, I loved the scooba so much I bought the roomba too) to pick up the big drifts of hair before running the scooba. I think she’d be fine if she did something similar.
There have been many threads about the Roomba - we have one and love it! Just turn it on, go buy groceries or whatever, and when you come home - the floor is clean! If this one ever dies, will most certainly buy another!
However, we can’t get the Scooba - we have Pergo hardwood floors and it specifically states you cannot use this on those types of floors (damn).
So we simply do a quick, wet mop every few weeks or so (after Roomba has vacuumed them) and it makes keeping the floors clean very easy.
BTW, great last minute gift idea if you can afford one for somebody who has mostly hardwood/tile floors in their place!
Actually, the problem isn’t cat fur, it’s cat litter. The little clay bits that you might have on your floor, even after sweeping, melt and then clog the intakes. I can’t remember exactly why but for some reason it was impossible to either clean or repair the affected part.
I’ve heard with the roomba that you somehow “tell” the robot with where to vacuum so it doesn’t go into other rooms. Can you set up a perimeter for scooba too? If she can tell it not to leave the kitchen, then litter isn’t a problem because the cat boxes are in the next room and they’ve yet to manage to track litter into the kitchen.
Scooba comes with “blockers” which pretty much create a line Scooba will not cross.
Maybe our cats have different behaviors, but I find cat litter in every room in the house. It just spreads really easily on hardwood in tiny little bits. Even after sweeping, swiffing, etc, Scooba sucked up litter eventually and got clogged fatally.
