iRobot Scooba 390 Floor Scrubbing Robot

Other posters complain about the iRobot Scooba 390 being too noisy. I'd be the first to say, this would be great if it were less noisy, but it is still far quieter than a standard vacuum cleaner. You can run this in one room wall watching TV in the other room. Its pretty easy to maintain. The areas marked in yellow need to be serviced between cleans, which takes less than 2 minutes. The biggest downside is that the directions instruct you to charge between each room to maintain the battery. This is somewhat annoying because you need to plan your cleaning somewhat. In other words, you need to clean a room, drop the vacuum, then start cleaning the next room to have an efficient process. I'm a single guy, in an 800 sf apartment, and this saves me a huge amount of cleaning time. Definitely a luxury item, but well worth the spend if you are short on time. [ADDED After 6 months] This thing is not very easy to maintain and the warnings consist of fast beeps you have to count and tones you have to understand. LEDs explaining what maintenance needs to be done would be a HUGE improvement. The beeping minimalist thing is stupid for a device which is designed to save time. Once you know how to do the maintenance, it takes about 10 minutes per clean. A clean that would take 25 minutes. That means it saves you some time, but not nearly enough. If I were an engineer at iRobot, I would work on 2 things: 1) Minimize maintenance as much as possible 2) Change from sounds to an LED warning system. A lot of times you run it while you are not there, it keeps erroring but you don't know why because you have to hit play and watch it. T that is stupid. The battery doesn't last long even though I didn't use it very often and maintained it according to their standards.

I wanted to love this so badly...but unfortunately, it just isn't that great. I bought this in 2013 and have been sporadically using it for 18 months. It does a so-so job of washing floors at the very beginning. But the performance just goes downhill quickly. We kept meticulous care of it but the machine's insides just get grimy and clogged (despite best efforts to clean and maintain) and it just fails to work well. I have to pre-treat any visible spots of grim with some sort of cleaning solution (409 or whatever) before I run Scooba and even after its done I have to go back over the whole floor with my Swifter to make it look truly clean. The other noteworthy "con's" are that it is SO LOUD (sounds like a lawnmower running in your kitchen) and the vacuum feature is hilarious ineffective. You have to completely and thoroughly sweep the area first anyway because the vacuum isn't good for picking up more than maybe a couple small dust bunnies.

For those of you unfamiliar with iRobot's cleaning robots, the Roomba, in all its iterations, is a robot vacuum, while the Scooba, in all its iterations, is a robot hard floor washer (emphasis hard). They share some common traits - the Scooba, for example, does vacuum (somewhat, as it washes); they are roughly the same size and shape, they make beeping noises to tell you their status, they bump into things and turn around. The similarities pretty much end there. The Roomba has been developed over a long period of time, and really does its job - vacuuming - pretty well. It's fairly intelligent - it "knows" when it has finished a room, and where it's been, it will return to a recharging station on its own, it is (fairly) gentle with furniture, it can generally get itself out of a jam, and when it can't, it shuts down and gives a warning beep. The Scooba on the other hand, is relatively newer, and I suspect still in evolution. It washes hard surface floors (with a vacuum in front that picks up larger particles before washing), and does a decent job with some caveats. It's considerably dumber than it's smaller sisters, the Roombas. The only thing it really "knows" is that it has run out of water, or the battery is low, or it's stuck - which happens a LOT compared to the Roomba. It's taller by a fraction that the Roombas, so it tends to wedge itself under things, and then rotates and spins until it's REALLY stuck, or it gets out, usually the former. It generally crashes into things full force - walls, baseboards, doors, and it doesn't seem to know where it's been, but repeatedly crosses a room or spins in place enough that it usually in the course of an hour or so randomly covers everything. And it does avoid carpet fairly well, if it's not a flat, hard type of carpet. It uses a relatively small amount of water to clean (I measured just over 3 cups in the tank - the size of which isn't mentioned anywhere in the specs, but easy to fill it up and pour it out and find out); about half of that is left in the dirty tank when finished, so about half evaporates or is left on the floor. But that small amount may stay pooled on the floor for 10-20 minutes, in random spots, so I would definitely not recommend it on hardwood, sealed or not. Get a Mint for that - Mint Plus Automatic Floor Cleaner with Charging Cradle - Model 5200C . The Scooba is fairly easy to clean, with modular parts, a positive feature. Battery life is shorter than the Roombas, maybe half or or a little more, but it's designed to cover a smaller area at one stretch, and it takes more time to clean a given area. Which leads me to the one really significant negative for the device for me - the virtual "walls" for the Scooba are really more like virtual "hand grenades;" you really can't precisely block off anything - once activated (and there are specific ranges marked on the front, which seem to have no function), the Scooba will stay feet away from the thing, in any direction, if it has a direct line of sight. Put one at the end of a small room and the Scooba will proceed to clean only the half of the room well away from the "wall." This limits your ability to effectively divide up large spaces and still get adequate cleaning without considerable guessing. The manual and diagrams show the virtual wall blocking a doorway by placing it behind a wall on the other side of the doorway you want to block - which is its only real utility, because if you placed it IN the doorway as you might the much more precise "walls" for the Roomba, or worse, in FRONT of the doorway, the Scooba won't come anywhere within 4 or 5 feet of the doorway, which will then remain unwashed. You can't really block off delicate furniture or small areas you want it to avoid, without having a 5-foot perimeter unwashed around the blocked area. All that said, if you have a large open area of hard surface (other than wood), surrounded by walls or doorways, the Scooba will do a decent job. The recommended enzymatic cleaner really does clean, has virtually no odor, and only takes a tiny amount (7 ml) per tank. I debated on whether to give it 3 stars or 4, but, warts and all, it does clean adequately as advertised, is easy to clean up and maintain, and for its limited utility performs well. Just don't expect it to do things it can't, and if you're willing to wait I would guess there will be a Scooba 400 or 410 or 420 in the works some day that will address many of the shortcomings.

Is it perfect? no. Is it useful? yes. Before I write review for the Scooba, I would like to write a little about my two other robots. My two other robots are Roomba 550 and Neato XV11 from Neato Robotic. I use Roomba to maintain my first floor and Neato to maintain my second floor. They both have strength and work very well for their intended purposes. My first floor is all hardwood and ceramic tiles, and the second floor is all carpet. Since my dog also lives in the first floor, the Roomba works very well for floor with pet hair. Neato is very powerful robotic vacuum (best), it works extremely well for my carpet. I scheduled the Roomba to run the entire floor 4 days a week so the first floor usually clean without much hairs and debris left; I know that the main function of the Scooba is not to clean the debris and dog hair and I don't want to burden it for. It won't work well with very hairy floor. I have around 1400 square foot first floor. I use the Scooba to clean my entire floor cleaning it one section at a time. I only use white vinegar or just pure water for now, both natural and sufficient. Floor Wash: It cleans pretty well in normal condition. I don't have very dirty kitchen with food stains like some families with very young toddlers; my son, 7 years old, often wear shoes walking inside the house and my dog with dirty feet too. For the spots with tough stains, it won't clean. However, I don't expect I can rub the stains away if I mop the floor myself. I still need to bend and scrub the tough dry food stains myself. After washing, the floor wetness is like mopping the floor by myself. Noisy: Compared to Mint Plus 5200, the machine operates very noisy so don't expect watching TV in a house with open floor plan. However, there is no problem if you stay in different floor like basement or second floor while the the machine is running. I typically start it before I leave home or watch TV in the basement. I am not here comparing it to a typical floor washing vacuum, which is much louder. However, the Scooba noise pitch is high. Maintenance and usage: Cleaning this Scooba is incredibly easy and quick. It is very well designed for both operation and cleaning. I am very happy of this. Floor is cleaned every week. I need to fill up water twice to clean the floor and I have to divide the first floor in four/five sections. Not every section needs to clean every week, but the kitchen and dinette do. It won't be able to cross the borders which may be 1/4 inch high. Summary: It cleans better than mopping and automated. Combined with Roomba, I am free from routine cleaning. If you don't have Roomba, and have a hairy floor then I would recommend sweeping the floor first before using it. It is not for deep cleaning. However, I don't feel deep cleaning is necessary, at least not often; I have not deep cleaned it since; it is almost a year now. If you keep washing the floor every week and wiping out the tough stains every time you accidentally drop food. It is very very noisy so operate it in a floor when you are not staying in. Very well designed and easy to maintain and operate. Battery life is sufficient enough that I don't feel battery is an issue at all for my home, 1400 sqf first floor. Depending on how to value your time and money, I feel I would rather spend time with my son than mopping the floor every week. I give four stars mainly due to its high pitch loudness. Update (07/29/2012). The product came with only one virtual wall. Since I have a open kitchen joint with family room and dining room and entry. I need three virtual wall to confine the Scooba. Currently, my solution is using a dining chair to block one opening and the virtual wall to block the entry and just let the Scooba running free on both kitchen and my family room. Not an ideal solution unless I get another virtual wall. Update (10/30/2012). I found the Scooba did get stuck once a while, very few and not a big deal that I need to rate one star down. Perhaps it is something to do with my home; when closed, the bottom opening space of my dishwasher door is the exact same height as the Scooba, if the scooba bounces into the corner of the door, it stuck. I learned to open the door a little bit when running the robot to prevent this happen. Another place that it gets stuck is the thin carpet under my dinning table. Mine is too soft and too thin so I have to fold the edge when cleaning the dinning room. It is not Scooba fault in my view since it is not designed for carpet. I, however, wish it is smart enough to tell the difference between carpet and hard floor. No other floor wash robot can deal with it anyway. I hope one day this intelligence of forward detecting sensor can be built in, it should not be that difficult. One suggestion for this robot is to have an option to disable the scrubbing and allow attaching a towel like Mint 5200 so it will do light mopping/drying the floor, a wish. Update (11/9/2012) My Scooba died three weeks back. The start button just did not respond even the battery charging is fine. Called and told to keep the battery and charger and send the rest back. They sent out the replacement one back shortly. Brand new one minus the battery and charger etc accessories. Good service, not as efficient/excellent as Amazon, but good enough. Update (2/7/2013) My Scooba keeps going after replacement. A impromptu solution was found without buying a new virtual wall. I cut two strips of leftover wall trims to confine the Scooba. It took same amount of efforts to lay down the virtual walls and the wall trims so I end up not using the virtual wall since, plus the benefit of not replacing battery every six months. Don't laugh at me, the wood trims just work better. Update (5/21/2013) My Scooba keeps going after more than 1 year. Recently I also added Mint Plus 5200 in my home cleaning robot collection to clean my all hardwood floor basement. Since the Mint is so light and completely whisper quiet, I use it more often than Scooba to quickly sweep the hairy bathroom and quick mopping for my most used family room while watching TV. It is so easy that like getting a cup of coffee while watching TV, but I have to be careful to not to step on it since it operates in complete silence. I use Mint Plus for cleaning in between the Scooba cleaning. I bet you might ask whether the Scooba worth buying, I would say that Mint Plus really mean for not so dirty floor. If you currently only need light mopping for your house, then Mint Plus is good enough, otherwise, Scooba is still better choice for average dirty floor, specially for dinning room and kitchen. Update (11/5/2013) Well, my Scooba tank release handle was broken a couple months ago and I am out of warranty. I felt that the handle design is a defect, it made from hard plastic instead of metal. After a while, the plastic joint just broke after fatigue. Called the customer service and I was told to buy a whole new tank instead, $32 including free shipping. I was told the joints in new handle now is made of metal. Not yet receive the replacement tank to confirm this. I think that for a $500 Scooba, they should just give me a new tank instead, it likely only cost less than $10 for iRobot to build. I just wish iRobot treat their loyal customer better than average company. I bought Scooba, Roomba and Mint Plus (now Braava)from iRobot. Change the rating from 4 stars to 3 due to this design defect, but will still hold its stock. Update (12/21/2014) Just realized it has been 2.5 years since I bought Scooba. So I think it might be good for me to provide some updates for it since I have been having it for a while. 1. I have been using the Scooba for my Kitchen Ceramic floor only since I bought Braava robot from iRobot for mopping hardwood floor. 2. I have replaced the cleaning accessories once. 3. I have replaced the battery after its 1.5 years of service. 4. At a couple months, the tank did not distribute water anymore and I did not have time to deal with it and used it, then I googled and figured out there is a hole that might get stucked so I find a way unblock it. (bow air, use ball pin pen etc) 5. I still keep using water for cleaning, never use iRobot's cleaning solution. Fine for my need. Overall, I am glad I bought this. I have not mopped my floors since two and half years ago. The Roomba, Scooba, Braava took over this duty. Just like I have not washed my cloth since my family had the first washer. A side note, the same Roomba, Braava from iRobot still do their duties religiously and very reliably. Update (1/16/2016) Another year went by. Time flies that I almost want to cry. It is almost four years, fortunately, the same old friends are still with me. Being a little sentimental today, I am truly thankful for them so I have more time doing things I like and with my family. The update from 2014 still applies. I replaced batteries again for all the robots. When the battery is dying, the Scooba seems erratic, not just running out juice and stops. I also replaced wheels and squeeze from its Cleaning Renewal Kit, which really helped, it get stuck less. After more than 3 years usage, my overall impression for it still the same. It is not perfect but useful. It is much less intelligent than Roomba, which is almost flawless in the area of maneuver and not getting stuck. Technology gets better now specially in the area of robot so I hope the next generation of Scooba is much better. Following is what I wish my next Scooba can be: 1. Use Braava/Mint type navigation to guide its cleaning so it won't repeat the same spots over and over again so it can be more efficient. 2. Less getting stuck and hopefully like Roomba. 3. Don't incorporate other fancy but not useful features like wifi/bluetooth that dry up price. Update (09/23/2017) In case someone is curious, this baby still ran although I used it less often now. Just my laziness.

i purchased a roomba and scooba together, and wish i had done so a long time ago. I have a bad back, and washing the kitchen floor, even with a swiffer, hurts like heck. I have 3 `terriers, with little dirt-mop paws running thru the kitchen constantly, dripping water on the floor, and then there are the cooking spills. this thing is great! I have been running it every day since I purchased it, and it is cleaning very well. I do have a laminate floor, but previously caulked all around the edges of the basebooard with clear caulk after it was installed, so i don't think there will be a moisture problem I have read some of the complaints from others, but do not find puddles on my floor. I suppose if it was a small area that the floor would be wetter , since it would constantly recover the same area,before it dried. In any case, it does not "shoot" water, more like driibbles it onto the floor, so it's unlikely to shove water under the laminate edge. I do have about 300 square feet of laminate, and it is less wet than when I damp mop, or use a swiffer. I put my ceiling fan on,and then the floor is almost instantly dry. some people complain it leaves stuff on the floor. It has a small crud filter on the unit, but it doesn't hold much, and wet dust or lint will get left behind on the floor. it is not a vacumn, you will need to vacumn or sweep the major stuff off the floor first. I got a roomba at the same time, so I run it first, and then let Rosie do her thing. (yes- "Rosie" from the jetsons.) It does make a fair amount of noise, I- think mostly from the squeegee, but not as much as I make when my back is killing me as I clean. I ignore it, go to another room, or turn it on when i leave the house. Make sure that you use the gray bulb syringe included to shoot air and water thru the intake port BEFORE you try to use it, or you will spend a lot of frustrating time trying to get it to work.. I spent 2 hours cursing,, called customer service, and finally found the answer online. I have used the scooba solution, and it works very well. I have not noticed any odd odor from it, and a little goes a long way. and - NO streaks on the laminate!!! ( and everything streaks laminate) I would highly recommend this to anyone , and if you have dogs, kids, or just a dislike of floor cleaning,you will probably love it too.

A small disclaimer: I base my results entirely on large tile floor cleaning. I have no wood, laminate, polished concrete, or groutless flat tile floors, so your results may vary. First the good. 1. It's easy to prepare and operate. 2. Battery has good charge (good for one large room or one medium and one small room). 3. It can use regular old water and vinegar and still clean effectively if you don't use their cleaning solution. That is if you don't mind the smell of vinegar of course. 4. The first stage vacuum function is very nice. As long as you don't have large debris on the floor, you don't have to worry about vacuuming first. 5. The floors are overall noticeably cleaner, though for best results on larger or medium sized rooms with complicated layouts you'll need to do two passes. 6. Great for the lazy and/or busy among us. Now the bad. 1. It leaves too much water behind. It doesn't leave puddles, but there's definitely a visible, somewhat thick coat of water left on the floor. This leaves the floor not quite as clean as it should be and your floor will need some drying time (about 15-20 minutes). 2. It's awful at cleaning grout. I wasn't expecting it to deep clean it, but most of the time the brushes and/or cleaning solution never touch it. Unless the grout is at the same elevation as the tile itself, don't expect much. 3. Leaves tire track lines/line segments. Admittedly these are only visible when the light is shining on the floor at a certain angle during the daytime, but they stick out like a sore thumb when they are and make the floor look dirty even if it's not. 4. It's noisy as all get out. Don't plan on letting it do it's thing and then taking a nap nearby. 5. It's subpar at edge cleaning. Any edge cleaning will still need to be done by hand. 6. Cleaning patterns are unpredictable and don't always provide full cleaning coverage. If you have a perfectly square or rectangular room with no obstructions, you're golden. If you have a more unusually shaped room, such as a kitchen with bar in the middle and some other nooks and crannies, chances are it won't get everything. It'll get most, but not all. With all that said, it's still useful in that it can serve as a maintenance cleaning device, but not good enough to serve as your primary cleaning tool (you're better off with a Swiffer or steam mop), and it definitely does not justify the high price point. If it weren't for the high cost I'd give it a 3 out of 5, but since this is a $500 device it gets a 2 out of 5.

Buyer BEWARE! I bought a Scooba 390 at the end of March, 2016. By the end of May, 2016, I was already having problems with it not spraying out clean water. At the end of the cycle, all the clean water would still be in the clean tank. Of course, this means that the Scooba is not mopping. For 2 entire weeks, I went back and forth with iRobot's HORRIBLE customer service person trying to get him to send me the instructions to fix the Scooba. After he finally actually read what I wrote and sent instructions that were supposed to repair the Scooba's issue. But the repair did not work. In the meantime, I started having additional problems with it, like it making a HORRENDOUS screeching noise. It would also move forward a few inches, then go backwards repeatedly. Back and forth, back and forth like it was bumping into an invisible wall. I told iRobot's customer service person that I wanted it replaced because it was clearly defective and it is supposed to have a 1 year warranty. He then proceeded to tell me that my Scooba was 10 YEARS old, according the serial number that HE DID NOT HAVE, and that iRobot's warranty was no good. I finally gave up on that person, because he was clearly clueless. I called iRobot and got someone else. She agreed that the 1 year warrant was still good, and agreed to send a replacement. That was June 17th. After iRobot sent my replacement to the wrong address, I finally received the replacement on July 26th. They replaced the Scooba 390 with a Scooba 450 because ALL of the Scoobas are now discontinued and iRobot did not even have a Scooba 390 at all. The Scooba 450 is also discontinued, but apparently they still had some. The one they sent must have been really old too because it did not work correctly right out of the box. It holds about 25 ounces of water, yet when the cycle was finished, there would only be about 2 ounces of water in the dirty tank. It was essentially just wetting down the dirty and moving it around the floor. Since the Scooba 450's are discontinued as well, I was told that they don't have parts to repair them either. So, I told iRobot's customer service person that I would like to return the 2nd defective Scooba, and get my money back. When I called about returning the Scooba 390, I was told that the 1 year warranty would continue with the Scooba 450. However, when I asked for my money back, under iRobot's 1 year warranty, the customer service then claimed that the 1 year warranty did not apply to the replacement Scooba. This is even though she had written in a previous email that the original 1 year warranty DID continue with the 2nd Scooba. They were so "nice" and offered to "let" me pay hundreds more dollars to buy another iRobot product. Seriously??? iRobot refuses to honor the 1 year warranty on this $400 Scooba, and they actually think that I will give them MORE money to buy yet another product from them, that will likely be defective as well? Are you kidding me? So I paid $400 for this product that worked for maybe 6 weeks at most. I still have a 1 year warranty that iRobot refuses to honor. (BTW: I think the description on Amazon's product page for this item is deceptive. It reads like the Seller or Amazon is giving buyers a 1 year warranty. They are NOT.) If I could give Scooba, and iRobot, a negative rating, I would. TOTAL AND COMPLETE WASTE OF MONEY.

I've had my Scooba for only a few days so I can't comment yet on its reliability. I have a smaller kitchen/eating area with lots of angles and an island. I divided the area in two because it was too hard to figure out how to keep the Scooba off the carpeted area with only one virtual wall. Preparation: The filter still picked up quite a bit of hair during the vac stage so I was glad I had swept first. Coverage: It did get stuck on a vent so I had to block off that portion. A couple of the cupboards caught it so I simply put a piece of cardboard inside the cupboard but sticking out the bottom to prevent the Scooba from going underneath. That said, the Scooba did very well cleaning my floor, covering everywhere. Noise: It is not quite as noisy as my old vacuum cleaner so the noise didn't particularly bother me. Test Run: I think that a test run to gauge how much water will be needed, as well as potential areas where it can be stuck is a must but after that, I think one can let it work on its own. For the first few times, I wasn't comfortable with letting it do its thing without checking on it since I did fill the tank once, but because I haven't gotten past the novelty of sitting back to watch it, I suspect it's more that I take pleasure in seeing a robot do this bothersome chore. Result: The floor smelled fresh and clean, and was damp but dried quickly. Deep Cleaning: Deep cleaning is something I do on occasion. I don't think the purpose of the Scooba is for scrubbing; it will be my weekly floor cleaner. With kids and dogs, floor cleaning is necessary but not gratifying as it seems to get dirty right away. With Scooba, I think I will be able to keep up easily. Judging from the dirty water, I am glad that I can run Scooba often. Other Areas: I did find that Scooba worked well on the tile floor by my front door. It's a small area that requires little for me to do, other than set up the virtual wall and let it go. Maintenance: Color-coded to make things easy, I did not find that rinsing the tanks, filter, etc. were time-consuming or tedious. I would consult the iRobot Website for what to do with the gray suction bulb that comes with it (priming the pump after not using it). I'm not sure why they couldn't include that in the instruction book. Recommendation: Yes!! I can't stand cleaning floors so Scooba is definitely going to be one of my favorite cleaning assistants.

The first one I had just stopped working after about eight months and when I called to get help they were no help. About a year later I decided to try again and get another one because when it worked it was pretty good . The second one worked for about a month and the wheel wouldn't turn . Called the company and had someone keep me on the phone for hours with no results . Now I have two broken Scobba and over $1000 less in my pocket . I have lots of other IROBOT and think they are great but the service seems to be going down hill fast . Now I have to find another two hours to talk to someone and at least try and get one of them replaced . I believe they have had a lot of trouble with this product and that is why they have a newer model .

Not good