Review: iRobot Scooba, One Year Later

After about a year of ownership, I have to suggest giving a pass to the iRobot Scooba. It’s not that it doesn’t work—emptying out its canister full of grey water proves that it does—but that it doesn’t work in proportion to its cost. Even discounting its initial cost (I believe I got mine for $200 via Woot!) and the ongoing expense of the “Scooba juice,” the special cleaning solution that must be used to the exclusion of any other, the amount of time it takes to operate the Scooba mitigates its overall usefulness. Sure, you don’t have to do the actual mopping, but you do have to wash out the parts after each use and fill and empty the reservoir.

The only time saved is the mopping time itself, then, which doesn’t really take all that long, especially considering the relatively small amount of square footage a Scooba can cover before it needs to be emptied and refilled. (It’ll will do about two circuits on a single battery charge.) Perhaps worse, my unit has required repair twice when a tiny port became clogged with an unknown blockage. Both times I was able to clear it with the application of air from a bike pump as advised by an internet tinkerer.

It’s a fine piece of engineering. I enjoy watching it do its thing because it is a useful robot and one that works with liquid, besides. And we’ve already got ours, so we’ll continue to use it. But considering the price of a mop and bucket and the speed with which a person can throw down a good mopping, the Scooba probably isn’t worth the trouble. (Our Roombas, in their daily circuits, have more than paid for themselves.)

Of course, if you have been compelled by my warnings to try one for yourself, feel free to buy one through my Amazon link.