irobot's scooba: a brief review 



so the robot arrived yesterday . . .



scooba's fancy new floor washing device. it promises that we'll never have to mop again. we shall see!

we let the battery charge overnight, and this afternoon plugged it in and let Little Bender loose.




first, it beeped musically and hummed to itself, and then slowly began spiralling outwards. initally we thought it was just mapping out the floor, but then we realized that the floor was damp! it was washing!




around and around it turned, then it changed to a criss-cross of the floor, angling up and down.




it scraped along under the cabinets . . .




. . . and then turned around and zigged across the floor.




i observe it as it encounters obstacles. note the table: it got lost under the legs and kept bouncing around, so i had to move it. it isn't a big fan of narrow spaces, and although it is supposed to avoid carpets, very flat mats it doesn't realized it is on until it is, in fact, on them. so move the flat mats.




the cats reacted differently. dukakis disliked it, and escaped. cracker watched curiously, and then grew bored and wandered off.





off it goes!




the green light is a good sign, of course.




hummmm! it is a noisy bot . . . much more quiet than a vacuum cleaner, much more quiet than a hair drier; not even as noisy as a loud microwave: but close to that.




there's a fine sheen of damp left behind, which slowly dries: but never fear, scooba will soon return to make another pass. it cleans and cleans over and over. it ran, in the end, for nearly an hour before it finally beeped, asked us to check the tank (which meant drain and clean the beast) and sat quiet.




hmmmmmmm!




that's one clean floor.

actually, our kitchen floor wasn't terribly clean so it probably needs another pass; but i'd say i'm happy with it.

scooba needs a bit of cleaning when it gets done. cat litter, the scoopable kind, makes a muddy mess underneath and it all has to come off; cat and human hair winds around and around the rotating brush and needs to come out. your scooba will thank you. don't forget to clean out under the brush. i used the spray at the kitchen sink to blast out the extra gunk, and we wiped off the undercarriage carefully. a neat and tidy scooba is a happy scooba! also wash out the filters and rinse out the tank: the left over fluid inside is plenty muddy.

so, how does it do? it does very well. better, i would say, than a mop. was it worth the money? hey, we got a flippin' robot. bonnie loves it. nuff said.

my robot movie of the roomba's larger cousin is here . . .  

Posted: Wed - January 18, 2006 at 04:15 PM             |

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