The Scooba Mopping Robot Shows You How Gross You Are
See that grayish liquid bacteria cocktail above? That’s what was left in the tank of my new Scooba 450 robot floor cleaner by the time it finished with my apartment. Until then, I had no idea precisely what lurked beneath me. Frankly, I’m disgusted with myself.
iRobot’s latest offering is the Cadillac of floor-mopping robots. It’s big, it’s loaded with bells and whistles, and at $600, you can’t really call it anything but a luxury item. But the above image is evidence that it gets the job done. “The proof,” as the company loves to put it, “is in the tank.”
The 450 is not the first Scooba. But this latest version offers a refined scrubbing process, breaking things down into three steps:
Sweep and pre-soak: First, the Scooba vacuums up dry dirt and small debris (Cheerios, et al) and soaks the floor with a little water for step two.
Scrub and squeegee-vacuum: This is where the real action happens. The brush spins at 600 RPM to really get caked-in dirt, while the squeegee begins sucking up some of that dirty water.
Squeegee finish: For good measure — and likely to help iRobot avoid frivolous lawsuits — Scooba goes over the floor one final time to dry things completely.
On its first go around my muddy New York City apartment, the robot had a bit of trouble. It’s a fair bit larger and not quite as nimble as its older sibling, the Roomba, and it beached itself on a couple of door jambs. And since water and electricity don’t really play together nicely, it’s not programmed to return to its docking station. The robot finished the job by hiding beneath my couch, with the floor still freshly damp.
On the upside, this robot’s a talkative one. If it runs into any issues along the way, it’ll let you know in the sort of chipper, passive-aggressive manner befitting of a housekeeping automaton. “I’d love to start cleaning,” it explains when you first fire it up, “but my battery isn’t quite full.” Plug it in for a good three or so hours, and it’ll hop to it.
Trial 2: The Kitchening went more smoothly. Scooba starts by cleaning in circles, but it then transitions into something more chaotic, traversing the room in seemingly random patterns that iRobot will assure you are all part of some complex algorithms — though you wouldn’t know it with the way the ’bot bumps into walls like it’s drunkenly fumbling in the dark.
When it finished my kitchen, however, things were sparkling — and dry, to boot. Although by the time it had finished these two small rooms, it had expended all of its battery’s juice. But it did pick up that cloudy pile of filth you see above.
As with the Roomba, it’s important to note that Scooba is a maintenance device. In other words, don’t go throwing out your mop just yet. You may still need it for heavy jobs.
If you’re looking for something to help out, however, Scooba may be your ’bot. It’s the best Scooba yet, even if $600 is a big pill to swallow — especially when you add on the $80 for the optional drying/charging dock and the $12 for additional iRobot-branded cleaning solution (which I’m not entirely convinced isn’t just regular soap).
One thing’s for certain, though: A trip around your place with the 450 is like peering into the deepest, darkest regions of your soul. You won’t like what you find.
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