Vacuums Reviews

This is the best vacuum cleaner I ever owned.
I highly recommended to everyone who needs a great vacuum cleaner.
I had them for over four years and still working perfectly as good as a brand new.

My first impressions of the Scooba, the floor-washing robot on the iRobot line (the makers of the Roomba, the vacuum). It was a present this Mother's Day from my grown son and daughter. After reading the specs on their website and letting the son and husband play around with it before setting it to work on the kitchen, I certainly enjoyed watching it go! It picks up dirt and large particles of matter before scrubbing with the Clorox cleaning solution. I was skeptical about the drying ability but the Scooba did a siphoning motion and sucked up the used cleaning solution. It took about 40-45 minutes (which I think is standard but I'm not sure yet) for the Scooba to mop and dry our 11 by 13 kitchen. I drained the dirty fluid into the sink, rinsed out the chamber and patted myself on the back for all my "hard work" that Sunday. Definitely a great tool for the busy individual.

Scooba is my second attempt at home robotic products. (The first one was a lawn mower - love it!)

First, some basic info. I'm using it to clean mostly hardwood floors plus some tiled area in bathrooms. I bought one a week ago at a local store and today exchanged it for another unit.

I agree with the other reviewers about the pros of this product:

(1) It cleans very well and covers most of the area. It is round so it won't cover the corners. Water from the dirty tank convinces me time and again that this is a good investment. It does seem to me that it tends to cover some areas of the room more than others. This may have something to do with the algorithm. TIP: Try to start it in different places of the room to see if there is a particular place that works better than others in terms of room coverage. It probably is a good idea to start it from different places of the room every time anyway.

(2) The cleaning solution smells very good. As one other reviewer said, it won't run without it. I tried to see what happens if I just fill in water. It tries to start for a couple of seconds, and then the "check tank" light would stare back at me. It WILL function with less than the recommended amount of cleaning solution. Not to be frugal, but I have a general tendency to use as little chemical as I can.

(3) Charging is very easy. You can remove the battery from the unit and put it in the charging unit that comes in the box, but you don't have to. The unit has a side charging opening to be plugged in directly into the wall outlet.

(4) Cleaning Scooba after each cycle. To me, all of the other units are very easy to clean. Yes, it has multiple other units to clean in addition to the water tank, but they all come off very easily. Most will flush clean. I would suggest that you remove the gunk before putting it under the tap so it won't clog the drains. (I do have to manually pull out the hair that Scooba has picked up on the roller of the brush unit.) After running it the first time (on hardwood), I looked at the air filter and the vacuum opening and thought I was cleaning a carpet. Never thought there was so much lint-like stuff on the hardwood floor. I was glad that Scooba picked it up.

Now, WHY I EXCHANGED THE UNIT:

My first unit had a small problem with spraying water. Every foot or so, it would leave a rather large drop of water (with cleaning solution) along the left edge of the cleaning path. I tried it on different surfaces and this persisted. It also tended to leave the floor a bit wetter that I had imagined. The replacement unit does not have this problem, and seems to pick up more cleaning solution than the first unit. When I first started the second unit, it did not spray any solutions for about 3-4 minutes. I thought it was malfunctioning. Then the spraying started. I've used it for two cycles and spraying seems to be working properly now.

WISHLIST:

(1) The floor can be left even drier. Right now it is damp immediately after it passes, but it dries up in a few minutes.
(2) Slightly less noise. It is not bad, but a bit louder than I expected.
(3) Virtual wall - wish the key hole pattern can be changed to more of a straight line pattern. Right now, if you imagine a straight line coming out of the virtual wall unit, Scooba actually stops about a foot before it hits this line. The farther away down this imaged line, the farther away Scooba makes its turn (sometimes even at close to 2 ft).

Like I said, overall I'm very happy with the unit. I've only had my second unit for one day, but I've used the first unit almost daily for a week. Very pleased with the results (except for the spray problem mentioned above). I'll see how this second/replacement unit works and report later if I observe anything else worth mentioning.

I give it 4 starts because of a few things that could be improved upon, and because I did experience one slightly defective unit. Quality may not be uniform, so don't be too surprised if yours does not work the first time. Take it back for an exchange and see if a different unit would work better.

Had I not had a Roomba and been impressed with its cleaning ability, I probably would never have bought a Scooba, thinking that something so small couldn't possibly be all that good. Well, I bought it, and it's AMAZING. My floors have never been this clean - not with a regular mop, not with a Star mop, not with a Swiffer, not with those wet towels. Not only was the tank water filthy - far more dirty than my mop bucket ever got - but I can see how clean the floor is; there are no faint traffic patterns that I always thought were ground into the floor and just would never come out. I am totally impressed, and very happy I made the investment.

I had this vacume for less then a year. in that time I found that it clogged easily, and on bare floors it really could not handle anything larger then sand.
There was smell of burning rubber, and then the spinning brush no longer worked.

As for the design, the power button is in a inconvenient place. i should have retuned this immediately. Oh well, never another Bissell.

I have had this vacuum cleaner for a year now. Works really well. It does get clogged easily and loses power. It needs to be thoroughly cleaned after every use (just wash the containers and the foam and plastic filters with water). But if you take good care of it, it will give very good results. It brought out dust that my older vacuum would have never picked up. It's very sturdy and made of good quality material. The bagless format means that you don't have worry about buying bags all the time (which people like me always forget) :)
Overall it's a great vacuum cleaner for the price.

I absolutely love this vacuum! It cleans really well. The dirt compartment is easy to dump and the filter easy to clean. I have had this vacuum for 9 months with no problems. You still can't beat a broom for large floors, but for carpet this thing is great. The extensions are very handy. I was hoping to be able to clean blinds with it, but the available extensions aren't brushy enough for that. Not light as a feather, but not horribly heavy.
As with all vacuums, it is noisy. It is a bewilderment to me that engineers can make upscale cars virtually noiseless but not vacuums.
Anyway, a great vacuum and worth what I paid for it.

I hated this vacuum. The suction was awful. I had to go over my living room rug ten times to make it look even halfway decent. It never really picked up any cat hair unless you went over the area 20 times! I would not buy this vacuum again nor would I advise anyone else to!I hated it and my cleaning lady (who comes 2 times a month) started bringing her own b/c she thought it did such a bad job. I just bought a new one and I have only had this one for a year or so - I just couldn't take it anymore. I spent probably double for the bissell bagless/liftoff revolution and is was worth every penny - what a difference!!!