Scooba the New iRobot Product

omly writes "iRobot (makers of Roomba) just released a sneak preview of Scooba, the lastest consumer home-cleaning robot. It will be available this holiday season for all your holiday shopping needs."

Re:I don't know if these are the same....

[MankyD]

I wonder how well if at all it works on carpet of other non-hard surfaces

Chances are, you don't want to be squirting Clorox cleaning fluids into your carpet. On the other hand, this is the sibling of the roomba [irobot.com].

As worthless as the Roomba

[Sir Holo]

This is a Roomba with different floor-cleaning head, but the same random-walk navigation system.

We have a Roomba. The thing inevitably gets stuck under a chair within 20 minutes. These things only work properly if you have a huge space and almost no furniture. It takes 5 minutes to sweep 1300 sqft of wood floor.

Why oh why did I waste my money on a Roomba?

Re:Kitchen? I want one

[fungus]

http://www.robomowerusa.com/ [robomowerusa.com]

Lousy navigation

[Animats]

Until those guys make a unit that detects obstacles before it crashes into them, I can't take them too seriously. And if it runs over a cord, it winds the cord around its working parts, then jams.

Yes, they sell a reasonable number of them. But then, the Sharper Image makes most of its profits from an air cleaner that doesn't work. [quackwatch.org]

Re:How bout Scoopa for pet litter?

[CuriousKangaroo]

If you have a cat and a litter box, get the Litter Robot. It changed my life. Seriously. It's expensive, but worth it.

http://www.litter-robot.com/ [litter-robot.com]

I'm not kidding.

Re:inkjet company model

[ikeleib]

Nor does it take very long to mop a floor- 2 minutes, if you include filling the bucket with warm water.

Wow. You can mop really fast. I used to live in a place with 1250 square feet (138 sqm) of hard floors. It took me much longer than two minutes. I could have used your services.

Re:The technical problems with Roomba and Scooba

[kylemonger]

All but #4 was fixed in the next generation model. Roomba is quite nice for carpets, probably not worthwhile for wood floors since they are swept so easily.

Current problems are that the Roomba is poor at cleaning carpets at the baseboard and corners, and that it just can't figure out how to escape from under some office chairs. To me these problems are offset by its ability to vacuum under the bed and the fact that I can be doing something else while it works.

Re:inkjet company model

[bgog]

Uhhh. Frankly I couldn't care less that it uses special solution that's more expensive. I have ~1400 square feet of hardwood floors and two children under 4 who manage to make it require almost daily mopping. There are a lot of other things I'd like to do than spend the time it takes to vacuum and mop that much space. This sounds like a lovely invention that will be cheaper than the cleaning service I've been considering.

However If I only had one room I probabbly wouldn't do it.

Re:inkjet company model

[chill]

Read the article and find out. They specifically had issues with regular cleaning solutions because they were too slippery and the robot lost traction.

Re:Boooo

[Anonymous Coward]

The best way to prevent mildew buildup is to simply wipe down the tub immediately after each shower or bath. I have to clean my shower and tub maybe once every three or four months, and then it's mostly soap scum rather than mildew. If you wash your towels frequently, just use the one you dried yourself with.

Takes at most two minutes, and a whole lot less effort than scrubbing.

Re:it may be the lastest

[Analogy Man]

it's both expensive and still not especially well-suited to multi-acre lawns

They're called sheep. Estates have been using them for lawn care for centuries.

Re:The technical problems with Roomba and Scooba

[Anonymous Coward]

I seem to remember reading about how the brushes were redesigned to not get clogged with hair as badly. However, I also got a tool from them last week when I got new treads - it's essentially one of those plastic-with-a-small-metal-blade letter openers, but it works like a frickin' charm on cutting the hair - I was able to clean mine in 3 minutes, where usually it's half an hour and requires dissassembly of the unit.