Scooba

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This article is about the floor washing robot. For the city, see Scooba, Mississippi.

Scooba is an automated robotic floor washer produced by iRobot. It was released in limited numbers in December 2005 for the Christmas season at $399.99, with full production starting in early 2006. The company introduced a $299 version, the Scooba 5800, in the second half of 2006.[1]

The Scooba uses a special non-bleach cleaning solution made by The Clorox Company that cleans the floors and prevents rust or skidding and has been nicknamed "Scooba juice," although a solution of white vinegar can also be used. The robot preps the floor by vacuuming loose debris, squirts clean solution, scrubs the floor, and then sucks up the dirty solution leaving a nearly dry floor behind. The robot is safe to use on sealed hardwood floors and most other hard household surfaces, but it cannot be used on rugs. Scooba avoids rugs and stairs, and can clean about 200 square feet on a single tankload of solution. The Scooba is the second major commercial product made by iRobot, which popularized vacuum robots with the Roomba.

1 Miscellaneous
2 See also
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Miscellaneous

The Scooba and Roomba are available in over 40 countries. Outside of these countries, however, Scooba or its spare parts and accessories cannot be bought from the iRobot company website. Many parts and accessories can also be found on eBay and other sites.

The Scooba battery documentation provided with the robot is incorrect. Although the documentation recommends charging Scooba continuously, iRobot has since told customers that this can drain the battery, and recommends charging the Scooba only until it has been recharged, and then unplugging. iRobot also recommends using Scooba at least once a week to give the battery a workout.

Scooba's lights may occasionally be confusing. For instance, the "Check Tank" light may indicate that the battery is improperly installed. ^[1] These lights, however, are described in the manual.

The Scooba uses approximately two fluid ounces per cycle, mixed with a quart of water to fill the clean solution tank. The Scooba comes with one eight oz box of Clorox, which is enough for about four washings. Additional Clorox Scooba Cleaning Solution comes in five-packs and nine-packs of 32 oz bottles, which provide enough solution for about 16 washings per bottle. The MSDS (linked below) lists Polysorbate 20 and tetrapotassium EDTA as the primary ingredients; however, a solution of water and vinegar can also be used. The cleaning liquid used must be conductive to register with the robot's tank sensors; it will not recognize plain water or a nonconductive cleaning solution.

Scooba 5900 can clean about 500 square feet per cleaning session, while the 5800 can clean about 250 square feet. Recharge times may vary, but typically take hours.

After each cleaning, users must perform some maintenance: empty dirty liquid from the tank, rinse the tanks, rinse the filter and clean the brush.