It’s almost been a decade the autonomous cleaners have jumped in the market. The iRobot Roomba is continuously improving the technology with their robots.
That said, today we have iRobot Scooba 390 which not only vacuums but mops as well. It’s bigger than it’s predecessor Scooba 230. But offers much more than 230 at an extra cost.
iRobot Scooba 390 Review
Table of Contents
Let’s discuss the iRobot Scooba 390 Review in details.
Design, Setup, and Cleaning Process
It differs in design with the other vacuum-only Roombas. It weighs around 8.6 pounds and has a diameter of 14.6 inches. The Scooba 390 has a large Power and Play/Pause button at the top, a silver handle and a two-tone grey puck.
Blue lines separate the button and handle. The handle is made to press not to pull, pulling results in the opening of the top portion, under that there is a tank of water and cleaning solution, battery, few other compartments for collecting dust and grime.
The Robot is easy to set up. Right out of the box you have to put place the dock to a charging outlet as it comes with an AC adapter; before putting the robot to charging, remove the water and solution tank. If you don’t want to spend the extra dollar on the solution you can simply use the water.
Like it’s predecessors it uses iAdapt Responsive Cleaning system, this system helps the robot to lay the floors for better navigation.
With its four-stage cleaning process, it does one extra thing prepping and vacuum. As with previous models you have to do sweeping before mopping, this robot does both things at the same time. First the vacuuming ports, then the solution spray, then a scrubbing brush, and then squeegee for drying.
The Robot also comes with several robotic movements and behaviors programmed by the manufacturer. Over 60 times in a second, the robot figures the movements to use while utilizing wall-hugging and cliff-detection making sure all the areas and surfaces are covered. During the cleaning session, it spins, shuffles, does straight dashes, and double-backs on the floor.
Its ideal for hard or tile floors, but struggles on carpets and rugs. So better put a Virtual wall to cordon off the areas where you have carpets so the robot might not go further. The Virtual Wall is a small device powered by two D-sized batteries, allowing you to set the specific range depending upon the size of your room.
Performance
As far as performance is concerned the Scooba 390 will continue to work until the tank is empty. Over extremely dirty areas the Scooba performs multiple passes, but almost to the point of redundancy.
With the 45 minutes of battery life is short, even you have to refill the tank with water and solution for each room. You can stop the cleaning when you desire and start drying with a Play button, which can result in fluid preservation for cleaning more areas with one tank.
If there are a lot of dog hairs on the floor, the vacuuming feature of the robot runs with a full cycle on the floor picking up almost every straying pet hair. Furthermore, the manufacturer claims that the fluid kills 98% of the bacteria.
For conserved spaces, the Scooba might hit bumps. Because navigating in tight spaces can be troublesome where you have attached bathroom, kitchen and bedrooms. But it cleans well close to walls, tight corners and cramped spaces but still leaves some small piles or grout and lint piled up in corners.
If you have shag carpet then you can choose your best vacuum for shag carpet and if you have hard floors then you can choose best vacuum for hardwood floors.
After the cleaning session, you get a freshly cleaned floor. As it’s larger in size than the Scooba 230 so getting in tight spots is bit difficult for this robot. But it covers large areas efficiently and fastly. The batter and water tank compared to the Scooba 230 robot vacuum is much larger in 390.
As for noise, the Scooba 390 is loud, if you watching TV in the same room the bot is cleaning, you have to raise the volume of the TV up. Or if the bot is working in other rooms you better close the room and trust that the bot is doing its job efficiently.
You will also get a loud jingle if the robot meets any problem. Next, to the buttons, there are few symbols that give an indication when there’s a problem. These lights let you know about the low fluid, clogging parts, low battery, impassible obstacles.
Finally, the top competitor or Scooba 390 is Mint Automatic Floor Cleaner which uses Swiffer pads and solution to clean but gives similar performance to Scooba.
However, the Scooba 390 is ideal for mildly dirty floors. It can clean large rooms efficiently. The only problem with this robot is its hefty price tag.
Overall, iRobot Roomba 390 an automated mop and vacuum robot, this moderately priced robot vacuum struggles a bit on tough stains and grout.
- Easy to setup.
- Vacuums and scrubs.
- Covers maximum areas.
- Pricey.
- Loud.
- Struggles with tougher stains.
- Long cleaning cycles.
This iRobot Scooba 390 Robot Vacuum Review ( Updated Now ) article explains working and other options of this vacuum cleaner to help you make a better decision.