Robot vacuums are perfect to clean your home, pick up pet hairs, dirt, debris but they don’t exactly leave your floors looking shiny as we get by mopping.
That said, the Scooba 450 is an ideal choice for mopping and sweeping your floor.
iRobot Scooba 450 Review
Table of Contents
Let’s discuss the iRobot Scooba 450 Review in details
Design and Setup
The Scooba 450 shares the similar looks to its predecessor Scooba 390. It’s hard to tell the difference between the Roomba family and Scooba series.
The Scooba has a diameter of 14.4 inches and measures around 3.6 inches allowing the robot to get under some places but not all of them.
The robot is easy to carry around due to the handle on the top. The top contains three backlit buttons: Clean, Information button, Room Size button.
The Clean button activates the robot to start the cleaning cycle or stop if already working. The information button has different lights showing the status of the robot. It also gives verbal notifications making you sure what’s the meaning of a particular light. Finally, the Room Size button allows you to select short or long cleaning sessions.
It’s easy to set up the robot. But for the first time, it takes about eight hours to charge fully. But the other recharge sessions will be less than three hour, which is faster than previous models.
After the robot is charged fully, You can fill the 750ml tank of Scooba with the hard floor cleaning solution and water. The solution comes in a bottle with the vacuum, but you can buy extra bottles separately. You are restricted to use only this solution which can easily last for 32 cleaning sessions with a bottle. You can also use the water only if you are out of solution.
The tops contain a Tank Release button which allows you to separate the water tank from the robot. At the bottom of the tank there are Clean and Dirty compartments, So when the fresh water goes in and refuse later goes out. After the tank is full, you can start using it.
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.
Cleaning Process
It looks similar to Roomba, but don’t work like it. It uses new three-cycle cleaning process which makes the robot much better than it’s predecessors. So as you start the robot, it automatically sweeps, pre-soaks, scrubs, and then squeegees your floor dry.
The pre-soak period is important because it provides extra time for the solution and water to loosen any dirt and debris.
The Scooba for wet floors uses iAdapt responsive navigation technology, which optimizes the amount of time and Scooba makes between passes.
Performance
It works pretty well on real floors. But for smaller areas, it uses a regimented process. First, it works in a circle, making a few revolutions outward, cleaning near the walls, it cleans the perimeter of the room.
The robot will quickly remove the fresh stains, and to know the results you can look in the tank when the robot is finished cleaning. But, for deeper-set stains, you need to give the robot some hand like when the bot is dealing with the ancient coffee spill.
The robot can quickly determine either it’s working on the carpet or floor and can detect stairs as well. While running on a carpet, it takes a small pause like it’s bumped into a wall.
It’s low-profile design allows it to sneak under most couches, tables and stands, but struggles to get under tight spaces like a miniscule Brooklyn apartment bathroom.
It will also struggle to tidy up larger rooms. The bot will lose while doing the regular circular rotations.
The good thing about the Scooba is that the less water it picks up, the less dirty water you need to drain. After the Scooba has done its job, you can take the tank to a sink and drain it of all the collected liquid.
The gray water that comes out of the tank will sometimes contain pet hairs or detritus.
You can restrict the robot to enter certain areas of your home by using an Auto Virtual Wall. This small, flask-shaped device creates an invisible barrier that keeps the robot away from that area. The one comes with the robot while you can buy spare if you want.
Very easy to set up, they are powered by two D batteries, flip the power switch and point it in the direction you want to create a wall.
If you have a bigger room, you can divide the room into different sections making it easy for the robot to clean it. The robot has a battery life of 45 minutes, and it’s loud.
Overall, the Scooba series is moderately priced and does a good job, but the Roomba family still earns the market respect with its expensive models.
After all, it’s quite simple to pull out the vacuum or broom and tidy up. Therefore, the best solution for mopping is Scooba 450 as you won’t need to mop again.
Those familiar with the Scooba 390 can get the same job done but it only lacks voice cues. Though there are no further models coming in Scooba series they have managed to expand the series with Braava line by offering Braave 320 and Braava 380t. If you are a casual clean freak these are some worthy options for you.
Overall, the iRobot Scooba 450 is an excellent choice which is an ideal option if you want to keep your floors sparkling without reaching for mop and bucket.
- Effective cleaning
- Powerful performance
- Easy to use
- Sends voice notification
- Expensive
- Loud
In this iRobot Scooba 450 Review ( Updated ) article, I have explained the advantages, disadvantages, features, and options of this vacuum to help you make a better decision.