Pros: Fantastic little floor-scrubber; just make sure to vacuum or sweep first, use often, and clean the scrubber plates frequently
Cons: Takes practice to line up the virtual wall just right
Rating: 4 out of 5

Also posted on Epinions.com

Between my tendonitis and my husband’s work schedule, it’s hard to keep the house as clean as we’d like. Not too long ago, my awesome mother got us a Scooba 230 + Essentials Kit, one of iRobot’s floor washing robots. The essentials kit, by the way, includes a second virtual wall (takes two D batteries; keeps your robot from passing through a doorway so you can limit what it cleans) and several extra bottom plates (the part that includes the scrubbing brushes and squeegee).

You charge up the Scooba, slip on the bottom plate, open up both the fill and empty ports (so the inner bag that holds the water can expand as much as possible), pour in a small amount of non-toxic enzyme cleaner (the Scooba comes with several sample packets, but you’ll want to buy a couple of bottles from iRobot). Fill with warm (not hot) water, close both ports, put the Scooba in the middle of the floor to be cleaned, press the power button, and press the ‘clean’ button. Note that the first time I used the Scooba it gave me an error message indicating that it hadn’t been filled with water and solution even though it had; the fix for this is to give is a good shake to prime the pumps.

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