Apartment with 100% tile floors... Roomba or Scooba?

[io_burn]

Hey guys,

I have a 1200 square foot two bedroom apartment with tile floors... which are great if I didn't have to sweep every day to keep my socks from getting dirty when I walk around. I had a refurbished Roomba Discovery that bit the dust about six months ago, and since then I've been debating whether to buy another Roomba or a Scooba.

The Roomba Discovery worked great in my apartment. I'd set up a virtual wall so it would only clean about 600 square feet at a time and I could run it every day and there would be dust and cat hair in the dirt container. My stone tile floors trap a lot of dirt in their rough surfaces that even the Roomba misses. After a couple weeks without some type of wet cleaning I can rub a damp paper towel across a couple tiles and it will be amazingly dirty.

...Which makes me kind of lean towards a Scooba. My issue with that is most of the reviews I've read have only had people with small to medium sized kitchens using it, and I think if I got a Scooba I'd need to do four or more cleaning cycles for it to get my whole apartment. With three hour charges in between cycles it would be an all day affair to have it clean my floors.

My apartment is very open and "roombaized" so the Roomba could get around everything without issue, I'm just worried with the Scooba only being able to do 300-400 square feet at a time, it will be less screwing around to just mop my floors manually.

What do you guys think?

[scoobalover]

I would go for a scooba, for sure. I also have a large apartment with all tile floors. Using a Roomba would keep it from getting dusty, but that's no comparison with having a Scooba actually wash the floor - that will give you a really clean floor. If you divide your apartment into "zones", and run Scooba twice or three times a day, you can have every part cleaned every other or every third day. Also, I think Scooba can do more than one run on a charge, although iRobot doesn't recommend it.
I should add that although I've ordered a Scooba, I haven't actually gotten it yet, so this is just how I've thought it out for myself - not based on live experience.

[Mooba]

I would opt for another Roomba right now. The Scooba will be nice for the dirt in the rough surfaces but I bet will choke on all the fur if you don't get that up first.

[io_burn]

I just called the Sharper Image around the corner and they have Scoobas in stock for $300, and they told me they have a 14 day return policy. I think I'll give the Scooba a try and if it sucks I'll return it.

I don't really have that much cat hair on the floor, it's more just dust that gets ground in to the tile. I live on a really busy street and it seems like no matter what I do my place is just constantly dusty.

[io_burn]

Well... we'll see how it does. I have 60 days to return it without any issue, and I bought the two year replacement plan which I plan on exploiting as much as possible.

Waiting 16 hours to use it the first time is going to suck.

[greyhound]

Shoot, I'm too late. Bed, Bath and Beyond sells the Scoobas for $299 and you can use their 20% off coupons to save another $60. Easy to return items, too. I believe Linens and Things has the same deal if you have one locally.

[Mimi52]

Awwww, what cute kitties..... Once I started using Scooba I wished there were virtual walls for cats! For some reason mine likes to walk on the newly-scooba-ed floor (even though she hates water - go figure). She's just gotta check it out!

[io_burn]

Well, I just did one cleaning cycle with the Scooba with water and vinegar just to see what kind of coverage it gets with a tank... I'm pretty surprised. I could probably cut my apartment in quarters with the virtual wall and get everything done pretty well. If I can do two cleaning cycles per charge, I could just pick up another battery to be able to do the whole thing at once.

The cats approve.

[greyhound]

Using vinegar with the tile floors isn't recommended since it will eat away at the grout. The Chlorox solution is supposed to be safe for the grout, though.

[kissmybot]

enough with the posting of cute kitties cheking out your scooba. LOL my wife wants a cat and you aren't helping my side of the argument. heheh... Don't have anything against cats, it's just that we have a cockatiel that doesn't even like the roomba or scooba let alone a cat... glad your scooba is working out. We love ours!

[RTC]

Shoot, I'm too late. Bed, Bath and Beyond sells the Scoobas for $299 and you can use their 20% off coupons to save another $60. Easy to return items, too. I believe Linens and Things has the same deal if you have one locally.

Hmm, I had almost forgotten about their 20% off coupons. Haven't seen one since 2008 when I moved from CA to MT (even though we have a local Bed, Bath and Beyond and I don't have to drive ~100 miles to reach another "city"). I used to use the coupons all the time in CA.

[leonicholson]

We found this to work well with our Braavas on stained concrete. Should do well on tile also. NEUTRAL pH FORMULA

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N6 ... UTF8&psc=1

[George Jetson]

Good luck with the Scooba!
I was going to suggest the Roomba because I'm in nearly exactly the same environment: 1,200 sq ft, all hard surfaces, use (white) socks as slippers, and share the apartment with a furry demon named Juno.
Nice thing about the 9XX and newer robots is that they'll clean the entire apartment in one pass. Even if the robot can't completely vacuum the apartment in one pass, it will return to the Home Base by itself, charge, and resume the job exactly where it left off automatically!
I vacuum the main traffic areas every other day on a single pass and the whole apartment on the weekends with a double-pass.
Of course the one difference in my environment is the lack of textured tile, so that could tilt the balance in favor of Scooba, but so far - on my smooth surfaces - my socks easily pass the "Clean Floor?" test.
Oh, and about those BB&B coupons? They apply to on-line orders.

[NoJimForHome]

Special thanks to RTC for resurrecting a thread from 2006.