Buy new Battery or Buy Reconditioned Scooba?

[Jackball]

Hello: I purchased a Scooba 5900 when back in 2006 when they were first released. Within the year warranty, my battery died and iRobot sent me a replacement. The replacement battery has now died (in less than a year) and, now out of warranty, I must replace it for around $70.


I hate throwing good money after bad so I'm considering just buying a reconditioned Scooba for $150 at Amazon. I figure I will be getting an almost new unit for just another $75 and could cannibalize the old unit for parts, if necessary.

Any suggestions on what I should do?

Thanks in advance.

(BTW - I'm really not happy with iRobot with their handling of the Scooba battery problems.)

[vic7767]

That sounds like a very good idea. I've purchased a couple of 5900s from ebay with batteries. Some early owners gave up trying to get their Scoobas to run and are selling them via ebay. If you get lucky you might find one with a good battery.

[Nanci]

Or, for $100 more there's the Geek Granny option!

How about the 5800 at HSN? Purchase the 2 year extended protection plan and you are still under $300 and free shipping. You can also do Flex Pay, 5 payments of $49.99. The extra protection, $34.95 is made with the first payment.

The HSN 5800 has been listed for months but frequently sells out. During those times they won't take an order for one but will when they get a new shipment in. They have them in stock right now.

http://home-solutions.hsn.com/irobot-sc ... 36_xp.aspx

Nanci

(bad person to have with you when you are trying to buy something cheap or trying not to buy something at all...)

[Suewes]

If you bought it with a credit card, see if your credit card offers to double the warranty on purchases made with the card. The ones I have will double the warranty up to a max of 1 additional year.

[geekgranny]

Although I never thought I'd purchase a Re-manufactured unit, with only 3 months warranty I did purchase an Amazon iRobot certified re-manufactured Scooba last week. He, JR, came out of the box looking and working as BRAND NEW. He had his maiden voyage yesterday and was a perfect gentleman. The battery is "re-manufactured" what ever that means. I let it charge for a few days and got 1 3/4 or more missions (almost two before battery drained). On first mission his clean tank emptied totally at the same time the dirty tank was full. I rarely get that with any of my other Scoobas. All parts are new so with all new squeegees, new brush assembly, new wheels, the charger, and the battery I figure this is well worth over $150. The Scooba itself looks and acts like brand new; even smelled new.

Although it is a toss up what model you get, and if it was a new unit returned for some problem or a used one returned for "re-manufacture" it looks like a good deal to me. I'm certainly satisfied.

They may have free shipping but I'm not sure. I have a "Prime" Amazon membership, with free shipping on many items, but I got overnight shipping for less than $2.

gg=alice

[geekgranny]

Hello: I purchased a Scooba 5900 when back in 2006 when they were first released. Within the year warranty, my battery died and iRobot sent me a replacement. The replacement battery has now died (in less than a year) and, now out of warranty, I must replace it for around $70.


I hate throwing good money after bad so I'm considering just buying a reconditioned Scooba for $150 at Amazon. I figure I will be getting an almost new unit for just another $75 and could cannibalize the old unit for parts, if necessary.

Any suggestions on what I should do?

Thanks in advance.

(BTW - I'm really not happy with iRobot with their handling of the Scooba battery problems.)

You know, I've been thinking about this. I have had multiple Scoobas and two batteries for each Scooba since Summer 06 (First Scooba purchase March or so 06) Until Oct 06 I was charging my batteries as recommended by iRobot. At that time it became apparent that the recommended charging was killing batteries so many of us put our external chargers on timers. In Oct 06 I purchased two new extra batteries. Except for a week or two charging the "old" way they have never been allowed to charge for more than 2.5 hours or so. The timer shuts the three external charger off after 2.5 to 3 hours.

I currently have 9 batteries, and waiting for over three months for a warranty replacement battery which will make 10. About half of my batteries are at or near a year old and going strong, still giving over 2 missions when I'm doing a monthly recondition.

The ones that have been warranty replaced by iRobot were probably all from before I started using a timer. I know the first few replaced were.

Do you limit the charge time for your battery? If so how much time max are you charging it? Even a few weeks of charging the recommended way is probably enough to shorten the life of the battery. I was lucky with the two purchased in Oct 06, I do believe, as they did get a week or two of "over charging" over heating but have lasted a year with extreme use and chargings per week. (Until last couple of months each battery did 5 or more missions per week)

One option to consider, especially as you have an external charger, is to purchase one of Glo69's Li-ion batteries. (I have two.) They are relatively immune to over heating when being used or charged which should extend the life of the battery considerably. And he certainly does lots of testing on the batteries before he sends them out. Good Battery, Good Service.

gg=alice

[Jackball]

Many thanks for all the thoughtful replies. I think I'm going to buy the reconditioned Scooba through Amazon. My only hesitation was the 3 month warranty but I will pay with my Amex which I think will extend the warranty.

I'm still a bit unhappy with iRobot because their instruction to continuously charge the battery it what caused this. I think they should have assumed some responsibility and replaced the battery.

Thanks again

[THX-1138]

Hello Jackball Welcome to RoombaReview

iRobot has found a workaround to their aggressive battery charging problem on the 5900 Scooba. They provided, within the year warranty, a replacement battery and a firmware update (OSMO) that resolved that issue if it was charged in the Scooba.

Another thing to consider as well, for you Scooba, is to purchase a Li-ION battery pack for your Roomba. One of our forum members (glo69) sells them, my self as well as other known members have been very satisfied with his work. Hope this helps you out.

[Jackball]

As stated in my earlier message, I decided to buy the reconditioned Scooba from Amazon; it arrived today.

I have 2 questions if anyone can answer them:

Should I be happy that they sent a 5900 or would I have been better off had theyshipped the 5800? I could always send it back and hope for the latter.

More importantly, I noticed that this unit shipped without the battery cradle. Should I not use the one from my previous Scooba? I've read some posts suggesting that the cradle is part of the battery life problems.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Jackball

[vic7767]

You are really lucky that you got the 5900. It comes with the higher capacity battery. Other than that the two models are very similar. You can use the external cradle charger that came with your earlier model. Just don't charge it for more than 4 hours.

[geekgranny]

As stated in my earlier message, I decided to buy the reconditioned Scooba from Amazon; it arrived today.

I have 2 questions if anyone can answer them:

Should I be happy that they sent a 5900 or would I have been better off had theyshipped the 5800? I could always send it back and hope for the latter.

I have three 5900s, and I'm perfectly happy with them. When you purchase reconditioned, unless specified, you won't know which model you will get. One of my 5900's has several hundred missions under its belt and will be 2 years old in March 08. Another, with a few less hundreds of missions will be a year old in Dec 07. Except for the ability of the 5800 and 3xx being designed to use plain tap water there are few differences in them and all clean about the same. I, personally, would not care which model I got. Most likely your iRobot factory remanufactured 5900 will have the OSMO applied at the factory to protect the battery left charging in the Scooba.

More importantly, I noticed that this unit shipped without the battery cradle. Should I not use the one from my previous Scooba? I've read some posts suggesting that the cradle is part of the battery life problems.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Jackball

BTW.. any current Scooba external charge base, will damage the batteries by cooking them because it doesn't have the software, OSMO, to limit the charge. I'm taking this info from a forum member who has tested the older and newer charge cradles and found little differences in them. Always monitor battery on charge base, limit charging time to no more than 3 hours or put charger on a timer, as many of us do.

I didn't get a charge base with my recent Amazon 5900. I really didn't expect one for the price. If you ever go with a Glo69 Li-ion battery, I have two and love them, you can leave that battery on the charge cradle without that battery being damaged. Glo69 Li-ions have protection built into the battery to limit charging and heating of battery.

gg=alice