After having such great luck with my Roomba , I had been eying the Scooba since it came out. When I put new flooring into my kitchen and found a deal on the Scooba at W00T, I decided it was time to try it out. According to iRobot, the maker of Scooba, "Scooba navigates throughout each room and uses a 4-stage cleaning system to prep, wash, scrub and squeegee sealed hardwood, tile and linoleum floors."  Well, that sounds pretty impressive.  After all, "Why settle for kind-of clean floors the old fashioned way when you can get floors brilliantly clean with the touch of a button?" 

Once I received my Scooba, I couldn't help but put it through its paces.  Read on below for my experiences with Roomba's little brother, Scooba. 

Prep
Scooba is not much of a vacuum.  It has suction, but it isn't well equipped to deal with large amounts of pet hair or debris.  There is not really a dust bin where you would find pet hair.  There is a screen that any hair or debris gets stuck in.  I've also found that some debris also gets stuck in the suction tube itself.  So, before you set Scooba loose on your kitchen, you will want to sweep.  Alternatively, you could run Roomba first, if you have one.

Once you have your floor swept, you'll want to place some virtual walls about to make sure Scooba stays confined to the areas that you want him to work in.

Now, you'll need to fill Scooba with water and cleaning solution.  Is Scooba charged?  If so, he is ready to go!  Simply lay him on the ground and set him off.  

Cleaning
Scooba moves about your kitchen, scrubbing with water and cleaning solution, and then sucking up some of the dirty water.  I think that Scooba leaves the floors a bit more wet than I would like.  I think that if it could suck up more of the water, I would prefer that.  It does a great job cleaning though.  If you have muddy tracks or spills or anything, Scooba will handily dispatch with that.  When you empty the dirty water container afterwards, you'll be impressed with how brown and gross the water is, even if your floor looked pretty clean.

Coverage
Since it leaves the floor wet, you can clearly see that it hits the entire floor, just like Roomba does.   Scooba isn't great at getting into corners, since he is round.  Where Roomba has a brush that extends to reach into tough areas, Scooba doesn't really have anything like that.  You may want to get in the corners with a swiffer wetjet or something for a thorough clean.  Generally, I would say that Scooba gets better coverage than a person mopping the floor, unless that person is trying very hard to be thorough.  Scooba will generally go over the same piece of floor a couple times.

Entanglement
Scooba is not very well equipped to deal with things like electrical cords, boot laces,  magazines/papers, or other potential robo-hazards.   Where Roomba is able to  pick itself up a bit to wiggle free of obstacles,  Scooba operates on flat surfaces only.  Small lips or transitions in your floor could very well slow Scooba down.  Before you use Scooba, you will want to make sure your floor is clear of these kinds of obstacles.  Otherwise, you'll find Scooba stuck.

Maintenance
Every time I use Scooba, I feel like he needs to be cleaned.  You open the hatch and empty the dirty water resevoir.  Then, flush it out a bit with clean water.  I leave the plugs open so that this cavity can dry.  While it is open, you also need to remove the debris screen and rinse it out.  It will probably be full of stuff. Another thing that needs to be cleaned is the small rubber suction tube.  You can pull this out and run water through it to clean it out.  Take care in replacing it - if you put it in wrong, Scooba won't have very good suction next time you use it.  

The brushes can also be cleaned, and I probably do this every 2-3 uses.  

Finally, Scooba needs to be charged.  While Roomba can be left plugged in all the time, the Scooba owners manual recommends against leaving Scooba plugged in all the time to charge.  I haven't had Scooba long enough to know how the battery will last, or what the expense of replacement will be.

Overall Impressions
My floor definitely gets a proper cleaning thanks to Scooba far more often than it did before.  That is a definite plus in Scoobas favor.  For some reason, I didn't mop very often.  While I am not sure that Scooba is all that much less work than a quick mop job, it is certainly a more pleasant task to set Scooba on its way than to mop the floors manually. 

I don't feel comfortable leaving Scooba running unattended for long periods of time unless I take the effort to "Scooba Proof" the room.  Scooba isn't as agile as Roomba, so it gets stuck sometimes.  

Due to the copious amounts of water that Scooba leaves on the floor, I don't feel comfortable using Scooba on my pre-finished walnut hardwood floors.  Its just that there is a lot of water, and I don't want to risk damaging my wood.

Would I buy Scooba again?  Yes.
Would I recommend others buy him?  Yes, on sale.  Don't pay full price.
Is my floor generally cleaner now?  Yes.
Is Scooba as slick as Roomba?  Not by a long shot.