After trying and loving the Roomba, it’s only natural to feel the desire to pawn off even more of your house cleaning duties to mindless automatons. If washing floors and scrubbing tight spaces is one of your regular tasks, the robots got you covered with the iRobot Scooba 230.
Vacuuming floors is nice and all, but for really dirty tiles, that just won’t do. This robot slave performs just that — washing, scrubbing and drying floors all by its lonesome. Even better, it’s the smallest cleaning robot by far, allowing it to fit in those hard-to-reach spaces around your grubby toilet.
The iRobot Scooba 230 is a roundish little fella, with 6.5 x 3.5 inch dimensions (diameter x height). It leaves floors sparkling clean using a three-stage system that involves dousing it with a cleaning solution, scrubbing off all stubborn dirt and collecting all the leftover fluids using a built-in vacuum and a squeegee. The manufacturer claims this process allows it to get rid of even more dirt than traditional floor-washing methods, neutralizing up to 97% of common household bacteria as it strolls by.
Built-in sensors allow the robot to monitor the cleaning area over 60 times per second, adapting quickly when certain spots need a second pass. Those same sensors allow it to steer clear out of certain rooms (you need to program it, though), as well as automatically avoid stairs and other “cliffs.” All the work you need to do is press the button to get it to start, replenish the solution when needed and rinse the bottom tools after each cleaning (the scrubbing brushes and the squeegee).
Availability for the iRobot Scooba 230 is expected in the Spring, priced at $299.
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