Comments about iRobot Scooba Battery:

My Scooba has been lightly used. I have maintained my Scooba as per manufacturers instructions and kept my battery on charge when not in use. The Scooba has never cleaned an entire area, NOT EVER, due to poor battery life. Today I set the robot to work in a small bedroom and the battery lasted 3 minutes ( I KID YOU NOT) after charging for 16 hours. Unfortunately, I need to purchase a new battery at $70 a pop plus whatever the shipping costs are. When the robot finally dies (which probably won't be long) I will not buy another Irobot product. I only wish that I had read the poor reviews before purchasing this expensive product. The manufacturers are clearly NOT LISTENING to their consumers.

Comments about iRobot Scooba Battery:

Worst battery life lasts 10 min ever cleaning. Takes all day to clean floors. They have a battery problem and want fix it.

Comments about iRobot Scooba Battery:

I've had my Scooba for several years and love it. However, as has been said here over and over, the battery life is too short for a [$] item.When new the battery can power through two tanks full of cleaning fluid. However, the decline in longevity becomes apparent before too long. After a year or so, it lasts not much beyond one tank. My last battery died completely just short of two years after receipt. That's $35 per year for batteries.

Comments about iRobot Scooba Battery:

Regarding the rather consistent comments about battery life, the reality is that it should never be necessary to continuously charge a rechargeable battery, ever. Although conditioning is a common need for such batteries, users having the kind of problems expressed in this forum need to recognize that 1. the company is aware of the problem, 2. the company profits from battery replacement just like printer companies profit from ink, 3. if the company thought something should be done, they would have done something by now. A good company always listens and responds to its customers, especially when it comes to quality control. No excuses.

Comments about iRobot Scooba Battery:

As a stockholder in iRobot, I am frustrated that the issue of battery life and how expensive they are to replace has consistently been ignored by the company. iRobot recommends that the Scooba be plugged in between uses so it charges at a trickle rate which I have done with all 3 of the Scoobas I've owned. I then tried using it until the battery has fully discharged after cleaning a room then waiting until I'm ready to use it again and charging it overnight. Neither of these approaches helped prolong the life of the battery. To be fair, however, I believe our local electric provider may be part of the problem since we experience a lot of "blips" - interruptions in service that last for a second or 2 that's just enough to reset all the clocks in the electronics back to a "00" state - which I have to believe affects the Scooba battery in a negative way. I believe in this company and will continue to buy their products but it would be awfully nice to hear from the corporate gurus on what, if anything, they're doing to improve on the batteries and stop all the negative press they're receiving here.

Comments about iRobot Scooba Battery:

I had purchased 2 batteries from IRobot and have had the same problems as everyone else. They just don't last and they are expensive to replace. So, I am going another route. I am taking both batteries to a store where you can either buy new batteries or rebuild batteries that you already have. They will rebuild the battery and they tell me that it will last twice as long as purchasing a new one. So, that's what I plan on doing now; I will keep everyone posted if it is successful.

Comments about iRobot Scooba Battery:

I love the Scooba, but the battery is not only disappointing, but also incredibly expensive. I've had three batteries for my machine. The last one lastest for about 10-12 cleanings. That's about $7 per cleaning, not counting the other costs. This is an odd situation because I also have a Roomba and haven't had the same experience with it. I've only had one battery, and it still works fine. I can't keep buying these batteries and spending this kind of money. I'll have to give up on Scooba until iRobot decides to fix the problem. With all the complaints, I'm surprised they haven't done that. They used to be so responsive to customers.

Comments about iRobot Scooba Battery:

No matter how I try to maintain proper battery life, the battery doesn't last for more than a year or so. We only use Scooba about every two weeks and have tried continuous trickle charge, no charge inbetween, etc. iRobot needs to provide a better battery or much clearer direction on how to optimize battery life. When Scooba finally breaks, we may not replace it due to the high cost of new batteries each year.

Comments about iRobot Scooba Battery:

I've owned my scooba for about 4 years now. After being happy with the Roomba, I decided to buy a Scooba as well. This was a "new" scooba that I purchased off [@]. It came with the original battery. I followed instructions and charged the battery for 24-72 hours continuously (in the scooba) for the initial charge, to condition the battery. Ever since, it has been working GREAT! And yes, I'm still using the ORIGINAL battery. The key to it is you've got to keep the Scooba plugged in ALL the time. If you have to unplug it, then you MUST remove the battery - it can't sit for any period of time with the battery in the machine and it unplugged from the wall. My scooba still cleans for roughly an hour continuously. I'm just now getting to the point where I can tell the battery is going - only because the machine dies before it detects the battery is getting low (it still cleans for an hour tho...). The only reason I'm on this site is looking up information to replace the battery in my mom's and brother's scoobas - theirs are dead because they left the batteries in the scooba, and unplugged the scooba for a month or longer. Tried every trick to bring them back to life, and they're just dead. It's also a good idea to keep the tank of the scooba open while it is charging, so the battery doesn't overheat and can completely charge (I've always done that).My roomba battery on the other hand ... I think I'm on my 4th or 5th one, after 6 years of ownership. That is used every 2-3 days though, versus every 1-2 weeks for the scooba. Again - the batteries mainly died because the roomba got stuck under a couch, or somewhere, and I didn't bother to look for it for several days - which is horrible for the batteries. If your batteries won't charge (the scooba/roomba won't detect them), try using another source such as a power-tool battery or a car battery to charge up the dead roomba/scooba battery so it has enough voltage for the machine to detect it and charge it properly. I've saved some batteries that way, though their life and capacity was impacted because they drained too low.

Comments about iRobot Scooba Battery:

I have owned and used (almost daily) my Scooba since May, 2005. Before our move to a 2000 sq ft home 3 months ago, it kept about 3000 sq ft of brick flooring and tile clean - I would never have been able to clean as thoroughly on my own. I had a schedule and rotated rooms for it to clean throughout the week. I have had 3 batteries and am now ordering my fourth.
I still love my Scooba and would recommend it if you have hard flooring to keep clean.
Viki Hatcher