If you have read any of my other posts you may have surmised that I am a fan of eBay. Almost all of my experiences buying from eBay have been positive, see my post on the crib set if you want to know about my one bad experience. There are some buys that stand out as the best.
The first was my Scooba, you may have heard of it’s brother the Roomba the robotic vacuum, Oprah gave it away on one of her favourite things show. The company that makes the Roomba, iRobot, now make a floor washing robot the Scooba. I received the Roomba for my Mother’s Day gift, yes I did ask for it, and as their commercial says I love my robot.
When I heard about the floor washing robot I was definitely interested in it. The Scooba in Canada retails for more than $500 CAD from the dealer in Canada or $349USD from the iRobot store, more than I was willing to spend, a lot more. So I checked on eBay there the Scooba’s were going for under $250USD, I had even seen a few go for under $170USD, a much more palatable price. I decided I didn’t want to pay more than $190USD.
There seemed to be a number of sellers who repeatedly listed Scoobas. After researching their feedback and their shipping rates I narrowed it down to 3 sellers to buy it from. These sellers tended to list a Scooba weekly, after two and a half months of bidding and being outbid I finally won the auction for less than my limit $187.50 USD plus shipping. Now all I had to do was wait for it to arrive.
Two weeks later it was at my door and was just as described new in box. It took about 8 hours to charge up the battery and then it was ready to roll. It uses a cleaner by Clorox that is specially formulated to work with the Scooba. It doesn’t smell to strongly and most importantly is safe around pets and kids.
The Scooba moves slower than the Roomba and does a light vacuum, squirts out the clean water, scrubs the floor and squeegees it clean in a single movement. It took about 30 minutes to make its way around the kitchen floor. When I dumped the water it was very dirty and the floor had been mopped the day before, so I set it up for a second go and the water was much cleaner the second time. It does a very nice job of cleaning the floor and the best thing is that it frees you up to do something else while you are mopping the floor.
The downfalls of the Scooba are that in Canada—at least where I live—you can not pick the cleaning solution up at the grocery store. I ordered about a years supply from the iRobot store, they give you a 15% discount when you register the Scooba. The other con is the time it takes to recharge the battery is about 3-4 hours so you can’t do your whole house in one day, which requires some planning. I will be watching eBay for a second battery at a good price!
Overall, I’m very happy with the Scooba it does a great job cleaning the floors and frees me up to do other things. With a baby crawling around the house it is very nice to know the floors are squeaky clean.
Check back for Part 2—Baby Items—The Baby Bjorn, Boppy, and Crib Duvet
Tags: eBay, Scooba, baby, parenting, good buys, deal, shopping
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