Vacuum robots are great for picking up physical debris and pet hair tumbleweeds, but they don't exactly leave your floors looking shiny and new the same way a good mopping will. If you've already grown accustomed to automated floor cleaning, though, the last thing you'll want to do is break out the mop and bucket. Luckily, iRobot's latest 'bot, the Scooba 450, does a great job of cleaning your floors so you don't have to. But at $599.99, it's a substantially larger investment than a refill pack of Swiffer pads.

Design and Setup

Physically, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between the Scooba 450 and the previous model, the Scooba 390. It also looks pretty much identical to iRobot's Roomba family of vacuum robots. The 'bot measures 3.6 inches high and 14.4 inches in diameter, which is a size that allows it get into most spots, but I'll touch on that more in a bit.

There's a handle on top of the Scooba which makes it easy to carry from room to room (and prevents any water from spilling out). There are three clearly labeled, backlit buttons on top. The biggest button, Clean, starts and stops the cleaning cycle. An Information button to the left will flash various colors to let you know the status of the robot. One big improvement in the 450 is that, when you press the Information button, it now speaks a verbal cue as well, so there's no guesswork as to what a particular light means. Finally, a Room Size button lets you choose between short and long cleaning cycles (which equates to rooms up to 150 or 300 square feet, each of which take 25 or 45 minutes, respectively).