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monicakm1

mint robotic floor cleaner raves raves & more raves!

monicakm_gw
13 years ago

This is a cross post from the Kitchen Forum:

I know the drill. I should since I've been a member since, what, 2002? Check my membership status to make sure I didn't just register today to spam this product :) NO WAY affiliated with the company. Just LOVE the product :)

OK, now that I've got that out of the way, I want to share with ya'll Evolution's Mint Robotic Cleaner. This is not a vacuum (like the Roomba). It's not round like the Roomba. It's not loud like the Roomba. It's a GPS navigation driven, square (for corners), low profile (to get under furniture) robotic dry sweeper and wet mop for all hard surfaced floors. I accidentally stumbled across it on the www this past Tuesday. After reading countless reviews (4.5 stars on Amazon) and watching dozens of You Tube Videos, I bought one from Bed Bath and Beyond for $173 (after using a 20% coupon). Amazon and other on-line sellers have it for $199. Mint was awarded Good Housekeeping's VIP award in Jan 2011 and one of the Top Tech Picks from CES showcased on the Martha Stewart show. Ellen gave them away on her show during Christmas. The "tech" sites don't rate it as highly as non-tech sites and homeowners. Not bad, just not stellar.

Mint uses Northstar GPS navigation to map out a room and cleans every single inch. Using dust mop mode, the charge lasts up to 3 hours. Two hours for wet mopping. It first cleans the center of a room and then goes back and cleans the edges. You don't have to move chairs but I chose to move the barstools (in the kitchen). I left the grandchildren's little table but picked up the chairs. When I cleaned (again in dust mop mode) the dining room (15'x16') I left the dining room table chairs but pulled them away from the table so Mint could get under the pedestal. It also went under the side table/buffet. It's A-MA-ZING how well it cleans! Cleans better than I do using a microfiber dust mop. Takes longer but A) it does a better job B) saves my bad lower back from added pain C) allows me more (pain free) time for more important things like GRANDBABIES and does it all super quietly. After using it the first time, I walked barefooted in my kitchen for the rest of the evening, just to feel the clean velvety smoothness of my tile :) My microfiber dust mop doesn't do as good a job. It would take my broom vac to get it that clean. It had that same feeling as it does after steam cleaning (there was no sticky spills of any kind). Next I dusted the wood floor in the office. Same results. In fact, most of the videos you see are using the Mint on hardwood floors.

Then the bathrooms. This is the only spot where it ran into some trouble. In both bathrooms, it could get in between the toilet and tub/wall but was having a dickens of a time backing out. It could have backed out the same way it went in but it kept trying to turn around. That needs fixed! It was making (slow) progress but I didn't have the patience to watch it struggle and didn't want to waste the charge so I helped it out :) The Mint didn't get powder out of my grout lines in the bathroom, but neither does the Swiffer. It takes my Bissell broom-vac that has non-rotating bristles on it to remove the powder. BTW, Mint comes with a USB port for software updates. This isn't mentioned in the manual.

Then I tried the wet mop mode in the kitchen. Like I said earlier, there were no sticky messes or dried on food on my kitchen floor but there were some dried spots. Honestly, I didn't have high hopes for the wet mop mode. It cleans using a "Y" movement and overlaps for better cleaning. I was pleasantly surprised :) It did a better job than I anticipated! And yes, the dried spots were gone However, it will NOT take the place of my Bissell steam mop. It's just DH and I for the most part. If we had kids in and out and helping themselves to the fridge, I don't believe Mint would have performed it's wet mopping as well...unless you ran it often. In both modes, you can stop Mint to change cleaning pads if needed. I have MS, Fibro Myalgia and a bad lower back. I'm not wheelchair bound by my MS. Fatigue is my biggest daily issue with MS. This little robot is a life saver for me! I've learned a lot from my years here at Garden Web's THS. I've been introduced to products I would have never know about. My two favorites are the Tapmaster (one in kitchen and one in the master bathroom) and from the Bathroom forum, the Toto Washlet. Both products are HGs (Holy Grails) and in the "how did I ever live without them" category. I would put the Mint right under those two products. But, if push came to shove and I had to give up one, I'd have a hard time deciding :o Hope it never comes to that!

Monica

Comments (13)

  • jomuir
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I've been wanting one for months now, but the price puts me off. I ended up getting a Hoover Floormate, it was $109. after a coupon at Costco. I love it, but one day I will treat myself to the Mint. Glad you like it, it's nice to see a real person's review.

  • downtowner
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Anyone who hearts tapmaster and washlet (washlet plus neorest 600 in our case) has street cred with me.

    I've orderedon one.

  • monicakm_gw
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    downtowner, YAY! I hope you love it as much as I do :) I've had mine almost two weeks. Now that I've stopped "messin'" with it while it's trying to work (g) it's cleaning faster (duh!) and I can get all the tile and wood done on one (dry sweeping) charge with battery life left over. Naturally I realize the size of one's house is key :)
    As you use it and become familiar with the product, you'll figure out ways to customize the cleaning for your floors and little do's and don'ts. In my original post, I mentioned that Mint was having a hard time backing out of the area between the toilet and tub/wall in both bathrooms. I said it would have eventually made it but didn't want to waste battery power. Well it won't make it out! I forgot one day and left it in the master bathroom while I went shopping for the day. When I came home, she was chirping "help" (g) I called ts to ask about this. No, it won't back up the way it went in. It tries to turn around. That's ok tho! I just put the trashcan there so it won't get stuck. I'll gladly live with it because it's made my corner of the world a better place (like the Tapmaster and Washlet) :) My floors have never ever been this clean :) I know you're going to watch it at first...you'll get over that after a few days. Just don't freak out and shout at it because it didn't go the direction you thought it should or you think it's going to miss a spot (g) Let it do it's thing and I promise, it will amaze you :) The directions suggest, for the first cleaning, to dry mop or vacuum the floor. I didn't do this. I wish I had simply because what I thought was a fairly clean floor was anything BUT :( Oh, I'm mostly using Swiffer pads. First I just used a single sheet. Now I'm doubling them for a thicker more cloth like pad. I turn them over so I use all 4 sides. The cloths that come with it are fine but not always washed when I want to sweep.
    I cleaned the floors before the weekend and then again after a typical weekend here of DH running in and out to and from his shop, grandchildren running in and out. All promising me they've wiped their feet (yeah, right). I was shocked to see what accumulated over the weekend :o One more tip. The manual says to put the pads on tight. I didn't and Mint had a problem getting past the grout lines in my tile. I adjusted the pads to make them tighter and no problems :)
    PLEASE let me know how you like it :)
    Monica

  • monicakm_gw
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    downtowner, I'm anxious to hear if you've gotten your Mint and how you like it.
    I had my two grandchildren here for eight hours today. It was sure nice to start the robot as I walked out the door to take them home and return to a clean floors :) A two and four year old can run in and out and drop a lot of food on the floor in 8 hours (g)
    Monica

  • mustangs81
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thank you Monica for the thorough review!!! I have been looking at this for the tons of tile I have to keep up with. I'm glad that I held off buying the...other one.

  • copprtop97
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    My reservation is with our hardwood floor. It is an old oak floor that has small beveled "gaps" between the planks. I hope that makes sense. Anyway, I don't know that the cloth would get the dirt out between the planks. We were using a Swiffer vac, but it broke, and my wife would like something like this if it worked. $200 is too much to spend without knowing for sure or trying it out first. Anyone have any input here?

  • jannie
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I've seen the commercials/infomercials. Glad to hear a real life opinion. The Mint is going on my birthday/Christmas list. Unless my kids get me one for Mothers Day.

  • monicakm_gw
    Original Author
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    copprtop
    I have one room of wood plank. It works great on the wood. My wood also has small beveled gaps. Does the Mint clean as well as a hard floor vac? Not quite but, to me, it cleans darn good enough, that along with the fact I'm not having to do it, is well worth it. I guess you could say it does keep all the floors cleaner because I use the Mint a lot more than I used my Bissel or microfiber dry mop. I won't be throwing away my Bissell broom vac anytime soon but I rarely use it anymore. We spent the weekend doing a tile job. Clean up involved me using the Bissell on the tile floors. Looking carefully, I found some corners that looked like they had a build up of debris. It would be hard to see if you weren't looking for it. I now know that every once in awhile I'll need to use my vacuum's attachment to clean the corners better than Mint does. Again, the amt of time it took those corners to accumulate any noticeable debris and as well as it works elsewhere and I'M FREE TO DO OTHER THINGS, it's well worth it to me :) I don't think the robot is intended to totally replace a hard surface vac, but I've had my Mint for over two months and I think yesterday was the first time I used my Bissell and that was because of the remodel job.
    Monica

  • scraphappy98036_yahoo_com
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I just bought mine at BB&B with the 20% off coupon. It dusted my large kitchen/eating area/hall floor for a about an hour. First off, I am a horrible housekeeper and my floors rarely see a broom or vacuum, let alone a mop, so I started out with a mess! I did have to chase it down to pull off the pony tails it grew, but that's because my floor was soooo dirty. (I arrived here after Googling whether you could change pads mid-cycle. Yes-just power off, change pads and set it back down). The mop mode is insufficient for my old grime, so what it has left behind, I am cleaning by hand. (It's about time.) I started out with disposables for the mop-mode and switched to the included mop rag after seeing it needed more help. Does a better job, but I still have to wipe up old stuck-on grime by hand. If I use this daily for dust and at least weekly for mopping, it should be just fine, as the areas that weren't that dirty look great! I'm not even done and there is a VAST improvement! Oh! I just heard it chirp so I need to change the mop cloth!

  • monicakm_gw
    Original Author
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I guess it's a little late but the directions say it's best to vacuum your floors before first using Mint. I didn't but (I THOUGHT) mine stayed pretty clean anyway. Apparently Mint gets to places I must miss :o A day, two at the most, of doing some deep cleaning on your floors, and Mint can maintain them for you :) The wet mopping feature won't take the place of my steam mop but it drastically reduces the amt of times I've used it. My grandchildren were here the other day. After an afternoon of running in and out, a dropped plate of spaghetti and a dropped popcicle, I first used the Mint to pick up debris and then used the mop mode. It got everything and left my porcelain tile floor satin-y smooth :) Wet mop mode requires a bit more interaction. This is what I do. I use a mixture of 50/50 water/alcohol for cleaning. I saturate the mopping cloth with it and then as Mint is cleaning, I'll spray the cleaning solution in front of where Mint hasn't been yet. The cloth starts to dry out. If you spray the solution too far ahead of Mint, it dries. Every smear and spot on the floor was gone when Mint was done :) Let me qualify that by saying I didn't leave food on the floor for Mint to clean :o I wiped up the spills but let Mint CLEAN the area. L.O.V.E. my Mint Robotic Cleaner!

  • monicakm_gw
    Original Author
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    downtowner, I hope you're still around. How do you like your Mint? I've have the newer model (black) now and there are some good upgrades to it. I've "sold" at least 6 of them to friends and family. Everyone LOVES it! Hope you do too :)
    Monica

  • Tmnca
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I had a Mint in our previous home and loved it! I got a Neato XV-14 vacuum for our new place, because it works better with the area rugs and floor plan - but the Mint had many things going for it, including the fact that it mops! I gave my old one away but have been thinking about getting the black one.

    I can also recommend the Neato- it's not perfect but it is better than the roomba we had, which had a lot of maintenance issues (brush cleaning errors almost daily).

    I love robot vacuums/mops! They definitely go places you miss, and they run every day so floors are kept much cleaner.

  • DanielCrane
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I also have Roomba, the 770 model... Few cleaning errors, but it is not so bad...

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