Evolution Robotics Mint Automatic Hard Floor Cleaner, 4200 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I must say, I'm impressed with the mapping system on this little guy. I have a very large (20'X20') open living room/kitchen area giving plenty of obstacles to confuse it. There's a staircase (which it deftly avoids), an island, a kitchen table with chairs, a couch and a number of tables for it to go under, an area rug and a piece of curved beveled glass on the floor that serves as a stand for a fireplace (which it surprisingly does not ride up on). Also, the room is overall "U" shaped with several entryways. This is the only robotic cleaner that has been able to figure this room out in its entirety. Other things to note is the room has a large fan and high, sloped ceilings and it can still find it's way.
My Roomba did terribly. It would get stuck in one section, the Neato XV was OK but would miss some parts. This thing does a great job of freshening up the floor and getting at just about everything due to it's small size!
One thing I did not know is the Mint comes with wet and dry reusable cloths for cleaning. They are great! It does pick up a lot of stuff, even if your floors look clean it's going to find something!
Wet pads are very good and stay damp for a longer amount time than I would have imagined. The floor is drier behind the mint than if I were mopping the floor myself!
I have found some things that confuse it. It doesn't like heater vents too much, especially larger ones (like intake vents) because it thinks it is falling off of a ledge. It will eventually figure it out though. It will get stuck on vertical blinds, so you might want to block them with something and it might get stuck if it drives into an area that is very tight and it decides it can't back out. After a few runs of finding what confuses it, it pretty easy to mint-proof a room.
Noise levels are good. It drives about very quietly. It is a bumper-bot though. Which is where most of the noise comes from. Though every bump really matters as it is mapping the room.
Speed is good. Not the fastest but very efficient. It really gets at every spot in a methodical fashion. I was impressed with the final "edging" step. Once it cleans the room it will clean the edge. Not just the outside edge, but also the "inside" edges such as area rugs, tables, islands and so on.
What is the practicality of this? I wouldn't have thought much for a Swiffer bot but something about the speed and thoroughness of it's cleaning really brings out much more grime than I would get myself. I notice it gets much more cat fur than I would because it doesn't blow it out of the way before getting to it.
The personality of the bot is OK. It's more like a clinical, efficient nurse doing it's job. It isn't quite as chipper as other cleaning bots but it gets the job done.
Battery life is good. Not the fastest at charging but a long enough life to get through more than a couple rooms per charge.
Can these guys get on making a vacuum bot now?

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The Mint Automatic Floor Cleaner from Evolution Robotics is designed exclusively for sweeping and mopping hard surface floors for you. Using dry and pre-moistened cleaning cloths, Mint picks up the dust, dirt and pet hair that constantly accumulate on floors. Mint's compact design gets into tight spaces, under furniture and into other areas that are hard to reach with traditional mops and sweepers.
Guided by the NorthStar Navigation System cube, Mint tracks where it cleans so it doesn't miss a spot (see larger image).

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iRobot 330 Scooba Floor-Washing Robot Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)It meets the 80/20 rule. It does 80% of the work that you would do if you did a thorough, good clean yourself. However, I usually don't do a thorough good clean myself on mopping floors since I left the navy.
obviously, make sure that your floor is swept before starting Scooba. (I use my Roomba since I am doubly lazy..) Scooba won't get into the corners, but neither do I when I mop.
The point is.. I don't like mopping. Neither does my wife. The hardwood floors never get mopped. I have a dog & 2 cats. Thus, the kitchen floor always looks like &*$(#! most of the time. Now it doesn't. It looks great. I'd suggest it for people that hate mopping & just want someone (or thing) to do it..
The first time I had scooba clean, it ran, but no water came out, and ittold me to check the tank, so i fiddled with it (pulled it apart & put it together again) and it worked. perhaps I didn't put the little rubber tube in right or didn't snap things together right the first time.
It works great on mud, dried food & dried spills. It missed some hardened, caked on gunk that would take a bit of scrubbing with a brush, or, scrubby part of your mop, but I didn't expect it to get those. In my case, it got up things like hardened jelly & stuff, but whatever the trash can has been grinding into the floor for the last couple years, it couldn't get up.
When you are done with Scooba, you do have to empty it out, give the tank a rinse, and clean the brush & a removable tube, to me though, thats easier than cleaning a mop. Though some people don't clean their mops, I would strongly suggest it with scooba.
You also need to buy their special cleaner, which to me, isn't that bad, since if you didn't use it, you'd be using another cleaner anyway. Scooba is quite efficient, as well. it uses 1/8? cup of cleaner and a quart or so of water on my floor (200 Sq. ft). If I were mopping, I'd be using more of both. I tried vinegar, which did pretty good, but the clorox appears to work better. I bet if you used Scooba more often, then vinegar would be fine.
The best time to use Scooba, in my opinion, is right before leaving in the morning, watching the TV downstairs, or going to bed (provided that 45 minutes of hair dryer sounding noise in another room doesn't bother you). That way the floor is dry when I come back to it. Some people have complained that it leaves the floor too wet after a mopping, but, to me, it appears the same as after when I mop myself.
so, in summary, if you just want the floor mopped. get Scooba. If you a perfectionist, its not for you.

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For reliably clean floors including sealed hardwood, tile, and linoleum, this floor-washing robot can handle up to four average-size rooms (250 square feet) on a single battery charge. Simple to operate, just fill the tank, press "clean," and empty the tank when finished. Its four-stage cleaning process includes the prep stage, which picks up dirt, sand, and crumbs; the washing stage, which uses only clean solution (mops just spread around dirty water); the scrubbing stage, which removes dirt, grime, and stuck-on messes; and the drying stage, which squeegee-lifts dirty water from floors. The cleaning machine uses clean tap water, a water and vinegar mixture, or deep-cleaning, fresh-scented Clorox Scooba cleaning solution. With the press of a button, the robot will leave floors clean, dry, and ready to walk on.
In addition, the robot avoids carpets, rugs, ledges, and stairs thanks to its cliff-sensing technology. The unit conveniently self navigates throughout each room cleaning beneath cabinet edges, tables, chairs, and other hard-to-reach places. The robot's autonomous cleaning pattern covers each area of floor an average of five times, and it washes floors with only clean solution, depositing dirty water and grime into the dirty-water tank. Accessories include one 8-ounce bottle of Clorox Scooba cleaning solution, a measuring cup, an APS battery, a power supply and charging base, and an owner's guide. One Virtual Wall also comes included to mark off-limit areas with an infrared beam that the robot will not cross (requires two D batteries, not included). The floor-washing robot measures 14-3/4 by 14-3/4 by 3-1/2 inches and carries a one-year warranty.

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