Review: The Mint Automatic Floor Cleaner

Let the robots do the swiffering for you.

Mar 6 2011, 6:45pm CST | by Robert Evans

Review: The Mint Automatic Floor Cleaner

For years now, nerdy folks with carpets have enjoyed the tireless services of Roomba robotic vacuums. But what about folks with hard wood, concrete or tile floors? Thanks to Mint, there's finally an automatic floor cleaner for the rest of us.

Specifications

In dry mode, the Mint can clean 1,000 square feet on a single charge. In wet mode, it can handle 250 feet. Without the navigation cube, these numbers drop to 350 feet dry / 150 feet wet.

In Use

My home has hardwood floors, one cat and one dog. As such, dust bunny control is of paramount importance. My hope was that the Mint would rein in the dust and pet dander problem.

Set-up is almost too easy. Just charge your Mint, power on the navigation Cube and press either the wet or dry button. Your Mint will go off on its merry way, sweeping up dustbunnies and clumps of hair and other miscellaneous debris. I had the Mint running almost constantly for two days before I felt like enough junk had been picked up to justify a wet mode run. Here's what the Mint grabbed from our floor:

My roommate notes that the Mint also tends to leave huge clumps of dust in the middle of the floor, where it breaks away from the front of the pad. This makes clean-up way more convenient, but it also makes your house look a bit shabby for the first few days of Mint use. After that, the dustbunnies don't get large enough to break off. 4 out of five times, the Mint completes its rounds with no issue. But the robot does tend to get stuck from time to time.

Dishwashers are a particular hazard...

The most common foe of the Mint automatic floor cleaner, however, is the common door:

The minor annoyance of occasionally freeing my trapped robot was more than made up for by the convenience of not needing to clean my floor. The Mint's sweep setting clears the house of dust, and the mop setting is actually quite good at scrubbing off nastiness. To really put it to the test, I stacked the Mint up against the crusty spot of kitchen where my trashcan lives. Here it is, in all its filthy glory:

And here it was after I sicced my new robot pal on it. Twice.

My roommate also found a third use for the Mint. If you douse the mopping cloth with floor polish, your hardwood will shine like the rising sun. Once every other day is enough to keep the floor sparkly and feeling clean.

Verdict

Pros

+Easy to set-up / Use
+Effective at picking up dust, scrubbing out gunk.
+Has a wide range, effective for basic maintenance with minimal time investment.

Cons

-The Mint gets stuck more often than is entirely convenient.

Conclusion

The Mint is one hell of a floor-sweeping robot. It keeps hardwood and tile looking good and it doesn't require much input from you to do it. You can buy the whole kit for $199.99. How much is never needing to sweep again worth it to you?

8.0

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Robert Evans
The excitement about new smartphones, tablets and anything mobile drive Robert to unearth the latest rumors and developments in this fast moving space. He adopted 4G as soon as it become available and knows where the mobile market is going.
Robert can be contacted directly at robert@i4u.com.