Mint Robot Review
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Yes we finally got our hands on a Mint automatic cleaner to review here on our site. It’s very exciting! Let’s start with the shot everybody probably wants to see. What our Mint robot cleaner came up with after sweeping our bedroom (including under the bed.)
The first time the Mint came out from under the bed, it looked like it had a beard made out of dust bunnies! We’re really impressed with the performance of the robot and are surprised at how quiet it is. More on that later. For now, let’s move on to what you get when you order one.
I’m going to say up front that Evolution Robotics is not going to win any awards for how “green” their packaging for the Mint automatic floor cleaner is. The box is really big for the size of the product.
It opens up like a clam shell to reveal the robot on one side and the accessories on the other.
Here are the accessories that come with the basic kit. You get the Evolution Robotics Northstar beacon, washable microfiber cleaning pads, a charger for the robot, and two C batteries for the Northstar beacon. The batteries are a really awesome thing! I hate getting something home and then finding that I have to run to the store to pick up some batteries. Evolution Robotics scores some major points with me for including them in the package.
Besides the batteries (and the robot, of course), here was my favorite item that came in the box. A quickstart page. I love these kinds of things, because they get you up and running without having to sit down with the manual. The Mint robot comes with a manual for those of you who want to read it. It’s easy enough, however, to use the robot without one. As a matter of fact, I still haven’t checked out the manual.
The Mint robots are designed to sweep your floors with disposable Swiffer Pads, but they also ship with more eco-friendly washable microfiber pads. The point of these pads is to sweep the floor and grab onto the dust, dirt, hair, and grit so that you’re not just spreading it around or pushing it into corners. Both the included microfiber pads and the Swiffer pads attach to the cleaner attachment easily and securely. A little bit of either one sort of sticks off of either end of the robot, and this bugged me a little, but when I watch the robot go around the room, it doesn’t seem to hurt at all, and even looks like it probably helps the Mint pick up more dirt from corners and awkward spaces.
So you get the Mint robot, a charger, the Northstar beacon, three microfiber cleaning pads (one for wet, two for dry), a manual, and batteries. The English part of the manual is 28 pages long. The manual has the following sections:
- Safety Instructions
- Mint’s Features
- Mint’s Button and Lights
- How Mint Cleans
- Sweep and Mop Modes
- Operating Mint
- Battery and Charging
- Maintenance
- Customer Support
- Trouble Shooting
- Limited Warranty
I just spent a minute checking out the manual, and it is very clear and understandable. It’s funny, because the robot blinks its lights certain ways while it’s cleaning and it turns out that I was right about what I thought it was doing.
Here’s another shot of a job well done. I kind of figured the Mint would work, but I do have admit that I was curious to see if it really worked. I was worried that maybe it was an over-hyped marketing scam or a faulty, poorly-designed, error-prone lemon, or didn’t really clean. Maybe it would be really confusing to use. Maybe it would just push all the dirt into the corners and leave it there. Instead it has been a sweeping dynamo! It’s so easy to use. This is what it looked like coming out from under our bed. There are a lot of items of furniture the Mint fits under. It came out from under one of our dressers pushing a full piece of 8.5 x 11 paper. I grabbed the paper, and it went back under the dresser and came out with another full piece! It was like, “Thank you. I will go get the other one now.”
While it is cleaning, the robot is very quiet. It does softly bump into things, but that doesn’t make much noise. If you’ve ever had a Roomba or another robot vacuum cleaner like a Roomba, you’ll definitely appreciate how quiet the Mint is in operation.
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Our entire house is hard wood floors, tile, or linoleum. I’m happy to report that the Mint automatic floor cleaner does a great job on all of them. We’re glad that now we don’t have to sweep the floor every week. We can have the Mint do it twice a week. The difference in how clean our house is now is very noticeable. If you can’t walk across your living room without getting a piece or two of grit stuck to the bottom of you foot, it’s time to get a Mint robot!
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