It's all about Mint...

Mint Cleaner battery charging issue

2013-02-05T13:33:00.003+08:00

Mint Cleaner battery charging issue:

After several weeks of testing, I realised that this is a battery charging issue and is not due to the cradle charger as shown in the video. I had left Mint Cleaner turned off for too long and the battery has discharged itself too much. When you tries to charge it back, it will sound out the alarm after several mins of charging.

To reset this battery charging issue, you simply have to press and hold on the "On/Off" button and then press both the "Sweep" and "Mop" button at the same time.

Mint Cleaner will stop the alarm and continue to charge as per normal. If the alarm continues to sound again after several minutes, perform the same battery reset procedure again. I have to perform this battery reset procedure for 4 times before my Mint Cleaner decides to quiet down and now it is happily sitting on the floor with its ever cheery blue light waiting for his master's command.

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2013-01-14T17:25:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year to all my readers! This is such a wonderful year to begin with and I am all excited to hear about the CES 2013 events held at Las Vegas. I certainly wish to be there to discover all the wonderful new inventions that will be in store for everyone of us for this year!

Here is my latest update on my Mint Cleaner Plus:

After using this Mint Cleaner Plus with charging cradle for a year, it decided to gives way and starts producing some cranky noise.

It looks like this is a contact problem on the metal contact points between the Mint Cleaner Plus and the Charging Cradle but there is no evident corrosion on those metal parts. The immediate solution to this issue is to plug the power adapter directly to Mint Cleaner and it will charge smoothly as per normal.

2012-09-18T10:01:00.003+08:00

Roomba Parent Scoops Up Mint in Robot Vacuum Cleaner Deal

Check out this news! Evolution Robotics Inc. has been bought over by iRobot, the maker of Roomba!

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2012/09/17/roomba-parent-scoops-up-mint-in-robot-vacuum-cleaner-deal/

This got to be the top news of the year in the home robotics industry!

Will we see a Roomba-Mint cleaner hydrid in the near future with a build in mopping system integrated with Roomba brushes?? Or will we see a Roomba that uses the NorthStar Indoor GPS technology that accurately moves around your house to clean your house thoroughly?

Well, only time will tell. Do stay tuned for more development!

2012-07-30T14:04:00.002+08:00

Mint Cleaner Plus with Pro-clean system

Here is the video close up on how the Mint Cleaner Plus Pro-clean system works:

Basically, there is a reservoir of cleaning fluid that you can fill in. This cleaning fluid can be your vinegar, plain water or simply any forms of floor cleaning fluid that you bought form the market that does not creates too much bubbles. I am using Kao Magiclean floor cleaner for this video. Please note that I had been using the same bottle of Kao Magiclean for the past 5 years and it still has not finished! For your information, it works with iRobot Scooba as well! The Pro-clean system also comes with a wick that helps to guide the water from the reservoir tank to the StarFibre cloth. Do also remember to take it out and wash it with tap water to remove the cleaning fluid out of it.

One important thing to take note of. when using Mint Cleaner Plus with Pro-clean system. Do not leave your Mint Plus lying alone when using on a Pergo-type of laminated flooring. Do you know the reason why?

That's because I had tried that and the end result is devastating! I left my Mint Cleaner Plus running overnight and after it has automatically stopped its operation, water from the reservoir tank still continues to SEEPS through the StarFibre cleaning cloth and went into the seams of the laminated flooring.

It leaves my bedroom floor with several pieces of bloated laminated wood planks(as shown above) and it took me many weeks attempting to remove the moisture by using the hair dryer and even an electric iron! It did not turned up very well but still it is better than before. So please do look after your Mint Plus periodically and quickly removes it if it has stopped its operation especially when you are using Mint Cleaner on your laminated flooring.

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If you are thinking of purchasing a Roomba and stay in Singapore, you may want to consider this great Roomba deal!

2012-04-17T17:25:00.002+08:00

Today, I just noticed something different on Mint Plus.

Without the use of NorthStar Indoor navigation cube, Mint Plus is able to navigate in my kitchen much longer when compared to the first original Mint. Mint Plus is able to mop the floor in a normal grid fashion (From bottom to top and then to the left or right) and covers almost the entire kitchen area without the assistance of the NorthStar cube!

The original Mint is only able to work for a small area and stops itself after running for about 15 mins. Besides that, Mint Plus is able to complete its battery charge within 2 hours.

Thus, I will highly recommend Mint Plus if your budget allows!

Differences between Mint and Mint Plus

2012-03-30T15:08:00.004+08:00

Mint Cleaner and Mint Plus

The first Mint cleaner was launched in Jun 2010 and the Mint Plus cleaner was subsequently released a year later. In terms of dimension, they are exactly the same. The buttons to activate the Mint functions are placed at the same spot. The only difference that you can notice is the colour and the small little "+" that is placed right after the Mint logo.

So what are the main differences between a Mint cleaner and a Mint Plus cleaner?

First, Mint Plus supports "Pause" mode. So if your Mint Plus some how got stuck under your sofas or chairs, you can simply press the "Pause" mode and Mint Plus will stop its movement. You can then re-arrange your furnitures and then start your Mint Plus near the spot where it is having trouble.

Secondly, Mint Plus supports the new Proclean System. With this proclean system, it allows Mint Plus to carry more cleaning fluid with water mixed together and covers a much bigger mop/sweep area. One thing to note is that you have to be careful when using this Proclean System on your laminated wood flooring. Mint Plus may get stuck occasionally or finished its cleaning function and stops itself right on the laminated wood flooring with remaining reservoir of cleaning fluid seeping into your wooden flooring! I have experienced this once due to my carelessness and left with a piece of popping laminated flooring that serves as a reminder to my mistake.

Thirdly, Mint Plus supports additional NorthStar cube. The NorthStar cube acts like an indoor GPS that allows your Mint to map its coordinates accurately on the area that it has finished mopping or sweeping. You can purchase an additional NorthStar cube(which has to be on a different frequency channel similar to what you see on your remote controlled toys) for your Mint Plus and place it on another area that is not covered by your current NorthStar cube. That basically widens the mopping./sweeping coverage area for your Mint Plus.

Thus, if you have a large floor area and will like to use cleaning fluid to mop your floors, Mint Plus is definitely worth considering.

2012-01-06T15:26:00.003+08:00

Mint Plus AC/DC adapter can support 240v

Mint Plus on charging cradle

Mint Plus adapter that attached to this cradle was found to be able to support 240V as well and it works perfectly in other countries that does not support 110V. It is strange that the Mint Plus manual mentions that the adapter only supports up to 110V only.

So how long does Mint Plus able to run within one charge? Well I will say its more than an hour so far for me. Do watch this Mint Plus youtube video taken by me at my home. I will post more pictures and reviews in this blog.

Happy New Year everyone!

AC/DC Adapter supports 100V to 240V!

2011-12-20T18:21:00.000+08:00

One interesting news. The AC/DC Adapter that comes with Mint and Mint Plus can support both 110V and 240V! That means you do not need to modify your power supply to support 240V even though the Mint Cleaner manual states that the power adapter can only be used with 110V. I had used Mint on 240V for over a year and there have been no issues encountered with the power adapter.

My New Mint Plus has arrived!

2011-12-20T18:10:00.000+08:00

My New Mint Plus has arrived!

Yes, I had bought it during the Black Friday shopping spree and has taken advantage of the promotional price. Here is how it looks like when unboxed.

I shall leave it charging and will post my reviews in the very near future. Stay tuned!

Introducing the new Mint Plus!

2011-10-17T22:13:00.000+08:00

Evolution Robotics has newly introduced the Mint Plus. It is bigger than then original Mint Cleaner and has faster charging, longer run time and thus cleans a wider area.

The Mint Plus comes with Pro-Clean System which is able to mops longer and better than its predecessor, Mint Cleaner introduced in 2010.

There is a special reservoir cleaning pad which dispenses liquid throughout the cleaning cycle and thus refreshes the Pro-Clean microfiber cloth with fresh cleaning fluid.

Mint Plus can covers up to 350 square feet in a single cleaning cycle. Besides that, Mint Plus can also charges in as fast as 4 hours with the included adapter or in just 2 hours with the Turbo Charge Cradle.

The most important feature of all is that it comes with a Start/Pause button. Mint Plus can be paused mid-cycle to change cleaning cloths, retain its map and resume cleaning with an area not yet covered! I definitely wish my Mint Cleaner has this feature too!

Mint Cleaner mops dirty floor

2010-11-27T23:14:00.000+08:00

Mint Cleaner in action. Observe at how Mint mops the dirty floor. It is able to mop the dust away from the dusty floor.

Comparison between Roomba and Mint Cleaner Part 2

2010-10-15T10:38:00.000+08:00

In this issue, I will want to discuss about another important aspect of cleaning capabilities of Roomba and Mint Cleaner.

Roomba was built as a "robotic" vacuum cleaner. Being robotic means it enables the vacuum cleaner to moves like a artificial human beings maneuvering the vacuum cleaner to every little corner and area to vacuum the dirt. This definitely leaves a dust free area for your house.

The recent times has brought another waves of innovation which is being the micro fiber clothes which claimed to replace your broom. Micro fiber has proven itself over the time that it is effective in cleaning your floor without the use of detergent as the tiny micro fiber is able to picks up the tiniest dirt including grease, hairs and dust. Mint Cleaner makes use of this innovative breakthrough technology with the use of Starfiber cloth.

I am going to list down my evaluation on the Cleaning effectiveness into the following categories:

Effectiveness in picking up dirt (dust, hairs)
----------------------------------------------

Roomba 535

Excellent - Most dirt has been picked up by Roomba. Roomba is able to move to most corners to search for dust. Without the use of NorthStar indoor GPS, Roomba does not really knows the area that it has covered and may keep cleaning on certain spots. After Roomba has finished his rounds, the floor feels quite clean but may feels greasy at times as there is no mopping features in Roomba. Scooba by iRobot will have to be deployed.

Mint Cleaner

Very Good - When Mint cleaner is used under "Mop" mode, it mimics the human action of mopping the floor with a sideway to and fro motion. Most of the dirt has been picked up by Mint StarFiber cloth. However, you will also need to look out for some clumps of dirt that has been collected by the microfiber cloth.

Conclusion.

Mint Cleaner serves a strong competitor to Roomba. WIth its smart indoor GPS, Mint Cleaner is able to cover all areas with minimal risk of entanglement with wires and awful places. Mint is effective in mopping your house with hard floorings with absolute silence and graceful movements leaving your house clean and matches your house interior with it minimalistic design.

Comparison between Roomba and Mint Cleaner Part 1

2010-10-06T10:43:00.000+08:00

Today, I am going to talk about the difference between Roomba and Mint Cleaner. As you all may know, Roomba has been introduced to us since 2002. Roomba was manufactured by iRobot and has been the leading Robotic Vacuum cleaner of all time. There have been some competitors like Electrolux Trilobite, Karcher RoboCleaner but over the time, they have been overtaken by Roomba.

Mint Cleaner, however was introduced recently to the market in Aug 2010 and is relatively new when compared to Roomba.

I will be spending time on this blog to discuss and compare the differences between Roomba and Mint cleaner so that consumer has a better idea and make better decision in purchasing them. For your information, I have been using Roomba since 2005 and has never turned back. The newly introduced Mint Cleaner has made me rethink about the possibilities of adding new robot to my current family. Besides that, I also owned Rovio, the telepresence robot that allows you to be in two places at the same time! However, I will save this page dedicated to Mint Cleaner and Roomba discussion though.

Comparision number 1:

1) Noise Level

Roomba is noisy. Come on, let's admit it. I have once owned Roomba Discovery and now is a convert to Roomba 535. You can easily locate Roomba when it venture around the house. Why? Because its very noisy. The latest series of Roomba is less noisy when compared to Roomba Discovery but it is still noisy. Mint Cleaner has an advantage over Roomba on its noise level as it is very very quiet. It is so quiet that you sometimes could not locate on where it is hiding! You can check on my previous youtube video to hear how quiet it is.

All about StarFiber Microfiber cloth (Used in Mint Cleaner)

2010-09-24T14:07:00.000+08:00

Extracted from http://http://www.starfibers.com/

What is Microfiber?

Microfiber consists of very fine threads of polyester and polyamide (nylon) that combine to form a single thread. Microfibers are so thin (100 times thinner than a single strand of human hair) that when they are woven together they create a surface area 40 times more than that of a regular fiber – creating an expanded surface area with dramatically enhanced absorbing power due to the capillary action of the fine threads. Microfiber is traditionally defined as a fiber with a denier of less than one. Denier is a measure of thinness of fiber and is the weight in grams of a continuous fiber of 9,000 meters.

As each microfiber strand may be smaller than the bacteria it is attracting, it is able to penetrate microscopic particles of dirt and grease on a surface. Split microfiber possesses numerous wedges instead of the rounded surfaces on ordinary cloth, sweeping underneath the particles and trapping them inside. In addition, the rounded fibers on most cloths only push the dirt around, whereas the wedge-shaped microfibers grab the particles of dirt and pull the dirt into its dense internal structure. Furthermore, chemicals only become necessary as a disinfectant, as the bonding agent is no longer necessary to keep the dirt on the fiber.

Microfiber has two polymers. Polyester is lyophilic, or has an affinity to oil, so that oil and grease adhere directly to the fibers. Polyamide is hydrophilic, which means it has an affinity to water. As a result, any type of dirt is very quickly and completed removed with microfiber, leaving a sparkling clean, streak-free surface. Microfiber cleans without streaking, smearing, scratching or leaving lint. Microfiber is safe to use on all delicate surfaces. It will clean without scratching or harming the surface in any way.

Ordinary cleaning towels move or push dirt and dust from one place to another - microfiber actually lifts or scoops the dirt and stores the dirt particles in the towel, until it is washed. Microfiber can absorb up to seven times its weight in fluids. Microfiber cloths are also extremely durable. They can be washed up to 1000 times and still maintain their effectiveness. This makes it an extremely cost effective product. Machine wash or hand-wash microfiber with mild soapy water.

That explains why you do not need to add soap/floor detergent onto the microfiber cleaning pads and also the reason on why some of them in the market are not so effective.

What Mint Cleaner is and is not..

2010-09-23T13:36:00.000+08:00

Recently, I had received some questions about the comparison between Mint Cleaner and Roomba. I will hereby like to provide the information based on Mint Cleaner manual:

What Mint is not?

1) Mint is not a toy.

2) Mint do not pick up large debris, liquid spills, bleach and paint.

3) Mint does not work on carpet.

What Mint is?

1) Mint is for indoor household use only.

2) Mint is for hard surface floors use only.

Thus, Mint cleaner does not work like Roomba in the first place and is not designed to be one either. Mint sweeps and mops your floor. You do not need Roomba and Scooba to achieve that.

Mint Cleaner - Mopping action with fStarFibre microfibre cloth

2010-09-22T23:16:00.000+08:00

I have just performed some testing on Mint Cleaner using "sweep" and "mop" option. Both works great! It was amazing to see robotics technology has advanced further to provide feasible solution on our daily chores. Soon, manual floor sweeping and mopping will be a thing of a past. Hello Robots.. Good bye broom and mops!

Below is the video that I had captured on Mint while using "mop" option. Also for this time round, Northstar Navigation cube was turned on to ensure Mint cleaner got good information on its current coordinates and cleans the room efficiently by constantly mapping the area that it had covered. Also do note that the microfibre cloth that comes with Mint Cleaner is from StarFibre. You can read about StarFibre from here.

My very first Trial Run on Mint Cleaner

2010-09-22T13:58:00.000+08:00

After having charged my Mint Cleaner for 16 hours, it is ready for its very first trial run!

As you can see and hear, it is very quiet. It is able to navigate to tough corners and has the ability to navigate itself out from the corner and continue to move on to unclean area.

Do also note that I did not place the NorthStar navigation cube on the table or anywhere near Mint. The surprising thing is that Mint is still able to know that it has covered almost the entire area of the table top after going over the same area for 2 or 3 times. It is indeed very efficient in utilizing the limited power provided by the battery pack which the Mint Cleaner's manaufacturer , Evolution Robotics Inc claims that it can goes up to 3 hours of maximum usage!

Hurray! My Mint Cleaner has just arrived!

2010-09-21T17:02:00.000+08:00

Today is a very exciting day for me. Why? It is because I had just received my Mint Automatic Floor Cleaner from US.

This is a special robot that is able to help you sweep and mop your house using reusable micro fibre cloth. It works quite similar to Roomba and Scooba except that it does not have a vacuum bin and does not require you to fill up its container with cleaning fluid like Chlorox. It is small and portable and best of all, it is very quiet and not as noisy as your vacuum cleaner or even your Roomba or Scooba robotic cleaner!

Mint Cleaner works quite similarly to Swiffer but the key benefit is that you do not need to manually sweep or mop it yourself. With Mint Cleaner, you can automate this manual process and have more time for your family and letting this robot to do what he does best which is to clean your floor.

I had currently entrusted my daily cleaning job to my Roomba 535 and I shall see whether Mint is able to replace or complement Roomba's job. I shall update this blog and share with you on my experience on Mint.

Do stay tuned!