Mint Hard Floor Cleaner

Several Points to make here: (1) LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT. I'm busy taking college classes for a new degree, but there's a roommate (OMG-"Pig Pen" from Charlie Brown ?) and I have TWO large and VERY active Dogs. The LOVE to go in and out thru the doggy door (So they drag LOTS of crud back in with them ALL THE TIME) and the Boy ? He's "Curious George" (Go look for Children's Books if you don't get the reference) he just HAS to Paw, LICK & LICK & LICK and, well, Banging into things to see if they move? THAT's Pretty Fun Too. (I was REALLY WORRIED about how he would deal with this little cleaner.....) (2) Well, the First JOY was how QUIET this little guy is. It HONESTLY is almost silent. (If you are not right on top of it ? You are not going to here ANYTHING) With ONE EXCEPTION; -- It likes to .... (Shall We Call it) likes to "Sing Lots of Little SONGS" ?? It has a "You just woke me up and I have Power" Song; a "OK, I will Start Sweeping Dry" Song; a "OK, I will Start Mopping Wet" Song; a "HEY, Im Stuck" Song and an Identical "HEY, I got Confused" Song (It sometimes sings the "Stuck" Song, but Isn't really Stuck and works it's way out and keep's going ??); it has an "HEY, I Can't Finish My Job" Song; a "HEY, I'm Running LOW on Power" Song and last, but not least, a "3 Cheer's for ME, I'M DONE" Song. The "Song's" Aren't really Loud, and if you are in the next room, or Watching TV, Listening to Music, etc. you Probably won't hear it, but Lets Just Say you don't want to try and Study with the thing in the Same Room with you ?? It's those little Electronic Beeps of various pitch (I'f you remember the Very First IBM PC's (back in the 80's ?) that had that mechanical Beeping sounds ? Like That. It's No IPod - LOL BEST OF ALL ?? It's So Quiet, My Boy Dog (Remember, Mr. Curious About Everything?) BASICALLY IGNORES IT ! ! ! ! ! I was Totally SHOCKED. I don't think I would want to leave him Loose in the House with the thing running and Go Somewhere, but If I'm ANYWHERE at home, He Ignores it. YIPPEE ! ! ! ! I KNOW a "Roomba", etc. would have him over there trying to figure out what it was, and such, and he might even consider those a threat and try to bit them, but the MINT, he just Ignores it. (3) Did I mention this little MINT Does GREAT JOB ?? ! ! ! ! Well, IT DOES. The CLAIMS About it's EDGE CLEANING are TRUE, Does the Room then goes back and just runs the perimeter and catches all the edges. (ONE Piece of "Well, DUH" Advice) If you "THINK" About this, it's a "Well, DUH" thing, but it just didn't occur to me the First Time I ran Him. (Yes, this is in the Instructions, SOMEWHERE, I was reading as he cleaned and came across it about the time he was done, IT'S NOT THE FIRST THING YOU WILL FIND) **USE A DRY CLOTH ** F * I * R * S * T **, **THEN** Change it over to the WET Cloth and let it Mop..... WOW, the Dust Bunnies and dust, etc will Clog up that Wet Cloth in a HEART BEAT. The Mint Comes in the Box with some of it's own reusable pads, 2-Dry & 1-Wet, but I found some Swiffer Pre-Wet Mopping Pads that had Febreeze in them, they House LOOKED GREAT *and* SMELLED JUST AS GREAT when I was done. TODAY, I GOT INVENTIVE: House is Nearly 100% Original Hardwoods and while they looks REALLY GREAT for their age, they Definitely Could Benefit from some Sprucing Up. I had previously purchased several items from the "BONA" Hardwood Cleaning System. (they have a Cleaner, Polish, Sealer, etc. as well as their own pads and a swiffer like broom/mop/wand thing to spread it all around), I just had not gotten around to using it yet. Told MINT'y to do a quicky dry sweep on an area I wanted to test (about 10' x 20' section of floor) and pulled out the MINT's Own Wet/Mop Reusable Pad (The Bona Pads wouldn't fit it) and put the BONA Polish on the MINT PAD and LET 'er RIP. -- All I Can Say is, WOW. OK, Part of that is going to be BONA being "Good Stuff" but the MINT wasn't even really designed to do this and it did a FANTASTIC JOB. Best Part? Because it's Computerized it put a PERFECTLY EVEN COAT down Everywhere and because it is just the weight of the machine on the pad as it runs around the PRESSURE of Application was the Same Everywhere. (Point Being, Most of the Variables that make a "Do it yourself" job on the floors were eliminated by using the MINT. It Looks Fantastic. (TOMORROW? ANOTHER ROOM ! ! ! ) (4) OK, I DID Feel just a Little Silly, Sitting there WATCHING this little machine sweep and wipe my floors. (It's Supposed to SAVE YOU TIME, not be "Entertainment"- LOL) But Once You Learn How Far it can go on a Pad before you need to change it out, or how much of the room it can do before finishing and returning back to its starting point (and singing the "I'm DONE" Song and How LONG that Takes (Give or Take a Few Minutes), then You ARE Ready for, "SET IT AND FORGET IT" Operation, REALLY. (5) Things that They COULD IMPROVE ? Well, Roomba has this thing they call a "Virtual Wall" where you can set your house up in Sections and using these little transmitters tell their device to consider "THIS POINT" to be a wall, even when it Isn't. MINT REALLY NEEDS THIS FEATURE: It's Basic Programming tells it to clean up to 1,000 sq/ft for dry sweeping and 250 sq/ft for wet moping. (PERSONALLY ? I found the wet cloth's were drying out WELL BEFORE MINT would stop with it's 250') but even if you don't have this issue part of the nature of these little helpers is you do a section, then set it up again and set it loose on a New Area...... So .... Where Did It STOP ? ? ? ? ? (OOPS, Problem) I will Admit that the device returning to it's starting place and Powering Down when It's Done is NEAT-O. --- But when it Does That, you Don't Know Where It STOPPED ! ! ! ! ! (ARRGGHHH) So just like when you Vacuum, You DIVIDE THE HOUSE UP INTO SECTIONS, and Clean One At A Time. (TRUST ME, Moving Furniture Around and trying to set things in the Way to Create a "Fake Wall" is a BIG PAIN IN THE BUTT. (This Weekend, I'm going to try and devise some easy little things I can move from room to room to make Fake Physical Walls) Something the size of a 2 x 4 would do the Job **BUT** it has to be HEAVY ENOUGH so MINT Can't Just Push It. It's Actually Pretty Darned Strong, (You Should Have Seen the Faces On My DOGS When it started pushing their Food Bowls Around the room one time. LOL) They say you can Use MULTIPLE "North Star CUBES" which help Mint Navigate. It can move from One room to the Next and when it See;'s the New CUBE, It it is Closer than the other one, MINT Switches over to using The New One (COOL) Since the MINT LINKS & LOCKS (Their Words) to the CUBE, I'm kind of doubting That You Could Use MULTIPLE MINTS with Single, or Multiple, CUBES ?? Now In TOTALLY Different Rooms where they would never "See" Each Other ? SURE, but I don't think you could have Two close to each other. (Living Room is a LONG--- Shotgun Room. Takes about 3 turns to clean it. Would be GREAT to put a CUBE at Each End and just Turn 2 of these Guys LOOSE in there and see what they do.) But I doubt it would work. OH, WELL, OVERALL, I am THRILLED with this little cleaner and I can have a **MUCH** Cleaner House and MUCH BEtTER SMELLING HOUSE TOO, with Little, to No Effort. 10-THUMBS UP ! ! !