Mint Cleaner battery charging issue

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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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.

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!

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!

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

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.

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!