The Coffee Desk

Irobot Roomba Review Vs. Mint Automatic Floor Cleaner

Evolution Robotics introduced a new robotic floor cleaner at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It was identified rather quickly as new competition for products by iRobot, specifically the iRobot Roomba and Scooba robots. Obviously, these products from both companies are robots, operate autonomously, and are designed to clean floors. While they are competing products, there are a great number of notable differences. In this article we’ll explore what is different and what is the same.

Shape and Size
Beauty is only skin deep, as they say, and both of these products have a different look. The Mint automatic cleaner is square with a rectangular pad in the front. The iRobot Roomba is round. Both are short, which makes them able to vacuum under furniture.

In their literature, iRobot notes that the round shape of its robots aids in navigation and keeps them from getting stuck. The vacuum cleaners turn in place around an axis in their center, so when they get in a corner, they just rotate in one direction or the other and drive away. The Mint has a square shape, and so it will have to back out of a corner before turning. If you watch movies of either robot in operation, you will notice this difference in behavior. Mint claims that their square shape makes sure that the robot can clean into corners. This is admittedly a weakness in the Roomba, which is equipped with a spinning brush to sweep debris out of corners, but which can’t actually vacuum into them.

The Mint cleaner is smaller than a Roomba, clocking in at just 10 inches wide. So one would expect that it will be able to get into nooks and crannies better than a Roomba.

How They Get Around
The Roomba robots have two main wheels that it uses to navigate, and as mentioned above, they can swivel in place. Roombas have a third wheel for support. These robot vacuums use behavioral algorithms to get around rooms. Depending on a number of factors, a robot may circle, turn, follow a wall, or go in a straight line. The vacuuming pattern ends up looking random, and the robot covers the entire floor surface by going over it in different places over and over.

The Evolution Mint has two wheels for drive, and the rest of the weight of the robot rests on the cleaning pad. The Mint uses a device called a NorthStar to help it navigate. In the most basic terms, the NorthStar module shines a beacon on the ceiling and the Mint uses that beacon to triangulate its position. Evolution compares the NorthStar system to GPS. Thus the Mint automatic robot actually sweeps the room in an orderly fashion, working in rows from one side of the floor to the other. The room is cleaned more quickly and also less battery is used to cover the same area of floor.

How They Clean
When it comes to how they clean, these two competing robots are completely different.

The Mint cleaner is mostly a sweeper. You attach any one of several kinds of cleaning cloth to the front pad of the robot, and it uses the cloth to clean the floor. The cloths are microfiber and thus pick up dirt and hairs, so you’re not just pushing a pile of dirt around, but the device has no suction and no dust bin. The Mint also has a wet mode, where you can use a wet cloth. In this mode, the robot moves side to side and backwards and forwards in what Evolution describes as a “scrubbing motion.”

The Roomba acts more like a vacuum. First, it has a side brush which sweeps debris into the path of the vacuum. Next, counter-rotating brushes pick up larger debris. Finally, a vacuum sucks up smaller particles.

While the Mint is more of a sophisticated sweeper, the Roomba is more like a conventional upright vacuum cleaner. While the Roomba has the advantage of being more “active” about moving dirt, the Mint has less fuss and muss. There are no bins to empty. Just pull off the cleaning cloth and go.

Other Differences
Roombas have virtual walls to keep them out of places and many Roomba models can also self-charge. This doesn’t seem to be the case with the Mint. In the favor of the Mint cleaner, it is completely silent, and thus it isn’t so unpleasant to be around while it’s working.

An entry-level iRobot Roomba, the 400 series, will set you back $129. The least expensive 500 series, the Roomba 510 is $279. Pricing isn’t official for the Mint cleaner, but they are expected to be under $250.