Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I use the Mint 5200 to clean the hardwood floor in a 22'x22' living/dining area and for a separate 9'x15' kitchen. It does an excellent job despite a large number of obstacles like area rugs, cabinets, dining table, side tables etc. It sometime looks like it will get stuck in some narrow weirdly shaped corner, but it always finds it way out and does not seem to skip anything. The Mint 5200 comes with two different cleaning pads, one for dry sweeping and one that has liquid reservoir for wet mopping. A set of two reusable clothes to be used with each pad is also provided. I always use the dry sweep mode first and then do wet afterwards. The setup is pretty straight-forward. The navigation cube goes to corner of the dining table with flashing blue light pointing into the room. Then a cloth is attached to one of the cleaning pads and the Mint is ready to go. Mint first finish the living area, then continue to clean the kitchen before it goes back to its starting point. There is a staircase leading down from the room, and Mint backs away w/o falling, though the manual recommends to block the staircase as a precaution. The clean up is simple as well. Detach the cloth and recharge the Mint. That's it. I have to say that dry sweep mode is ok, but not very impressive. Mint simply rubs the floor with the cloth which get covered in dust quite quickly, and is not really able to absorb "larger" pieces dirt like breadcrumbs. However, this is workable, if the floor is not too dirty to begin with, and some care is taken to remove the "larger" particles first. In any case, the wet mode is what I need most for my hardwood floor, and I am happy with enough the result. Even with plain water the Mint leaves the floor clean and shiny. A few tips after 2 months: - Mint spends a lot of time navigating and recalculating the routes when it encounters chairs and obstacles. It takes over 2 hours to dry mop the area mentioned above and not enough power left for finishing the wet mopping. So, I remove chairs from the floor, it greatly speeds up the cleaning process. - Two reasons can cause the liquid reservoir not working properly. I have run into both: 1) the cloth is not wet enough before beginning the wet mopping. Making it wet (but not dripping wet) would solve the problem. 2) the wick cap is clotted. I used diluted Murphy oil (1:100) and noticed that no liquid was dispensed anymore after a few usages. I called Mint Customer Service and learned that one shall not use Murphy oil or any soap based cleaning product as they will clot the wick cap. Since then, I have been using Bona (carried at Home Depot) recommended by the Customer Service, and the liquid is being wicked out nicely. - Before throwing away the clotted wick cap, try to thoroughly rinse it without pulling its fiber. Mine works perfectly fine with Bona after the rinsing. After using Mint 5200 and Roomba 780 both for 6+ months, I find I like Mint better as it is quiet and less abrasive to the surface. (See my review on Roomba 780). Now I own 2 Mint 5200 to clean multiple floors simultaneously.