Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

A couple of years ago I bought my sister the first generation of the Mint Automatic Hard Floor Cleaner for about $250.00. Several weeks ago I ran across the O’Cedar O’Duster at Wal-Mart for about $40.00 and made an impulse purchase. I was so impressed that I got my mom the O’Duster for Christmas. My review will not only comment on my experience with the O’Cedar product but also compare the O’Duster to the Mint. Both of these products are hard floor sweepers (note I said “sweeper”. There is no sucking action on either of them.). They use a disposable cloth product to sweep wood, tile, vinyl, etc. They will not work on carpets/rugs; nor, are they designed to wet-clean the floor. These do not take the place of mopping. First, a description of the O’Cedar O’Duster… There is a round plastic center housing that is about eight inches in diameter and a little over two inches tall. It is surrounded by a circular, flexible mesh netting that secures the dusting cloth. On the bottom are two wheels that propel the device and cause it to spin as it moves forward. Operation is very simple. Charge the device, put on a new cloth, pick one of two settings, and let it go until it stops. While it is running it is about as loud as one of the new quiet dishwashers. It’s not loud enough to run you out of the room, but you can definitely hear the motor grinding away. My experience… I have a centrally located kitchen/dining area in my house that is approximately 600 square feet and has sheet linoleum flooring. The only way to move through the house is passing through this room so it receives a lot of traffic and there’s always stuff on the floor. In addition, I have two large indoor/outdoor dogs that are not regularly brushed, so despite what feels like constant sweeping, I continue to have those dog-hair tumbleweeds rolling across and never feel that I can really get all the grit off the floor. The first time I used the O’Duster I had not swept in a couple of days. I charged it for a bit (not a full charge), put on one of the three pads that come with it, and let it go until the battery died. Although the disposable pad was filthy, I could still see things on the floor (i.e. part of a dried leaf, a broom straw, etc.). I was initially really disappointed and figured I had just blown forty bucks. However, as the evening progressed and I was walking around the room barefoot, I realized that I wasn’t picking up grit on the bottoms of my feet. The floor felt a lot smoother. It was noticeable enough that I figured I would try it again after it was fully charged. After a full charge and a second use the cloth was still dirty. I could still see things on the floor, but there was no grit anywhere and no dog-hair tumbleweeds. Also I noticed that most of the things I could see were pushed to the perimeter of the room. So, I pulled out my vacuum with a hose attachment and made a quick loop of the room and sucked up all the crumbs and stuff around the baseboards. I was sold. It may not be perfect, but I could live with this if it meant the grit and dog hair was gone. Since then, I have bought a pack of the pads and continue to use the little guy every day or two. Once a week, I pull out the vacuum and make a loop around to clean the stuff that has been pushed to the baseboards. It is a little dose of heaven. Comparing the O’Duster to the Mint… As I stated earlier, my experience with the Mint was during its first generation. I do not know what improvements have been made to its programing over the couple of years since I played with it. *****Cost The Mint is about six times as expensive as the O’Duster. My sister has had hers for two years now and it is still working. I have only been using the O’Duster for a month so I can’t comment on its durability, but I could replace it several times and still come out ahead financially. I will update if/when the O’Duster quits working. *****Algorithms and Programming The Mint (like other iRobot devices) purports to have some advanced programing where it first travels around the room to learn the layout, and then picks the most efficient way to sweep the entire floor. As it bumps into things it memorizes their locations and adapts. That sounds pretty awesome, right? It’s really overrated. Our experience using it in my mom’s kitchen was it never realized that the kitchen island was actually an island with a big swath of floor behind it. After running the Mint three times, it never went to the back side of the cabinets and when it finished its cycle always reset to the beginning and had to waste battery life re-learning the room. It would not just go back to where it had left off. There was no way to just pick it up and put it where you wanted it to clean without its freaking out and thinking it was lost. The O’Duster doesn’t get into all that nonsense. It goes in a straight line until it hits something and then, depending on what angle the wheels were at when it hit, turns a little bit and takes off again until it hits the next obstacle. It might clean certain portions of the floor a dozen times while others may only get one pass, but if there’s a problem area in your space, just pick the little guy up and put him there and he’ll take care of it. *****Cycle and Battery Life The Mint always starts its cycle by trying to figure out the layout of the room. If the battery dies before the room is complete, then it goes back to the beginning of that loop. In a huge room, that would get to be a problem. The O’Duster is different. It just goes and goes. If the battery dies, charge him up and let him go again. Also, I should clarify something that is misleading on the O’Duster’s packaging. It has two cycles. One is a thirty minute cycle and the other is advertised as a 120 minute cycle. The 120 minutes is incorrect. The longer cycle just runs until the batteries are dead. Mine is brand new and, as the batteries age, I may not continue to have this experience, but on the long cycle, my O’Duster will run for about five hours before dying. I can turn him loose when I get home from work and he’ll still be going strong when I head to bed at night. *****Cleaning Cloths On this issue, the Mint is the clear winner. It is designed to use the standard Swiffer style dust cloths. There are myriad brands on the market available from any store which may be less expensive and have some additional features. One of the cloths available now advertises the static attraction that helps it pick up and hold onto stuff once it has it. My sister said that she has even used the wet cloths on her Mint and it has worked fine. The O’Duster has a donut shaped dust cloth that is proprietary to O’Cedar. Additionally, I said that I bought the O’Duster from Wal-Mart (where I had seen the replacement cloths at the time of purchase). When I went to a different Wal-Mart to get a pack of the cloths, the second Wal-Mart didn’t carry the product so I had to make a trip across town. Obviously they’re available from Amazon, but you may have trouble finding them in your local store. Perhaps, as popularity increases, the pads will be more readily available and there will be generics you can find easily, but for now you have to stick to the O’Duster pads. *****Obstacles This might be a toss-up. Every room is going to have obstacles that have to be worked around. Chairs are probably the hardest things for these sweepers to deal with as the legs are just wide enough to allow them to enter, but they will invariable get trapped once inside. Regarding chair legs, the O’Duster seems to do a better job. As long as it is able to move it will continue bumping and turning until it finds its way out. The Mint gives up pretty quickly. Usually I just take the chairs and stack them out of the way so they won’t be an issue. My O’Duster has a problem with the floor vent in the kitchen. If I am standing there watching it, it will go back and forth over the vent without issue, but if I step out of the kitchen for even a couple of minutes, it will make a beeline to the vent and get itself bound up and have to be rescued. I usually just open the door that is close to that vent as a blockade to keep it from being an issue. I don’t remember the Mint having the same problem with floor vents. Water droplets are very problematic for the O’Duster. If there is any water on the floor, the O’Duster cannot get enough traction to continue and will just sit in one spot and whine. One of the aforementioned dogs drinks water out of the bowl then drips water as he bounds through the house. Those little droplets of water are enough to stop the O’Duster. If I let the dogs in with wet paws, any of those wet paw prints is enough to stop it. Yesterday there was a dirty spot on the floor that I saw while O’Duster was working. I used glass cleaner and paper towel to spray it and wipe it up immediately. That little bit of moisture that was left on the floor after wiping with a paper towel was enough to freak the little guy out. As I said earlier, my sister has used the wet cloths on her Mint without issue. I did have one weird piece of furniture that proved a problem for the O’Duster. It is a china cabinet with a decorative cut-out base mold. It is just tall enough of an opening that if O’Duster gets a running start he can get himself wedged in and not be able to escape. I solved this by taking some one-by lumber, cutting it to length and screwing it into the base of the cabinet from the backside. Before you start thinking, “Oh my gosh, is this guy seriously modifying his furniture to accommodate a floor sweeper?” The answer is, “Yes!!! This thing is so amazing that had the solution not worked I would have gotten rid of the china cabinet.” *****Cleaning under appliances Since the O’Duster has a sweeping cloth that extends beyond the body of the unit, it is thin enough that it can successfully sweep under the refrigerator and stove. The Mint cannot do this. In conclusion, I highly recommend this product. There are a few design things that I would change (namely giving the wheels a bit more traction and offering a better cleaning cloth), but this thing is AMAZING!!!