Are basis questions mah if buy from 2nd hand seller.
I initially have just thought to get a robot to help me out on the floor sweeping, then i mop the floor my own. i usually sweep and mop weekly (due to only got some free time during weekend but sometime miss it then will have to do it the following week). My sequences involve sweep the floor, then mop my 3 rooms using dry/wet magic clean fibric and mop the other floor using traditonal mopping with pile of solution water inside. No carpet in my hse but some small fibric mats lay around.
After much readup on the bot and checking on the review. Come across bot like irobot, roboking (which has a dry mop feature which is good for me), mint which mainly use for mopping inlcude dry/wet (seem can replace me to mop the 3 rooms inlcude under the bed as well as drp mop my living room n kitchen), QQ3/mami robot (which is an cheaper alternative to those branded robot).
Budget wise using the roboking $799 as reference... still figuring out if is good to spend heavily just on roboking or split into 2 bots to perform what i use to do.
Lemme emphasize few things:
1) Roomba is the ONLY vacuum robot with patented counter-rotating brush system with self-adjusting brush height to prevent motor overload in the case of carpet (due to much higher resistance), video:
iRobot Roomba: How it Works
Roomba 500 series onwards have anti-tangling brush system, the revised versions from late 2009 onwards have improved green Cleaning Head Module (CHM), which greatly reduces likelihood of hair/fur entering into gearbox. The Aerovac bin brings things to the next level by further reducing hair entanglement on the bristle brush. So readers should read iRobot reviews from 2010 onwards, and not to get all worried about problems which were pre-2010.
Why iRobot insist on retaining their bristle brush design, instead of just rubber beater brush like Neato XV11/12 is bcos bristle brush is required for proper sweeping of dust & hair in carpet.
Neato gets good review in US bcos there's no hair/fur to remove from the rubber beater brush, such simplistic design was done purposely to avoid the complains which people give Roomba. But at what cost? Neato isn't very clean on hard floor, let alone carpet with embedded hair/fur.
Roomba users know that Roomba leaves floor very clean, while Neato doesn't handle sandy debris very well, bcos it relies purely on the vacuum to suck up the sand.
Even if we compare Vorwerk Kobold VR100 (the i dunno what to call... cousin? of Neato) which has half bristle brush instead of full rubber beater brush, the ability to pick debris is still limited cos it's not counter-rotating brush system like Roomba.
2) Mint Plus is a wet magic clean broom on wheels. Scooba is a wet-washing robot that scrubs with clean water & immediately sucks away dirty water.
Qs. Will germs & dirt from point A be transported to point B?
As. Mint Plus - Of course! Scooba - No way!
So regarding Wiseone's comment that "the lack of competitors means there's no pressure to innovate", I couldn't agree more. THERE IS NONE!
If a user wants similar "wet wiping" effect like Mint, iClebo & LG Roboking, they can always get the Robot Add-on attachment for Roomba, Here:
Hard Floors
If I don't already own Scooba, I would have DIY something similar.
3) For vacuuming chores, the cheaper alternatives can be:
a) QQ2 or QQ3 (as I've written here:
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/51917497-post7485.html)
b) Mami robot
c) My Genie (as I've written here:
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/62153564-post8739.html)
d) Paranello (as I've written here:
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/61756648-post8702.html)
e) V-bot (as I've written here:
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/55066329-post8009.html)
But let's face it, after u've read thru my brief write ups, u'll think twice. I can't say anything about Mami, can anyone else here who's used Mami before comment? Anyone?... I didn't think so.
