Powerful calico removal machine, but there are equally powerful disadvantages
Hello!
I think that such a machine — pellet cutter should be just about everyone who cares about their stuff and not throwing out clothes after a couple of socks, when somewhere there are pellets. I’ve been using the calico-cutter for 10 years and at first it was some no-name Chinese device that usually broke after 2-3 months, then came a calico-cutter from Polaris and I bought 3 and used them for 5 years. When the last machine had finished its work, I had to look for an analogue — these were no longer available from Polaris, there were more powerful models and I chose between them and machines from Xiaomi.
And it seems I was wrong to choose Xiaomi, although I have a lot of Xiaomi machines and they all work flawlessly.
General Information
- Brand Xiaomi
- Made in China
- Price around 50-70$
- Bought on AliExpress for $53
From the manufacturer
The Mijia calico machine quickly and efficiently removes lint from wool, cashmere and silk. It has a powerful motor, runs on a 1300 mAh battery up to 1.5 hours. It takes only 2 hours to charge.
For safe use, the machine has a double safety system: when the lid is removed, the machine automatically shuts off. A small LED indicator informs about the state of charge of the device’s battery.
The container for lint has a translucent window, which allows you to monitor the degree of filling and clean it in a timely manner.
Packaging
Typical cardboard box with minimalist design.
and not a word in English:
Both sides of the box were glued with circular stickers:
Accessories
- the lint cutter itself
- cleaning brush
- micro USB cable
- instructions
Instructions
Completely in Chinese, but there are illustrations, so you can understand what’s what.
Design
The body of the lint cutter is made of quality plastic, oval-shaped, all rounded. If you compare with the previous device (which was 2 times smaller) Xiaomi didn’t bother with the size.
On the body of only one button ON/OFF — more in principle and is not needed, the work of the lint cutter is simple, there is no speed control or any additional functions.
Battery
It charges from micro USB and is very slow:
Garbage compartment
Blades
The biggest advantage of this device is that there are interchangeable blades! You could have ordered 1, 3 or 5 blades at once along with the machine. I only bought the machine itself.
Under the metal protective grid there are 5 blades:
The grill unscrews and removes, allowing the blades to be cleaned.
The care of the blades is shown in the pictures in the manual:
A brush can be used to clean everything quickly.
The surface of the grid itself is smooth and slightly convex:
Bottom line
And now some examples of how this lint cutter from Xiaomi works:
In the case of this machine showed itself quite well at first, which is very noticeable is of course a more powerful motor compared to my old bobbin cutter from Polaris, but that was also smaller by half.
Already from experience with previous calico-cutters I know that you should not clean very thin knitwear, it’s easy to make a hole. And too thick sweaters with uneven weave, too. With even dense fabrics Xiaomi machine copes well.
This lint cutter vibrates a lot when it works, but the most unpleasant thing is the sound. For the first 10 minutes it just buzzed, although loudly, but more or less normally, and then suddenly the sound changed to louder and thinner. I thought that there were cut particles stuck in the grate near the blades, but no — everything was clean.
The sound is very similar to some kind of sawmill, why this happened is unclear, while the machine works, lint cuts, the body is not warm, but it feels like something inside is broken.
The sound is thin and piercing, very unpleasant to the ear. Another thing that bothers me is the change in sound, because when I first turned it on, the sound was both quieter and lower.
There is always the feeling that the device is about to break. But in fact, for the past month the lint cutter has been working and while the blades are not blunt, it cuts the lint well. There are some pluses to note:
