Mi Home Ultrasonic Cleaner

I forget exactly when I bought it — sometime around the October National Day holiday, when I joined the crowdfunding campaign.

Honestly I regretted it the moment I backed it. But then I found out, to my surprise:

Crowdfunded items can’t be returned!

And it hit me right then why China’s “crowdfunding” is really just “preorder” and still insists on the crowdfunding label — it’s to stop you from buying and then returning it…

Anyway, it arrived, and it’s not bad:

I mainly bought this thing to wash my eyes… oh no, my glasses. And honestly, I think this box can only really wash glasses — I even suspect it was designed specifically for glasses.

The wash is fine, but you have to fill it with a separate cup — you can’t just pour water in directly. They say it’s waterproof, but they’re guarding against leaks anyway.

It’s limited to a 3-minute cycle, and there doesn’t seem to be any Mi Home app you can connect it to. For glasses, you’d better not put the lenses face down, but… if you don’t, you have to add a whole lot of water.

Cleaning is OK — plenty of dust and grime came off — but it won’t clean oil stains.

I also tried washing my Mi Band, and that worked well too. The official advice is you have to change the water after every wash; don’t reuse it — so washing a few small items ends up being a bit of a hassle.

At this price, an ultrasonic cleaner isn’t really a good deal, since eBay even has ones for 30 yuan. But it’s Xiaomi, so…

Cheaper ones aren’t as pretty, and the prettier ones aren’t as cheap.

So… it’s fine.