Neato Robotics - Botvac Connected App-Controlled Self-Charging Robot Vacuum - Black
Model: 945-0177
SKU: 4363600
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Customers consistently note the Botvac Connected App-Controlled Self-Charging Robot Vacuum excels in cleaning performance, ease of use, and its effective app. However, some customers have concerns about its navigation, noise level, and charging capabilities. The vacuum is also praised for its battery life, mapping, pet hair removal, suction power, and dirt pickup.
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First off, we have approximately 2200 sq.ft. of floor space which includes 9 rooms and 2 hallways. The floors are wood, carpet and throw rugs. Along with that two cats which comes into effect for picking up hair. We've used the vacuum now for little over a month, vacuuming twice a week. Battery Life and cleaning time: The battery does need one additional charge before completing the whole home which seems to be around 1 to 1 1/2 hours to complete the charge. So including the charge time it takes about 3 hours to compete the entire home. Though it may take longer to vacuum you do have the time to be doing other activities in the home while the robot takes care of the vacuuming. Cleaning: All in all we were surprised at how well it picks up cat hair and other debris on both surfaces mentioned above and under counters. The vacuum dirt bin is small but seems to hold enough for the size of home it is being used in, only having to empty the dirt bin between charges. At this time we can't really determine if it does a deep clean on the rugs but there is no evidence that it isn't. There were pine needles from the Christmas tree on the rug and the vacuum had no problem picking them up, well I'd say it got 99% of them. On the wood floors there isn't any evidence of scratching and the vacuum is getting under the lips of the counters and along the kick boards well. Another nice ability is that the vacuum gets under the beds, which is hard with a regular vacuum, where there is a lot of dust that accumulates. App, instructions and programing: We have not used the app for manual control of the vacuum but hope to do that in the near future. The app has been easy to use plus with the larger screen on the Tablet makes it easy to set the robot up. Instructions are a little lacking. But was able to work through any questions we had. An example would be the magnetic strip that goes on the floor to prevent the vacuum from entering specific areas. How much do I need to place? I also wonder how well the magnetic strip will hold on carpeting which I haven't had to do. The downside of the initial programing is the screen on the machine is small which makes hard to read. So use the app whenever you can. We have programmed a schedule for cleaning, using the app, with no problem. The unit starts up right on schedule. General: The vacuum has only got stuck twice, once on an item that isn't usually on the floor and once under a TV stand, which it got under once before but must have gotten a big ego and didn't make it the second time. Noise level is comparable to a regular large vacuum though may be a little louder when on a bare floor. I researched all brands of robotic vacuums on the internet and decided on this one for two reasons. 1) The square head seems to be logical for getting into corners better and 2) the app for manual control if you want or need to use it. Summary: I would recommend to a friend and have not found any real downside to the unit at least yet. Since it's only been a month of use I can't give it 5 stars. If it continues to operate at it's current level 5 stars would probably be reached. As for the cats, they seem to tolerate the unit better then the regular vacuum. They seem more interested in watching it then running away from it.
Posted by Herman
First off, when it works, it works amazingly. Picks up so much debris that it makes me wonder about our level of cleanliness. However ... ... it gets stuck. All the time. On everything. And everywhere. Unless the area you are cleaning is a perfect square without anything on the ground, it's going to get stuck and stuck again, over and over. It will get stuck on furniture, it will get stuck trying to go over thresholds, it will get stuck in corners, sometimes it will just get stuck and you think maybe you're the crazy one because it's frozen right in the middle of the floor with nothing around it. I have done everything I can to Neato-proof the area. I've removed/elevated any cords that were on the floor. I've moved furniture around. I bought an extra roll of magnetic strips to tell Neato things like, "Hey, don't try to make this threshold" and "Hey, don't try to roll over the A/C grates!" but it just kinda says, "Oh hai, Mark! May I roll over you plz?" and then it does. Sometimes it just pushes the strips right out of the way -- "fasten them down!" you say, to which I say I am not ruining my nice hardwood floors with adhesive residue so that a vacuum can just ignore the thing I damaged my floors for. In summary ... your mileage may vary. Some people here have zero problems. I have yet to have a single cleaning cycle where it didn't get stuck at least 3 times. I have to return it before I take a running start and kick it the next time it beeps at me that it's stuck. When I am at work and I get the message that it's stuck, I daydream all day about returning home to get a running start to kick it. For its own safety, it has to go back.
Posted by SCott
I love this robot vacuum. It does a very good job of getting up the dog hair and dust on our hardwood floors. We have three dogs and they do shed quite a bit. We used to have to vacuum every couple of days to avoid being over taken by dog hair dust bunnies. Now we let this little guy vacuum everyday. It actually does a great job. Better than I anticipated. I was looking at other manufactures, but this one had good reviews and it was onsite so I thought I would give it a try. I am glad I did.
Posted by MiniMe