Neato Robotics - Botvac Connected App-Controlled Self-Charging Robot Vacuum - Black

I've owned / own an XV-11, XV-21 and Botvac 80. I've been a big fan of Neato since they came out with their first product and I still believe in the quality of their LIDAR system to map the room before cleaning. I bought my unit the very first week (Oct 14), but I've held off posting a review until I could work through all of the issues I've had with the unit. Let's start with the positives: - I like the new captive touch interface. Takes a second to adjust to when coming out of the other robots since it's more sensitive. - Nice color screen - easy to read. - Being connected, the day / time automatically gets set for you. - Finally they ditched the Pb batteries and went to Li-ion. I can attest to the fact that in Eco mode, the batteries really do run 2 hours. I can now clean 2000+ sq ft on one charge in Eco mode vs. 2.5 charges with the prior robots. - I don't see a lot of difference between Eco and Turbo modes. Mostly Turbo is a little louder (haven't done the measurement's but probably 5db more) than Eco. Eco picks up dirt just as good as my XV-11. - The new filter is awesome. A quick swipe of the finger gets all the junk off of it. No more vacuuming my filter after every cleaning cycle. - Controlling the robot with my iPhone is nice. Just have to remember to get all the stuff picked up so not to confuse / block it. Messaging when it's done is nice as well. - Side brush works well. Nothing is ever going to get a corner perfect, but this helps. Now for the negatives that drag this down to 2 stars: - All shiny black = shows every single fingerprint. If you want your robot to look as clean as your house, be prepared to wipe the dust bin down constantly. - It took me 4 tries to get the robot connected to the Neato servers. 1st time I let it try for 36 hours with no success - could never link up to the Neato server but was on my wifi network quickly. 2nd and 3rd tries the robot would not connect to my wifi - yes you have to start from scratch if it won't connect to Neato's servers. 4th time it actually connected fairly quickly. I sent an e-mail in to Neato the 1st night I had it about the connection issue - they never responded. Had to call in about another issue to even get an answer. - Once you get the robot connected to the Neato servers, you have to go online to complete your profile setup or you will not be able to get notifications from the robot. And this means giving them info about where the robot was purchased, not just name and e-mail. And BTW, they know there is a problem with their website with some browsers. I actually had to use my phone to do the registration as I could never get it to work on my computer. Pretty sad for a "connected" robot. And BTW - nothing in the documentation tells you that you have to do this for the notifications to work. - The only notification you'll get from the robot is that it's done. There's no warning that I've seen if the robot gets stuck or has another issue. - No matter if you've selected Turbo or Eco as the default on the robot itself, if you use the app to start the robot, Turbo is always the default, even if Eco has been used before. So if you forgot, you have to life with more noise and shorter battery life. Silly that you can't set a default for Eco in the app. - Here's the real kicker for me that dropped this to a 2 start product. The units are built wrong. The 1st minute I put the dust bin into the main robot I noticed that it did not sit flush with the robot. And the left side (looking at it) sits higher than the right side. I'm not talking about a little bit, I'm talking enough that if I put a light inside the dust bin, I can see it shining out between the robot and dust bin lid. I contacted Neato more than 5 times and included pictures to show them exactly what was going on and the best they could do is send me a replacement dust bin. Even after multiple e-mail confirmations of my shipping address and a phone call in over 1.5 weeks, the replacement bin still never got shipped out. Had to spend 30 minutes in online chat with them to actually get the replacement sent. And I told them I didn't think this would fix the issue and sure enough it didn't. Another phone call to them and the best they could tell me was that this is the way the robot is built. Seriously - for $700 you can't build something where all of the pieces sit flush with each other? See the attached pictures and be warned than your spanking new robot that's 2x the price of their 1st robot is going to be flawed and Neato thinks that's okay. - Even though Neato customer service by phone has a special button press just for Neato connected owners, it doesn't seem like they really care that you bought their flagship model. Like buying an Audi and getting treated like you bought a VW. Unknowns: - The robot comes with a USB adaptor for doing software upgrades. You can look at your account online (but not through the app specifically) to see if there are software updates available (none right now). But the real question is will the updates be done over the air like they should be for a connected product or are you still going to have to plug it in to a stupid PC (sorry no Macs) to do the update? Would I buy this units again knowing all this issues - no. Would I wait for the 2nd generation of the Neato Connected - yes.

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.

Pros: -Vacuums Really well as a vacuum. -It seems to have a system when cleaning and not just randomly going everywhere. -Picks up stuck items like play-doh or small candies. -When the battery is low the robot go back to charge station by itself, then go back to the area it was and continue cleaning. -Side brush will pop off if it gets snagged on something. -Will work in low/no light (which is convenient during the fall) -Works great on hard wood, carpet, and tile. -Does a good job picking up pet hair (for the most part) Cons: -You have to "prep" the cleaning area. -Filter is not washable. -Side brush will pop off if it gets snagged on something (I cant find mine). -It doesn't seem to pick up medium size to large hair balls from pets This is my first robot vacuum. I have been using this robot as a primary vacuum for a few months now and has been working extremely well. The vacuum seems to pick up everything, with the exception of some dust in curved corners. It cleans under chairs and couches too. The first time I used it it came back covered in cobwebs (like a Halloween decorated robot). I have a kid and it works really well picking up items that are stuck to tile floor like play-doh or a small candy. You do have to pre-check the area to see if their are items that the vacuum will get stuck to. Things like pulling out the chairs in the breakfast area or picking up toys. The vacuum has tank tracks and is able to tilt if it get stuck. However, if you leave something out like a toy, the vacuum tends to go over it, freak-out, and get stuck. Also it does not work on very high pile carpet. I have a "shag" rug and it jams on that rug. But I had other vacuums jam in that rug as well. Neato includes a magnetic strip to prevent the vacuum going into an area of your choice. However the strip does not hold very well and I'll notice the robot moving it around before realizing it's the magnetic strip. I have built a little fort for the shag carpet and use the strips when I need to do a specific area. The filter is not washable but it last a very long time. I let my friend try it out and he seemed to like it as well. He has multiple pets with carpet as his primary flooring. It picked up a large amount of hair. It didn't pick up some hair balls that were on the service of the carpet. However he told me that most vacuums he used were not able to pick up that type of dog hair. He only is able to get that pick up by a Dyson Animal or a high quality pet vacuum. Even with all the small issues, it has saved me so much time when cleaning around my house. Maids/Cleaning services charge $50 minimum for a basic cleaning per session (vacuum the house and wiping down counter tops). Even with replacement filters, it pays for itself in less than a year compared to getting a maid to come by twice a month for vacuuming.

I spent many hours reading the reviews on multiple sites for the Neato Connected and Roomba 980. What ultimately swayed me to the Neato was the ability to work in the dark, the suction power as reviewed on CNET, and the $200 lower price tag. Many reviews on the Neato indicated that you need to 'Neato proof' your house-- some reviews even claimed the product is not ready for prime time. I decided to purchase but wasn't expecting the Neato Connected to work s good as the product suggested. To my pleasant surprise, it works excellent! I have a 2 story home and thanks to my wife, I believe the floor plan is on the more complex side as it relates to furnishings and placement thereof. The only 'Neato proofing' I did was pick up the dog toys. Out of the box 'Rosie' scanned the first room and began to work. She completed 3/4 of the main level and then returned to her station to charge (about 2 hours) and then resumed right where she left off. Since then, she has cleaned about a dozen times and only didn't complete twice when she stumbled on some dog toys- obviously not her fault. I cleared the obstruction, pressed resume, and off she went! For reference, my BotVac Connected was running software version 2.0 out of the box. From my experience thus far, here are some tips: - when setting up, if the WiFi process hangs at connecting to your network, simply restart the process a second time and all works well _ base station placement should be at least 3 inches from any obstacles or furniture-- If too close, Rose may not see the station and may not make it back when she re-enters the room to dock - 'Neato proofing' just needs the floor to be clear of obstructions like dog toys or other things that could be sucked up - obstacles like furniture, pillows, dog mats, rugs, etc are fine - if you pause her or clear an obstruction, make sure you put her in the same spot/direction as you found her-- this way she'll still know where she is at - adjust any furniture placement to allow Rosie enough width to enter otherwise, of course, she won't be able to clean that space Two observations: - if the floor plan changes during her cleaning, i.e., the wife decides to close a door to a room that Rosie hasn't yet made it to, chances are that Rosie saw that open room during her continuous scanning and she will spend a bit of time trying to figure why she can't go there due to the new wall that appeared. - we have some angled/sloping legs on some of the furniture and sometimes she will ride up on to them. This generally then causes her to appear to regain her location... She does circles for a few minutes and then resumes as normal All in all, I have no complaints with the Rosie. The app is, however, limited. No stats available -- only basic settings. Alerts seem to only be active for finished cleaning. I have the full dust bin and others turned on, but haven't got any. If she does get caught and you are not at home, you can open the app and see she has an error. When you click on the error you can see she is asking her brushes to be cleared-- this should be sent via text.

This robot vacuum is probably one of our very favorite items in our home and we've had it now for 7 months, so I feel very confident in this review. I have highly recommended to many family and friends who want to know our 'secret' of how we keep our house clean. We schedule our robot to run automatically a couple of times a week. Our main floor is about 1800 sq ft and the vacuum does beautifully on both wood and rugs, without missing a beat. Even though we have two furry/shed-y dogs, by having the vacuum run at least twice a week, we keep things nice. We only have to empty the bin once a week, and this regular schedule also cuts down on dust build-up. Here are a few features I think are noteworthy: PROS: The shape of this vacuum is a huge PRO. Because of the way it is designed, it easily cleans corners and other tighter areas, instead of kicking the dust and debris into the corner. There is a little brush which sticks out a couple of inches and rotates and that gently cleans the quarter-rounds of our baseboards. For this model, there are magnetic strips which could can put down to block off any area you don't want cleaned. We have two spots we use these on, under antiques, because we don't want the vacuum to get stuck. The strips are very simple and we just have them tucked under all the time - guests don't even see them. The newer model, I believe, allows you to specify areas to not clean, but the strip method is very effective and simple. I also LOVE that the vacuum sends me a map of everything it did when it finishes. The maps are amazing, because they very, very closely resemble the blueprints for our home - and it's all done just with sensors. Very accurate! Finally, As I said earlier, this vacuum rolls over tile, wood, carpet, and rugs with ease and no intervention from us. We use the combo brush and there are no marks left on our wood or anything else from the vacuum. We have five different rugs on the main floor, with different pile levels, including two which are fairly shaggy. The first couple of times, the little round brush got caught on the shaggy rugs and we had to free it. But now, perhaps with regular cleaning, the vacuum has no issues at all. It's nice to not have to move anything but dog toys! (The dogs do sometimes sabotage us, but the vacuum will gently roll right around the toys - it's pretty funny.) CONS: Like any technology, sometimes the vacuum gets 'angry.' For this device, she will let out some squawks or beeps to let us know she's angry. She might have a message that she needs her bin cleaned, and on rare occasion - she's clearly lying to us. Ha! I've found if we just do a full restart and put her on her base, all is good. Just like your cellphone or computer, you do need to reboot once in a while. I honestly love this vacuum so much and it has been a huge time-saver I didn't know I needed. It is kind of stunning to see how much dirt and hair get picked up. Before we had this vacuum running regularly, we lived in a home with mostly carpet. I'd say we maybe vacuumed once every week (if lucky!) but more like every other week. I'm a little disgusted now recalling that - even if you don't see hair and debris on your carpet, it's probably there. We have baby nieces and nephews who come over and I feel so much better knowing they are crawling around on a clean floor. One other note: the instructions say not to, but we keep our vacuum and charger under the master bed. There's nothing else under there and it has worked absolutely fine doing this. Just an FYI in case you want to keep it out of the way. It's fun when we tell our Alexa to have Neato clean the house - we hear this little tune like a cavalry bugle from under the bed and out comes Neato! Charge! (Oh, and all dogs are different, but our dogs do not mind Neato at all. My parents' dog, who barks incessantly at the regular vacuum, does not mind Neato, either.)

My unit arrived on 08/11/2017 (3 days ago). Since then I have used it for house cleaning (entire floor) and spot cleaning (under the bed, kitchen floor after meals). On the positive side: when the robot works it is a good vacuum cleaner. Turbo mode did well with dry food crumbs, standard household dust/dirt and human hair on both tile and carpet. The combo brush is better for carpet and the spiral blade brush is good for tile. Also the D shape is pretty good at getting close to the edges. Overall it's not as good as a Dyson upright (I have one of those as well), but I highly doubt any robot is. The negative (see attached photos also): 1) The robot refuses to start a job if the battery level is less than 50%. That is a total waste of 1/2 a battery charge! If a job is already in progress, it will go until about 5% and then look for the charging base but if you're moving the robot between rooms or floors and it happens to be less than 50% then you're out of luck and have to charge it up before continuing. Waste of time! 2) If your 2.4GHz and 5GHz WiFi networks have different SSIDs and your mobile device is on 5GHz, then you won't be able to use the Manual Clean (remote control) mode. The Neato app is not smart enough to realize that you are in fact on the same network. The unit only works on 2.4GHz. 3) In the past 3 days since I received the robot, it has dropped off the WiFi network at least 4 times. And this is NOT an issue with my home WiFi router. I have plenty of other devices on 2.4GHz and 5GHz without dropping issues. The software on the unit is 2.2.0 (current as of today). This is one of those cases where a product looks better on paper than in practice.

I picked this up for my 1 bedroom apartment, and this thing is by far the best purchase of the move. I also purchased a 2 year warranty through Best Buy which is always a smart move with tech hardware just in case something goes wrong or if in a year and a half its not as "vibrant" as it once was you can get a replacement or upgrade to the latest model. It cost and extra $70 in store for this product -Does it pick up everything? I have a dog that sheds a lot and the occasional dirty shoe/paw walking in, but this vacuum handles every bit of it. With the included app for the connected version, I can easily set schedules, drive it around the apartment manually, and shut it off if the timing is bad - and its all easy to set up if you follow directions. It seems to get all the corners, but occasionally if things are really bad it may require a second pass which is as easy as pushing one to two buttons on your phone or directly on the botvac. While running the bot once a day every day since initial move in (1 and 1/2 months), I only have to empty the collection bin every 3 or so days which is a perfectly fine trade-off for me. It sends me a message on my phone to let me know if the bag is full and when it is done vacuuming. It is able to clean the living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and walking closet of a 600 square foot apartment in less than 20 minutes. As a person used to seeing dog hair everywhere, I haven't seen any hair except whats in the collection bin and what inevitably attaches to my clothes :) -Does it get stuck? I have had it get hung up on a phone charger wire and a rope toy for my dog, but have managed easy solutions for both. I placed the wire in a better spot and my dog didn't like that toy anyway so I tossed it. If it was a bigger rope toy with less fray it wouldn't have been a problem. I also get a message on my phone if it gets stuck as well as it powers its vacuum down until cleared to not damage anything and beeps occasionally to help you find it. I would say that you need to give the base station a good 6-12 inches of clearance on each side so that it can smoothly return to its dock. It needs room to spin around freely and back up so corners are not good spots to put it. I placed mine under a bench-like couch with ample clearance to save space, visual appeal, and insure enough room to easily dock (and so no one steals my new prize possession haha). Overall this thing does a really good job of steering around obstacles and is gentle enough on furniture that I am not worried about damage. -Is the "Connected" app worth the extra? Oh yeah, it's easy to set up by connecting to a wifi network and then pairing with your phone. You can then access your vacuum from anywhere with cell reception. You can receive messages to let you know the status of the vacuum, manually drive the vacuum if the need arises, tell it to full house clean or spot clean, and pretty much have full control over this machine. -My Comparison Research Compared to other robot vacuums currently on the market (9/9/16) I would say this is the most appealing. It is the expensive model from Neato, but I feel the investment and time saved are absolutely worth it if you have a semi open floor plan or a small living space. The path the machine takes while vacuuming is a major factor for me. This vacuum maps out the entire perimeter and then vacuums the middle of that perimeter in about as straight of a line as you can get. Other vacuums like the Roomba are more "zig-zaggy", and if you have carpet it really shows some wild vacuum lines. The speed and quality of vacuuming is also important, and with a more powerful suction and a better "lap time" thanks to its smarter routing, Neato Botvac Connected is hands down the best bang for the buck.

We liked the Neato's D shape for getting into corners better; that it maps out a 15'x15' pattern and goes at it in a logical fashion (perimeter, then back and forth), rather than just randomly sweeping; and it's supposed to have the most powerful vacuum. We went with the top-of-line Connected in order to get Li-ion batteries. However, the wi-fi has come in handy when WALL-E (our Neato's name) has been deployed while we're gone, and even when he's on one floor and we're on another. He also has a side brush for sweeping along walls. Life with a robot vac is kind of like having a toddler around. You have to make sure cords are out of the way, the dog's water dish is out of reach, and the doors are shut to rooms you don't want him in. There's also a barrier that comes with it to block off small areas, such as the area around my computer desk with all the cords everywhere. We also had to raise up our living room furniture about a half-inch so he could go under it without getting stuck. The bedskirts have to be raised and the underbed storage container moved so he can sweep under the bed, which is REALLY nice since my Kirby won't fit under there. I suspect that's where most of the crud in his dust bin comes from. He goes from hard floors to carpet, no problem. He can't fit under the dining room chairs, so we put them on the table like I do when I sweep and mop; some other items (garbage cans, chord organ bench, dog toy basket, folding chairs, etc) get moved to the same places they go to when I do that, too. But unlike with a toddler, there's no need to block off the stairs. WALL-E has sensors to keep him from falling down them. However, he can't vacuum them, so I need to sweep them off first, along with behind doors and in tight spaces. WALL-E is very user-friendly--and polite. He always adds "Please" when asking to have his dust bin emptied or his path cleared. It took us a little bit to figure out how the touchscreen worked and the directions are somewhat lacking; I've had to get online to figure out a couple of issues that weren't addressed in the owners manual. The app is pretty straightforward. He has turbo and eco modes; we use turbo on the main floor and basement, and eco in the loft. Some reviews say that it's really loud; maybe it's louder than other robot vacs, and that's where the criticism comes from. It didn't bother us. We sat and watched TV one night while he did his thing on our level and the sound wasn't a problem. But we kept getting distracted because it's kind of cool to watch him work. When his battery starts to get low, he navigates back to his base for recharging (about 1.5 hrs, I think) and then continues where he left off. He did get stuck around the furniture one time before he got back, so he just powered off and we had to rescue him. The filters, brushes, wheels, etc. need to be cleaned periodically for optimum performance. So far, I've run him about every other day on the main floor, and then alternate between the loft and basement on the other days. Today I did the sweeping and mopping, and there was far less stuff to sweep up than would've normally been. Granted, I've never done much sweeping between moppings, but now I don't have to and my home is much cleaner. That makes me feel good. I love my house, but it really is a lot of work to keep it clean. So having WALL-E in my world is helping me do a better job of keeping my house clean without a lot of effort, so for me, it's been a good investment.