Neato Robotics - Botvac D4 Wi-Fi Connected Robot Vacuum
Model: 945-0307
SKU: 6277900
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Great looking design, nice dark grey. Sports a distinct “D” shape and moves a relatively quick speed. Sound while vacuuming isn’t exactly whisper quiet, but it’s reasonable and quieter than most full-size vacuums. The charging base is relatively unassuming and tucks up against a wall without being too much of an eye sore. As far as the hardware is concerned it seems to work really well. It navigated my home and sucked up a startling amount of hair and dust. It worked great on both hard surfaces and carpet. Being able to manage it from my phone is a nice touch and at first use it seemed like the perfect robotic vacuum. Getting connected the first time seemed to take a couple attempts. Once it was set up, things seemed to work well. The first run took about 90 minutes and did a pretty great job mapping my home. It had to recharge itself once but resumed right where it left off. After the floor plan is created you can setup your “no go” zones, or boundaries where you don’t want the Neato to go. Then you can setup a schedule and have the Neato do its thing. The Neato isn’t perfect, from time to time it would return an error indicating that my base station had moved, and I would have to reset the unit and rebuild the floor plan. I’m not sure if this is common, but it does happen from time to time. A note should also be made regarding the unit’s height – be weary of furniture that is exactly tall enough for the front of the unit to slide underneath, but not tall enough for the back of the unit. The unit would attempt to keep going as it would get jammed underneath my table and just eventually give up. Overall, the unit performs well and does a great job on pet hair and dust. I’m hoping a future firmware/software update will solve my reset issue – once that gets corrected, the Neato Botvac D4 will be one of the best in my book.
Posted by zero325
This is my first robot vacuum. I always thought the devices like Roomba would be nice to check out but always thought they were overpriced. While the Neato D4 isn't cheap it does a surprisingly good job. We have a combination of hardwood and vinyl floors downstairs in our house. The dining room and walkway from the kitchen to the living room are wood and the kitchen area is vinyl. It is always a struggle to keep the kitchen floor clean so my hope was that the D4 would be able to help me out with this. Out of the box the D4 is fairly easy to set up. You plug the base into a wall outlet and connect the D4 to the charging ports. You download the Neato app and it takes you through the setup process, (connect to Wi-Fi, name the robot, etc.) Then the D4 starts by cruising around whatever room you put it in to map out the layout. The program for how it does this is a little strange as it doesn't just travel in straight lines until it bumps into something as you would think, it kind of zig zags all over the place. The first time I went through this process the D4 got confused by the wooden transition strip between the dining room wood and kitchen vinyl and stopped at the dining room so it only cleaned about 1/4 of the surface I wanted it to. The wife and I had to go grocery shopping so I left the D4 charging until we got back. About an hour later we returned and for some reason the D4 had gotten disconnected from my network so I had to go through the whole pairing process again. I called Neato customer service to ask about why the D4 didn't travel into the kitchen as I wanted it to. The Neato rep asked me if the wood on the strip was shiny. I said, "Not really". This gave me an idea so I decided to try the mapping process again, this time with the lights turned off in the kitchen, (it was day time). This seemed to alleviate the problem as the D4 had no trouble getting over the strip this time. But unfortunately this time when it turned down the wood walkway that leads into the living room it made a right and went on to the carpeted area of the living room where I didn't want it to go. After it got back to the wood walkway area I put a barrier down where the D4 had travelled on to the carpet before to stop it from going there. I think this freaked the robot out because it kept trying to go back there. I swear it wasted about 10 minutes bumping into the barrier I had put up. It eventually started to run out of battery and went back to its base without finishing the mapping process. I let it charge some more and then gave it another shot this time with the barriers already in place. Third time was the charm as the D4 mapped my downstairs properly just as I wanted it to. This think actually does a pretty good job of picking stuff up off the floor. Much better than I expected it to. Buy unfortunately it will not replace manual sweeping and mopping as it doesn't do a very good job of getting into the corners, (see my pic of the dead bug in one corner that I was hoping it would get) but I guess it will help to keep your floors a little more clean so that when you do sweep and mop there won't be as much to pick up.
Posted by darien87
This is my first robot vacuum, so there was a little learning involved on my part. First, you have to prepare the room the way the instructions explain. Get all the little stuff … wires and cables, toys and shoes … picked up. Any fringe on rugs has to be turned under or the vac will try to suck it up and stop. It’s just like with an upright vac, if there’s loose stuff laying around, it will try to swallow it. Also, if you want to clean under a table, the chairs need to be up and out of the way to make room. In other words, just like cleaning with any vacuum, you have to move things out of the way to clean. I know this rubs some the wrong way, but READ THE INSTRUCTIONS and watch the videos online. They will save you some frustration. With that said, let’s talk about using the Neato D4. First, set the charging base in an appropriate location and place the unit against it to charge. My unit was mostly charged out of the box, and this didn’t take long. Startup and pairing is next. This took me a couple of attempts, but I may have been too impatient. You need to have the Neato App on your phone or tablet and create a Neato account online. It will also require your WIFI name and login to pair up, go online and communicate with your phone. BTW, you have to give your Botvac a name. Pick a fun one since you can use Alexa to start cleaning. “Alexa, tell Dumbo to start cleaning”. Once this is done, it automatically calls home and registers itself. The D4 can only use the 2.4 GH band. Now the fun! Hit the start button on the app or unit and watch as it goes about its chore. At first it appears a bit random, but there is a method as it maps your room(s). It works its way around the perimeter by a combination of bumping and laser sensing. Wacky tight spaces makes for an interesting show, but it gets the job done. I believe it breaks the cleaning task up into areas of around 150 sq. ft. max, so you may think it’s not getting the whole room, but be patient. As an area is defined, it starts an orderly back and forth path while dodging any objects. (It’s fun to watch it circle table legs without making contact.) When an area is covered, it moves to the next and plots that perimeter. It will eventually get all the contiguous areas cleaned. Also, when it’s done, or when it’s low on battery. It returns to it’s charging station. If there was more to clean, it goes back after charging to finish what was left. Once the floor plan is plotted, Neato remembers it and doesn’t have to bump and grind its way nearly as much. Things I liked. It doesn’t just aimlessly bounce around like a pinball but sets up a pattern. It really picks up the dirt. It remembers the layout. It’s fairly quiet. You can set cleaning times and days, and let it do its thing. Things I didn’t care for. As an entry level model it doesn’t have side brushes, so it misses some dirt along walls and in corners. Also, the next model up (D6) can remember multiple floor plans, and I have a two story house. It’s rated at up to 75 min of cleaning, but my results have been less. Conclusion. A fairly “neato” device, but the base model lacks some features. I live in and old two story house with lots of offsets and things to navigate around. If your rooms are more regular and all on one level, this model would be great. Otherwise, consider the additional $200 and get the D6.
Posted by Capshroud
The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products, promotional considerations or entries into drawings for honest, helpful reviews.
Customers are satisfied with the Botvac D4's cleaning performance, mapping functionality, and quiet operation. Many appreciate its ease of use and the helpful "no-go lines" feature for restricting cleaning areas. However, some users experienced issues with battery life, navigation inconsistencies, and app connectivity. The lack of a side brush was also noted by some customers.