Neato Botvac D80 Robot Vacuum

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Neato Botvac D80 Robot Vacuum
Price: $199.99
Shipping Options:: $5 Standard (Free with Prime) OR $10 Two-Day OR $20 One-Day
Shipping Estimates: Ships in 1-2 business days (Wednesday, Apr 18 to Thursday, Apr 19) + transit
Condition: Factory Reconditioned

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3

Where does the cat sit? :o)

4

1 in 5 reviews on amazon is one star.

That’s too high a percentage, and most of them sound the same: works till the warranty runs out in a year then disappears into a customer service hell.

Thanks, but no thanks.

5

This was a horror story. I bought 2 of these last time they were on woot.

One came out of the box broken (button was literally not in it).

The other one worked for about 3 weeks.

While Neato did replace the one with the broken button with a brand new model (very cool) that unit died only a few weeks later.

Even when these things worked, they were HORRIBLE. They picked up nothing and kept getting stuck. My wife ended putting both on a shelf in the garage and I didn’t even notice.

6

Having made attempts to take reviews on amazon in stride, I think it’s a hit and miss. Meaning, I’ve ignored negative reviews on some products and was never sorry. That said, I have had a few different models over the years that bear the Neato name.
XV11 x2, XV21, D80. I also have a Samsung V9000

Yep, I am lazy or could it be that with both my wife and I working, having 3 cats and a 4000sqft house (4 kids who come home from time to time from school or to visit…),I must say, having Skynet running my house’s clean up duties is nice. Though I only use the XV21 in the basement (all carpet), it runs once a week. 1st floor has the D80 and runs 3 times a week - mostly hard wood floors w/some area rugs and 2nd floor is patrolled by the V9000.

My first unit has long been retired, the 2nd XV11 is a backup and for parts if I need it. But I’ll just say a short blurb on the D80.

Pro - Fast, quiet, long battery life, nice edge cleaner that DOES work (see cons), always finds it way back to the charging station, LARGE tank, doesn’t mar up the wood floors

Con - Mag strip sensors not sensitive enough (runs over them from time to time), eats cat toys like they are just big ghost turds, beats up on the furniture (mostly in reverse). Doesn’t do well on rugs with long tassels - gets hung up and crys like a baby when it does. A biggie with me is the side brush sometimes comes off, normally on the sliding door track but the cats go out on a recon mission after a cleaning and the brush shows up in the mouth of my Egyptian Mau cat, Clinton, my rescue from the wild cat that I’ve trained to “fetch” and he thinks the brush is a toy and wants me to “throw” it so he can go “fetch” it again. The brush in question is held on by a magnet and it will come off if it hangs on something.

Now take it for whats it’s worth. The D80 isn’t really that bad of a unit but I’ve never updated my firmware/programming yet. I got mine here on Woot but my unit is beige/purple color. Mine has to contend with the BULK of what my cats have to offer. I wish it was a “little” better on it’s sensors because it will step outside the box from time to time and go places I really didn’t want it to go (utility room where the cats eat, crap, eat and crap, repeat…

Other then that, I’m happy with the D80 for what I paid. As far as it beating up my furniture, it’s no contender to what my iRobot Scooba is capable of. But that’s another rant…

Cheers

7

I’m not really sure why people rag on these so much.

I bought my first one (xv11) in Nov of 2012, which worked for five years cleaning up carpet, hard flooring, rugs, around tight corners (which occasionally it would get stuck in tighter areas) and generally did a pretty good job. I would run it 4 times a week and pull an entire container of cat/dog fur from the carpet. That finally died after 5 years of use (with one new replacement in those five years(free of charge and covered by support), which is a longer life than a normal upright vacuum runs for. Another point to consider is how much time I saved myself not vacuuming once in 5 years; just emptying the dirt bin and maybe once a week picking it up from being lost and placing it back on the charger.

If you’re expecting a robot vacuum to be plug and play with no user input from that point, a robot isn’t right for you. Unless you have a square room with hard flooring and with no obstacles, this thing occasionally gets stuck, but it does let you know with a little beep so you can find it quickly and easily.

I did run into some issues and needed to contact support. Their support team isn’t the best I’ve ever called, but they handle my issue every time. It just takes a little work to make sure you’re both on the same page. After all, this is a piece of technology and there could be 15 things wrong if the problem isn’t accurately explained.

I liked this so much I ended up buying my parents one for Christmas. That one lasted a few years also. Currently it is sitting stuck on a charger because the lidar had an issue, which actually looks to be a $6 repair for the motor replacement. Outside of this the vacuum is fine.

After my personal xv11 died, I bought the Botvac 80 (not the D80) Well my new one doesn’t really ever go over carpet, but does cover a rug! it roams around a 1400 sq ft condo while i’m away at work doing adulting things. But the best thing I get to come home to is a freshly vacuumed home with no input necessary from me. Never really needing to vacuum since Nov 2012 has been a huge change for me. Going through support from time to time, picking up the robot when it gets lost or stuck, cleaning the dirt bin every time it runs, these are the total cons for these devices, and by no means are they reason enough to restrict yourself from the convenience of not hauling out your 8lb Dyson Pet Ball Cyclone (or whatever name they’re on now) or maybe you bought the handheld Dyson from yesterday’s Home sale, just to clean up Mr. Furry’s floor fuzzies.

Do yourself a favor, love. Buy the Neato

8

Every time these come up, I have to throw in my .02. Just keep in mind, for every crappy review, there are probably 10 happy customers that don’t care enough to leave a review. People don’t speak up until they’re angry. I’ve had a D5 Connected for two years now. It runs every MWF while I’m at work. It has functioned flawlessly for me. I haven’t had to replace anything other than the filters and haven’t had to do any maintenance other than an occasional cleaning of the ledge/wall sensors.

There was a bit of work involved in watching its first 4 or 5 runs through the house to see which tight corners it had trouble with and which things it could get high-centered on so I could lay down the barriers. Since then, the only time it doesn’t get a full clean of the house is if I accidentally leave a dryer sheet or sock on the floor for it to run over.

I know I probably come off like a Neato employee (I’m not) but this thing has seriously been one of the best purchases I’ve made, so I’m always sad to see everyone just blast them on reviews.

Anyhow, that has been my anecdotal experience. YMMV

9

I don’t have this exact model, but I think the one I have is basically the same but with “connected” features. When I first got it, it filled me with rage on a daily basis because it was constantly getting stuck. It cleaned very well (you will be surprised at home much crap accumulates on your floor in 24 hours if you have pets), but having to constantly pick it up and point it in a different direction kind of ruined the whole “living in the future” vibe.

About a week before my return window closed, couple days before I was going to return it, the joker suddenly started cleaning with no issues. It went a week before it got stuck, and even then, it was on a cat toy, which was my fault. I guess there must have been a software update. I assume the D80 is also update-able, so maybe the same issues plaguing my Connected vac were fixed with the D80.

If you have high thresholds, those are its worst enemy and where ours gets stuck the most – when the battery is full, it can eventually power over them, but when it’s low, it ramps down the power and can get stuck on tough bumps. We put magnetic strips down to prevent it from trying the thresholds, but it tends to hit them and move them around (didn’t tape them to our floor), and then tries anyway.

Also, it will eat any cables you have touching the floor. You really have to Neato-proof your home if you don’t want it to choke on things that you really don’t normally think about that are lying or close to lying on the floor.

We use it for the entire first floor of our home, roughly 1000 sq feet, and it is usually able to clean it in one charge – if it can’t, it goes back to the charging station and finishes where it left off.

10

I have a 3 story house. I have 2 cats and 2 dogs to clean up after. Manually vacuuming would take forever, so we went the robotic route. Over the past 8 years, I’ve had 6 Neato bots and 1 Roomba. The Roomba lasted 3 days before it went back in exchange for a Neato. Overall, I’ve been pretty happy with the Neatos. I’ve had a few lemons, which Neato replaced quickly, but for the most part they work well. Yes, they will require some manual intervention when they get hung up. It’s at it’s worst when I forget to pick up the pet toys on cleaning day. Occasionally, you’ll look at where it got itself and wonder if the thing has gone stupid. Overall it cleans pretty well though.

Things I have discovered with my Neatos: 1) Plan on buying 1-2 $40 batteries per year. Depending on your use, they will eventually stop holding a charge. If you get the dreaded “Switch Power on” error when the switch is on, it’s a bad battery. Buy Neato Batteries. The knock offs are cheaper but they all suck. 2) If anything is acting strange just before your warranty is up, call Neato. I’ve gotten 2 replacement units just before the warranty ended because mine were showing problems. 3) Pick up items on the floor before they run. It’ll save you from the “I’m stuck” headache. 4) If the dog or cat pukes on the carpet and the robot hits it before you notice it, just shut the door to the room, board it up, and forget it ever existed. Trust me.

I have 2 of these D80s. I refer to them as the last good Neato bots. All the newer ones are wifi connected and App controlled. They don’t even have buttons or screens on them anymore. The App controled bots are horrible. They don’t clean well, they are CONSTANTLY disconnecting from the wifi, and the App crashes all the time. I’ve tried 3 and all lasted less than 2 weeks. Just stay away from them.

11

I’ve had 4 Neato Vacuums - 3 of the XV21s and one Botvac. None of them lasted more than 90 days. Neato didn’t care at all that they were broken. The very sad part is that Neatos were the best cleaning of all the robovacs that I’ve owned when they worked…I just can’t afford to buy a new one every 3 months.

12

Very highly recommended! I have one of these and 3 Botvac 80’s running around my 2-story home. The D80 is almost the same as the Botvac 80 save color and a few minor differences. The main brush bearing and improved filter are 2 improvements owned by the D80.

They almost never get stuck and are a great improvement over the XV series that preceded them. Just keep a can of WD-40 handy for the little wheels and the D80 brush bearing.

HINT: The vastly improved filter on the D80 can be had on Amazon as an aftermarket. They are cheap, fit the Botvac and just as good! And blow the dust out of the mapping laser area (the big blue circle) occasionally.

13

Another comment mentioned the reviewer believed there were many satisfied people who don’t bother to post reviews. Well, I am one of those people. However, I like this product so much, I decided to post a review and, hopefully, help assure those thinking of purchasing this product that it is worth the money.
I bought one of these (Refurbished D80) almost six months ago through Groupon. I figured it if worked, great, if it didn’t, I was out full retail. Right out of the box it worked amazing. We had just hosted a party the night before we setup the Neato and vacuumed the entire downstairs (about 2500 sq.ft.) both before and after the party with our Dyson. The Neato made one trip through the entire area and filled up the bin! We haven used it twice a week since that time and I have only found it stuck twice. The area it cleans has a combination of wood floors and carpet. It also navigates around a formal dining table with six chairs and a kitchen table with six chairs. It handles two small rugs and an eight foot runner with no problems. Finally, it is incredibly effective at cleaning up the litter the cat tracks out of the box. If it broke tomorrow I would feel I had got my money’s worth out of this unit just in the time it has saved me.
People who expect these things to be perfect are expecting too much. They are a luxury and a convenience and should be treated accordingly. I only count on this device to establish a minimum level of tidiness but I am almost always surprised at how well it continues to work.
I’m sure some people have received bad units and were unhappy about having to deal with customer service; I would be too. I am not discounting their experiences. But the design is sound, it works great, I’m glad I bought it, and I would buy it again.

14

Another (mostly) happy multiple Neato owner here. We are older, and have a bigger single story home. We started out with an xv21, which worked well, but was very loud, and took all night to clean our house. Since we have 3 cats, and live in the desert, we vacuum every day to keep hair and dust to a minimum. This unit is 2 1/2 years old, and other than a couple batteries, still works every night.

Within a couple months of us buying our first one, woot had one of these on sale. Realizing how much work this saved the wife an I, I bought it to split the workload. This was a significant step up from the SV series, as it ran longer, had a bigger dirt bin, and was quieter than the XV. Unfortunately, right around the first of the year, it developed a fatal issue, and figured after two years of daily cleaning, a “new” one was in order.

So, we bought another refurb from Amazon. This one started off working well, but after about a month won’t dock. i spent a month troubleshooting, buying a new battery, etc. For the past month, I’ve been trying to get Neato to fix it. Still waiting for “supervisor approval”.

Bottom line, these work well. They have some “quirks”, but you quickly learn how to work around them. Once you have your house and routine set up, it is awesome to wake up to a clean floor every morning (we run ours at night when we are sleeping). They require very little maintenance other than cleaning out the filter every other day. About monthly I will vacuum and blow out the whole unit, and use 3 in 1 oil for the small rollers that get really squeaky.

I’m thinking about giving this one a try. But, if you do, get the extended warranty, just in case.

15

Anyone know how well these do with ledges? Im in a split level and would be nice to have upstairs, but all around the upper level is an open drop off 2 floors down, so if it doesnt have drop sensors all the way around I could see it not working out so well like when it backs up

16

First, nothing will ever beat a real vacuum and manual labor on cleaning. Just can’t. That said, I’ve been through Neato, Roomba, and others. I keep going back to the Neato units. They by far last the longest, clean the best and treat the furniture in my house the best. All other robotic vacuums I’ve had use the bump method to move around, the Neatos actually look around for objects and try to treat them gently, which works most of the time but not all.

Even thinking about getting a robot Vac? Get a Neato.

17

I can’t account for this model specifically, but my D5 handles the stairs going into my bedroom flawlessly. I’ve never once had it try to jump off the ledge.

Edit: From the picture I can see that it has ledge sensors on both front corners, which is all the D5 has. Presumably it would have similar ledge avoidance performance as what I’ve experienced.

18

The units generally come with about 5ft (double check for length accuracy) of magnet stripping that you can adhere (adhesive sold separately) to the floor. The neato shouldn’t jump over the magnet stripping. I’m on a second floor condo with open access to drop down the stairwells that I ‘magnetized’; vacuum hasn’t attempted suicide once for me.

19

I Have owned 2 of the Neato vacuum’s and after about a year they both would only run for about 10- 15 mins, both were bought on woot.

20

It has drop sensors up front which is all it should need. Has never fallen down a staircase in our house. But you need to keep them clean.