Costco $299.99, but added: 3 Replacement Filters &
6 Replacement Brush Blades and 1 Replacement Squeegee Blade
Not cat compatible! The rider will blind Neato’s LIDAR turret; the blind 'bot would probably stop, cry for help, and then the bored cat would walk away.
Is this a good first robot vacuum?
Yup, you’d need a really small pet to perch perfectly atop the turret hat without interfering with the laser aperture. A chinchilla would be about the biggest I’d expect could ride it.
I’ve owned mine almost a year, and yeah, it’s worth every penny. It goes under the kitchen cabinets, under the beds, under the chairs, gets all the places that were a PITA to get with the regular vacuum, plus it does the wide-open floor areas. But then, any robot vacuum does that.
What the Neato does, better than any of the competition, is navigate the whole house without extra hardware. There are no lighthouses, no gates, no navigation beacons of any sort. It maps as it works, keeping track of where it’s been and where it hasn’t. When it finishes a room, it moves to the next, until the whole house is done.
For fun, I’ve blocked doors and arranged obstacles to make the house completely accessible, but absurdly serpentine. The Neato meticulously cleans every inch, not fazed at all, before declaring victory and zipping back through the maze to its charging base. It’s phenomenally entertaining to watch.
Downsides:
Edges and corners. It’s not great about corners. There are some hints about a side-brush in the latest firmware, even though none of the current hardware has a side-brush, so it’s safe to assume one is in development. I figure that’s why they’re clearing out this model. If you can stand the notion of taking a manual broom to the edges of the house once in a blue moon, this is no big deal. Personally, I hate brooms, and plan to pick up the new model when it comes out.
Getting stuck. Once in a while, mine will just get incredibly confused and declare itself lost. It always seems to be smack-dab under the center of the bed when this happens, never anywhere easily accessible. Robot vacuums seem ideal for humans with limited mobility, until this happens. If you’re giving a disabled relative a vacuum, expect to visit once in a while and retrieve it from somewhere stupid. That being said, it’s quite rare, only happened 3 or 4 times in the year I’ve owned it.
Filter cost. There are plenty of DIY and aftermarket filters with greater surface area than the stock filter, which is good not only because they flow more air during operation, but also because you can use them more times before they get hopelessly clogged. Still, when you figure the cost per square inch of filter area (even multiplied by the number of times they can be whacked clean and reused), they make good ol’ bagged vacuums look like a phenomenal deal.
Upsides:
Fire-and-forget cleaning. Typically after I start a run, I’ll walk around the house and grab the obvious obstacles: Cords and power bricks on the floor, laundry that missed the hamper, etc. This takes about 30 seconds, and then I can go do something else, reasonably confident that the Neato will do its own thing without intervention.
Adorability. It’s just mesmerizing to watch, and I’ve literally had visitors ask if they can play with the vacuum.
Thoroughness. It gets under all the stuff I could never be arsed to clean under.
Automatic charging. Competitors charge a lot for their automatic charging bases, but the Neato includes it, and it’s flawless every time. The butt-wiggle docking maneuver is hilarious too.
Easy serviceability. Long hair gets wrapped around the beater-bar, same as any other vacuum. Neato made it incredibly easy to open the mechanism and clean this out, to the point that the entire beater bar and bearing assembly comes apart without tools. I wish other vacuum makers would take a page from this playbook!
Hackability. There’s no Create model from Neato, but there is www.neatorobotics.com/programmers-manual for ya. Enjoy!
I LOVE THIS VACUUM!!! Miles ahead of the Roomba’s, and it cleans much faster. I have an 1800 sq ft house all tile and wood, and the Neato covers 1500 of it w/in 2 hours. It does it methodically exactly the way you’d mow your lawn. Worth every penny.
And for the pet owners: I have a big 85lb silver pit bull that tends to shed quite a bit. The neato picks it up with no problem, and you just have to empty the filter after every use- which is simple enough for a 4yo to do, not like the Rooma.
And yes, it doesn’t get the corners or edges- but vacuums don’t either (and I have a Dyson dc28, arguably one of the best units on the planet and it still misses edges). I simply use a little handheld (I have a Dyson dc34 but obviously a $40 shark or likewise works just the same) and quickly get the edges and it takes all of 3 minutes. With this and the Neato running 3x a week my floors stay clean and I can be bare-footed around the house all the time. Take my word, you will not be disappointed with this unit!!
I have a GIANT dog and I have an old model and I don’t have any issues. He’s walked into a room that the neato scans or is cleaning and walks in front, but its always just gone back to that area as soon as Zeus walks away from it. Don’t get discouraged from this review, unless you have an animal that is silly enough to play in front of a vacuum this will never be a problem.
Dog walks in front of Neato. Neato stops and does 180 degree turn and goes to wall, turns again and continues its path while dog is long gone.
Surprise! Another vacuum!!
well worth it- gets my whole house and keeps chow hair from covering the floor. Will not get under the kitchen cabinets but gets everywhere else, including the throw rugs on tile.
I bought one the first or second time these popped up. My house is all hardwood floors and it does a really good job. No pets and just two people in the house but running it mon/fri keeps the place looking great.
Seems to get lost about 1/4 of the time and I’ll come home to it beeping in a corner but otherwise it’s great. Perfect for the bachelor household.
I received my first one on August 2nd. It ran everyday for 9 days and did a fantastic job. Yesterday I returned it to Costco because the Neato kept saying “right wheel stuck” and wouldn’t roll. I called Neato customer service who asked me to use tweezers and a flashlight to clean the wheel although I told her that there was nothing in the wheel. Back it went to Costco as I wasn’t waiting around to call the customer service multiple times prior to receiving a new unit. I did order another as the Neato did such a better job than my Roomba. BTW, someone had just returned a 2 year old Roomba at Costco, that’s why I shop at Costco. Save the receipt and you can return most anything at anytime. It’s worth the extra $20!
For those of you that are interested - I have 2 Roomba Discovery vacuumes - have had them about 2 years, one purchased on ebay and the other a gift. About 2 weeks ago I purchased the Neato and it makes the Roomba Discovery obsolete. We have some high pile carpet in one room that Roomba will not operate on and Neato does a fantastic job on it, the roomba will randomly go in a direction until it hits something and the Neato will do a perimiter search first and then almost groom the carpet like a baseball field - You have to pay extra for a remote to create timed cleanings with the roomba discovery whereas the Neato has this built in, and don’t let the squared front fool you… this is an intellegent robot that sees the objects around it and steers around them missing the corner by 1/8". Oh, and another thing is that when the Neato starts up, it sounds like a rocket engine test fire, gets the suction going well before it starts to move, and does a much better job at pulling the dirt, dust and debris into the vacuum. The Neato is much much better in my opinion compared to the Roomba Discovery model and I am unaware that Roomba has anything else out there as in a new model.
With that said, the Neato has given me a little trouble that I think is just the nature of the beast… When mine runs out of power because it’s stuck or didn’t quite make it back to the recharge base - it forgets the date / time that I had programmed into it. This is annoying because it won’t automatically clean as I want it to… until I reprogram it - happened 3 times in two weeks so far - but for the better sweep routine and for the better vacuumining - sooo much better than roomba discovery. The neato has also cleaned 1/2 the floor, gone back to base and recharged, and then gone back out to finish - which was awesome.
The Neato has gotten stuck on furniture twice in two weeks, I’ve had to reprogram it three times, but other than that - The Neato sucks better, has a better cleaning pattern, and works on higher pile carpet when needed. If I needed the advice as to whether I would choose Neato or Roomba Discovery - I would say hands down the Neato is the Vacuum to have if you are looking for a robotic vacuum cleaner at this date and time.
Hope this helps-
You are on target J. I got the wife one for xmas and it came as a kit. Extra filters, extra brush and incerts and a 4 year extended warranty. Paid almost 500 for it. And having 3 cats myself, this thing does it’s job well. It has to make 1 trip back to recharge before it finishes the whole 1st floor (all hard wood and I exclude two rooms (office/sitting room) but I recently upgraded the brush to the pet brush. It’s really quiet now and still does an outstanding job. Worth the money for everyday use.
We picked up one of these on a prior Woot, and have been really happy with it. No one in our house is fond of vacuuming, and letting the Neato drive itself around and do it has been great.
We do have a corner or two, and a tassled carpet or two where it gets stuck. We’ll come in and hear it crying, and go untangle it and off it will go again. Usually we let it run while someone is home to avoid the “stuck until the battery dies and it needs to be reset” problem others have mentioned.
We had a problem with ours, which Neato customer service fixed promptly, by replacing the vacuum. Since then it has been no trouble.
I bought their extended warranty because I was so pleased with how they handled the issue.
Strong “Yay!” for this vacuum.
Here’s a COMPARISON between this model and the Roomba.
http://www.robotreviews.com/reviews/roomba-780-vs-neato-xv-11-head-to-head
Loved this product until I tried to update the software. Be aware you may have a problem if you have an AMD processor. My neato is currently sitting here useless after several attempts to update. According to Neato they are working on the problem but no resolution for over a month.
We Love, Love, Love, our Neato vacuum ! We have an Australian sheepdog and 2 Maltese , but you wouldn’t know it since we got this vac. Now, I don’t know what we would do without it ! Would eventually like a second one for downstairs. I have researched prices, this is an amazing deal !!!
I bought one of these, at $304, darn it, and is worth every penny. I had a Roomba and this beats the hell out of it.
This has a true vacuum, sounds like a miniature jet engine compared to the Roomba.
Cleans very well, carpet and tile. Have Miniature Dachshund, long hair, and amazed at what it gets cleaning twice a week.
It will stop, go to the recharging station and then go back to the place it stopped at and resume its cleaning.
You can schedule a time and day to clean and then just move on to other Woots to get.
Great Buy, have had no problems withe this one.
I bought the XV-12 model and I am in love. On a scale of 1-5, 5 being the highest, my Neato gets a “4” and I get a “1”. Love a neat and clean home but don’t want to do it and that is where my new life partner, “Neato”, comes in. So it is not perfect…does not navigate over my bathroom door sills and there are some areas it chooses not to cover sometimes. It IS fun to watch the butt wiggle at the base and trying to find the unit when it gets stuck out of sight.
Floor sensor out after just 6 months of light use. cost of shipping for warranty not worth the effort to repair.