It’s not hard at all, but it is nice not having to remember to do something. Free’s up time to do other things, like spending time with your family, and quality time is priceless.
Got one of these a few weeks ago, and I have 2 VERY LARGE DOGS. Rough Coat Collie, And a Great Pyrenees. 2 - GIANT FUR BALLS, no other way to describe it. The first time around here almost KILLED Neato, stopped no less than 4 times on it’s first run. Emptied 3 times, because it decided to go under the BED. Both Wood floors and Carpet. Now it does it’s thing daily and I empty it out when it’s done, not much in it either. I’m in for 2 MORE, one for the other floor in the house, and one for the Sister in Law, the watched it, and wants one also. This thing ROCKS.
Does this need anything fancy to avoid going down the stairs like a bungee jumper without said bungee?
Here is a picture of the bin. Depending on the size of the house, you might be able to use it a few times before having to empty it.
*May need to empty it a few times on your first run.
I just bought one and I’m excited. I’ve been eyeing this the past couple of times it has been up for sale…
The comment thread from last time sold me. I really appreciate everyone who shares their experiences. Good or bad.
No, it can tell when it gets to the top of the stairs and it turns around. You need to put the magnetic strip down to keep it from going under something where it could get stuck but it detects stairs fine by itself.
Per chance, does anyone have any experience using this with a husky in the house? We’ve been using an upright bagless (I believe Eureka brand) and we fill up the chamber with fur at least once every other day.
Would this help us, at the least, tone down the frequency of having to vacuum? (Or would this just end up in tangles?)
I doubt this would work on the floors in my parents’ old house. From what I recall, they were made of lava.
I bought this last time Woot had this, and love it! This works wonders in my (admittedly small) apartment. I have rugs, hardwood floors, linoleum and tile, and it does a good job with all.
It also does a great job navigating into small places and cleaning up.
This did not completely replace vacuuming, but I can go much longer in between cleanings, and my place looks clean.
I highly recommend the Neato XV-12.
I picked one up a few weeks ago. Got a defective unit, called them up and they sent me an XV-11 (the green model, same thing as the XV-12) and a FedEx return slip for the original one. Works great! Way easier to clean than the Roomba 530 that I had, it cleans more, doesn’t get stuck on thresholds (old house, they’re pretty tall), and definitely works a lot smarter. It’s louder than the Roomba, but I’m chalking that up to it actually vacuuming instead of just sweeping everything into its bin so that’s not really a negative because it’s working harder.
Scheduling is super easy, and it cleans the whole apartment on one charge.
I bought one on Woot last January. Let’s face it. It does exactly what all those videos show. As soon as Neato (we were real original with the name) starts up my Lab goes swimming and the “found dog” (don’t know what he is) likes to get in its way. Neato is not real pushy and many times the dog wins. Before Neato signs off on the room, however he generally takes another look and will get the spot where the dog was.
I never knew my house was this dirty. Neato fills his dustbin almost every time.
I’m here to buy another one because my daughter-in-law saw the little guy do his thing going under the bed, etc. and insisted that I get one for her. She also has two dogs too.
And to the guy above about dog fur. Both my Lab and the Lab-type above are large dogs and leave a LOT of fur around. They play a lot. And yes, sometimes I even have to interrupt Neato to empty his dirt bin but he’s really nice about letting you do that and THANKS you when you put his bin back.
Yes, we love Neato!
LOVE my Neato. Owner of 2 Roombas. Neato is far superior. Actually maps the rooms and hits all of them. Almost always returns to home. Occasionally confused by reflective stainless steel refrigerator, and always gets stuck on my ironing board (climbs up the angled leg and gets lost. Good thing that ironing is NOT a common task.) Roomba randomly bumps around the house, but Neato attacks it with purpose.
I have a roomba, but it gets stuck on the base of my lamps and gets stuck on the bottom of my Ikea Poang chair (it’s a piece of wood about 1/2" tall and 3-4" wide. The Roomba also wedges itself under my book shelves and gets stuck. Can anyone speak to whether this gets stuck less than a Roomba?
Question for the beach-living Woot experts. Does the Neato pick up sand or do I need to continue keeping a bucket of water at the front door?
I bought one of these several months ago after following the discussion on Woot. Couldn’t be happier. I have never enjoyed vacuuming. About as rewarding as cleaning ashtrays.
My downstairs includes 7 rooms and a hall. I have carpet, areas rugs, hardwood floors, laminate and elevated thresholds. We have one cat and one dog, both shedding.
We call Neato our “little fellow.” He is programed to work on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He cleans for an hour, returns to his charger for an hour, works another half hour and is done. I empty the bin, which is generally full,
On Tuesdays and Thursdays I turn him loose upstairs. Three bedrooms, a bathroom and a hall. Takes about an hour. When he is done, he returns to the spot where I first placed him.
Noise? No more so than the vacuum cleaner.
Effective? You betcha.
Time? These are hours I can use to do something else.
Problems? Neato doesn’t like the long fringe on two area rugs. They are also a problem for the vacuum cleaner. I flip the fringe under the rugs before Neato gets to them. Takes two minutes, tops. Big deal.
A bonus --the hardwood floors shine when he is done.
And, he’s fun to watch.
One of my best purchases.
I bought this during the last Woot-Off I believe. Aside from one problem, which I’ll discuss below, I’m very satisfied with my purchase.
When I got my Neato XV-12, I unpacked it, charged it, and was jumping for joy when I pressed the orange button to make it start. It moved away from the base and acted like it was about to work it’s magic. Then it stopped and gave me a “Check Bin and filter” error message. No matter what I did I couldn’t get it to work.
I called customer service and they told me it was a bug with the 2.4 software, and by updating my Neato I could fix the glitch.
The problem here is that they don’t support Windows Vista (Yes, shame on me I still use Vista), but Windows XP or Windows 7 are both supported.
I was able to run Firefox in Windows XP Compatibility mode to update my software. Since updating to the 2.6 version I’ve had no problems.
My girlfriend was initially not too happy with the purchase. She has since named the vacuum “Spot” and compares it to a dog playfully frolicking around the house. I really need to buy her a puppy.
Can’t speak about sand, but Neato did a good job of collecting some Oxiclean that had been spilled and scattered around our laundry room.
Okay woot, this thing is really cool. But considering how many times I’ve seen this offered, I’d like to see some kind of price reduction.
One home, two stories, 11 rooms, two hallways, two pets, visiting kids, 42 years of marriage, I’m 67 – I’m done vacuuming!!!
$300??? Worth every freakin" dollar.
Does very well on pet hair, actually shocked how much it picks up each time it heads out. Not sure I’m willing to recommend it to anyone with rugs, it has a hard time getting up onto ours throughout parts of the house. The other strange thing about it is that it’s not very direct in how it vacuums. It seems to be all over the place!? I would have thought it would make long straight runs where it can, but no, it heads off in some strange pattern that I’ve yet to figure out. It definitely picks up a ton of stuff it just has a very difficult time getting up on to the area rugs. Didn’t think that would be an issue for it at all, they’re really not thick carpets. My two cents.