I’ve had my Neato XV-21 (from Woot!) for roughly a year. About two months back the batteries started failing and Neato began exhibiting bizarre behavior, like he was suddenly stupid and lazy. The behaviors included cleaning only 1/3 of the house and calling it done, getting stuck on things it would usually avoid, declaring itself stuck (requesting a clear path) in the middle of an empty floor, unable to find his base when right in front of it (having passed and ostensibly recognized it earlier), and so on. This was all related to the bad batteries - kind of like a person behaving erratically when they have low blood sugar or haven’t had their coffee yet. The problem is well documented in various support forums online. After calling Neato Robotics and going through the standard support rigmarole, they shipped me a new set of batteries (Neato was still under warranty). As they informed me, Neato took about 3 or 4 full cleanings to get the cobwebs out, and now the little bot is performing better than ever. So, a word of caution - the batteries (2 packs) get worked hard, and if your Neato starts behaving poorly, he might just be hungry. I must say that Neato does a fantastic job of keeping the carpets clean. He does a pretty good job of keeping up with the hard floors. I highly recommend getting one!
The warranty is a generic warranty (similar to SquareDeal), available separately for the quoted price ($28). Also, free shipping.
Judyjessop – mine will move from hardwood to carpet once its little brain decides the area it started on is clean. OTOH, if you don’t want it to do that, you can just put down the magnetic strip that comes with it. It won’t cross over the strip.
I love mine. It works perfectly. If I were a wealthy woman, I’d buy a second one so that it could live upstairs permanently.
When I first got it, I tested it against my extremely capable, expensive Hoover upright. Once I was satisfied that my carpet was clean after Hoovering, I unleashed the Neato. There was no comparison – even without the pet brush on it (just using the standard brush), it picked up 2 bins full of…crap. Hair, dust, junk, from deep with the carpet fibers. It was appalling (and embarrassing) at how much it vacuumed up.
Mine uses its laser-guidance magic to clean right by the walls.
It gets 5 stars from me!
I own it for 6 months. It’s just not as good as the Roomba. It doesn’t have the sweeper brush, so it doesn’t clean up to the object or wall. It stops just short. The only thing that it does better than the Roomba, is the battery life.
I was a longtime Roomba fan. We had several over the years. My 2yr killed the last one so we were in the market for something new. Hubby suggested Neato and I balked at us even considering something other than a Roomba, because nothing could be as good, right? We bought ours on Amazon for $321 with Prime Shipping (so this Woot deal isn’t really as much as a steal as you think, but that tends to be Woot these days.) We’ve owned it for a month and LOVE IT.
- It’s actually got suction that the Roomba does not.
2)It’s an actual vaccuum and has the matching volume. It’s not quiet, but that’s fine with me if it does the job right. It actually sounds like an airplane getting ready to take off.
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I don’t care about the sound because you can actually see it working and calculating. Upon pressing the start button, it’ll do a 360 degrees scan of its surroundings and will internally map the room. It’ll start cleaning in a SMART way. Not just randomly banging its way around a room, like Roomba, but actually map the room, clean it. No spot is left ignored. If it runs out of battery before the room is done, it’ll go back to its home base, charge itself and then continue where it left off to finish the job.
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It’s polite. It’ll thank you for emptying the dirt bin.
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Schedule it all you want.
Overall, we are super happy. When researching it, I also found (from the reviews) that their customer service is first rate. I haven’t had to use them yet but it’s good to know in the background.
i have had a neato for over a year, and i am impressed. i have two cats and hair, dust, litter gets everywhere and i run this thing once a week.
it navigates well for me, but then i live in an efficiency with mostly hard wood floors. doesn’t really do corners that great, but i don’t mind.
I got one of these last time it was on Woot and I love it!
I vacuumed with the Dyson canister vac (also from Woot) and the Neato STILL picked up more hair from my cats.
The first couple of times it got stuck under my couch, but I learned to put boxes under there to prevent it from going where it shouldn’t.
It was nice having it do my bed room and getting completely under my king-sized bed.
And as far as noise, it make some, as it actually vacuums but it isn’t loud enough to make my cats run away (like the Dyson). They seem more intrigued by it, although neither of them have taken to Neato riding (Yuki the cat hitches ride on neato vacuum - YouTube). I hope they don’t–with the size of my cats, I’m not sure the Neato could handle one of them.
I post my Neato reviews occasionally when it pops up on here, so here goes again. My brother was just asking me how mine’s holding up as he’s thinking of getting one. Gonna link him, and he may be reading this now. Creeper.
I’ve owned the Neato XV-12 for just about one year and this past Xmas I received the pet and allergy upgrade which is a new brush and filter, and that essentially makes it the same as the model sold here. I lived in a 2 bedroom 1 story duplex, just over 1000SF, and rarely had any problems. When we first got it, I ran it a few times in only a few days because we didn’t vacuum too often, so the bin filled up each time. Since then, I keep it on a once a week schedule, and the dust bin is still full each time.
After a short while, you learn to keep things off the floor before it’s going to run (bonus; your home is less cluttered) and any other little tricks you can do to make its life easier. We found that it got stuck between the toilet and the bathtub. A simple fix would’ve been to just put something over there like a trash can or toilet brush, but we just closed the bathroom door instead. I also tuck the bed skirt under the mattress so it’s sure to get under the bed OR so it doesn’t get under there and then think it can’t get out.
I love that it takes into account what a “room” is, and will do that room first before moving on to the next. As mentioned before, it does the perimeter of the room, then does parallel lines up and down the rest of the room, so you end up with nice straight vacuum lines. I have fairly plush carpet, vinyl in the foyer, kitchen and bathroom, and a fairly large near-shag-level area rug. It runs a little slower on the rug, but is not a problem at all, and I figure that only helps it clean a little deeper. Doesn’t have any problem with thresholds between the types of floors for the most part. Occasionally it will have a little difficulty, but it backs up and tries to go at it at an angle and always succeeds.
It usually returns to base to charge before doing the whole place, and very rarely has it gotten lost. I’ll come home once in a while to find it in the middle of the room or worse, 2’ from the base. But I’d say at least 90% of the time I come home to find it back at base. I like to have it set for Mondays, right about the time I wake up, as it’s an excellent alarm, and I’m getting ready for work or not at home when it’s running (as opposed to trying to watch TV etc).
I have a cat and it picks up fur and litter well. I also had a girlfriend living with me for a long while who had long hair and I did have to take out the roller and cut hair off of it just about every week, which is easy enough to do. We’re no longer together and now I almost never have to clear the roller (score!). And you do of course have to empty the bin after every run/before the next run.
From what I’ve always read, it sounds like Neato is pretty good with their customer service if any issues arise. I haven’t had any yet. I probably have more I could say about it. Happy to answer any questions.
Get it, you won’t regret it.
I have the XV-14 that I got from Costco a couple months ago for around 250$. It has the upgraded brush, etc, I just heard the XV-21 had issues navigation wise with the rooms that the XV-14 did not due to some firmware issue. I will say my first XV-14 arrived DOA, whenever it tried to charge it would just start up and shut down, Neato however sent me one out with a pre-paid shipping label and just told me to ship the other one back within 30 days. New one works like a charm, far more powerful suction than roomba for sure and really does not bump into things. The only down-fall is the missing side-brush, but really I prefer this over the Roombas, though I don’t own their latest gen but considering my last one only lasted maybe 90 runs, not a big fan of them. I think NEATO is going for quality, and ROOMBA is more of a name now, hell even Samsung has robots like these now.
Only thing I “wish” I did was get these Neato’s on sale at Walmart when they were each 250$, as you can also add on a 3 year no hassle warranty if anything goes wrong you get your money back. Wear and tear is still wear and tear, Neatos are not easy to take apart.
One critical thing I should mention! My Roomba ALWAYS clogged with pet hair esp my long-hair cat, after even just one or two runs. The Neato does NOT do this at all due to it’s improved design over the Roomba.
It goes anywhere just as long as there are no obstructions (wall, coffee table, door etc.) It seems to do a better job on carpets for me but it’s pretty decent on bare floors, too.
It comes with a magnetic “strip” that you lay down wherever you want the vacuum to stop. Consider it to be an invisible wall. It simply stops and turns around.
Oh, I’m so tempted to get this… My long hair kitty’s hair gets everywhere.
Got a neato and it’s way smarter than a roomba and actually has suction. I have it set to vacuum 3 times a week while I’m at work and the massive amounts of dog hair around the house are finally gone.
That’s what I was wondering about - I have long, thick wavy hair and I shed all over the place. I wanted the Neato pet version because of that. Is it really such a PITA to clean it after using? If so, I may have to grow up (sob, sob) and go for the shoulder length shag I’ve been thinking of - it’s a haircut, not a rug.
Also, you mentioned it does fine with thick shag carpet. That’s what I have everywhere except kitchen and bathroom (linoleum there). No problems with the thick carpet?
Shhh, don’t tell anyone but I’ll probably get this at Costco for $10 more because of their excellent return policy. (Just in case)
Thanks for any help.
One of these days, I hope to get one of these or a Roomba. I’m going to call it ‘Rosie’.
where do i find how much shipping costs?
It wasn’t really a pain other than just a quick chore to do. There was usually three distinct “rings” of hair (in the middle and at each end) of the roller that I’d just cut with a knife and pull out in one big clump. Not like it got tangled all over the place.
And yes no issues on the thick carpet. As I said, mine’s not shag but pretty close.
Shipping is always $5 per order. You can put as much in your cart as you want and it’s $5.
Noooooo! I missed it again.
One week into ownership, I’m thrilled! It is a GREAT product.