Regarding the comments on battery life, just a comment on the other side of that. I have 3 Roombas (which I no longer use) and I loved them except also for battery life. I ran each of them on a schedule once per week and the batteries would last 6 to 8 months before they wouldn’t hold a charge any more. And with having to buy batteries for 3 devices every time, that gets expensive. I just quit using the Roombas about 2 years ago because of the battery issue.
I have a relative and a friend who both have had Neatos for about 2 years and have never had to replace the battery, and they both run theirs a couple times every week.
So all I can really say is, your mileage may vary with the batteries on both Neato and Roomba. Don’t interpret the comments here about the Neato battery not lasting long as meaning that the battery on the Roomba is any better in that respect.
So after my friend’s and my relative’s comments, I did go ahead and a buy a Neato BotVac a couple months ago from Woot. So far so good. It remains to be seen how I end up with the battery life on the Neato
wozzzeck and the other poster made some valid comments. I’ll just add one other thing and then zip it, you best read the 1 & 2 star comments on Neatos in Amazon, no matter what the model. They’re all basically the same except the Botvac includes a side brush.
I bought my first Neato here a few years ago and we’ve become completely dependent on it. With a toddler, two cats, and a dog running around and with the wife and I with allergies, it really is a life saver. Neato goes off daily at 9:00am and vacuums the house and we do a more thorough cleaning on the weekends with upright. It really saves us time when it’s working.
All that said, as someone else above me posted, these things will die. When I first bought the Neato, it lasted a few months before starting to act up. I called Neato, got customer service right away and they replaced for free. No fuss, no muss. I was happy but the replacement had another issue as well shortly after they sent it to me. I called them up again and they again replaced for free. This one lasted longer, until the batteries started to go about 4 - 5 months later. Unfortunately at that point, I was out of the manufacture warranty so I had to buy replacements which failed in about 2 months. I called up Neato and since I bought them from Amazon and not from them, they wouldn’t replace. My first taste of frustration from Neato since the batteries where offical batteries but just bought from Amazon. But again, we rely on this thing now so I was going to buy new batteries until I found a brand new Neato at Wal-mart for about $200. I figured that would be cheaper then keep replacing battery packs so I purchased it but I bought the extended warranty because the history of breakage with this robot. Fast forward about 5 months later until about 2 months ago and of course, this Neato from Wal-mart is starting to act up (LCD turns solid white) so I called Neato. I was on hold waiting for a CSR to answer for an hour…an hour! I finally gave up and began to trouble shoot the problem on my own and was able to resolve somewhat. The LCD still turns solid white but I can fix it for a short amount of time. I plan on attempting to use the warranty from Wal-mart
So yeah, my my family has a love hate relationship with Neato. We love it when it works but it seems to break often. is it worth the trouble? Absolutely. My allergies are much better with a daily vacuum. They’re noticeably better.
My first one would work past 10 min. Contacted the factory and they sent a postage paid new one and return postage paid unit. It is a upgraded model. Signature. Works perfect.
Just got mine and when set in in front of the charger, the indicator light briefly turn green, then red, the message about a battery issue 00007 is displayed and I am asked to restart by pressing the OK button. I do this and the whole cycle starts again and again.
PS, there was half a used q-tip in mine from the first owner.
PPS: Phone support is a defective answering machine, at least on Saturday.
Total FAIL. After trying to charge for many hours, the unit is now 100% dead. It would tell me the battery was low, then when I hit OK it would pulse for a while and then go solid amber.Then it would again tell me the battery was low and the whole process would repeat endlessly. Woke up this AM to find it totally dead.
Based on the number of 1,2 and 3 stars reviews at this time (and their consistent comments) about 29% of buyers are not happy with this Neato product. Some three and above star reviews have come back later wishing they could lower them.
I wish I had done the math before buying one!
My “factory refurbished” unit included one-half a used Q-tip in the machine, presumably from the previous owner. That was a bad start.
Once setting up the time and placing it in contact with the charger, it announced the battery was low and to hit OK to restart. The amber light would pulse, then -after a while- freeze up and stop pulsing. I checked the menu and it said the battery was low and to hit OK to restart. Now, imagine the movie “Groundhog Day” and apply to this situation several times. Finally, I tried to just leave the unit with the non-pulsing charge indicator on and hours later the unit was completely dead.
Attempts to call Neato (which never said they were not taking calls on the weekend) resulted in repeated disconnections and finally a very disinterested person’s voice telling me to leave a number and call back. But no beep and a disconnect. Tried again and got the beep, but no calls back.
It’s packed up and ready for return to the vendor (a subsidiary of Amazon). It’s a lesson that household robots are not really ready for use in 2015.
PS: And please don’t insult my intelligence with the same copy-and-past “blah-blah sorry” reply that you pay some reputation robot to post.
It contains the same lousy contact # I referred to in my review.
With 29 percent unhappy customers, you are better off spending that time and money cleaning up your act so more people can successfully clean up their floors.
update: Woot supplied a RMA and no-charge return shipping. Thanks Woot!
Bought two units, one for myself and one for an anniversary present for my girlfriend.
My unit operates just fine in my small apartment with mostly hard floors.
Her unit has been a nightmare since setup yesterday.
Out of the gate it gives brush bar errors regardless of which of the included brushes is installed.
It seems “less smart” than mine with random spinning, erratic patterns that don’t make sense, and covering the same area twice while neglecting other areas after moving on.
I don’t get it. Her apartment is larger, more open, and is carpeted, but none of that should be a problem.
Run time is shorter, ~30min.
It makes more noises that make me think things aren’t quite right.
It is basically unusable as the only way to get it to overcome the brush jam issue it to hold up the front until it starts spinning, so it will never be automated in its current state.
Oh, and it came with a single punctured warranty seal as a bonus!
I’m 50% satisfied right now, but nervous about my good one going bad. Also not looking forward to dealing with warranty…
…happy anniversary baby.
PS - there will be no experimentation with comparing mine @ her place as we are long distance.
