I have had ample experience with robotic vacuums having owned two versions of Roomba since they debuted, and can tell easily that the Neato was made to rise above. I was clued in on it via a robotics blog showing a benchmark versus a modern Roomba. The Neato completed a bedroom-sized area in 5 minutes versus the Roomba at 15. I was intrigued (Read: I geeked out...) and had to see it for myself.
It took about 3 hours for the battery to charge completely for my new robot, a charge time I found to be typical even after use. It appears to have quite a powerful vacuum on it, as evidenced by a prolonged spin-up time when it powers up and a louder than average whine. This powerful vacuum definitely comes at a price, however. The battery lifetime of the Neato is about 40 minutes to an hour, but as I found out, this was a calculated trade-off. What it looses in battery lifetime it makes up for with it's incredible efficiency.
The robot has a relatively complex ladar system that it uses to map out the rooms as it cleans. This allows it to quickly clean a room, first following along the walls, then cleaning in a back-and-forth pattern through the middle of the room, with very limited overlap. This is a jarring difference to other 'bots, which use a random pattern and longer run cycle to try and get full coverage of the room. This system also allows it to handle extremely large areas and multiple rooms.
In my home, 60% of my house's 2000 sqft is all joined in an open floor plan. Other robots would have failed to tackle it, getting lost and floundering about until it ran it's battery dead, but the Neato succeeds without supervision to clean the entire area, but still not in a single charge, unfortunately. It will usually complete three of the four rooms that make up the open area and run low on battery just before it finishes the last, returning to it's base to recharge. Once recharged, it will power back up on it's own, come out of the dining room, through the kitchen, and into the living room to finish up right where it left off. It is almost scary to see how far technology has come.
The unit is also a lot better designed versus the last Roomba I owned. Pet hair is no problem for it, and a few smart design decisions reduce problems with human hair. It's brush has no bristles, instead using rubber ribs, helping to reduce the amount of hair that can get wound up around it. It also lacks a spinning edging brush, oft used by the Roomba and purposed to kick particles along the wall into the path of the vacuum. I believe this was a good move: I was never impressed with the performance of that feature and the brush tended to get caught up with hair rather quickly. Even still, hair can pose a problem, and like any robotic vacuum, regular maintenance is still required. The brush assembly is easily removed, the entire thing, including the bearings, which are actually housed in removable rubber caps; almost everything can be quickly cleaned in two to three minutes.
The Neato performs above and beyond the Roomba I last owned, but it is not without it's quirks. Like any (robotic) vacuum, it is best practice to remove ground clutter, such as pet or children's toys, prior to operating the vacuum, though this 'bot will manage it much better by comparison. My home also has a few navigation hazards: Chrome and reflective surfaces appear to confuse the vacuum's sensors, resulting in some wasted time as it tries to navigate into a room that, from it's perspective, only appears to exist at certain angles. I also have some furniture that is just BARELY below the Neato's height clearance. The front half will slip beneath them, but it's sensor housing will block it. It will sit there running it's wheels in a futile attempt to move forward for 3 seconds, then stop, back up, and repeat the display another 8 to 14 times before it finally gives up. Finally, my Neato once overfilled it's dirt bin, but did not stop and ask me to empty it. It seems that, despite knowing it's bin was full, it continued to work anyways, clogging up it's intake in the process. It is important to clear the Neato's bin after it finishes every other room or so.
The Neato is an excellent vacuum, the closest thing to a true replacement to an up-right that exists. Sadly, it still is not capable of completely replacing an up-right, faltering on cleaning along walls the same way any other robotic vacuum does today. Even with it's powerful vacuum, my up-right was still able to pull out plenty of dust left by the Neato. This robot will serve you well in maintaining a clean house and reduce the number of times you'll need to break out the up-right, possibly from once a week to once a month.
A real time saver and highly recommended.
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