Neato Botvac D3 White Connected Laser Guided Robot Vacuum, Works with Smartphones, Alexa, Smartwatches

I must preface this review by saying I have hardwood floors. People with carpet should look up carpet specific reviews, as I'll explain below.This robot has changed my life. It vacuums my floor better than I could ever do, and it vacuums while I do other things, which is a huge time saver. If you have the money, and you feel like you spend your whole life cleaning, just buy this robot now. I have previously owned a Neato XV-21 (I bought it refurbished), and I can say that the Neato robots consistently preform, and they have definitely improved from generation to generation. Neato, as a brand, is a solid investment.The robot works exactly as advertised. You can start the robot via the app, and it will send you a map of what it cleaned when it's done. the Neato does a fantastic job of picking up dirt, dust, and pet hair. It can navigate around pretty much any obstacle, but you have to watch it the first time to make sure it doesn't get stuck. It can get confused on certain things, like the domed base of a floor standing oscillating fan, but once you know how to prepare your floor, you can let the Neato clean without fear it'll get stuck. Although it can get over small bumps and obstacles on the floor, the limit for consistently being able to climb over something is about 3/4 inch. Bigger stuff usually makes it stop and confuses it. I had to build a ramp so Neato could go into my kitchen, but it was totally worth the hassle, since it now cleans my whole downstairs (about 1200 sq ft)CAVEAT: Owning the Neato will not keep you from having to work. You will need to maintain the Neato to continue to get optimal performance. Basically, you change your job from vacuuming the floors, to performing maintenance on the Neato. You'll need to empty the bin in between charge ups, clean and replace the filter when necessary, and also deep clean the Neato, to remove built up dirt and hair. Hair can really degrade the performance, so I like to cut it off the roller about once every couple of cleaning cycles. Cans of compressed air help a lot when cleaning dirt from crevasses and such. Also, these robots may require firmware upgrades in the future to keep them going. Sometimes, the robots get wonky, and start acting weird. My XV-21 recently needed a firmware update, and I had to go to some German website in order to get the firmware I needed. But, if you can do stuff like that, you should be able to keep your Neato running indefinitely. My XV-21 is still going strong, and it currently takes care of my upstairs (about 1000 sq ft). I haven't had any issues so far with the D3, but anyone who buys one of these should be prepared to put in a little elbow grease if they want to keep them running for years. I think some people can't fix them/give up when they break, which is why there is such a refurbished market for these. In fact, if you're handy, just get the refurbished and save some cash.If you have stairs, get the magnetic tape. The robot does have a drop-off sensor, but it's not 100% perfect, so the tape is strongly recommended.I suspect the Neato (possibly all other robot vacuums) does not perform as well as I have described on houses that are completely carpet. While I have mostly hardwood floors, I do have a few carpets placed throughout the house. The Neato does a good job of getting the dirt up from the carpets, but it leaves behind a lot of pet hair. I believe there is a carpet specific roller brush you can replace inside the Neato, and that would probably work better for carpet. I also have a small entryway carpet that is a berber-style (really short), and the Neato cleans that carpet about as good as the hardwood floor, getting pet hair and everything.One thing that I really like over the earlier models is that the D3 makes a map of what it cleaned that it sends to the app. You can see where the robot cleaned, and it's pretty detailed. The D3 seems to make better navigational decisions then the XV-21, and it cleans in a very organized path. Also, the D3 is much quieter than the XV-21.Neato vacuums, IMO, are far and away better than Roomba vacuums. I've had a Roomba, and it was basically instant garbage. It was SUPER loud, it ran around with no sense of direction, and it would die mid clean without being able to find it's recharge dock. I used that robot a little before I bought the XV-21, so the Roomba I'm talking about is a few years old. They may have gotten better since then, but the XV-21 was the direct competitor to the Neato at the same time, and it worked so much better. If the Roomba robots still perform the same way, as far as navigation, then they aren't really a viable replacement to manual cleaning, like the Neato is. Roomba was more of a novelty, whereas the Neato actually got stuff done. The Neato really has changed the way I clean, and how much time I spend cleaning. You should buy this robot.

So I went in to this skeptical as any typical person would be who is new to the robot vac scene. I felt that while it might be nice to have something that picks up lightly around the house so I don’t have to get the vacuum out every other day would be wonderful, and all while thinking that I was 100% prepared for all the typical rumors you hear when you see reviews of robot vacuums.-The thing gets stuck.-I can’t connect with it on my Wi-Fi.-What good is this thing if I have to help it every single time I start it!- I should have bought a Roomba they are known to at least work a little.I went in to this purchase knowing I was probably going to be turned off by how awful and cheap it was since the price was in the cheap Chinese vacuum range of $219 I thought yep this was a bad impulse buy right off the bat.TO MY SURPRISE; I feel that this was easily the best thing I have invested in since sliced bread… It hasn’t got stuck once (aside from one time where it ate a sock but that was on me), it has easily managed to clean all 800 square feet of my apartment with no issues and that’s with low pile carpet tile and high shag rugs everywhere. I feel that the app is easily the most basic and useful experience I have could have hoped for in this vacuum. I connected it without issues (must have been fixed in an update since everyone seems to be having a lot of these issues) it starts immediately with a tap of my phone, and cleans systematically which I love and really was the only reason I purchased this one since all others in this price range are random bop the wall for a few hours cleaning style which I hate.One note that I should definitely add; it came with literally only a charging base and cable, no accessories and not even a physical manual, had to download the online one. Also before you start this bad boy make sure you update it however many times the app says too because I feel the reason my experience has been so great was because the app fixed a lot of known issues that I might have faced with this.In the end though, her name is Neater and she keeps my apartment cleaner. That’s all I could ask for, and since I had to only pay around 200 for it I admit it was a complete steal because an equivalent Roomba or similar vacuum with intelligent cleaning, mapping to show you what all it got, scheduling for whenever, and gentle navigation or strong navigation (I set mine to gentle), would be easily 3 to 4 times the price I paid so I don’t see you buying a better option than this one and so far it has been a much needed and welcomed addition to the homestead.FINALLY some issues I found but for the price can’t even come close to hurting this deal. The filter is thin and doesn’t feel like much, it is a weird cotton layer that I’m sure is great for catching dust (which this vacuum picks up like a champion), that could be better but for the price again, I’ll take it with a free one let alone not one at all lol. The lack of a cleaning tool is odd but again I’d say for the price they cut every corner they could without sacrificing on the experience of getting a quality product. Lack of a side brush, now I have never owned a robo vac so this is my first ever and I hear a lot of people like those brushes and after it cleaned a few times I can see why, while this thing will easily keep you from running the big vac for months it won’t perfectly clean the base of your walls, literally out like an inch or so from the wall if there is anything large except for dust then I doubt this vac will pick it up. This may be an issue for some but if I have to pay an additional 200 maybe even 300 more for that little feature I think I will live.I have run this vacuum a total of one dozen times (12) and so far I had one issue where it ate a sock I accidently left out but it let me know and I rectified the situation in a timely manner. It cleaned up way more than I expected since it managed to get under beds and a few chairs that haven’t been moved in some time, but I love how it always manages to find a little more than I expect every run. If I could I would give this vac a 10 out of 10 stars but sadly amazon gives me only 5 to pick from, so if you’re in the market for a great robo vac experience that is smart and cleans efficiently then this is literally your only bet, I wouldn’t even waste the money on the others.

I’ve left it charging the majority of the day abd still no life on this machine. Very weird not to even have an on/off switch