Outer Casing
The casing is made of a soft white plastic, and a glossy plastic black dust bin, which is prone to scratches and marks after a period of use. The Lidar laser is covered with a metal and plastic covering with the Neato logo, which looks good and feels good. The robot has two physical buttons, one to send it to clean, and the other to send it to do a grided cleaning to focus on a specific area.
The Neato is also controlled by three capacitive buttons which work, but are sluggish at times.
The Neato is also controlled by three capacitive buttons which work, but are sluggish at times.
Mapping Technology
The Neato Botvac uses a laser module on the top of the unit and sends out invisible lasers to determine its distance from objects in front of it. This technology is great and superior to other robots since it actually knows exactly where it is and maps itself. This technology is flawed, however, when there are objects that are shorter than the Neato's laser sense. It would hit into it hardly and cause scratches. For example, my office chair and scale sustained some white marks from the Neato hitting it and being confused about it. However, the technology is still far superior from other robots. The corner clever technology is gimmicky. Most of the time, it will miss the corners, and turn to far away from it. The wall sensors work, but only follow walls, not corners.
Maintenance and Cleaning Technology
The Neato BotVac uses only one brush that pushes dirt and debris into its vacuum, which sucks it into the dust bin. A spinning side brush gathers dust from walls and sends it into the main brush. This works effectively, but if there are large debris such as paper, it won't be sucked into the dirt bin.
Maintenance is low with this robot, since there is only one bristle brush in which hair doesn't get stuck into. The hair and dirt will be brought directly into the dustbin bin, which is a great thing.
I ran the robot on the basement of my house, and it collected quite a lot of dirt. The dirt bin image above shows the amount of dust collected.
Maintenance is low with this robot, since there is only one bristle brush in which hair doesn't get stuck into. The hair and dirt will be brought directly into the dustbin bin, which is a great thing.
I ran the robot on the basement of my house, and it collected quite a lot of dirt. The dirt bin image above shows the amount of dust collected.
Quality and Support
Purchasing a Neato is a somewhat risky purchase. Online, there are many customers who have encounters issues, specifically from the Lidar unit, the main part the robot uses to navigate. My first unit was dead on arrival, and there are customers that have experienced it breaking down after the warranty period. I would highly suggest any buyers to purchase a 5 year warranty extension for the robot.
Conclusion
If you are interested in the Neato BotVac D series, click here to learn more!