Neato Robotics - Botvac Connected (Original)

I only look at robots every 5 years or so. I test them a ridiculous amount during the return period. Any doubt, and it goes back. First one was a Neato in 2016 which already had Lidar and worked really well. Didn't bother to fix the lidar when it broke (stupid call in the end), and bought a cheap Eufy 11S which worked, and still does, although it's dumb as a rock, kept getting stuck on my furniture so after 5 years of frustration went with a CurvX, no issues with that but I figure my furniture is hard on robots as I had to put in 3 small no go zones even with that one. Then got tired of moving the whole thing between floors, and that's when I went with the Saros 10R, honestly if they would have simply swapped mine which had issues I would have been happy with that, but they could only offer a refund/new order. If you're in the EU, the DJI is still on sale through Amazon Germany, don't bother looking at the A or P though - pricing is ridiculous.

Having recently upgraded I can say, with a toddler running around and difficult furniture, navigation and obstacle avoidance were crucial for us. I bought my first robot vacuum 2016 I believe, which was a Neato Botvac Connected. Pure vacuuming performance hasn't improved in 10 years, with some reviews showing we're actually moving backward. In terms of other features such as the mentioned object detecting, but also general maintenance, these things have improved significantly. Life cycle remains something to be seen.

I have an original Neato. Of course, this pisses me off, but honestly, their stupid app hasn't worked for my model in years, so technically it's nothing new. I guess it may be safer to buy some non-name Chinese brand stuff because when you buy those, you buy them with an expectation of them not working long term?

My Neato Botvac Connected died in 2024, and I am still waiting to buy a new one, possibly a Xiaomi X20 Max, because I feel that I paid too much in 2015 for it to die only 10y later. 🥲

I had an OG Neato that I still miss 10 years later. I also wanted a basic “do one thing well” robot vac so I recently got a Roborock Q5 Duo-roller. It has an app, but it’s vacuum-only, self emptying, and runs wherever you want whenever you want (scheduled or manual). I bought it specifically to clean up husky hair. It works great so far, but I’ll have a better evaluation after a year. As of right now I’m just happy to not have to manually vacuum under my bed any more.

Similar requirements from my side: not Chinese, only vacuum (don't need mop), has LiDAR, available in Europe (sorry Matic...). I had a Neato Botvac but it needs repairs and I understand the company doesn't work on robots anymore. What about Hobot (made in Taiwan I think) or Miel (made in S. Korea I think)? Both companies are absent from all tests I see online? Why? Any opinions on these two?

I used to have a Neato bot vac and it was awesome but I enjoy my Dyson with a freakin laser more, way quicker to do it myself

Ive had my eufy s1 pro since November. Run it once a day in my small 4 bedroom house. As a bit of a torture test i ran it twice a day for all of Dec and Nov. Its doing great so far. I like all of the maintenance countdowns the app has for when and what to clean and replace. Doesnt miss much of anything and doesn't run it stuff. I love the map and how it shows where it is so i can find it if it gets stuck on a cat toy under a bed or sofa. Still miss my neato botvac tho, that little guy was a beast.

Sadly today is my last day using my neato connect. The company went under a year or two ago and last night the app finally went dark and with it so did my favorite robot vacuum. Woke up to it bricked this morning. The little guy had an amazing 5ish year run and was still in its prime. With that said, im now on the hunt for a new fancy robot vacuum. Ive been looking at the switchbot s20. Kinda like the idea of having a water line and drain line to streamline the mopping. Anyone out there have one or feeling on the brand and model? Id love to know how long the water lines are. I was thinking I could set it up in the laundry room and attach it to the washer's water and drain.

Hot take: it was the Neato botvac. First widespread implementation of lidar mapping. I’ve had mine 7 years now with regular maintenance and it’s been reliable. Only recently has the servers gone down and death is imminent.

I really appreciate someone bringing this up! As a design geek, I always struggle when I have to make purchase decisions because not always I find something that I consider "well designed". The robot vacuums category is one of these... However, here some robot vacuums that have a design worth talking about (of course, things need to be contextualised for their time). In completely random order: - **Roomba s9**: a sleek and professional finish, the first (and only) D-shaped Roomba, taking advantage of its shape and bringing to market the best edge cleaning ever (before robot vacuums with extensible side brush were a thing) together with one of the best vacuuming performances ever. - **Roomba i3**: the first one of the newly engineered Roomba mid-range series, bringing to "budget" conscious consumers a new methodical navigation method, together with a modern aesthetics which drops the carrying handle for a new fabric-textured top finish and with modern, clean lines. - **Philips (Versuni) HomeRun 7000**: not a particularly noteworthy product, however a robot vacuum distancing itself from the competition thanks to the typical Philips design, with dual-finish robot and fabric emptying base. Not the best result, but at least an attempt to bring an externally developed product (ODM'd by 3irobotix) in line with the company design style (uses for instance with air purifiers etc). - **Roomba j7/j9+**: distancing itself from its predecessor (Roomba i7, with a good looking "techy" design), it brings a much cleaner design, more minimal, and enriched by a metallic disc on top together with a UI based on the RGB light around the only button (not the most intuitive one, but an attempt to do something different). It also features a newly redesigned self-emptying station, now developed in a much more compact and modern-looking form factor, thing that will be later copied by most other manufacturers. - **Neato Botvac lineup**: overall, Neato products have always been lacking in terms of design (an exception being the Kobold VR300, which changes the design aligning it to the family feeling of contemporary Vorwerk products), however these specific units brought more thoughtful, cleaner lines (to an extent...) together with the LiDAR tower cap in some bold, unique colours. This aesthetic didn't survive long and wasn't - overall - in line with the brand identity of Neato. Still, a good attempt. RIP. - **Dyson 360° VisNav**: not too much to say - it looks good. Perfectly matches a useful D-shaped layout with the Dyson family feeling. Balanced despite the lack of simplicity, modern in a retro-futuristic way, and functional. - **Karcher RC3000**: one of the first robot vacuums with self-emptying station (the first one?), with a bold design perfectly in line with the company identity. - **Dreame W10 Pro**: overall, similar to all other Dreame products, but in the (now abandoned) D-shaped style. Adds a gold accent to differentiate it from the "non-Pro" version which lacks the front sensor array (ToF 3D cam + RGB cam). Clean lines, clean colours, very minimal and stylish overall. - **SmartMi VortexWave**: innovative design for this unique robot vacuum and mop: D-shaped style allowing a large front brush that can be exchanged to leave its place to a roller-style mop. The first robot vacuum supporting both dry and wet vacuuming. Clean lines and a good mix of minimal and techy design. - **Electrolux Pure i9.2 (also AEG RX9.2)**: one one-of-a-kind. The genuine successor of the original Electrolux Trilobite. Developed in-house by Electrolux, this product was one of the first to implement small obstacles avoidance (2017 for the first gen Pure i9) thanks to its navigation method fully based on dual-line lasers. Overall an excellent product, unfortunately killed by the high price, lacking marketing, and growing Chinese competition (at much cheaper prices). Futuristic design for a robot with futuristic features. - **Matic robot vacuum**: the only one that in recent years has dared to challenge the paradigm of robot vacuums. Narrower but much taller. Boxy design resembling a robotic toy, with large wheels and front, "peninsular" brush assembly. Together with a revolutionary vSLAM navigation system based on nVIDIA Jetson Orin. It has its flaws, but it's the kind of competition we need in the category. - **Narwal (in picture, Freo Z10)**: not really a worthy robot vacuum cleaner/brand overall, but one of the first brands to really bet on rotational mops, together with the distinctive clean and alien-like shape of their docks which has now been copied by many competitors. - **Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum (Roborock)**: the first LiDAR-based robot vacuum to bring LiDAR and methodical navigation to the masses, at a price that made it the the-facto standard of robot vacuum recommendations in 2016/2017. Together with the new technology at low price, it brought to the market a modern and clean design and a futuristic, intuitive app. - **DJI Romo**: too early to speak about this as a robot vacuum cleaner, but from a design perspective it takes the clean, curvy Narwal style and turns it inside-out giving it a transparent cover. Good result, but durability of the good look is still TBD. - **Mach R1** (sorry, I refuse to call this Eufy S1 Pro): birthed by the Anker Innovations incubator "Mach" (later absorbed into Eufy), it finally brings to Anker-owned Eufy a new style that was really needed. Futuristic and clean, not much to say. A very good result resembling the square-ish shape of older LG HomBot, but in a new futuristic, semi-transparent twist. That's all folks 😬 Edit: pictures in the comment below because somehow embedding doesn't work in this comment.

neato actually used lidar and had good product.  the only issue with neato is reliability and high price