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 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.

The Botvac Connected smashed it's competitors, then neato got bought and completely stopped innovating. Hell, they stopped developing. The writing has been on the wall for Neato for a very long time.

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?

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.