Neato Robotics - Botvac D3 Pro

Mine delivers tomorrow, so yea this was exciting. Coming from a Neato Botvac D3 sooooo yea should be insanely different.

late to the party but i bought a Neato Botvac D3 back in 2017 and i still use it to this day. i've replaced the battery once and the filter a couple of times but that's about it EDIT: nevermind i just read that Neato went out of business haha shame

damn maybe i got a unicorn but mine is still in use, literally used it yesterday! the app still works great too

Currently have the Roborock Qrevo Master on the main level. Vacuum and mop, with auto-empty for both the dust bin and the mop water. Have to refill the water about every week, week and a half, dust bag replaced about every month. Basement, we've got a Neato Botvac D3 (which is currently out of service, wating for me to pull a drive wheel out of the D7 that had been running upstairs until IT broke down two months ago). They do a good enough job that we break out the upright vac maybe every 4-6 weeks, and mop the kitchen once a month.

I have a Roborock self emptying one now and mostly got that because it could vacuum and mop. Before I had a neato bot vac and dir just vacuuming the neato is far superior. That did a way better job of throughly heavy duty vacuuming, when I had that vacuum I had 3 German shepherds and a black lab so I definitely needed a ton of suction and power that didn’t clog, get tangled etc. but now I live in the north and with snow and ice and mud I needed mopping too. I also now only have one German shepherd, my other dogs don’t shed as much. But I also have a pot belly pig that always brings in mud. So the Roborock works great for that but for straight vacuum and suction power the neato is better.

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.

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?

Just to add to your excellent analysis, we had matted carpeting under a standing desk even though we vacuumed regularly with a powerful central vacuum with an electric powered head. After a few months of running a Neato robotic vacuum 5 days per week, the carpet was no longer matted.

We had a matted area in carpet where we used a standing desk even though we vacuumed with a strong central vac that has a powered carpet head. A few months after using a Neato 5 times per week the area was no longer matted. So robotic vacuums can actually do a heck of a job.