I must have got a crap-tastic one. I like it for when I cant be effed vacuuming, but it's definatelly not an everyday thing.

I'm still looking into getting a Dyson animal though. I just have so many things on the go.

Freya's Mummy wrote:

I must have got a crap-tastic one. I like it for when I cant be effed vacuuming, but it's definatelly not an everyday thing.

Which one do you have? How long have you had it? What do you like and not like about it?

Huskyluv wrote:

Freya's Mummy wrote:

I must have got a crap-tastic one. I like it for when I cant be effed vacuuming, but it's definatelly not an everyday thing.

Which one do you have? How long have you had it? What do you like and not like about it?

I've got an iKleen. I got it off E-bay about8 months ago.

It doesnt have a memory of the house plan, so it goes over and over the same places numerous times. It gets stuck under the couches, it's little broom thingies that spin around to direct the dirt and dust into the suction constantly break off and I have to keep replacing them. It's suction it's great.
When ever I use it I always go over the floors with a dust collecting broom because it just doesnt do a good enough job.

I got it thinking it would make my life a little easier with having 2 small children 2 cats and a dog. It hasnt.

I went into the electronic store this afternoon with my mum and showed her the Dyson aminal that I want.
She said she is going to get it for my christmas, but I can have it early. I'm super excited

It's funny how everyone has different ones they love. I have the Dyson animal one and HATE it. We've had it in for service twice. It worked well for about 6 months then lost suction and hasn't been worth a bit of how expensive it is. I've heard others that love it so maybe we just got a bum one.

We've had the Dyson animal for about 4 years I think and it's still going strong.

That's what I've heard from a lot of people. Ours just doesn't work well. We still use it, but our bagged vacuum picks up 10x more. I'm thinking we got the lemon

Okay, so as I mentioned earlier, I bought the Neato Pet & Allergy robotic vacuum. I think the main difference is a (supposedly) better air filter and a brush that is alternating rubber beater and bristles. (Normal Neato is just rubber beaters.) Mine came with both brushes. We've had it about a week, but we haven't been home much, so here's my first review:

Surfaces:
Our main level is hardwood floor with a large area rug and 2 kitchen mats. The vacuum easily changes "terrain" and does a good job cleaning both surfaces. Our area rug is pretty nice, it's plush and dense, but not shag. I was really happy with how it cleaned and how it had no trouble on the rug or mats.

The Neato on our area rug

Navigation:
It's pretty cool watching it work through the house. We have an "open layout" main floor with a kitchen that transitions into the living room. It did corners pretty well. In the image above it went into the corner made by a wall and the stairs, and it sucked up all the fur that accumulates in piles along the walls. It does get a little stuck sometimes but we haven't had to rescue it, it makes it out on its own after about 30 seconds figuring it out. It did get stuck on the base of our speakers stand and we had to put a boundary to keep it out of the corner in the right of the picture so it didn't get tangled on/try to eat the pile of cords. (The boundary is like a black strip you cut to length and lay on the floor. We have one at the landing of the steps that go down to the basement, I don't even notice it anymore. It stays put and I've never tripped over it.) It's good at navigating into and out of (though a little more slowly getting out) hard areas, like behind our recliner.

Clean up:
The first time I ran it our house hadn't been vacuumed in weeks. So, while I only have 1 dog and our main floor is probably only 600 sq ft, it cleaned up a LOT of fur piles. It never got stuck, and when it finished it wasn't even at the "I need my bin emptied" stage. Although it looked pretty full. Emptying was super easy and not messy. The brush was relatively free of any hair, none was tangled or clogged at least, and it picked up fur, my hair, crumbs of varying weight easily.

Bin full of husky fur and some kitchen crumbs.

It is loud, but not compared to my vacuum (some 10 year old Sharp) as in you could watch tv in the same room without maxing the volume, but it would be annoying. The real test will be when I finally get a chance to clean the house and then set the thing on a schedule and see if it keeps the house clean. I don't think it's meant to be a replacement to traditional vacuuming. I'll eventually test it upstairs on our fully shag-carpeted floor just to see how it does, but we got it for the main level. So far we reallllllly like it.

Thanks for the very thorough review, Jenny! No robotic vacuum is meant to replace traditional vacuuming, but it should help decrease the amount of times we need to vacuum with a full fledged traditional device.

My hubby ordered the Neato XV-14 for me today.

I spent the weekend researching the Neato XV-21, XV-11, and XV-14. Thought I'd share why I decided to order the one I did. The XV-14 is the Costco version that Sam had previously mentioned that she was happy with so I seriously considered it. For the sake of this post the average price for the XV-21 is $430, the XV-11 is $400,and the XV-14 is $300.

The XV-21 is the pet and allergy one which supposedly has a better brush and and filter. That was about the only worthwhile difference for the XV-21 over the XV-11 and XV-14. The XV-11 and XV-14 are pretty comparable, any differences are too minor to really affect the price by a whole $100 so that left me comparing the XV-21 and XV-14 which have a $130 price difference. Now I do like the idea of having a better brush and filter but had to decide if it was worth it. In my stumbling around I found that you can actually order a "Pet & Allergy Upgrade Kit" (http://www.neatorobotics.com/product/parts-accessories/pet-allergy/) that fits the XV-11 and XV-14 for a mere $60. So that would pretty much make the XV-11 and XV-14 on par with the XV-21. You can also opt to just buy the better filters instead if you want, just buy the replacement filters for the XV-21 and put them in the XV-11 or XV-14 and voila, better filtration.

So I decided to go with the cheaper XV-14 and I will see how it does. If I think it could do better then I'll just purchase the Pet & Allergy Upgrade kit and it will be as good as if I had bought an XV-21. I still come out ahead even if I upgrade since the XV-21 is $430, and the XV-14 at $300 plus the $60 upgrade comes to only $360 which is a good $70 difference. Not sure if that will help anyone else considering getting a Neato.

I will be sure to update with my thoughts about the XV-14's performance when I get mine and have a chance to put it through it's paces. Thanks again to everyone who has contributed to this thread and helped me decide which vacuum to get!

Congrats, Val! That's the same thing I thought, I can order the extra kit for $60 if it's not enough.

So far still very happy with it! It ran for about a 1/2 hr yesterday and when Hubby walked in he was surprised "The neato did all THIS?". It looked really good! There's still tumbleweeds under some tiny tables it can't get under, but the rest for the dark hardwood floors and kitchen mats looked great!

Val, I agree, I only got the 21 because I got it for $300 and it came with both brushes. I was concerned about the "upgraded" brush because it has bristles and everything I read about the Roomba, that was it's downfall. The bristles always got tangled with stuff. Also, I don't think the filter is actually any better, from what I've read. Regardless, our hardwood floors now look like I actually clean the house!

NadirCs wrote:

I was concerned about the "upgraded" brush because it has bristles and everything I read about the Roomba, that was it's downfall. The bristles always got tangled with stuff.

Hmm, would you mind giving us an update after you've had it for a while and let us know if the bristles get tangled with stuff? I know that's something I have to contend with on my regular uprights and handheld stair vacuums as I have to take my vacuums out and at least once a year pull out all the hair that gets wrapped around it (mostly mine since I have the long hair in the house, but I know that as my daughter gets older it'll be picking up even more long hair).

Neato is on sale for $299 for the Pet one! On Woot NOW!!!!

http://www.woot.com/

BTW, we still love ours. It takes a while to do the whole room - but better the robot than me!

So who's dogs chase or otherwise molest their Neato? I don't want a $150+ chew toy. My dogs are always around except for once every other week at doggy daycare.

Lordbroll wrote:

So who's dogs chase or otherwise molest their Neato? I don't want a $150+ chew toy. My dogs are always around except for once every other week at doggy daycare.

I'd like to know this as well. Callie attacks the Shark steam and vac because it hisses at her and she just has beef with the broom for no reason. No one even has to be using the broom for her to attack it. I feel like a robotic loud thing moving across the floor is a sitting target.

My dog, while not terrified of it like the normal vacuum, stays away from it when it is on. It's pretty loud, I think it would scare away most dogs.

Once it did try to trap her in her crate because it caught on the door and pushed it closed. Phantom looked horrified. First step towards the Matrix...

My dogs steer clear of it, my sibe is wary of it but he's not freaked out or anything. If it comes too close to him then he moves and finds somewhere else to lay down. I wouldn't run it while my sibe is loose with it, I just wouldn't take that chance even though I am 99% positive he wouldn't touch it.

Woot lies! Regular price online for the XV-21 (Pet & Allergy one) is actually $430 not the $600 they are saying. Still, that puts it at the same price as the XV-14.

Our two goldens are afraid of it, but Toccoa tries to ride it. No fear at all. That being said, we normally run it during the day while we're both at work and the dogs are crated.

Thanks for all the input on dog vacuum interactions. Since all 4 of mine are not crated during the day while we our working I would only get to run it on weekends, so not so robotic for us. Maybe on down the road at some point.

Brian, is running it at night an option? We ran ours at night downstairs while we sleep upstairs. We will probably keep running it at night rather than during the day because I am home all day doing stuff so running it at night when it won't bother anyone works out best for us.

I am currently running it during the day a few times just to be able to report its patterns, adaptations, run time, charge time, resuming a job, etc from start to finish.

Val, our house is one level and open floor plan. Probably too noisy to sleep, plus the dogs are still out and about. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Brian, I run it with the dogs loose or in the yard (actually - doors open to the yard). Frosti escapes to the yard since she's afraid of it. Chili just plunks himself down and it tries to vacuum him. He looks at it with an annoyed air and moves slightly. No worries here so far. One cycle takes about 30 minutes - so maybe use it when you go on a walk?

So I ran it yesterday while in my office and when I walked out into the living room I had that awesome "Oh! Someone just vacuumed in here!" feeling like after hubby vacuums! It did a great job! It takes two cycles to get the entire house (it does most of it, but ran out of steam before the hallway - it docks itself when it runs out of batteries). I cool with that because I'd rather run it twice than have to do it myself!

You do need to follow up in tight spots or places it can't get every week or so if you have a particularly sheddy dog (Frosti sheds 24/7 while Chili "molts" seasonally). It's sleeping now and I'll let it loose on the bedroom later on. It got an insane amount of dust and dirt in addition to the hair. I empty it out every 4 or 5 runs and the stuff dumps out easily. It really packs all that hair in there. Plus, it lets you know when it needs to emptied.

Alright, I thought I’d post my thoughts on the Neato now that I’ve had a chance to run it a few times. For the record, I have the Neato XV-14. Also please excuse the poor quality of the photos, they were all taken with my cell.

First off, I would like to say that I absolutely LOVE the Neato. It has already been affectionately dubbed Nyko by my husband who I am happy to report loves it every bit as much as I do. Right out of the box, it literally took no more than 5 minutes to unpack and get it set up and charging.

APPEARANCE – I thought it was worth mentioning that all the pictures of the Neato XV-14 that I saw online showed a dark blue vacuum. However, the image of the XV-14 on the actual box that I received as well as the product inside are actually black (which I prefer anyway so that’s a plus). So that was a bit misleading, the color of the Neato XV-14 is actually black, not the blue as shown in the pictures online. Whether that is just an old picture posted online I don’t know.

I took the photo below immediately after the Neato docked itself for charging, as you can see it’s not quite centered but it positioned itself well enough to charge.


The LCD screen is bright and easy to read. The menu is easy to navigate, very user friendly, and really doesn’t require instruction. It has an indicator light that tells you when it’s charging and when it is ready to go. The indicator light is easy to see from a distance so you don’t need to go all the way over to the device to check if it is done charging.

LCD screen and indicator light next to the red start button:


SOUND – It’s not as loud as I had anticipated based on the comments I’d read about how loud it is. It is no louder than my Dyson DC41 Animal. It is, however, noticeably louder on hard floors than it is on carpets due to the rubber blades hitting the floor. Lucky for me, I am one of the dying breed of carpet lovers so my house has more carpet than hard floors at the moment.

The alert tones and beeping are loud enough to get your attention but certainly not sharp or annoying. It does sound out a series of beeps every few minutes when the dust bin is out being emptied. I have not bothered to find out if the alert tones can be turned off as I do want to know when it needs attention.

CLEANING – The Neato has made me realize how filthy my house actually is, quite shocking how much crap it picks up with every run. It is VERY thorough. Not a single area went untouched, not only that but it overlaps its nice and tidy rows by a good 3-4 inches with each pass. Its small size also allows it to sweep areas that I cannot normally reach with a full size vacuum such as under the coffee table, end tables, dressers, etc. So it is actually getting my house cleaner than I can in those areas.

Each time it completes vacuuming the first floor of my house it needs to be emptied. However the collection bin is never filled to capacity which is good. With that taken into consideration I am pretty pleased with the size of the collection bin for such a small vacuum it can hold a good amount.

The pic below is about how full the collection bin is after vacuuming my entire first floor. It is consistently about that amount each time and I have been running my Neato every other day.


The picture below shows the collection bin emptied onto a paper towel. In the top left is the empty bin, in the top center is a clean filter, and in the upper right is the dirty filter after the very first run. For reference, the pile is 2 inches tall all the way around. It is loaded with both dust and fur!


The Neato does not pick up as much fur off the carpet and rugs as a normal vacuum but, as we all know, it is not meant to replace a normal vacuum. Even though it doesn’t pick up as well as a normal vacuum it does a phenomenal job of cleaning and really cuts down on how often I need to run through the house with a full size vacuum.

HANDLING/NAVIGATION – It handles all of my floor surfaces (carpet, hardwood, vinyl, and several differently textured rugs) with ease and transitions from one surface to another effortlessly. What hubby and I both absolutely love is how well it handles rugs without lifting them like a normal vacuum would. I hate vacuuming rugs and am so pleased that the Neato does an amazing job on them.

As for navigation, when it starts up it does a quick scan of the room and then proceeds to do a perimeter sweep. After that it goes back and forth vacuuming inside the perimeter of the room. Once it is done with a room it proceeds onto the next room and so on. So far mine has not followed the exact same path twice, but I really don’t care as long as it cleans the whole house, which it does.

When the battery needs recharging it suspends cleaning and automatically returns, in a surprisingly direct route, straight back to its charging base where it gently backs itself into its dock. Once it is done recharging (it takes a full 2 hours for mine to recharge) it returns to where it left off and resumes vacuuming without a hitch. The Neato often senses objects in its path before it even touches them a good portion of the time, and it is very gentle when it does bump into things.

RUN TIME/CHARGING – For the first charge, it took 3 hours to charge before it was ready to go. I have a 2700 square foot, 2 story house. I only run the Neato on the first floor so we’ll assume it’s vacuuming approximately 1350 square feet when it runs. It takes a total of 4 hours from start to finish for it to do the first floor of my house. Of that 4 hours, it spends 2 hours actually vacuuming and 2 hours recharging. The breakdown: It vacuums for a full hour before it returns itself to its base. It charges for 2 hours, then automatically navigates back to where it left off and resumes vacuuming the remainder of the first floor which takes another hour to finish. It is slow going but for good reason, it is very thorough and has to navigate around obstacles that a normal human would simply move to vacuum around/under in much less time. That being said, the more obstacles in a room (i.e. furniture) the longer it will take. So the rooms with the least amount of furniture to navigate around get cleaned the fastest. Another thing to consider as well is that the Neato's battery life is shorter on carpets than it is on hard floors which is understandable and expected.

ISSUES – The Neato has gotten stuck a few times. I have since made a few slight, simple changes to alleviate the issues. A few examples: It got stuck under my daughters Jumperoo so I have since placed the magnetic boundary strip around the base of the jumper. It also got stuck between the legs of the small eat-in kitchen table and chairs so I have since started pulling the chairs out just a tad so it has more room to navigate between the legs. Since making these slight changes it has not since gotten itself stuck.

ACCESSORIES – Comes with a black magnetic boundary marker, replacement blades, and 3 extra replacement filters (it comes with 4 filters total since 1 filter is already installed on the collection bin).



That is all I have to comment on at the moment I think. If anything else pops up or changes I will update accordingly. In short, the Neato is AWESOME and I only wish I’d gotten one sooner!

Great review, Val! Thanks! Hmm...I don't think I got the extra filters, I'll check in the box again. And mine doesn't run a full hour! I'll time it next time. I do love, though and it's cheaper than a maid!