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Best Neato Robotics Vacuum For Busy Homes
If you’re fed up of constantly vacuuming dirt that never seems to end why not let a robot vacuum take this task off of your hands? Neato’s Botvac Wi-Fi enabled Robot knows how to clean your floors and keep them spotless. It’s packed with plenty features including a free smartphone app to control the robot and check on its progress from anywhere.
Quick Neato Botvac Feature Summary
- For starters, it’s compatible with Alexa devices that allow you to control the robot with voice prompts.
- The Neato app gives you total control of your Botvac from anywhere. The robot connects to your home Wi-Fi and progress notifications are sent directly to your phone.
- The unique D-shape design ensures that the robot can reach into corners and get close to walls.
- The most advanced route mapping and guidance whilst avoiding colliding with furniture and other obstacles. The robot cleverly maps the surrounding area and chooses an optimum route.
- Choose between Eco and Turbo function. The Eco setting allows for an efficient clean that uses less power. The Turbo setting provides extra power for difficult tasks.
Neato Botvac Wi-Fi Connected Robot Vacuum Review
Neato Botvac Connected is a powerful robot vacuum that maintains a high standard of floor cleaning. It is intelligent, efficient and features a twofold cleaning mode. The Botvac robot will diligently clean each room and automatically return to its dock to recharge and continue where it left off until the job is done.
The robot can vacuum any type of floor and is perfect for pet owners and those that suffer from dust allergies. The machine is compatible with Google Home Assistant and Amazon Alexa so that you can conveniently instruct the robot using voice prompts
Setting up Neato Botvac for first-time use.
The Botvac Connected is relatively easy to set up. I docked it onto the charger and linked it to my smartphone through the Neato app.
The linking process is quick- the Botvac will search for your Wi-Fi network and after a few attempts it will connect. This process took about 5 minutes including installing the app on my smartphone.
You’ll need to set up a Neato account, add the robot’s serial number and connect it to your Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz (not 5.8 GHz) network, then do the final link using the robots LCD display. You will only need to perform this setup once. During my time with Neato Botvac, the Wi-Fi connection never got interrupted and was stable throughout. During setup, the app will also prompt you if you want to name your robot.
Charging Neato Botvac
Thankfully the Neato robot comes fully charged straight out of the box so that it can hit the ground running. When the robot is charging, the 2 big buttons towards the front of the machine will flash at different speeds (slow → quick → solid).
The colours will also change from orange to white to show how much the battery has charged. This makes it more convenient to keep an eye on the level of charge without needing to look at the LCD screen on the robot. You can also see the charging progress using the Neato app.
Neato Botvac’s Initial run
For first time use, I selected the clean house option and watched the Botvac come to life, undock from the charging station and map out the surrounding area. The mapping process is relatively quick and once it’s complete, the robot switches on the brush roller and begins its cleaning journey.
I observed the machine for a while then left it to work independently. The machine noise is considerably quieter than a large vacuum cleaner and is quiet enough for you to talk to someone whilst the robot is working in the same room, you can also watch t.v. or take a phone call whilst the Botvac is close by.
The robot comes with 2 rollers. The combo roller, which comes attached to the machine, is not as noisy as the blade roller.
How Did Neato Botvac Perform?
The first time you turn on the Botvac to clean it will follow a random pattern. I was impressed with how the robot avoided knocking into obstacles. After a few additional runs the Neato robot began following a logical pattern once it started figuring out the room layouts a bit better.
On its initial run, it took the robot approximately 1 hour to clean the entire first floor, which has a total of 1500 square feet.
It then ran for another 15 minutes before alerting that the battery was running low- at this point the robot returned to its base to recharge. If your house has a lot of rooms, its best to monitor the robot in case it gets lost and can’t make it back to the base.
Once docked the “spot-clean” buttons will light up and flash orange to indicate that the battery is charging. I like to empty the bin whilst the machine is recharging and the first time I took out the bin I couldn’t believe how much dirt and hair the Neato robot had picked up. The dirt was disgusting but I was thankful that the robot was vacuuming thoroughly.
The Neato Botvac will charge for roughly an hour then come back to life and go back where it left off to finish the job. I like that it remembers where to continue from if it has to stop and recharge in between cleans. The robot will notify you when it has completed a job and then returns to the charging base.
As mentioned before, it’s easier to empty the bin whenever the robot is back at the base recharging, it’s also a good idea to check the roller brush for hair and lint which are easily removable using the cleaning tools supplied. This whole process takes less than 5 minutes. When fully charged, the robot will go into standby mode where the LCD display will switch off and the lights at the front of the machine will stay a solid white to indicate that the battery is full.
Neato Botvac Cleaning Results
My carpets and wooden floors were noticeably cleaner after that the Neato Botvac had its way with them. Each time the robot came back to recharge, I would take out the bin to find a fresh batch of dirt, dust and hair that put my cleaning efforts to shame. I would say that the robot can’t completely replace a full sized vacuum primary because it can’t vacuum stairs but I still think this is a small price to pay when compared to the benefits of regularly clean floors.
I honestly think that the robot needs time to learn its surroundings because each time it performed a run, the carpets would look cleaner than the previous run. The lines in the carpets showed that the robot was getting better at calculating efficient routes thus taking less time to clean each room whilst delivering better results after each run.
After a few weeks I could leave the Botvac on its own as a fully automatic vacuum without worrying that the battery would die before it got home or that it would get stuck somewhere.
After a few weeks, I noticed that I didn’t need to empty the bin as frequently because the floors were getting a regular clean- this was a reassuring sign that the Botvac was truly working hard to keep the floors hair-free and dirt-free. The floors won’t get as dirty as they would if you were cleaning just once a week. You could say that I was rather impressed by Neato’s performance.
I found that the combo roller was better at cleaning carpets compared to the blade roller, but it needed cleaning frequently to remove hairs and carpet fibres. The blade is good at cleaning both carpets and hard floors but is slightly louder
What Comes Inside The Box
- High-Performance Wi-Fi Enabled Robot Vacuum
- Integrated Charging Base
- Power Cable
- Ultra-Performance Filters x 2
- Combo Brush x1
- Spiral Blade Brush x1
- Side Brush x1
- Boundary Markers
- Brush & Filter Cleaning Tool
Neato Botvac Connected Product Rating
Dependable cleaning performance and low maintenance are what you can expect from this robot vacuum. The Neato Botvac Connected is a popular cleaner which takes away the fuss of vacuuming floors.
Product Score: 8 /10 
Where to Buy Neato Botvac Connected
The Bottom Line
In summary I’d like to point out that this is the best Neato Robotics vacuum for busy homes. Any robot vacuum that can cope with the demands of my busy house is worth high praise. The Botvac robot managed to keep up with cleaning pet hair and the daily mess caused by the family’s traffic. The machine doesn’t frighten my dog and it gets on with the task without complaints.
If you’re looking for a reliable brand for a robot vacuum cleaner I’d highly recommend Neato Robotics. Are you considering buying the Neato Botvac Connected or do you already own one? Please leave your comments in the section below. I’d love to hear from you.
