Roomba Vs. Neato

[ocscott3085]

Hi Everyone!
I've had a Roomba 530 in the past when I lived in a townhouse. It did a great job minimizing the amount of dog hair all over the house and it was relatively easy to confine Roomba to various rooms as they were much smaller. In my current house, I have about 4,000 sq. ft of wide open terrain. I tried my old Roomba and when I could keep it confined to the bedroom it was fine. However, when I'm doing the main floor it's too open and the lighthouses can't keep "her" in just one or two rooms.
So my question is....has Roomba come out with a model that works like Neato in that it will return to its base when low,recharge, and then finish up where it left off before? I tried a Neato one time from Costco in my new house when we first moved in and it tried climbing my table legs, got stuck under my ottoman, etc. Has technology improved in the last two years? I'm just looking for something I can set to run while we're at work instead of having to break out the central vac Hide a Hose multiple times a week. I was waiting to see the new Dyson robot but am afraid it's going to be ridiculously expensive! Thanks for any words of wisdom!

 

[singingrainbow]

The main issue with the dyson robot will be the fact that it won't be available until late next year, and that it has only a 20 minute run time.


Having owned five roombas and a neato, I can say that while the neato's power is impressive it does leave some aspects of battery life and reliability to be desired. My neato runs for only 40 minutes, and it takes two to three charges to clean only about 1000 square feet and this takes a while. It's navigation system is good, but certainly not perfect.


Roombas on the other hand have been clocked at running for up to four hours on a single charge and are built with a modular design which makes servicing them much easier. Plus they are much more reliable in general.


I would honestly say that it is your choice, the current roombas don't recharge and continue cleaning as they don't really map out the room in a traditional sense (however from my observations, they are not nearly as random as people make them out to be).


Scott

 

[super-sweeper]

ANYTHING Dyson = bwerk ton of $$$$!


 


While I can't speak for robot vacuums,I can ask why not purchase a quality canister vacuum and take on the house yourself? The Romba could never clean furniture, corners, ceilings, fans, cars! Plus a full-size vacuum is a far better deep-cleaner than any robot vacuum, rather you have carpets or bare floors, the Romba is going to leave behind dirt, hair, dust, and damaging grit! You have been warned! 

 


Oh, and you're from the Department of Motor Vehicles? Your location says 'DMV'....

 

[ocscott3085]

Thanks for the responses! We work between 50 to 60 hours per week so after that, the gym, and all the other crap that pops up running the vacuum every day isn't on our top ten list. However, with that being said we tend not to enjoy seeing our amazing dog's hair all over the floors The HAH central vac is super easy to take out, clean, and suck back into the wall. We'd just prefer that a robot did a superficial clean for us each day and we would follow up with a deeper clean a couple times per week. I wouldn't consider Dyson's robot until it's been perfected...I liked my Roomba just didn't like that it didn't start back up again and finish where it left off after charging. That was the biggest appeal of the Neato but I've read many mixed reviews on it. I guess for now I'll just continue the old fashioned way and wait and see what develops! Thanks everyone!
BTW - DMV = DC/MD/VA

 

[henrydreyfuss]

Neato all the way!

There's no comparison. Neato cleans better than all but the latest Roomba, and also cleans much faster. Neato has a laser scanner on the top of the unit (powered by a Linux computer), that spins and scans the room in real time as it cleans. It first outlines the room, and then vacuums the carpet in beautiful straight lines. Unlike most robotic cleaners, it has a suction motor and a pretty good brushroll, so it does a surprisingly good job. Does an awesome job on bare floors, and gets a surprising amount of dirt and fine dust every time it cleans. The base model Neatos (my XV-11 is pictured) have a noisier rubber blade brush that makes an ugly sound on hard floors, but there's a 'Pet' brush upgrade that fits the vac, and makes it clean better, and run much quieter. The only downfall of the machine is that the filter is small and requires frequent cleaning (I just vacuum them off with my Dyson cordless, but they're also washable).

The home needs to robo-proofed (the Neato will try to cover every inch of flooring it possibly can). Tucking away wires, picking up stray socks from under the bed, and laying down the magnet strips anywhere it may get stuck will likely be necessary, but then it can clean an entire floor of a home automatically. It takes breaks to charge, but remembers where it was, and picks up where it left off. It can be scheduled to clean when you're not home (I run mine twice a week while I'm at work), and it's always nice to come home to meticulously cleaned floors.

It's way better than anything I thought was available today. Here's a picture of it cleaning my living room. You can see where it's been by the carpet lines!

 

[super-sweeper]

Wow! That has to be the best cleaning robot vacuum I've ever seen! 

 

[LionKCommander]

The only way to find out which one is the best is to make them fight.

 

[super-sweeper]

lol, anyone the remember that show where they built fighting robots? Or....Transformers re-inacted by Rombas!