tonymontana444 wrote:PAYDAY! pulled the trigger on this badboy! wish me luck!

Luck!

Enjoy!

oisterboy wrote:My dog would kill this the second I set it down.

I thought our dogs would have done that as well, especially our French Bulldog, but they went up and sniffed it, and walked away from it.

dwyw wrote:FYI for anyone with a 500-series Roomba and unsatisfied with the capacity and hair tangling on the brushes: the Aerovac bin upgrade is well worth the money! It holds more than the stock bin, and has better suction so the hair doesn't get stuck on the rollers.

My wife got it for us for Christmas, and if it wasn't for that, I'd probably be buying this Neato right now. We have a dog that sheds a lot and after the upgrade, the Roomba can finally get all the hairballs before filling up and just dragging them around on the rollers.

I agree the Aerovac bin is a great upgrade for those of us with Roomba's . It does improve capacity , suction and much less hair in the rollers . This is one reason I may not grab the Neato till a later date .

I looked around online and it sounds like this thing should be able to handle thresholds between rooms. Anyone have actual experience with this? I'm pretty close to convinced, but we've got wood thresholds (curved on both sides) in the doorway to every room.

I like watching the vacuuming patterns between the neato and the roomba. It's like OCD vs ADD.

Will this thing pick up whole Cheerios? You wouldn't think that's a lot to ask of a vacuum, but my current vacuum struggles.

christiane wrote:Will this thing pick up whole Cheerios? You wouldn't think that's a lot to ask of a vacuum, but my current vacuum struggles.

The video review at the beginning of the thread shows it sucking up popped popcorn, so I imagine it can handle cheerios.

Does anyone know if these get stuck? I have a semi-high sofa and can picture it buzzing uselessly underneath for hours on end...

whoster69 wrote:What's the difference between the XV 12 and XV 11?

Color...the XV-12 is white/light gray. The XV-11 is dark gray.

chubechpmnk wrote:Does anyone know if these get stuck? I have a semi-high sofa and can picture it buzzing uselessly underneath for hours on end...

We have one of these leather storage bench things and I guess the underside is uneven and Neato managed to get himself wedged in there. I got some leveling glides from Amazon for $5 for a set of 4. Screwed them in and raised the bench just enough to clear.

Otherwise you can use the included barrier strip and not allow him to go under the furniture.

az94 wrote:I looked around online and it sounds like this thing should be able to handle thresholds between rooms. Anyone have actual experience with this? I'm pretty close to convinced, but we've got wood thresholds (curved on both sides) in the doorway to every room.

It handle's mine perfectly...also goes from hardwood to area rugs without issue...if it can't get up it backs up and goes at an angle and gets over it. Works great.

I thought about getting a robotic vacuum, but then I realized, "I have a dog!" - dog's are just as good as robotic vacuums at cleaning stuff off the floor, and they are not nearly as loud, and you don't have to clear a path for them.

Maybe I should of asked my husband before I pulled the trigger? Wait.....it's his mess the Neato will be cleaning up! No guilt.

az94 wrote:I looked around online and it sounds like this thing should be able to handle thresholds between rooms. Anyone have actual experience with this? I'm pretty close to convinced, but we've got wood thresholds (curved on both sides) in the doorway to every room.

This thing moves like a tank. We have a couple of transitions points this thing just motors right over with no issue. Even a carpet on our hardwood floor it might struggle at first attempt, but it will stop and approach at an angle and get over the bump and keep going. My old roomba would have just hung itself up and died.

pixelator99 wrote:I thought about getting a robotic vacuum, but then I realized, "I have a dog!" - dog's are just as good as robotic vacuums at cleaning stuff off the floor, and they are not nearly as loud, and you don't have to clear a path for them.

Yeah but you don't have to clean up after the vacuum.

chimpsnest wrote:Yeah but you don't have to clean up after the vacuum.

My dog even cleans that up.

My review on Amazon

In for one. I jumped on the recert Haan steam mop a few weeks ago and I hope this will complement it.

We had 2 roombas and a scooba a while ago. They really didn't do a good job. The batteries also croaked on them early on.

We still had fun and hacked their little brains apart after they outlived their true purpose.

While this won't outperform a Dyson on carpet, it's worth its weight in gold on hardwood floors. My downstairs is 80% hardwood and neither my wife nor I have vacuumed downstairs since Christmas. That's 3 months.

We are not messy people either, we used to vacuum at least once a week because of dog hair, the Neato all but eliminates the need to vacuum. The only thing even remotely necessary is sometimes quickly sweeping debris out of corners.

Is this the end all of vacuums? No. Will I ever go back to not owning one of these? Also, No.

I got the black one for myself.
I am pulling the trigger on this one for my parents.

Purchased one in the beginning of February.
1700 sq ft. Laminate floors

It's a game changer. For the good.
Built like a tank.

"It's got freakin... laser beams."
Almost no bumping, actively scans as it travels. And if it does, it's a gentle bump.


No hair wraped around "brushes", they actually look like little long squeegees and are replaceable. Just this makes it a winner.

See's the room(s) and furniture and plans an attack. Spooky.

Re-docks when job is finished or to recharge itself then continue the job. Super-spooky.

After a month and a half, 2 things re-comfirmed.

1- This thing is awesome.
2- I'm a dirty woot monkey.

p.s. buy a sqaure-trade extended warranty

az94 wrote:I looked around online and it sounds like this thing should be able to handle thresholds between rooms. Anyone have actual experience with this? I'm pretty close to convinced, but we've got wood thresholds (curved on both sides) in the doorway to every room.

It will definately make it.

It's a tenacious little robot tank, it will try all angles of attack.

It will definately make it.

It does a better job in the middle of floors than a Roomba but doesn't edge clean as well.
I hope it lasts longer than the past three Roombas I have had, they all started doing the "circle dance of death" after 50 to 60 uses.
I would advise not to update the firmware though unless you have problems. The first time I used mine it did my house without getting stuck. It would back out of situations, but after the update it insists on turning instead, and if it can't, it stops.

Absolutely the better pick over a Roomba. If we had the money to spare I'd buy another one to keep Rohzee company!

chubechpmnk wrote:Does anyone know if these get stuck? I have a semi-high sofa and can picture it buzzing uselessly underneath for hours on end...

If it gets stuck, it will power down, and basically chirp out a "SOS" sound. The only thing ours has gotten stuck on was the night it woke up on it's own (I forgot to turn off the test on the calendar) and it made it as far as doing the kitchen where it tried to eat a dish cloth that had fallen off the stove's handle. I didn't even realize it was in trouble until I staggered out into the kitchen in the middle of the night for a drink, and then heard it cry for help in the darkness.

I've seen it do some pretty funny things too - like last night it got temporarily confused underneath a kitchen chair because there was a toy car in it's way of exit. It just sat there and literally twirled around in a circle for about 2 minutes before it stopped, regained it's composure, took a look around and then figured out a different way out.

Oh, and it tried to hump the ottomans we have for our leather chairs in the living room. The ottomans have wood that sort of curves up, and it just couldn't figure out what was going on.... it just tried and tried and tried and.... I had to turn the hose on them....

ablickle wrote: We had been running our Roomba 530 almost daily, but wife's long hair meant cleaning brushes after just about every run. We even had a screwdriver in the kitchen just to remove the side brush to get the hair out from under it.

banging into stuff. It reliably cleans every room every time and picks up a good bit more dirt than Roomba. Best part is that the hair ends up in the bin, not wrapped around the brush, so there is very little maintenance.

It does about 2/3 of our 1500 sqft condo before it takes a break to charge.

I didn't quote everything from the prvious post, but ditto on the above.The first time I ran it, I vacuumed first with our upright, then cut it loose. It moves an amazing amount of air, the stream out the exhaust port can be felt from several feet away. it picked upalmost a full bin that our upright had left behind. I was shocked.

No long hair tangles. I can't emphasize that enough as an advantage over the Roomba.

A $300 vacuum! And it's robotic... what a deal.... wait a second.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Infinuvo-CleanMate-Robot-Cleaner-QQ-2-PLUS-with-Charging-Base-and-Scheduler-/390382707060?pt=US_Vacuum&hash=item5ae49f6174

Oh wait here's a listing on eBay, new for 250...

But it IS $100 off retail for this exact item from some other sites...

However, the only expensive thing I ever bought from Woot was half-defective.

tl;dr WOOT WOULD MAKE MORE MONEY BY SELLING STUFF WE CAN AFFORD/IS USEFUL.

I can't imagine this to be very convenient. We have to empty our Dyson canister about 2-3 times for the entire house (mainly because of pets), and that canister alone looks to be about twice the size of this entire Neato vacuum. I'd think this little thing would have to be emptied every 5 minutes, no?

JMHSRV wrote:For folks who haven't owned a robotic vacuum, they are not a replacement for regular vacuuming. Robotic vacuums are more like robotic carpet sweeps. There is an appearance of clean on carpets and rugs because the mat gets combed. Most of the dirt gets shuffled down into the carpet and eventually needs to be vacuumed out.

And if that doesn't bore you to tears, there's always fish:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/jmhsrv-fish

I have one of these and love it. Considering all the dirt I empty out of the bin after Neato has done his work, I have trouble believing this is just a glorified carpet sweeper. If I were to accept that "most" of the dirt is shuffled down into the carpet, I'd also have to think there must be enough dirt in my carpets to grow corn.

I have wanted to chime in all day but I just got a chance to sit down and collect my thoughts. Here is my rambling incoherent post. Hopefully some people read it and can take something useful away.

First day I got the thing I probably spent at least 4 hours just watching it do its thing. Seeing it try to map out the room is just utterly fascinating.

The condo where I live is 2 floors and by carrying this thing between the two every week or so I can easily have both floors cleaner then they have ever been previously. While this machine does seem to work much better then a roomba for navigating it will pay off in the long run if you do some tiding up of the little things it could snag on. Overall I think that took maybe 10 minutes to clear up.

The second thing I had to worry about was my bedroom furniture it happens to be just tall enough for the neato to poke his head under but not enough for him to actually get under. This caused an issue the first time. Luckily with the magnetic strip that is included I just unspooled some clipped it to size and viola he knows that's off limits.

I am amazed at just how good of a job he does at literally going everywhere. If I have a door to another room and leave it open. I come home to find the telltale signs that it has been lovingly cleaned by the carpet marks.

I do have to say for all the hair people yes this thing doesn't have nearly the amount of places of others to get hair stuck but while taking off the beater brush for the first time (after a month of use) I did notice that a little bit of hair had gotten around the ends. No where near enough to be an issue but watching out for stuff like that will help it live a longer happier life.

There are two other minor gripes that I have and one is more of an issue with my condo then the bot.

1. With the charging dock I leave it up against a wall like I am supposed to but because I have tall carpet and the pad doesn't seem to extend right to the edge the base sits at a slight angle this seems to make it a lot more difficult for the little guy to dock sometimes.

This leads me to point
2. When this bot cannot dock and sits for an extended period of time it can go to 0 battery when it does this it looses track of time. So if this happens and I want scheduling to work I have to re-enter the time. Not a big deal at all but a slight annoyance maybe twice a month.

Really my biggest issue now is that while I can carry this little guy between floors using the stairs in my condo the little guy is unable to clean them(the stairs). Thus keeping them subtly dirtier then the rest of the condo.

As for emptying the bin. My upper floor is half carpet half hard wood and I have no problem waiting until it is finished with the whole floor ~800sq/ft to empty the bin.

The basement level is all carpet and I find that at least the first few times I ran this little guy that I needed to empty him at least once when he was about halfway through.

Also in general most of the fibers you see in a brush vacuum are actually pulled from your carpet. This guy does pull up some but once he has run a few times all the easily pulled fibers will have been cleaned away and he picks up just the dust, hair, and debris. I too have an upright that needs to be emptied about once a room, but my neato does not.

I am so tempted. I'd love to buy the one from Costco (because of the fantastic return policy), but with tax it's $50 more.

I'd love to buy the one from Woot because it's prettier (and $50 less) but I am very concerned about the space requirements around the charger. I simply don't have six feet of continuous wall space in my home. If I can't get the little beast to find its charger I would need to return it.

Thinking, thinking...

dbuggr wrote:I am so tempted. I'd love to buy the one from Costco (because of the fantastic return policy), but with tax it's $50 more.

I'd love to buy the one from Woot because it's prettier (and $50 less) but I am very concerned about the space requirements around the charger. I simply don't have six feet of continuous wall space in my home. If I can't get the little beast to find its charger I would need to return it.

Thinking, thinking...

I have one...was here thinking of getting a second. The 6ft isn't actually needed in most cases, but it's not always predictable. In some small spaces it has zero issues,in others it does. I have mine under shelving, with the two posts/feet of the shelves within 1 ft of each side of the vacuum, no issues. Sometimes instead of driving straight out, it will actually turn 90 degrees and go between the two side posts, which are only a little wider than the robot. So treat the 6ft as a "guaranteed to work" range.

ithrowmypawsupintheairsometimes wrote:I can't imagine this to be very convenient. We have to empty our Dyson canister about 2-3 times for the entire house (mainly because of pets), and that canister alone looks to be about twice the size of this entire Neato vacuum. I'd think this little thing would have to be emptied every 5 minutes, no?

When you vacuum normally, you don't do it every day. Hence when you finally do vacuum, it fills right up. With the neato running every day, the daily load is much lower, so its not as much a concern.

vipermjb wrote:Neato and Dyson on two different Woots in the same day. Brain is at critical mass....explosion imminent!!!!






-boom-

It is very odd that these two would be up at the same time, but I must say- I lean towards the Dyson... mostly cause I'm a little old fashion and think that a vacuum should look like a vacuum and not a Super Nintendo, but that's just me!

At this hour, I'm not sure if it's going to help, but my comments from last woot:

whatsamattaU wrote:This is when they sold the XV-11 last November, for the same $299.99:

http://www.woot.com/Forums/ViewPost.aspx?PostID=4731382

Since dbcwoot says that the 11 and 12 models are essentially the same,

Here's the quick start guide:
http://www.neatorobotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/NeatoVacuumQSC_US_032811.pdf

from the knowledge base page:
http://www.neatorobotics.com/archives/category/knowledgebase

Also, FAQ:
http://www.neatorobotics.com/support/frequently-asked-questions

dbuggr wrote:I am so tempted. I'd love to buy the one from Costco (because of the fantastic return policy), but with tax it's $50 more.

I'd love to buy the one from Woot because it's prettier (and $50 less) but I am very concerned about the space requirements around the charger. I simply don't have six feet of continuous wall space in my home. If I can't get the little beast to find its charger I would need to return it.

Thinking, thinking...

We have ours under a nightstand, with less than a foot on one side. The legs of the nightstand are maybe 4 inches further apart than Neato, but he just backs in there like a champ.

ithrowmypawsupintheairsometimes wrote:I can't imagine this to be very convenient. We have to empty our Dyson canister about 2-3 times for the entire house (mainly because of pets), and that canister alone looks to be about twice the size of this entire Neato vacuum. I'd think this little thing would have to be emptied every 5 minutes, no?

Well, here's a pic of our bin after it's first run. You can judge the size for yourself.


Yes, those are artificial xmas tree needles in there.

Yes, the photo was taken in February. What's it to ya?

ccicchitelli wrote:I have one...was here thinking of getting a second. The 6ft isn't actually needed in most cases, but it's not always predictable. In some small spaces it has zero issues,in others it does. I have mine under shelving, with the two posts/feet of the shelves within 1 ft of each side of the vacuum, no issues. Sometimes instead of driving straight out, it will actually turn 90 degrees and go between the two side posts, which are only a little wider than the robot. So treat the 6ft as a "guaranteed to work" range.

Thanks for the information, that helps a lot!

ablickle wrote:We have ours under a nightstand, with less than a foot on one side. The legs of the nightstand are maybe 4 inches further apart than Neato, but he just backs in there like a champ.

Thanks for the reply! :-)

christiane wrote:Will this thing pick up whole Cheerios? You wouldn't think that's a lot to ask of a vacuum, but my current vacuum struggles.

Go to the Neato website and watch the video on Demo Room. It shows Cheerios being picked up.

http://www.neatorobotics.com/demo-room