With each new robot vacuum that is released in the United States and around the world, the technology being showcased with each product shows more advances.
From mapping systems and the ability to clean on various surfaces without needing to change any parts out, robotic vacuums have come a long way in recent years. Many companies are releasing new models a couple of times each year, often making it difficult to keep up with the advancements.
For the company Neato, one of their latest vacuums is the Botvac 80, which is one of their latest releases that is ideal for many conditions including for families with pet hair scattered around the house.
There are four models of Botvac’s the company has designed and released and at different price points. This device retails for more than $500, but for many owners, it will be money well spent.
For those looking to replace their current robot vacuum or get into the market for the first time, here are the pros and cons of the Neato Botvac 80.
Pros
For starters, Neato is a company that has come on very strong in recent years in the robot vacuum industry and while they haven’t caught up to iRobot as of yet, they are finding a way to keep the race close with the world’s top manufacturer of robot vacuums.
They made a name for themselves first with the XV series of vacuums and now with these Botvac vacuums, the company will continue to rise.
The Botvac 80’s biggest and most important feature is its incredible ability to get all the pet hair off any surface you may have in your home.
To get as much pet hair off your floors, the Botvac 80 uses a combo brush that works to pick up hair, dirt, debris, dust particles and any other substance on your floors that shouldn’t be there. It works on hardwood flooring, as well as tiles and linoleum.
Where some robot vacuums struggle and the Botvac 80 excels is the noise level during operation.
In the past, the previous series of Neato vacuums have been considered some of the louder units on the market, but this vacuum runs extremely quiet, allowing you to run it at any point in the day and not have to worry about disrupting your kids while they do their schoolwork or while your spouse is working from home during the day.
Like many of the best robot vacuums available today, this Neato vacuum scans the area it is cleaning with their patented laser guided technology. This laser scans and maps out your rooms, helping it to plan the best route to methodically clean up all the debris from room to room.
The laser guided technology allows it to automatically go from one room to another without needing to manually reset it or physically pick it up and move it into the other room.
The brush on this unit is another reason why it does so well at picking up any debris on your floors. It is 50 percent bigger than past versions and with a larger than normal bin that allows it to get more coverage of your home.
The device is also built with an extra large filter that lets it get as much out of each use. Between the larger bin, brush and filter, Neato has equipped its users with the ability to make sure their floors are always cleaned.
A lot of problems many people have with robot vacuums are their inability to get as close to your baseboards or corners of your rooms.
One thing Neato has done with this product is give it a precision edge cleaning brush that allows it to pick up more dirt and debris from the areas that are usually considered harder to get to for these devices. This feature is helped by the larger brush it is built with.
Scheduling of robot vacuums is usually a major factor in whether a person purchases one model over the next. That is why Neato made sure to design this product with the capability of allowing you to schedule daily cleanings to take care of all the dirty work when you are cooking, sleeping or at the grocery store.
If you are more of a spontaneous cleaner, then you can simply push a button to get spot cleaning to pick up any spills or even multi room cleaning with the mapping system.
When it comes to the Neato Botvac 80 and its ability to clean your entire home in one day, that is another aspect that you need not worry about.
Regardless of if you have scheduled your cleaning or are using the push button feature to clean all the surfaces in your home, when the battery begins to die, it will automatically return to the charging base and when it is completely charged, it will pick up where it left off and continue its cleaning process.
One interesting feature about the Botvac series of robot vacuums and Neato’s previous models are the color scheme. The older models had more sleek color combinations, while all of the Botvac units come with a white body and one of four different colors as accents.
This could be a pro for some that enjoy a bit more color, or it could fall into the next section for those that would rather have a dark and solid color.
Cons
Neato is known mostly for their XV line of robot vacuums. The announcement of the Botvac series was made in order to give consumers a product that was considered top of the line in terms of quality for a bit more money.
Because they are relatively new to the market, we don’t have all the cons of this product, but we can let you know that with any new technology, there will of course be some cons. Here is what we know.
One of the biggest problems I have with this unit is the debris that it does miss when it makes a quick change in direction because of its mapping system. The mapping system does indeed work, but it does leave a little mess from time to time.
There are times when the side brush of this unit will catch some of this debris and push it back in front of the brushes, but it doesn’t always work as advertised.
Features
- Combo Brush
- Blade Brush
- Boundary Markers
- High Performance Filter
- Price – MSRP $549.00 (but less with Free Shipping on Amazon)
Like many other Neato products, there are more pros than cons that make this product worth getting to use in your home. Its ability to clean any type of flooring without having to change the brush makes it a great product.
Add in the fact that is has a 50 percent bigger brush, bigger dust bin and high performance filter, and the Neato Botvac 80 has huge positives that help make it one of the top products presently available in the robot vacuum world.
Without much experience with this brand new line of vacuums, we aren’t fully aware of all the negative aspects of this vacuum, but from what we know, it is a vacuum that you can be happy with.
One thing to remember, when looking at reviews of a Neato Robotic Vacuums, is that Neato Robotics has a history of offering free and easy to install software upgrades to fix common problems.
The Neato XV-11 I received in December 2010 did not know how to handle fringes, had major problems cleaning corners, was without spotcleaning and docking was at times not the most elegant(to put it mildly). But after a couple of upgrades those problems and more was fixed.
Sadly software updates could not fix the problem that finally killed my Neato after around 2 years of service, a wheel that had lost its spring. Neato Robotics was kind enough to send a replacement, although my unit was out of warranty, but sadly the postal service seems to have killed it somewhere along the trip from the US to Denmark.