This is my second Neato, they used to be good, but the latest firmware is terrible. Neato goes on forever, does not complete, does not dock, gets stuck on furniture it didn't used to get stuck on. I wanted to schedule it to hoover while I'm at work, but it always gets stuck for one reason or other so never actually completes the job. I won't be buying another and you shouldn't either.

Great development over our old Neato which we’d had for a number of years. Great improvement with no-go facility, much quieter and better cleaning cycle. Pity that Alexa link negates most features other than start and stop. Overall we are well pleased and wouldn’t be without this home help.

Absolutely love my Neato, I got my first one soon after I returned to work from maternity leave and couldn’t believe how amazing it was. To come home every night to a freshly hoovered house makes the house feel cleaner and tend to keep it tidier so Neato can clean. I now have one that cleans downstairs and another that cleans upstairs.Added bonus is there are less spiders or bugs in my house.

Picks up pet hair and does a fantastic job, app works well

A quirky product, a gimmick, but still really 'cool' to have running around your home.The vacuum (not a 'Hoover', Britain) will last around an hour which is sufficient for our three bed flat (we've restricted the third bedroom for the vacuum cleaner as too much clutter to navigate, which can be a problem) to get the once over. It does a surprisingly good job, though the dust compartment will require manual emptying.The greatest single point (in my opinion) of a robotic cleaner like this D4 is the ability to schedule when it operates. Early morning, middle of the night, in the middle of the day during school/work hours etc. for communal areas is just perfect as it won't get in the way of a busy household. The build quality is fantastic. I'd not heard of Neato before hand, but this vacuum has filled me with confidence in the brand.As I mentioned in the headline however, this is a gimmick above all else. Somethings are just better done, or more efficiently done by a human. For instance, if there is one particular section of floor that just needs a quick vacuum, then this isn't suitable. If you have clutter, a person is still required to move things out of the way etc. A person will still need to empty the vacuum of all the sucked-up contents, so manual intervention is still required. And that's where this product falls down. Don't get me wrong, it is a great product for what it is, but for the price point, you can buy a Dyson V10. So consider, do you want an automated vacuum that will do the general cleaning, still requiring emptying AND another vacuum and manual effort to properly clean difficult areas or areas cover with clutter from time to time. Or do you want to invest in a single vacuum and just do the job manually.At this price point, I can't recommend the Neato D4, though it is really cool.

I held off reviewing this for a while, as I had a few problems with it, and got a bit annoyed with it. Although it vacuumed really well, easily coping with lots of animal fur etc., it flatly refused to go any further than half way up one room, although it was supposed to do the whole ground floor. I tried over and over again, always getting the same result, until I got fed up with it and left it to sit on it's base.Just before Christmas, we bought a couple of new sofas, so I thought maybe I could try again with the Botvac in case it found the new room layout easier to manage, although I didn't hold out too much hope. I was amazed when it passed it's previous red line, and then carried on...into the kitchen and the hallway. It was such a relief to see it doing what it was supposed to do, at last! And do it so well too. We have three cats and two dogs, so there is always plenty of furry carpets to be cleaned, as well as the stuff which rolls around like tumbleweed on the tiled kitchen floor. The Botvac easily sucked all this up, as well as some leaves and other stuff that the dogs had brought in. I was particularly pleased that it went under the sofas and spent quite a while thoroughly cleaning under there. So much easier than moving them out.Other reviewers have said that they thought it was noisy, but we've had a much older model of this, and I thought this one was much quieter. I'd be very happy to set this to vacuum overnight and I don't think it would wake me up providing the bedroom door was shut.As I said, I have had one of these before, and when they go where they are supposed to, they are absolutely wonderful. I move as much furniture as I can to give it a clear a run as possible, and move all wires and dog's water bowls out of the way. I think the 'D' shape of this is much better than the round ones, as it can get right into the corners, The battery charge is excellent, easily managing the whole of the ground floor.So far I haven't been able to connect it to the internet via the app. this is a bit annoyin

I held off reviewing this for a while, as I had a few problems with it, and got a bit annoyed with it. Although it vacuumed really well, easily coping with lots of animal fur etc., it flatly refused to go any further than half way up one room, although it was supposed to do the whole ground floor. I tried over and over again, always getting the same result, until I got fed up with it and left it to sit on it's base.Just before Christmas, we bought a couple of new sofas, so I thought maybe I could try again with the Botvac in case it found the new room layout easier to manage, although I didn't hold out too much hope. I was amazed when it passed it's previous red line, and then carried on...into the kitchen and the hallway. It was such a relief to see it doing what it was supposed to do, at last! And do it so well too. We have three cats and two dogs, so there is always plenty of furry carpets to be cleaned, as well as the stuff which rolls around like tumbleweed on the tiled kitchen floor. The Botvac easily sucked all this up, as well as some leaves and other stuff that the dogs had brought in. I was particularly pleased that it went under the sofas and spent quite a while thoroughly cleaning under there. So much easier than moving them out.Other reviewers have said that they thought it was noisy, but we've had a much older model of this, and I thought this one was much quieter. I'd be very happy to set this to vacuum overnight and I don't think it would wake me up providing the bedroom door was shut.As I said, I have had one of these before, and when they go where they are supposed to, they are absolutely wonderful. I move as much furniture as I can to give it a clear a run as possible, and move all wires and dog's water bowls out of the way. I think the 'D' shape of this is much better than the round ones, as it can get right into the corners, The battery charge is excellent, easily managing the whole of the ground floor.So far I haven't been able to connect it to the internet via the app. this is a bit annoyin

This is a robotic vacuum cleaner that you control via the app or with Alexa. It was easy to set up just following the instructions I was able to download the app and get started right awayThe little cleaner has a docking recharging station where it sits until neededThe first thing it does is feel its way around the room where the docking station is, it works its way around the edges and spirals and zigzag around the entire room. Once it knows it's way around it gets faster. After a while it knows when a doorway is and travels around it.The vacuum motor is more powerful than you think and Copes really well with day to day cleaning, it had a squared shape to its front for corners and copes quite well although it does miss spots in places as it negotiates its way around thingsOn the app it shows you the map of the room or cleans and while it's cleaning it says cleaning, when it's finished it says returning to base station and then say completed when it's safely tucked up in its docking station. It's rather cute in the way it gets itself back to its charging point as it wiggled its bum until it finds the metal contacts, we had a funny moment in the kitchen when it spent ages trying to find the charging station in the end it wiggled its bum backing onto our dishwasher!! Now every time it cleans the kitchen it seeks out the dishwasher confusing it for the charging docking station! I think she's found love!The unit is good at finding doorways ,obstacles because of sensors either side of the squared ends but we were a bit apprehensive about the stairs but it knows them too and avoided them. I've made a little video to show how it moves about.I had to laugh, in the box it shows you it can be called something other than its brand name, one of the suggestions was Rosie, my youngest daughter is called Rosie so it had to be its name. Although my daughter has left home i still get to say "Alexa, get Rosie to do the cleaning"

I was slightly skeptical about this product before it arrived, mostly due to the very high price tag for a vacuum, but I have to say I am way beyond impressed, it is fantastic!You place the docking station/charger somewhere convenient for your home, and after downloading the app which is really easy, and quick, you are pretty much good to go.The vacuum has good suction, looks really smart and does a really brilliant job of cleaning the your floors. It also provides something interesting to both look at and talk about with people as it goes about its work. I was amazed at how much this managed to pickup to be honest. I hoover nearly every other day and this picked up just as much if not more actually than the regular vacuum, and all without me having to do anything!Emptying is really easy, and it stays pretty clean. It can last upto 75 mins which is much longer than my handheld, and very expensive vacuum. You can use the app to programme where, when you want it to clean, and everything about this is incredibly convenient and well thought out.I am absolutely over the moon with it to be honest!

I've hankered after one of these for a while now having seen various models in action at friends houses. Going back 40 years when I first started housekeeping, this would have seemed like a futuristic dream; a vacuum which works on its own! Its reall though. Out of the box I had some apprehension about setup as in my experience this type of product can often be a hassle to get going, but no it started up seamlessly, paired instantly with my iphone via the app, and with a pause to complete charging it was away. I just did a very straightforward clean the first day, it pootled around the kitchen and at the end the dust box was full of an embarrasing variety of bits and fluff. Its easy to empty this out and a small ribbed tool is provided to complete the clean up. The vac is quiet in action, and on completing the clean it returns to base and texts me to say its finished.The results are excellent. Not that I'll never use a hand vacuum again, I will, its not perfect, but a daily or twice weekly round with this is just the thing to keep the fluff and dust at bay. over the first few weeks use I have learned how to set up scheduled cleans so it can do its thing before \i get up in the morning. Really useful! It hasnt had a blip at all yet and just cleans, returns, recharges and sets out again the next day. I do have to make sure the floor is clear though otherwise it takes ages manoevring around obstacels. After the clean I can view a map of where its been which is satisfying (or am I a bit sad?).

Like at least one of the other reviewers here, the Neato D4 experienced problems with its initial mapping of the downstairs floor, having an apparent fetish for one particular corner where it continuously rammed the wall over and over as if trying to escape, and failing to complete the mapping of the floor before running out of power. In normal use the device returns to the dock (more on that in a bit) to juice up before continuing on its run, but in the initial mapping mode it seemingly requires to complete a trip on a single charge. I eventually overcame this issue by closing off the doors and therefore restricting the mapping to the living room only.Once mapped, the device cleans the room in a methodical manner, as opposed to the more random bump-and-bounce method of the less expensive non-mapping cleaners.My device has, in a few days of use, so far got itself into a few problems. First, it can't seem to tackle being underneath dining table chairs. The size and awkward D-shape of the machine means it can't turn 180 degrees without bumping into the legs, at which point it thinks its trapped and starts to clumsily turn left and right in an attempt to free itself when a simple straight reverse would to do the trick. I've had to free it from under a chair twice now; on one occasion it tipped the chair right over.Secondly, the device has a 50:50 chance of making it back to the charging dock. Oddly, the machine has several times stopped right in front of the dock but facing the wrong way. The unit then chimes positively to indicate that it's done despite its failed attempt to get home. There's no in-app method to force it to re-attempt a dock, so it just sits there a few inches away from its charging station until its picked up and manually put back.Once you've got the initial mapping sorted, drawing the 'no-go' lines in the app is easy enough and essential for keeping it from exploring under dining chairs and other areas where it might get stuck. I had to draw a no-go line across my patio door; despite there being

I've been holding off on doing my review of the 'Neato Botvac D402' (Robotic Vacuum), as I've wanted to get more time to get used to its use, give it a chance to get used to the rooms, and just gather my thoughts.

Why? Well, this is exactly the sort of product that I want to 'love'. A 'robotic vacuum cleaner' (and an 'intelligent' one at that) is exactly the sort of thing that the 'future' promised (well, it did in the books that I read as a kid).

The 'kit' all appears really nicely thought out, with the main unit (cleaner 'bot), docking station, and usual extras. Installation of the App (onto an iPhone) was also fairly straightforward, with a couple of attempts needed to get it to synchronise up to the unit. No big deal so far.

My preference with all 'battery powered' (or certainly 'cordless') devices is to make sure that the batteries have had a proper charge before they are pressed into use; and that'd exactly what I did with this. It also offered me more than enough time to settle down and familiarise myself with the instructions (I went online to Neato's website) and some of the tips that others have (there's really useful help pages).

Now, I knew before I even started to set this up, that I'd be using this lowest part of the house. This is an area that get the most 'traffic', with Living Room, TV area and 'Office Corner'. I also knew that (having seen Daleks on Doctor Who!) the Neato was never going to be able to negotiate stairs. So, picking out a suitable corner for the charger / dock, and having everything set; I let it go off to 'learn' the room.

Now, I really wish I'd taken a note of how long I'd left the unit running the first time, as it seemed quite happy to 'skirt' about (in a fairly sensible pattern?). What it did seem to do was concentrate on the area in and around a table (the central leg was perhaps a challenge) and it also seemed to get a little bit baffled by the (fairly thick pile) rug. Again, no great surprises, so no disappointment either.

First in

I've been holding off on doing my review of the 'Neato Botvac D402' (Robotic Vacuum), as I've wanted to get more time to get used to its use, give it a chance to get used to the rooms, and just gather my thoughts.Why? Well, this is exactly the sort of product that I want to 'love'. A 'robotic vacuum cleaner' (and an 'intelligent' one at that) is exactly the sort of thing that the 'future' promised (well, it did in the books that I read as a kid).The 'kit' all appears really nicely thought out, with the main unit (cleaner 'bot), docking station, and usual extras. Installation of the App (onto an iPhone) was also fairly straightforward, with a couple of attempts needed to get it to synchronise up to the unit. No big deal so far.My preference with all 'battery powered' (or certainly 'cordless') devices is to make sure that the batteries have had a proper charge before they are pressed into use; and that'd exactly what I did with this. It also offered me more than enough time to settle down and familiarise myself with the instructions (I went online to Neato's website) and some of the tips that others have (there's really useful help pages).Now, I knew before I even started to set this up, that I'd be using this lowest part of the house. This is an area that get the most 'traffic', with Living Room, TV area and 'Office Corner'. I also knew that (having seen Daleks on Doctor Who!) the Neato was never going to be able to negotiate stairs. So, picking out a suitable corner for the charger / dock, and having everything set; I let it go off to 'learn' the room.Now, I really wish I'd taken a note of how long I'd left the unit running the first time, as it seemed quite happy to 'skirt' about (in a fairly sensible pattern?). What it did seem to do was concentrate on the area in and around a table (the central leg was perhaps a challenge) and it also seemed to get a little bit baffled by the (fairly thick pile) rug. Again, no great surprises, so no disappointment either.First inspection of the unit showed me that it was actua

I have always been a traditional vacuumer up until now and this is my first experience with a robo-vac.Out of the box, the set up of the machine was simple, with my only problem being that I don't have any floor based power sockets so needed an extension cable, but to be honest, that is not the fault of the machine. I then followed the instructions, and let the robot fully charge at its charging base, then when it was ready to go, downloaded the Neato app from the app store. The pairing process was also painless and the vac and my phone were paired in under two minutes.So then, after ensuring that there were no lose wires or cables on the floor, myself and my children sat back to watch the vac do its thing. I have to be honest here, and say that it isn't really a spectator sort, and my 4 year olds got bored pretty quickly. However, after a slow start while the machine 'learned' the room, it then went efficiently up and down in rows along the carpet and over a pretty thick pile rug with no problems. When it had finished, it took itself back to its base and parked up.I also set it going on the kitchen floor, which is just lino'd, and it did this type of floor really well also.This particular model can only hold one floor-plan in its memory so it has to relearn the rooms each time I want to do them, which is a bit of a pain.However, upon emptying the collection tray, I was quite surprised at how much stuff had been picked up from both the carpet and the lino.As my first experience of a robot cleaner, I am quite impressed, however it comes with a hefty price tag so that goes against it. But I guess as the tech gets better it will start to become cheaper too.

Having had an old "random route" style robot vacuum for a few years, we decided it was time fo a new one with mapping. Mapping is important as the random style devices inevitably miss some areas, and waste time repeating their routes. We agonised over various models and finally decided the Botvac D4 was the best so-called "mid price" device (if you can call £479 a mid price!).

First the model name caused some confusion. The Amazon page refers to it both as the D4 and D402. No amount of searching web sites was able to clear up this confusion. The device that came is called D4 so I will stick to that for now.

The hardware appears very well built. When it is running it a highly manoeuvrable device, turning on a sixpence, lifting its body up when it feels stuck to rugs etc, and wiggling its rear-end when it feels it may be able to squeeze its self under a unit. The vacuum and brushing systems are extremely efficient, lifting an unbelievable amount of dirt from floors that we thought were already clean! Carpet, hard floors, and rugs are all easily handled. Even a thick pile rug seems OK, although the D4 does go slower, and you can hear the brush slowing down occasionally. The results are clear to see!

Sadly, the software which drives the D4 is what lets it down. After 4 attempts the device has still not been successful in "exploring" our house, and this is one of the key features we bought it for. The idea is to create a floor plan which should be done automatically by the D4 from the phone app. Sure enough the D4 sets off "exploring" but rather than use the available battery power to quickly run around the rooms, the "exploration" is combined with a cleaning session which takes quite a while. In fact the D4 has not been able to explore all the downstairs rooms on a single charge yet. According the manual, the D4 will go back to its charging base and when enough power has been regained it will carry on where it left off.....not so, as in starts all over again with yet another thorough cleaning ses

Having had an old "random route" style robot vacuum for a few years, we decided it was time fo a new one with mapping. Mapping is important as the random style devices inevitably miss some areas, and waste time repeating their routes. We agonised over various models and finally decided the Botvac D4 was the best so-called "mid price" device (if you can call £479 a mid price!).First the model name caused some confusion. The Amazon page refers to it both as the D4 and D402. No amount of searching web sites was able to clear up this confusion. The device that came is called D4 so I will stick to that for now.The hardware appears very well built. When it is running it a highly manoeuvrable device, turning on a sixpence, lifting its body up when it feels stuck to rugs etc, and wiggling its rear-end when it feels it may be able to squeeze its self under a unit. The vacuum and brushing systems are extremely efficient, lifting an unbelievable amount of dirt from floors that we thought were already clean! Carpet, hard floors, and rugs are all easily handled. Even a thick pile rug seems OK, although the D4 does go slower, and you can hear the brush slowing down occasionally. The results are clear to see!Sadly, the software which drives the D4 is what lets it down. After 4 attempts the device has still not been successful in "exploring" our house, and this is one of the key features we bought it for. The idea is to create a floor plan which should be done automatically by the D4 from the phone app. Sure enough the D4 sets off "exploring" but rather than use the available battery power to quickly run around the rooms, the "exploration" is combined with a cleaning session which takes quite a while. In fact the D4 has not been able to explore all the downstairs rooms on a single charge yet. According the manual, the D4 will go back to its charging base and when enough power has been regained it will carry on where it left off.....not so, as in starts all over again with yet another thorough cleaning session. Worse still, the a

I have been super impressed by this little robot vacuum cleaner after trying it out the past couple of weeks.- The setup is so easy - get it charging, download the app, and you are in control in minutes.- The little robot will give your house a first go, whirring around to get a feel for the place, after which it seems to 'learn' and get a bit more savvy about avoiding obstacles and getting around the rooms.- Despite its small size, it picks up most dirt and dust well, and it is quite satisfying to not worry about little bits of dirt on the floor, knowing the robot will get them later.It has the same downsides as other robot cleaners - a small dust capacity meaning frequent emptying, and limited battery capacity meaning frequent charging.But all in all, this is an outstanding robot vacuum cleaner - easy to set up, with a brilliant app, and effective dirt removal in use.

I've been a bit dubious of the quality of vacuum cleaning robots for ages. They used to just bump into things a then slowly navigate around them simply by using very basic heuristics (I designed something that did this 30 years ago for a gcse project as it isn't very hard). They also had problems returning to their base plate. However after using this Neato robot I can confidently say that all of this has changed.When you get it out of the box it looks like quite an aggressive thing, a bit like something imperial out of star wars. Put the charging stand against the wall and back the cleaner against it. Download the neato app, create an account, and sync it with the robot. So far so good...now you can get it to start cleaning. It's pretty noisy, but it does a surprisingly good job - so good in fact that my son has been relegated from vacuuming the downstairs. It quite happily goes from room to room and when it's finished you get a copy of the map it made whilst vacuuming sent to the app. You can schedule it, you can link it to Alexa based devices (Alexa tell neato to clean) you just need to add the neato skill. It will do hard floors and carpet and to be honest I'm loving it.There are a couple of problems with it however.1. The model I've got doesn't have the edge brushes so it doesn't get right to the edges on a hard floor (to be fair it gets pretty close) but in a kuchen you will find things near your kickstands, skirting boards stay there and you will catch them when you mop up.2. You need to make sure that everywhere is tidy before you set it off. I did get a notification from it whilst I was at work, telling me it was stuck - I could see where it was stuck on the map it had created. Fortunately my wife was working at home so I asked her to rescue it and it had just got stuck on some USB cables that were on the floor. It does a good job of going from carpet to hard floor, floor to base of stools etc, but it can get stuck.3. I've also had it set off my alarm at home, I think it bumped in to a door and shut it,

I am very impressed with this latest generation of the Neato Botvac connected series. The D4 can manage a 75 minute run time on a single charge, enough for a 2-3 bedroom house.I had the unit out of its smart packaging, charging on the base, and connected to the iPhone app, in a matter of minutes. The unit, packaging and app all have a premium feel, and reflect the fact that you are basically investing in a fairly advanced computer.In use, the D4 does an excellent job, as long as you do some prep. These robot cleaners excel at all floor types, provided that the floor is clear of clutter and items likely to get tangled. The way I think of it is: if you put in some work tidying up your floor, you can sit back and let Neato do the vacuuming - the hard bit. Neato does a more thorough job than most humans, taking a scientific approach to floor coverage, guided by lasers, rather than just guessing.Neato can’t go upstairs, move obstacles, or get fully into corners or around the circular base of chair legs. However, the patented D shape is the most effective of all the robot vacuums I’ve tried, and really pulls up pet hair and dust effectively. I recommend the turbo mode rather than eco mode - although turbo uses more battery, Neato is smart enough to return to base when it needs a recharge, and then return to where he or she left off.This D4 model doesn’t have the side brush of the more expensive models, but I’m not convinced it makes much of a difference. The D4 is thorough and didn’t leave anything substantial on the floor, whether on carpet or tile.Cleaning and maintenance is straightforward, and the online or in-app help is genuinely easy to access and follow. Using D4 is a pleasurable experience - these robots have something akin to character - and has made me enthusiastic about home and cleaning automation more widely. The build quality is superb and the unit feels robust in the way a vacuum should - it doesn’t feel like a delicate computer cruising around your living room.For busy, but organised people, the sched

We are absolutely in love with this. It may be that I am not the most technologically savvy person on the planet but I am blown away by how effective the Neato Botvac is. Before we got into the more advanced stage of having it actually map the house, we put it on to a general clean mode just to test it out and it surpassed my expectations by a long shot. I was worried that it wouldn't have the suction power to do more than a superficial job but it actually left the floors (carpet, rugs and hardwood) looking better than they do when I go over them with our traditional vacuum cleaner. I was stunned at just how much it had collected after it's first run through the house. We have a Jack Russell and a cat and they both leave behind a lot of hair. I didn't think the Botvac would be able to handle it all but it did an admirable job, as was evidenced when I emptied it for the first time. Emptying it, by the way, is an absolute breeze. Just take hold of the handle, pull it from its housing, dump out the receptacle and put it back. Couldn't be easier. I was reluctant to attempt the mapping process as I was sure it would be a nightmare but my wife took the reigns and had it mapping the house in no time. The mapping itself is incredible - it emails you a report of exactly where in the house it has gone and is remarkably thorough! It gets into all kinds of little spaces that we generally overlook and has yet to get stuck (it nearly did once and spent a little while doing a 50 point turn to get out from under a chair, but it managed it in the end!) It is worth being aware that it needs to be emptied after every use as the capacity isn't gigantic (though it is more than enough for a day's hoovering). Also, you need to clear the floor of anything that might get in the way like shoes, footstool....basically anything you would move before hoovering int he traditional manner. Most importantly, you will want to remove anything wet and smearable. Our cat left us an unwanted gift next to his litter box. The Botvac ran over it and spr