mills review Neato XV 21 Allergy Automatic Cleaner
We are in our 70's and age and arthritis have made a few household chores less than enjoyable. Especially wrestling an upright sweeper around. I had been looking at these things for some time and wondering just what kind of job they would do. Finally, I decided to give one a try. I had only heard of the Roomba but just gave Amazon the general search parameters of "Robot Vacuum" I chose the Neato because of the generally good reviews it had. My only concern was our little dog. He, like a lot of dogs, is scared to death of the vacuum. We need not have worried. He keeps trying to get it to play with him. I think he thinks we got him a pet. The vacuum, itself does an excellent job and it only took us a couple of days to learn what areas it had trouble negotiating and change the setup so the vacuum could find it's way through. Now it's completely supervision free and the only thing we have to do is keep it's bin empty. It's even considerate enough to thank you when clean out the bin. During all our 50 years of marriage we often joked about "Bridget," the maid who didn't get her work done. As in, I guess that girl forgot the dishes again, I'll have to do them myself, etc. Now we have a Bridget and while she won't do dishes or windows, she does a remarkable job with the carpet.
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Oh Em Gee!!! I have no idea how I survived before this little robot came into my life. I have 3 cats and felt like the vacuum cleaner was an extension of my right arm.
BalasHapusNeato arrived to my home very tightly packaged. The box and packaging were easy to open and no fingernails were sacrificed in the process.
My children must walk me through how to include a photograph in an email and how to operate my smart phone, but I'm here to tell you, ANYBODY can program this robot.
First you must set the clock mode on the robot in either civilian (12 hour) or military (24 hour) time. Next I chose my preferred language for the remainder of my programming choices. Now I had to program on which days, Sunday through Saturday, and at what time on those days, I wanted my robot to work. This was all accomplished with an up, down, and backward arrow, which are very clearly marked. Eazy, peezy, lemon squeezy!!! Now the hard part.......waiting for Neato to charge.
The directions state that the charger must be placed 3 feet from a corner and they are not joking about this. I initially decided my robot would charge under a bench in the hallway. There is a 3 foot clearance under the bench, however the robot interpreted the legs of the bench as corners and it would power down about 2 feet from the charger instead of backing up to it to make the charging connection. After I relocated the charger, the problem was solved.
I encourage everyone to view the short video of how this robot operates. It moves back and forth across the floor much like an old dot matrix printer, whereas the Roomba brand bounces around the room like the old Pong video game. (I suppose I've just dated myself big time!!!)
Now, let's talk about performance. My little robot friend picks up dust and pet hair as well as my Oreck vacuum! Sorry Dave(Oreck). If I had to find a fault, it would be that Neato is higher profile and cannot fit under my coffee table or sofas. This is a very small inconvenience given it's ability for suction. What the heck, we still have to do the job for real a couple of times per month anyway. I just want to get the cat hair tumbleweeds off my hardwood floors.
The cost for Neato is a bit higher than the other brands. If this is a problem, I can suggest ordering from Amazon which would qualify you for free shipping. Another option would be to order online from Bed Bath and Beyond. It is not available in the store. You can still use your 20% off coupon to make up for the shipping cost and take comfort in knowing that this company allows their customers to return anything if you are not satisfied.
If I had to choose between Neato or my dishwasher, Neato wins hands down every time. The only thing that would make my robot perfect is if it would actually vacuum the cats!!!
Just got our XV-21 today -- its the first robot vacuum we've ever owned. I was sitting by the door waiting for FedEx like a kid on Christmas, only to be vaguely disappointed when I had to charge it for an hour before I could run it :( At any rate, the first run went well -- it stopped on two occasions: once on a VERY large and thick frayed thread from one of our carpets (the rest of its tasseled edges gave it little problem) -- I just picked the robot up and the tassel unspooled on its own, and placed it right back and started it up again, and the second time when it managed to get a bit lost between a large planter and the base of a spiral staircase-- it stopped because it couldn't navigate -- nudging it a few inches got it back to work. After finishing 3 1/2 of the 4 rooms it had access to, it returned to its base successfully, recharged, then finished up a tiny bit it had missed.
BalasHapusI did try out the spot cleaning (easy as pie) and the barrier (worked fine). The robot has a remarkable ability to get itself extricated from tangles by backing up and raising its chassis up (fairly entertaining to watch). The bee-dance back to its charger is also fun.
The vacuum isn't terribly loud (I've heard complaints that the XV-11 sounds like a jet engine), certainly not compared to a standard upright. It did the entire first floor (not including charging) in about an hour and a half. The charging adds about 1-2 hours to the process, as a heads up.
Happy with the purchase, thus far!
As an owner of a small business, we were experiencing difficult financial times. One of the things we cut from out budget was the weekly office cleaning people. Since we lost our cleaning people, the housekeeping quickly started to go downhill fast and got bad after a few months. It was impossible to get any of the employees to vacuum the 5,000+ square feet office, for it was not in their "job description".
BalasHapusMeanwhile at home, we had two indoor cats, despite me being allergic to cats. I had two air filters running 24/7 and did weekly hand vacuuming, but this did little to relieve my constant coughing for the past 12 years. My coughing also continued in the office. My wife was getting really worried and thought it might be more than allergies. My doctor tells me my allergies will get worse over time, not better. And then our last cat finally passed away last month.
I then made the executive decision to have the company purchase the Neato XV-21 for the office (and for me to bring it home for the weekends). Before purchasing the unit, I reviewed for the past few months all the different robot vacuums that are out there before settling on the XV-21. Getting a robot vacuum would solve the problem of getting someone vacuuming the office (and also to do some serious vacuuming at home since the cat was gone).
The features that sold me were that it had intelligent room mapping, methodical cleaning, a true vacuum cleaner, upgradeable firmware, returns to charging station, the two different beater brushes, and the allergy filter.
The first day we got it, it cleaned the office in three charges. We were amazed as we watched it work and how it got around all the office chairs and clutter. The floor plan of our office is a long rectangle and is a rat-maze with all the cubicles. It picked up a lot of dirt, staples, rubber bands, hole punch confetti, and dead leaves. A couple of our visiting clients were also amazed watching the Neato doing its job.
The drawback we quickly found out is the vacuum noise. It is loud enough to make it difficult to hold a phone conversation when it is nearby. It is almost as loud as a hair dryer. Therfore, I have it scheduled to start up 15 minutes before closing time, just to make sure it is operating properly before leaving. I have it scheduled to run every weeknight. In the following mornings, we usually find it back at its charging station. There was a couple time where we found it stuck and it could not get out, but we have since remedied those situations. I leave telltale clues at the far ends of the office almost every evening to see if the XV-21 was slacking off or not in the middle of the night. But each time it cleaned up my "traps". (A great performance review!)
I have taken the XV-21 home and it has done very well there at home. It picked up all the cat hairs / dander to the point I am no longer coughing at home or at the office. We nearly ran it to death when at home. (Remember, I was desperate to stop coughing.) I finally have relief after over a decade of misery.
We have had the XV-21 for three weeks now and run it daily. As I am writing, the XV-21 is cleaning my house the third time today. I read some of the negative reviews other had and did not experience their situations. Okay, so it does not clear a 1" strip along corners / walls, but so what, the advantages greatly outweigh the disadvantages. Also, I have no issues with quality. It has not broken down and maybe it is better than the earlier units. Our unit is extremely reliable after pushing it to the limits and I am very glad we got the XV-21. My wife is also extremely pleased with it and she is also relieved my coughing at the home and in the office are now over. Now if it can do the dishes and take out the trash, I would give it 6 stars!
BalasHapusI only bought it because I saw it working at my friends' house, their baby started crawling and they have pets so they have it running everyday to keep their floors clean. When I saw how much pet hair and dirt it picks up I had to get one and it wasn't bumping all over, it was pretty smart getting around things. My friend told me about some hiccups that happen once in a while but we are both Software Engineers and I guess we appreciate all the things that it does compared to the occasional bugs so no big deal for us.
BalasHapusI live alone and in a one three bedroom, two bathroom house mostly tile floors here in Florida, I have two cats and I hate cleaning, I usually wait until all the cat hair rolls up in balls and waves like a wheat field before I clean or when people come to visit and make me. The neato cleans the whole house's floors in about 4 hours, it takes a about 2 of those to recharge in between and I have it running while I'm at work. I vacuumed first before setting it up to start clean and it's been picking up a full load of cat hair and dirt every day for the last month and their container is not small. The body is pretty simple and I only see the roller with brushes that you can exchange with one that came with without brushes, not sure why you would use that one, and the belt that attaches to the roller. The dirt container is really easy to remove and to empty. It comes with a strip that you can put in places to block the Neato from going there but I didn't need to use it.
Now about the hiccups... the Neato is pretty smart and it seems it can go over and around anything, I watched it in amazement how it does this even in really tight spots, and going over or around cables, clothes, cats, or me, but sometimes maybe once a week it would stop and show its message that it got stuck in a spot that doesn't seem hard to get out of, other times it seems it overestimates its batteries and it runs out before it can get back to its charging station, one time I saw it going to charge and it ran out of juice so close to the charging station that it made me laugh, when this stuff happens I just grab it and put it in the charger. After a hiccup sometimes it remembers it didn't finish and it goes back to clean after is charged, and other times you have to restart it manually, I just leave it because I have it set to run everyday anyway. Also it doesn't get too close to the wall so in my only carpeted room I can see the edge it never cleans but considering how clean the rest is I don't mind touching up the sides once in a while. One day something spooky happened, I watched it stop and start chirping, which it does when it needs help, when I went to check in the little screen said "my view is blocked please clear my view and press OK" or something like that, but it was in the middle of a room, so I just clicked OK and it restarted and finished cleaning as normal, maybe I have a ghost in the house I don't know. That's about all the hiccups so far, setting up the schedule and clock is really easy and it has another option to spot clean but I haven't used it and the cats don't get scared since is not really loud and it shuts off it's vacuum when is coming back from a room or going to charge, some people might find it annoying that it makes noises over tile because some of its wheels are solid and not rubbery so every time it goes over the tiles you hear it click-clack but that's if you are there when it cleans. Even if it breaks in a year to me it was worth it and I would probably get another one.
As someone who has owned many models of the Roomba over the years it was time for another Robotic Vacuum. I have 3 dogs and 4 cats so I have constant fur balls and toy shreddings around my house. I have not been impressed with some of the newer Roombas compared to the older ones as believe it or not the newer versions would get stuck on rugs easier. I did some research since there are now many brands of Robotic vacuums on the market to choose from.
BalasHapusI have tile throughout with occasional area rugs. I got my Neato last night and already I'm in love! Compared to the Roomba, it is smart! it scans my rooms, knows where to go, when it's time to charge it returns to it's base remembering where it left off. All the while it hasn't gotten stuck on anything and it's not constantly banging against my furniture and cabinets. It has suction which none of my roombas have ever had. Already between playing with it last night, and then again this morning I can see what a superior job it's doing at picking up the furballs and toy shreddings and navigating through my house. And as far as cleaning the machine it's a snap compared to keeping the Roomba clean and fit. I think even my dogs are appreciating the fact that it's not constantly running into them!
Absolutely love this vacuum!