Neato XV-21 robot vacuum review

I wouldn't say I'm out-right lazy but I am always looking for ways to be more efficient in anyway I can. Being creative and always looking for a better way to do things is almost a necessary trait to possess in the IT field and helps in most other aspects of life as well.

Last year, my fiancee and I moved into a 2 bedroom condo with mostly hardwood floors. The only carpet in the place is on the stairs and the hallway between the 2 bedrooms. The rest are these beautiful, mildly dark, reddish hardwood floors. My only complaint is how dusty it gets. We change our AC filter out every couple months but other than that, there's not much more that I'm aware of to cut-down the amount of dust in the house. We clean our place weekly but every weekend, I sweep up what feels like a ton of dust and crumbs. With that and the fact that we just adopted a pug, our floors get dirty in no-time. The same day we got Wayne (the pug), my fiancée gave me the green-light to get a robot vacuum.

Here's the things I needed it to do:

• A decent job at cleaning. Frankly, I understand that robot vacuums aren't perfect but they've come a long way. It doesn't have to completely replace my broom/dustpan but it's got to at least do a decent job. 
• It needs to have scheduling functionality. Though it wouldn't be too much trouble to not have this functionality, most of the newer higher-end robot vacuums have a schedule that you can input. When the time on the schedule comes, the vacuum turns on and does it's thing. 
• It needs to have a docking station of some sort. Just as with the schedule functionality, the vacuum needs to be able to do it's thing without me worrying if I remembered to get it out of the closet. 
• It needs to have a large enough dust-bin. Some of these things have really small dust-bins, if any at all. There's a couple units that just pick-up dust via a microfiber pad. If you have anything bigger than a small dust bunny than it will just get pushed around. Our condo is about 1200 sq ft so it only needs to be able to do 1 floor on a dust-bin. 
• It needs to have some kind of intelligent scanning of where it's been and where it's going. 

For all of these needs, I first looked at Roomba's products. The world of robot vacuums is a small one and Roomba is arguably the biggest name in it. When you say you got a "robot vacuum" to your friends or family, they probably won't immediately know what you're talking about. However, if you told them you got "a Roomba", they'd instantly picture one of those saucer-like contraptions scooting across their floor like they've seen in Skymall, on QVC and at Best Buy.

I didn't actually buy a Roomba. They have several different models that change almost bi-annually and cost anywhere from $400 up to $600! While there were lots of people who said they loved theirs, there were just as many complaining about how weak the vacuum power of the unit is, how small the dust bin was, how frequently the brush needed cleaning, how often just one of the wheels got stuck, etc, etc. For me, the biggest deal-breaker for the Roomba (on top of the frequent poor user reviews) was the navigation. Every video I found of a Roomba in action showed it scooting along in a straight line until it hit something; Not banging into it or knocking anything over. Just a gentle bump. It would then turn a random degree, scoot along until it hit something again. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Other users noted that the Roomba may miss spots sometimes because of this terrible navigation. It'll also obviously spend plenty of battery going over spots it's already gone over. Roomba has heard some of the complaints about the units and have responded with producing better models. The newer and nicer models come with larger dustbins, scheduling, docking stations, etc. However, these features are usually found on the higher-end roomba units and they haven't really changed their navigation methods. If you're looking for a "budget" roomba, you can forget about the improvements. They're hundreds of dollars cheaper for a reason. In Roomba's defense, there's some features and technology there that doesn't seem to be in any of the other robot vacuums, including the Neato models, which I'll touch on later.

For this reason, I started looking at other companies. There's a handful of companies making robot vacuums and they're mostly competing in the budget segment ($100 to $300). The only other company I noticed that seem to compete with the Roomba was Neato. At the time I was shopping, Neato had 3 models; The XV-11, XV-12 and the XV-21. The XV-11 and 12 seemed identical with the XV-21 being their more powerful HEPA-filtered "pet and allergy" model. I went with the XV-21 and so far it's been really great.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THE NEATO

The Neato models actually have a navigation system that makes sense. Upon start-up, the unit will scan the floor to see what obstacles lay ahead, mapping out the room. It continues scanning as it's vacuuming so it's able to account for people, pets and any other moving objects. It also has sensors on the front corners, bumpers on the front so it can tell when it's hit something, and a sensor on the front bottom as a drop sensor to make sure it doesn't go off the stairs or off a step. The unit begins by doing a small perimeter and then cleaning within that perimeter. When it's done with one section, it moves onto the next. 

It's pretty common for these robot vacuums to get stuck on things such as cables, other items in the room, rugs with large fringe on the edges, etc. The Neato units are still susceptible to such things but can use their 2 front wheels to lift one side of the unit about 2" to 2.5" to get itself un-stuck. It can lift itself on each wheel independently too. 

The brush features bristles and a rubber squee-gee-like material to pick up hair, dust and other small items. Air is filtered through a small HEPA filtration system and all of the debris is kept in a pretty decent-size dust-bin. It's not near the size of what my upright vacuum can hold but it's not supposed to be. It's big enough to hold 600 sq ft of dust and pet-hair from my first floor. 

When the unit is done or when it's running low on power, it will shut off the vacuum and navigate back to the base-station to charge. If it wasn't finished when it came back to charge, it will then go back to where it left off and continue vacuuming once the unit is charged.

WHAT COULD BE BETTER

The newer and higher-end Roomba models have a small edge brush on a side of the unit. As it's going forward, this edge brush pulls dust and debris away from the wall and info the path of the main roller. The Neato doesn't have this (but then again, neither do a lot of robot vacuums). The Neato does do a good job at navigating itself up to the edge of the wall or furniture but it it could use such a feature to get the whole edge instead of most of it. 

This might be getting nit-picky but there's no handle on the unit. Most of the Roomba models have a handle to carry them by. For me, I move the unit from one floor to the other every day and while it's not too heavy to carry (I can carry the unit in one hand holding it by the space between the edge and one of the wheels with the base station in the other hand), a handle would've been nice for people that do move the unit frequently. If you have a single-story home, you'll hardly ever need to move the unit.

Some of the Roomba units have dirt detection, which has been a common feature in up-right vacuums for years. However, in the dirt-sensing Roomba units, it can know that it needs to back up and go over a particularly dirty spot to make sure it gets everything. How well does it actually work? I have no idea. However, the Neato doesn't have this. When it goes over a given area, that area is clean as far as the Neato is concerned, whether it got everything or not. 

IN CONCLUSION

For what it's worth and without spamming this post with a bunch of pictures of my house, no robot vacuum will be perfect and your mileage may vary. If you have a simple floor plan like we do, there aren't a lot of things the vacuum can get stuck on. It also means that you can't just leave your shit all over the floor. It will only vacuum what it can get to. Also, robots vacuums are still somewhat easily fooled. Many models feature a drop-sensor to keep it from barreling down a flight of stairs or off a step. An area rug with a dark border can trigger such a sensor into keeping the robot only on the rug until it runs out of battery. This doesn't mean it will definitely happen to you but you have to try it out and if it works, awesome. If not, then you might need to make some minor changes or wait for the tech to get better. 

The Neato XV-21 is a very good vacuum and I'm quite happy with my purchase of it. I couldn't justify it before getting the dog but after seeing just how much hair he sheds daily, it only took a week for this little vacuum to earn a place in our home.