Neato Botvac D5 Connected Laser Guided Robot Vacuum, Pet & Allergy, Works with Smartphones, Alexa, Smartwatches

I ordered the D5 connected after watching probably 50 online video reviews and reading a lot of website information on the latest robot vacuum tech available. I opted for the Neato line because of the advanced room mapping and methodical cleaning that is promised. I wanted the D5 because it offers the best cleaning power and filtration for pet hair and allergens without going for the top of the line unit. So far, good choice.I want to give a quick summary of my situation.I have two large dogs. 1 Great Dane and 1 Pointer mix. The both shed quite a bit and it has been a hassle to say the least to keep up with vacuuming the dog hair. I could literally vacuum in the morning and it would need another go over later in the afternoon. I have a Dyson D17-Animal Upright so getting the hair up is not a problem... it's having to lug out the upright constantly that's an issue. After a recent couple of large gatherings at our house, I told my wife I plan to purchase the robo-vac to help keep up with the dog hair.So, the unit arrived (3 days earlier than the estimated delivery... Woo-Hoo!!) I un-boxed it and quickly got it setup on our wifi Network (downloading the app on the phone this only takes a few minutes to be up and running). I immediately noticed that the bot had about 76% charge already but I let it top off for about 1/2 hour before I ran it the first time. Now... I have to say, I had vacuumed in the main area of my house... lightly... with my Dyson earlier in the evening as I had some people over to watch a movie.After it had charged about 30 minutes, I decided to let it go on a test run to see how it worked. Well, as I have said, I watched a lot of video reviews and comparisons of these units so I was basically aware of what to expect... but... you just can't appreciate how intelligent this thing seems to be until you actually watch it in action. I'm a computer programmer and I have done board level development and some robotic programming... even in industrial... so I can appreciate the nuances that go into an AI algorithm. This is very impressive. I have a very odd shaped living area to begin with, but it is really cluttered with a lot of furniture, dog bowls, tv table stand... etc... We didn't really do a lot of setting up our house for the bot before running it the first time. I just wanted to see how it would handle things as they were. Well, it quickly scanned our family room and then began edge cleaning and working in sections cleaning one area at a time until it cleaned: Family Room, Dining Room, Kitchen, Living Room, Main Bathroom and a small hallway. It was really interesting to watch some of the subtleties of how it covered the floor (it would literally skip a small spot which at first a thought was an issue... but it would return to that one spot later and clean it after completing some other task. It knew it missed it... but had to come back to it).When the cleaning was done and it returned to the docking station to charge, I removed the bin to see what it manged to pick up. I was absolutely shocked... the bin was stuffed completely full of dog hair, dust, dirt and other debris. I couldn't believe my eyes. Where the heck did it find all this as I had just done a light vacuuming earlier (see pics). I started walking the area checking to see if it had missed anything major and was again stunned to see how well it cleaned. I should also mention, we have hard floors throughout (tile in the main living area and laminate in the master bedroom) so I didn't test it on carpet. Other than a couple of spots where it wasn't able to get to the dirt because we hadn't moved the furniture to optimize it's cleaning... it didn't miss anything. I also want to mention, it cleaned 570 square feet in about 56 minutes. When it started the cleaning, it was at about 85% charge. When it finished, it was at 52% charge. The battery life is very impressive.My son took it into his room the next day and did a 1 room cleaning. He was shocked how much dirt and hair it picked up from his room. I guess we don't realize how dirty our floors get until we see it.Couple of things to note about the setup and unboxing:1 - The wifi setup is a little confusing as the app automatically connects to the robot then asks for YOUR wifi. Initially, I was confused and thought it was asking my to find the robot to connect to but couldn't (the online videos show it doing that way). They must have changed this in a firmware update.2 - All of the online information says you must use the included USBTG (usb tether) included with the unit to upgrade the firmware. This was not the case. Apparently, the latest release of firmware is now OTA (over the air) capable so the robot upgraded right over the app / wifi. Nice.3 - This unit does not include any spare filters or brushes (side brush). They are on replacement reminders in the app, so you'll likely want to order some replacements before too long.I currently have this unit scheduled to clean my main living area every day except Sunday at around 2:30 PM. We will have to see how it holds up from a maintenance standpoint and I will likely update my review with more information in a couple of months with any maintenance tips / concerns. I also should mention, I was an early adopter in Robot Vacuum technology. My first unit was one of the early Roomba vacs about 9 years ago. At that time, it was more of a gimmicky... nice to have techie thing that wasn't really practical. With the new technology and efficiency of what's available today... these are viable appliances in your house. Won't replace the manual vacuum. But I won't be needing to pull it out more than once a week and probably less than that.12/14/17 Update - This robot has been cleaning my main part of the house at least 5 times a week since I got it. Other than a few minor glitches (getting stuck a few times) it has kept our house so much cleaner than it used to be... with the two big dogs. But... the main reason I wanted to post this update. I just received a notification today... the D3 and D5 (which I have) just got a firmware update... they now support the area cleaned map like the Botvac Connected (shows an actual map of the area that was cleaned that the robot detected after the job is done). It doesn't show a live update like the Xiaomi does, but this is an awesome update!! :) very cool. This way, I can see if the robot was seeing anything weird when it cleaned. Image of the first cleaning map is included (see my pics below).12/23/2018 Update - After less than 1 year, sadly my Botvac D5 started acting oddly and would navigate erratically and report bizarre cleaning maps. It would get lost in the middle of the room and run out of battery without returning to recharge. I contacted support and after about 2 months of back and forth sending the unit in for repair, Neato determined the unit should be replaced and they sent me a new Botvac D6 upgrade. So, in general, I'm still happy with Neato because, although the process was a little frustrating at times, they did support the unit while under warranty (warranty had almost expired). I wasn't thrilled with the repair depot that they instructed me to send the unit to. It's in Texas / US and I looked the location up and it's a 3rd party repair center. They were not very helpful as they didn't package my unit very well when returning it and they never sent me anything regarding what was diagnosed or repaired with the unit. I did inform Neato of this in case they wanted to keep track of how their contracted repair centers are performing. So far, very happy with the D6.

Well, I really wanted to love this robot. I have had a Roomba for 10 years and it finally just stopped working, so I decided to take a chance on a Neato D5. The first few times I used the robot, it liked to think that it was spiderman and climb the walls and then send me messages that it needed to be rescued. I eventually learned how to prepare the house for vacuuming and this problem was resolved (please keep in mind, that there is SIGNIFICANT preparation that needs to be made so that this thing does not get stuck constantly)!! I mean, there is moving furniture to be done, and some rooms, like a bathroom, just cannot be cleaned by the robot at all because there are too many tight spots in which it WILL get stuck. After a few weeks, I was getting frustrated because the robot would randomly stop in the middle of the floor and not return to the base. In addition, it just WILL NOT stay connected to the wifi. I have to reconnect it several times a week. I got in touch with customer service and emailed back and forth with a lovely human who was trying to be very helpful, and we actually escalated the conversation to the phone. She was getting all of the details and it seemed that she was getting the idea that this thing might be a lemon, and then she left the phone and returned and she was like a different person. Clearly, a la The Incredibles, someone had told her to stop actually trying to help me, so she told me that my problem was user error and gave me some more ideas of how to rearrange my house so that my robot could clean it and suggested that I spend some more money to buy boundary markers to solve a problem that was clearly a robot problem. (My robot keeps getting stuck under the bed when I have a bed skirt that it really ought to recognize as a wall, but it does not.) Mind you, I got the robot so it could clean the whole level while I was at work and this is NOT a reasonable expectation, apparently.Takeaways: this robot makes grand claims up to which it just does not live. If you watch the video and see the device climbing up over the base of the table and continuing on its merry way and think that this will happen in your own home, it will not. Your robot will get stuck and send a pathetic message to you to help. It is good at cleaning when it is actually cleaning, but you will not be able to set it to clean and reliably come home to a spotless floor with the robot happily charging itself back up to wait for your next request.By the way, as I was trying to do the right thing and work with customer service because I REALLY wanted this thing to live up to my expectations, my return window at Amazon closed. If I hadn't wasted so much time with unhelpful "customer service" from neato, I would have returned the botvac to Amazon and I would have gotten another Roomba. Of course, the Neato people will not consider a return, despite the fact that the machine is not working as expected. I will probably not buy another one of these when this one kicks the bucket.Update: 9/22/2017: I absolutely hate this machine. I am stuck with it because customer service at Neato is infuriating and they keep telling me that it is my fault that the thing doesn't work as it should. The latest fun time is that the damn thing keeps going through this fun little dance at least once a week: It finishes cleaning and then will (sometimes) find the dock. It starts charging and then decides that it is going to flash an orange symbol at me (after a full charging cycle) instead of the green -" I am done" symbol. It claims it is disconnected from the wifi, even though it is not and has already told me that it is done cleaning. At this point, even after charging for hours, I am unable to get it to clean. Honestly, at this point, I couldn't care less if it is connected to my phone All I want it to do is vacuum. If I could send this thing back and replace it with a Roomba, I totally would. I'd like to throw it out the window, but I am not that person who can spend $600 on something and then throw it away. Back to the regular vacuuming I guess.Edit 2/12/2021: I had to come back and update because nothing has gotten better and I see that Neato has stopped selling this particular vacuum. They have likely realized that it is a piece of junk - like I told them when I purchased it 4 years ago. This thing frustrates me at least once a month, getting disconnected from the wi-fi and shutting down. The app is no better than the machine. Please, for the love of all that is good, go buy the iRobot. Run away from Neato and never look back.

This is an amazing little robot. I have 1 white Balinese cat and black hardwood floors. We constantly have fur tumbleweeds after every 4 days on our floors and so much dust/dander that shows on the black wood. This botvac is so effective it looks like I polished my floors! I don't know if it's the filter, or the brushes, or what, but I have a Dyson and it does not get the same results. I would have to use my Dyson + mop my floors with a shining solution to get the same look. We have 1400 sq ft split between two floors. Each floor takes max 45 minutes and it does a thorough job. No issues with it in the first couple days. We will have to use the magnetic roll in 2 areas so it doesn't get stuck under the coffee table (the robot is 1cm too high for it but it still tries to get under it since nothing is hitting it's bumper) but other than that it works perfectly. It also has no problem to watch out for the stairs when it's working on the upstairs floor and I've seen it work in the dark. I also find it the perfect size to get under the majority of furniture. As far as rugs go, we have 1 medium pile thick rug and it works fairly well on it. It does slow down a bit on the rug, but i don't think that's a negative since it sucks quite a bit of dirt out of it.

Mi perro tira muchísimo pelo. La Neato funciona de maravilla. El servicio de soporte técnico a través del chat en la página de internet es excelente.La app no sirve en México.

Update May 2020:Connection issues ,floor plan load issues in conjunction with the getting stuck issues, it works about half the time. I will not buy another one.Update Jan 2020:My love relationship has become a love-hate relationship that is quickly deteriorating. I've had it almost a year and I cannot run it without it getting stuck 50% of the time. Forget scheduling it to run automatically. You need to be home to liberate it otherwise the battery will drain and you need to start all over. It is super annoying. I have many no-go lines for trouble areas where it gets stuck but it still finds new places to get stuck.Original Review:I will start by saying that after a rough start, I LOVE my Neato! I say rough start because it took a while for the app to prompt me to apply the firmware update to my Neato. I waited several hours while it charged, but tried my first mapping run before the update. Big mistake. It spent 15 minutes trying to jam itself under my couch, completely scratching the top, before the app finally offered me the firmware update that includes the better navigation and the no-go lines! Once I applied the update, it worked like a charm! Neato was great about it when I explained the situation, and is sending me the new dustpan I requested (most of the scratches are on the dustpan cover). Anyway, I selected the Neato D5 based on a lot of research and based on the following factors. It has the laser guided navigation, app-controlled no-go zones, and as much (actually more) sucking power than the top of the line Roomba, but for less than half the price (I got it on sale). Plus, I prefer the D shape for getting into corners, and the bigger brush. Reason I chose the D5 instead of a higher model, is it has the same suction as the D6 and D7. The only features I am missing from the higher models is extra battery life (which I don't need), a different brush (which can be bought separately), and the ability to go to a specific room to clean (I compensate by adjusting my no-go lines). The D5 was the perfect balance for features and price, and in my opinion the best value for money! As for how it compares to a real vacuum, obviously not as powerful as a full canister vacuum, but even after only a few days between vacuums, it manages to pick up quite a bit of dirt (second pic) - not even sure where it all comes from! I don't have pets, and I don't cook, so no big messes... In summary, I highly recommend the Neato D5! It is a total game changer when it comes to my weekend chores.Edit: Forgot to add, in Canada, Amazon does not have the Alexa skill for the Neato, so you cannot control it with Alexa unfortunately.

We have carpets on 2 floors of our house. I can't get over how well the robot does getting them clean. I've tested on the entry way as well where there is alot of salt build up in the winter and the d5 gets it all.The mapping out and coverage of the cleaning area is spot on. And the d5 always makes it back to the dock.Basically once we set the schedule we do the have to worry about it except to empty the bin and some light cleaning of the brush. But that was more at the beginning. Now it just maintaines once a day and that is very light work.Over all I'm extremely pleased with my purchase. Buying a second one to keep our basement clean.An update: after a couple months use.Still no regrets. We have 3 of them now. One for each floor of the house and we love them. No problems at all.It's eating up the dog hair without hesitation. I can't get over how great this product is.Ive owned roomba and some lesser known brands none of them could handle the dog hair from our 3 dogs. The neato d5 gets through it all. Highly recommended.

The media could not be loaded. I don't want to be dramatic, but our experience with the Botvac D5 and Neato customer support has been a bit of a nightmare. I should start by telling you that we are now on our 3rd Botvac D5, and as I type it is essentially malfunctioning across our house. I should note that in spite of our significant issues right off the bat, it is against Neato's policy to offer refunds (Edit: This is what I was told when I initially sought a refund; however, since then I was offered a refund after calling in), so we are essentially stuck with the robot (which cost us nearly $700 , plus a $60 two year extended warranty. It should be noted that we keep our house clean. We purchased the robot to help clean up dog hair so that we didn't have to vacuum every second day.1st Robot - After four total uses it completely died. I believe they suspected a battery issue. I contacted neato, tried all their steps and they agreed to send me a new robot (after I mailed the robot back and they received it). They were slow with responses and it took around 3 weeks to get a new robot sent out.2nd Robot - Ran 3 times before it's left bumper (detects collisions with objects) became stuck in place, making the robot believe it was constantly in contact with a foreign object, which led it to constantly drive backwards before ultimately shutting down and telling us that it was stuck. Neato's only solution for our brand new robot was to quickly and aggressively tap the bumper for 30 seconds hoping it would free itself. It did... temporarily. This became an ongoing issue to the point that before each run (and sometimes midway through the run) we would have to perform this procedure in the hopes that it would make it through the vacuum. This was unacceptable for a brand new $700 machine, so we contacted Neato and asked for a refund (which they explicitly declined), and ultimately settled upon yet another replacement, which we had to push for.3rd Robot - This one has been a real lemon. I have attempted to run this thing 6 times since we got it. Not once has it come even close to vacuuming the house. Each time it's tried it has fumbled around the house, occasionally violently bashing into things, and running it's battery into the red, before clumsily trying to dock with things on the other end of the house from the actual charging station. I came in from working outside to find that it was attempting to dock with our couch. The dock is placed in a clear area with no obstructions. Despite the issues with the previous robots, they could at least vacuum the house well AND dock themselves independently without an intervention. Each of the 6 times I've tried to use this robot I've ultimately had to stop it, pick it up, and manually place it in the dock to charge.I contacted Neato and they said what they always say: Clean the brush, clean the sensor, blow out the laser with compressed air. Today I diligently performed the suggested steps AGAIN and have been documenting the catastrophe that is this robot with my phone. It has given me the "clear my path" error no less than 7 times, and each time has been nowhere close to being stuck on ANYTHING. Once it gave me the error when it was literally in the middle of an open floor with nothing around it for 5 feet. It would almost be comical if it weren't so frustrating.I didn't want to unfairly judge Neato after the first robot, or maybe even the second... but this is my THIRD robot. We have gotten maybe a grand total of 20 vacuums out of our 3 different robots, many of which were incomplete or fraught with errors. WHEN it worked, it actually worked well, and we were happy with the level of cleaning it provided, but the issues we have experienced FAR outweigh the occasional cleaning.I WOULD NOT recommend this robot to anyone. For ~$700 I expect better... but hey, at least it's on sale right now ;)