Kentcart wrote:
I have owned both a Roomba (6000 series) and a Neato (D5 series). The Roomba is the better machine IMHO for a household with carpets, pets, and an active family. The Neato would probably work best on hard floors or short carpet, in a household where everything has its place and stays there.
With the Roomba, every day it would just run and clean, almost never having to be rescued or finding that it had just given up and stopped. It does not use LIDAR to navigate like the Neato, instead relying on randomness and spending enough time vacuuming to get the job done. As a result, you always wonder if it did, in fact, vacuum every square foot of the house. However, rarely did I come home to find the Roomba missing or the dirt bin empty. I think if the cat had stayed on the floor long enough, the Roomba would have sucked him up and kept right on going. I ran this machine until the tread on the wheels wore out.
The Neato overly relies on LIDAR and its internally-stored floor layouts. The LIDAR allows the machine to run back and forth like a person would vacuum, so I am always confident that it has covered the entire room/space. That is, so long as the LIDAR recognizes where it is on its internal map. I have watched Neato run into my sleeping dog (he's too old to care about the vacuum anymore) and because the obstruction does not match the internal map, Neato simply gave up on vacuuming and instead sent out its electronic "Help" message, rather than work its way around the obstruction using its bumper sensors. Move a piece of furniture or put a large box/object on the floor and you are rolling the dice on whether Neato will work. Neato does not like carpet with medium or longer threads. Such carpet interferes with the side-brush, which causes the rubber pulley to spin on the motor. This causes the pulley to stretch and the brush to stop moving. Replacing the pulley is a cast-iron biotch that requires disassembling the machine. Also, Neato struggles to simply move across the carpet, causing it to consume more battery power, which reduces the amount of time it can run before having to recharge. Finally, if Neato encounters a problem, it tends to quickly surrender and call for help, rather than work its way around any issues or obstacles. As a result, often the room/house only gets partially vacuumed until I get home to fix whatever issue Neato encountered.
Summary: Neato is the expensive girlfriend who operates best when everything is perfect, but throws a fit when something unusual or unanticipated happens. Neato refuses to problem-solve, instead yelling "HELP" and shutting down until the cavalry arrives. Roomba is like the Energizer Bunny, it just keeps going; usually in random and unexplained directions, but it never stops and nothing stands in its way. It may not get to the destination in the most efficient or logical manner, but it never quits trying and usually gets the job done without yelling for help.
Well there ya go. Thanks for that.
War is god
