Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this robotic vacuum a couple of weeks ago form a different retailer because Amazon wasn't stocking them yet. I had heard of robo vacs before, but always just kind of perceived them as a novelty device that couldn't possibly serve any real function. Many of the reviews of earlier generation vacs supported this view. However I was intrigued and after spending some time researching what was currently on the market I ultimately decided on a Neato due to its apparently more "intelligent" navigation as opposed to the somewhat random logic of the competitors, as well as the cleaning results I had seen from the Botvac D series. I went with the Botvac Connected because I like the idea of communicating with the botvac remotely and because the Connected is the only Neato that comes with a Lithium battery. Plus it was on sale at the time. Initial setup: I picked up the Botvac Connected locally, brought it home, placed it on its charger and paired it to my phone with the installed app. The connection process was relatively painless (despite little discussion of the process in the owner's manual) after I figured out what the botvac was looking for - as with all "smart" devices, in my experience you need to figure out their nuances - but once you do connecting them should be straight forward and after a couple of trial and error attempts the Botvac connected quickly - it took a total of 10 minutes to figure out. In this case you must have the app installed on your device, create a Neato account and add the serial number of your robot, be on the same 2.4 GHz (no 5.8 GHz) network that you want to connect the botvac to, and then perform the connection through the robot's LCD interface. The connection has not been lost since that first pairing, but I am confident that if I need to disconnect for any reason (like to replace the battery etc.) reconnecting will be super quick knowing what I know now. During the connection process the app allows you to name the bot and naturally I named him "Wall E". Charging: Based on the battery indicator, Wall E appeared to come out of the box with a full charge, but I let him rest on his charger for a while just be sure. The two large buttons near the front of the botvac flash at different rates (slow to fast to solid) and with different colors (orange to white) during the charging cycle to indicate the level of charge. This makes it easy to see the charging progress at a glance without having to go up and look at the little LCD display (which also has a charge indicator like that of a cell phone). The charge level is also accessible through the app. First run: I started Wall E's first run using the app in the "Clean House" mode. Watching Wall E turn on and figure out where he is was pretty interesting (though this might be because I've never seen a Botvac in person before). He pulled away from his charging station a few feet, performed a quick scan of his surroundings, turned on his roller brush and started out. I watched him for a while and then let him go do his thing. He is not quiet in the traditional sense, but I was surprised at how relatively quiet he was for a vacuum. If I were sleeping and he came in to the room - I would probably wake up, but I can still carry out a conversation with him vacuuming around my feet and even talked to someone over speakerphone without them noticing that he was running. Of the two rollers, the combo roller (the one that comes installed) is quieter than the blade roller. Performance: On the first run I wouldn't say that I was totally blown away - Wall E seemed to navigate with a little more randomness than I had expected. However, he didn't get stuck anywhere - which could largely be due to the fact that i share with him a disdain for clutter and shiny furniture. I rarely have loose cords on the ground or objects that will otherwise make him question his reality so in this regard we are a match made in heaven. It took him about an hour and 15 minutes to cover 2/3 of the house (total 1800 square feet) on his first charge. He then announced he was low on charge (in robot beep speak) and was returning to the base station to recharge, but he got lost and never made it home. I picked him up and placed him on the charging station and after a few seconds the lights around the home and spot-clean buttons started slowly flashing orange (it was at this point that I realized there is a relationship between these flashing lights and the charge level). I left Wall E alone at his station and went online to see if there were any firmware updates available to remedy some of his quirks (there were none currently). To that point it is not clear if Wall E will receive updates wirelessly or if I will have to use the provided cord to hook him up to a computer. I then decided to check Wall E's dustbin while he was charging and to my shock it was packed full! He didn't indicate that it needed to be emptied, but when I did he graciously thanked me which was thoughtful. After about an hour, at which point I am sad to say I had almost completely forgot about him, Wall E woke up and started off to the room in which he had died. This was both startling and relieving because I wasn't sure that he would remember anything that had happened before he passed out. After about 30 minutes of further cleaning he announced he was done and returned to the base station. This time he made it there but rather than turning around and backing in to charge, he just plowed head first in to the charger. I couldn't help but laugh at him, but I was mostly perplexed. I turned him around, and after emptying his dust bin (it was full again) and cleaning his roller brush (which was caked with hair and lint but is easily removable), I let him sleep. After recharging again for about an hour the lights on the front stayed solid white and the LCD screen was dark. I assume this is his "standby" state. Results: Wall E definitely picked up quite a bit of dirt from the carpet and floors, which I had purposely left lightly soiled to gauge his abilities. They were noticeably cleaner after his first attempt, but I'm sure if I went back with my stand-up vacuum it would pick up more debris. However, I decided to give Wall E another shot and scheduled him to run again that night while we were sleeping. I never heard him run, but my wife, usually a deep sleeper, says she heard him bump in to the bedroom door (after that first night she says she hasn't heard him since). Our dog, who regularly barks at a strong breeze and who was on shaky terms with Wall E from the get go, never woke me up to inform me he was screwing around out there. Honestly I'm sure who to believe. The next morning I had an alert from Wall E on my phone that he had finished cleaning and when I went out to his charging station he was sitting with a full charge and a full dustbin (again). It was immediately apparent that he had had some sort of an epiphany overnight because the carpets now looked much cleaner (couldn't see any missed spots) and the lines in the carpet showed that Wall E had taken a very logical and thorough approach in cleaning the house. This was a relief after the initial experience. I am not sure if Wall E "learns" a map of the house over time but on each subsequent run (there have been about 5) he seems to do it quicker and more efficiently. For me, this has been the greatest surprise and really elevates Wall E from a novelty device to a fully functioning automatic vacuum. Furthermore after a couple of runs on initially dirty floors, Wall E's dustbin doesn't get completely full after doing a whole house clean anymore. This is partly due to the fact that although our dog sheds a lot, he doesn't shed enough between runs (every two days) to completely fill the bin. The floors (carpets especially) get progressively cleaner with each run and after the initial few cleanings the floors stay mostly clean and Wall E just kind of touches them up when he runs, which I really like. The floors never get dirty like they would if you only vacuumed once a week or every couple of weeks. The other reason his bin doesn't get topped off each time he runs is that I switched to the blade roller. The combo roller is insanely effective at cleaning carpets - in my case a little too effective as it pulls out carpet fibers (my stand-up vacuum does this as well) of our relatively old carpet, though I imagine this would not be as much of a problem with newer carpets. Therefore, although the blade roller is slightly louder (especially on hard floors) and presumably doesn't clean the carpet as deeply each time, it doesn't get caked in carpet fibers or stuff Wall E's dustbin with as much carpet. Since the carpets stay so much cleaner being cleaned every other day I see this as a fair trade off (until the carpets get replaced). I will just break out the stand-up whenever I feel like doing a deeper clean, but so far the blade roller has been doing really well on both carpet and hard floors and I haven't had a need for further vacuuming. Impressions: After initially being perplexed by the Botvac Connected, I have come to the conclusion that it really can replace 95% of my floor vacuuming needs. After about two weeks of use Wall E's performance has been consistent. If anything his battery performance has improved and his navigation has gotten smarter (more map, less bump). It has gotten to the point that I don't really have to think about what he is doing other than remembering to pick up any clutter at night before going to bed and emptying the dustbin in the morning when I make the coffee. I have occasionally used the spot clean function and manual control, but in general I just let Wall E run on a schedule. Since I run him at night he doesn't clean our bedroom so occasionally I will put him in there and shut the door so he only cleans that room and the attached bathroom. I have only experienced a "cleaning catastrophe" one time when a phone charging cord on my nightstand was dangling on the floor. Wall E got a hold of it and then proceeded to pull the cord and subsequently the attached alarm clock, lamp and powerstrip off the night stand and across the room. I got an alert on my phone to clear his roller, and when I got home he was just sitting in the middle of the bedroom with a trail of cords and electronics behind him. I was more amused than anything and really just impressed that he was able to tow all that stuff as far as he did before giving up. I view this event as user error and don't fault Wall E in the least - after untangling the cord I pushed the "resume cleaning" button and Wall E carried on as though nothing had happened. The fact that he doesn't have any leftover baggage from the event really just makes me respect him even more. A few things I would like to be improved (but really are secondary in my opinion) would be for Wall E to be able to go to a spot in the house, spot clean, and then know how to return to the base station. Currently, if you manually drive him to the area you want cleaned he doesn't know how to get home so you have to drive/carry him back when he's done. For this reason I usually avoid the "spot cleaning" and "manual cleaning" modes and just wait for him to get that area during his scheduled cleaning. I would also like to see the app improve and show a little more information - for instance I have never received a "bin full" notification despite the fact that the bin has definitely been full a couple of times. This might just not be something this model of botvac is capable of, but it would be a useful feature. As the floors stay mostly clean now, the bin only ever gets 1/2 to 3/4 full after cleaning the whole house, and I just make a point of emptying the bin every morning after he runs so it really isn't an issue for me. Finally, it would be useful to be able to send Wall E off to spot clean specific rooms. I realize that this is a technical challenge, but as far as I am concerned this capability (and the ability to fly) is the only thing separating Wall E from something the Jetsons would have. Conclusions: At this point I am fully satisfied with the performance of our Botvac Connected. After learning how to live with Wall E, I can say without reservation that he would be missed if he decided to move out. My dog is even beginning to warm up to him - but I think there are some deep rooted issues there that may never be fully resolved. If Wall E stays true to the bot I have come to know and respect I can see years of memories being made with him. Also - I've found that if the noise of the botvac bothers you - A bluetooth speaker is a nice upgrade (see picture). Move aside DJ Roomba. UPDATE (11/14/15): I initially wrote this review on 11/7/15 but couldn't post it to Amazon right away. As of 11/14/15 I have a few new observations. 1) I've switched back to the combo brush roller as it really does do a better job on carpets and is considerably quieter. I find that as Wall E runs every other day - the brush doesn't get nearly as packed with hair and carpet fibers anymore so I rarely have to clean it. I still empty the dustbin after a whole house clean and it is about 2/3 full every time. 2) Wall E started behaving strangely a couple of days ago - getting lost and running in to things which led to him getting stuck frequently. I finally did a reset (hold down the home button and then switch off the power switch in the battery compartment) and after doing so he is back to navigating normally. 3) I noticed that on his LCD display he indicates he is running software 2.0.0 now (before it said 1.0.0) so I guess he updated himself wirelessly. This might have led to his navigation issues as he may have needed a reboot to complete the update process (speculation). 4) Wall E will not start a cleaning cycle (spot or whole house cleaning) if the battery is below half charge now. This is a little frustrating because it is a good idea to run lithium batteries down every once in a while which I can't do now. However, when Wall E does a full house clean (starting on a full charge) he doesn't need to go back for a recharge currently so I'm guessing the issue is it won't let you start a cycle when below 50% charge, but it will run below 50% during a cleaning cycle. Not sure though. 5) I will now get "dustbin full" notifications on the LCD display - but these still don't show up in the app - if anything the app will just say error. I was getting a lot of errors messages on my phone and false "dustbin full" messages right before I reset Wall E. Since the reset I haven't gotten an error message on the phone or an errant "dustbin full" on the LCD display. UPDATE 12/1/15 1) My cell phone recently stopped turning on and so I had to install the Neato app on my new phone. After logging in to the account I had created a few weeks ago when first purchasing, I was immediately able to take control of Wall E from the new phone. No need to do anything on the vacuum itself. 2) In the last two weeks Wall E has been working regularly. I stopped using the schedule and just fire him up from my phone before I go to bed. Although the schedule function is nice, I have to tidy up a little bit before running Wall E anyway so I find that it is easiest to just tidy up and then start him via the app. Since the first few issues, Wall E hasn't failed to complete a run. He has adjusted well to our Christmas tree appearing one day while he was sleeping and only attempted to drive up the conical base once or twice before getting over it and driving around. It was great to have him clean up pine needles etc and after having company (people and dogs) over during the last week or so. Everyone that has seen him work has been thoroughly impressed. 3) I have no way of quantifying this but I feel as though the air quality in our house has improved. Pets and carpets lead to trapped dust and smells and vacuuming the carpets every couple of nights seems to help manage this overall situation. My sister visited the other week and before she even knew about Wall E she commented how clean the house looked and smelled - not that we usually live in a pigsty - but in my experience houses with big dogs (like ours) generally have a unique smell of some kind. So that is my anecdotal evidence I am using to counteract any placebo effect I might not be taking in to account, if that makes sense.