Neato XV-11 Robotic Vacuum

The Neato XV-11 robotic vacuum cleaner is comparable to the Roomba both in size and ability with its pressure sensitive bumper at the front. Unlike the Roomba though the bumper on the Neato XV-11 is more of a last resort than the way to navigate a room. This little vacuum uses laser scanning via the top mounted laser scanner. That’s right, it has a laser! Name another vacuum cleaner that has one of those! Using this laser the Neato XV-11 can map out your entire room and plot the best possible course in the most efficient way making models like the Roomba seem outdated with its bump and learn technique.

The clear collection bin is also on the top making it easy to see how full it is and harder to drop bits all over the floor when you empty it, something that often happened with under mounted bins on earlier robotic vacuum cleaners.

The Neato XV-11 has its own charge stand that plugs into the wall and sits on the floor. Simply place the robot cleaner on its stand and schedule the times you want it to begin cleaning using the on-board LCD display. Or you can press the large orange button and it'll begin cleaning immediately.

After testing the XV-11 all over the house it never failed to impress with its ability to navigate accurately around every piece of furniture, covering the entire perimeter of each room and every inch of the middle. When moving from room to room it would make sudden turns into new doorways exiting through them when done and never missed a single room. When its charge got low it would return home in to its charge point, top up and go back to where it was before it had time to finish the job
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Compared to Roomba's random approach of bumping around the room until it learns where it can and can't go, all the while re-doing the same areas more than once while it tried to reach a new part of the room, this is a massive improvement.

The suction and cleaning results are also superior. As with any robot vacuum cleaner, you're not going to get your carpet as clean as you would using an upright cleaner and due to the lack of any side brushes you do get missed debris in the corners. However, I did get to use the XV-11 for a whole week without having to clean the systems internals and that’s in a house with 2 long haired cats, something the Roomba required you to do after each use. The collection bin was simple enough to empty whenever it was required.

The Neato XV-11 robotic vacuum cleaner is a vast improvement on the current competition, its main rival of course being the Roomba. Its hard not to stand and watch open mouthed as it scans the room and begins its regimented cleaning, never missing a spot or getting stuck in a corner behind a piece of furniture.

The XV-11 is what you expect a robotic vacuum cleaner to be like and is the best of the best right now and surprisingly not much more expensive than the top tier Roomba's.

Its price tag of $400 may seem excessive compared to an upright cleaner, but even a top end similar priced Dyson can't self clean a room, a fact that added to it's overal ability more than justifies the asking price.