Neato Botvac D80 Review

Tiny robots with interesting AI are getting more and more popular, so it’s no wonder people over at Neato wanted to make one that cleans your house. To all of you who don’t really like to drag a massive vacuum cleaner around, we present the wonderful, stylish and useful Neato Botvac D80.

I am Intrigued; Tell Me More of this Neato Botvac D80

Neato Botvac D80 is a high-performance vacuum cleaner in the form of a cute robot. It works well with both carpets and hardwood floors and is ideal for families which have a pet or two.

The Look of Botvac D80

Judging it at the surface level, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Neato Botvac D80 robot vacuum is just another toy robot with its own AI. After all, its sleek frame and choice of colors make it appear like one.

Of course, the surface level hides what really lies beneath. If you flip the Botvac D80 over, you’ll see the brushes and the retractable wheels, both of which we’ll cover a little later.

For now, let’s focus on the top exterior and see what Botvac has to offer.

The Top Section

Looking at the Botvac from above, you’ll notice a large, black space that you can open. This is where the filter and the dirt container are located.

You’ll immediately notice that both the container and the filter are smaller than your average vacuum cleaner. This might be a setback, but the vacuum will still manage to cover over 3000 square feet of floor space with a single cleaning cycle.

The top section also holds a few buttons, one with a picture of a house, the other with an image of nine squares. Pressing the home button will make the Botvac clean your entire house. If you click the other button, the vacuum will spot-clean an area roughly four by six feet in front of it.

In the top left corner is the display screen of the Botvac D80. It actually has an interesting option of scheduling when the little bot will clean – more on that later.

The Bottom Section

Brushes

The Botvac D80 contains two different types of brushes. The first one is a spiral combo brush that can both clean your hard floors AND your carpets. On the side of the robot is a side brush, which you will love because of how easily it cleans the corners.

But it’s not just the brushes that make up the “belly” of this little robot.

Sensors

Sprinkled about the underside of Botvac D80 are small motion sensors. They will indicate if there is something in the way of the robot as it cleans up your floor. You don’t want it bumping into anything, do you?

But the sensors do far more than avoid bumping. The Botvac D80 will NOT tumble down ANY stairs because of how “smart” its sensors are. That in and of itself is great since you don’t really want to spend money on a new robot just because this one tumbled and crashed.

Wheels

This might sound odd to point out, but Botvac’s wheels are a feature in and of themselves. The cleaner can retract them, which helps it wiggle out of a spot it gets stuck in. This saves you the time of having to physically pull the robot loose yourself.

Setting Up the Botvac D80

As you can probably already guess, the little LCD screen wasn’t installed for nothing. Using this feature, you can set up the date and time when you want it to clean. That way the little guy will do all the work even when you’re out of the house.

But what if it runs out of juice, you rightly ask? That’s also not a problem; the Botvac D80 comes with a charger station which you can place on the floor. When it needs to, the D80 just moves to the station and charges itself, then continues to do its work around the house.

Of course, you will have to manually clean up the filter and remove the dirt, but even that’s made simple. Not only does the filter remove with a simple click, but you can pretty much remove all of the debris by flipping it over an open trash can.

Additional Equipment

When you order yourself a Botvac D80, you will get a few more neat items that will help you with the cleaning.

First, there’s the extra brush. Unlike the one in Botvac, this one can only clean hardwood floors. Therefore, if you ever feel like switching up and only cleaning a certain type of floor, you have an extra tool to do it.

Next, there’s the Botvac cleaner, which looks like a little white comb. This is the tool you’ll be using to rid the little guy’s filter of hairs and debris.

Naturally, there’s the charger station, which we’ve already mentioned. It contains two magnetic bars which will, without fail, bring your robot back for charging.

Finally, there’s the magnetic boundary marker, the one that’s essentially a long black tape. You can put these markers on the floor where you don’t want your Botvac to go, and it will avoid the areas when the sensors touch them. The cleaner contains a small blade which you will use to cut the markers to your desired length.

The Benefits of Owning a Neato Botvac D80

Maneuverability

One thing that makes this robot cleaner stand out is its D-shape. It will avoid hitting hard objects and move smoothly against any edges.

More importantly, this shape helps the bot NOT get stuck. Not only can it wiggle out of tight corners, but it will also move over loose cables and flat hard objects without any damage.

Intelligence

This robot will never clean anything more OR less than what you program it to clean. If you set it to clean your whole house, it will do it without fail. When it comes to small spills or single rooms, the spot-clean option works its magic.

In both cases, the bot will “scan” its area and find the best path to clean. As it does so, it will produce a barely audible sound, which is the perfect segue for the next benefit on this list.

Silence

Thank heavens, we have a vacuum cleaner that isn’t noisy! Of course, it does hum and rumble while cleaning, and the brushes will make a sound, but none of that will bother you during your daily activities.

An interesting detail is a little chime it makes when it “docks” against its charger station. It sounds like a jolly little jingle like the robot is glad to finally be “fed” some energy. A neat detail, for sure.

Size

The Neato Botvac D80 is small and compact. You won’t worry about dragging it around and breaking your back while doing so. It’s also very lightweight, so even a child may carry it without problems.

Potential Flaws of the Neato Botvac D80

Sadly, even little miracles such as the Neato Botvac D80 have their shortcomings.

The most common complaint people have with this robot is how small it is. Yes, it’s great for maintenance, but it doesn’t collect a lot of dust in larger homes with more spacious floors.

Another common complaint about the D80 is that it performs poorly on darker floors. Its cliff sensors don’t register dark floors as flat areas, but rather as cliffs. That can be troublesome if all you have is an indigo or black carpet.

Finally, there’s the price. Most people probably won’t be able to afford this bot, as there are other products that perform equally well, but cost half as much as D80.

Neato Botvac D80 – Some Closing Arguments

The Neato Botvac D80 is far from perfect and there are much better robotic vacuum alternatives out there today. There are even hybrid robotic vacuums/mops that can do a better job than this model.

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