Neato or Roomba? Roomba or Neato?
To answers this question, RobotShop brings you the RobotShop Ultimate Challenge, a series of tests designed to find the perfect robot vacuum. Here you will see the Neato and Roomba put to the test in many different scenarios. Each new episodes will be released publicly on RobotShopTV.
Here are the tests for the Roomba and Neato.
Both robots are approximately the same size although they are not the same shape. The Roomba, like most Robot Vacuums, is round, allowing it to turn all the way around in place which prevents it from getting stuck in corners and when near obstacles. It has a side brush to clean into corners and therefore does not necessarily need a square front. The Neato XV-11 does have a square front which makes it able to clean corners more effectively, without needing a side brush.
The Neato XV-11 is slightly taller than the Roomba. This means that if you have furniture that you want the robot to clean under you might want to verify your furniture to see if the Neato will fit. The Neato is just under 4 inches tall, while the Roomba is a bit over 3 inches tall.
Both robots come with charging docks that they can return to autonomously when the cleaning is done or when their battery is low. Unless you are looking at the Roomba 510, which does not come with a charging dock.
The Neato has onboard scheduling, while the Roomba 530 does not have this feature. You must have a Roomba 560 and up in order to have the scheduling feature.
The Roomba and the Neato will communicate in different ways. Neato’s LCD screen states very clear error messages, while the Roomba will in some cases speak in a female voice or sound a number of beeps depending on the problem. You need to keep track of the number of beeps in order to determine the problem which in most cases is less convenient.
Both robots come with accessories that you can use to keep them out of certain areas that you do not the robot to clean. The Neato uses what is called a Boundary Marker; effectively a magnetic strip that you place on the floor that the robot will not cross. The Roomba uses Virtual Walls, which are small devices that project infrared beams that the robot won’t cross. It is suggested to place these Virtual Walls near doorways.
The Roomba and the Neato use significantly different techniques to vacuum rooms. The Roomba uses a variety of cleaning behaviors to cover a room, using input from its sensors to decide where to go next which is called SMART technology. It will criss cross, follow walls, and circle in order to cover the entire area. It usually will cover each area of a room 3-4 times, which helps it clean more thoroughly.
The Neato, on the other hand, has a laser sensor that creates a map of walls, doorways, and obstacles. The robot then plans a route to cover the entire area efficiently and systematically. It will clean around the perimeter of the room once and then clean systematically the center of the room. It will only pass once on every area of a room. This means that the Neato is able to clean more rooms on one charge compared to the Roomba. If you have high pile carpet, the Neato will usually need more than one pass. With the Roomba you have the 3-4 passes covered.
The Neato also has a more powerful vacuum compared to the Roomba. Although, it only has one large rubber brush to pick up larger debris. The Roomba is able to clean deep into carpets with its two counter rotating brushes.