I’m looking to purchase a neato. However of all the information out there I don’t see anyone stating that it can always find its base when it needs to recharge one way or another. I have a 2000sq’ home with three bedrooms split floor plan. I want to know that it will find its way back to the base. The only reference is that it shoots a 9 foot beam out into the room and the robot has to pick that up. If its in one of the bedrooms etc and needs to recharge It seems that it done for. Also how likely is it to clean all the rooms I have. The house is a single story open floor plan. I’ve seen a few comments about it missing a room here and there. But nothing on the norm.
The Neato can map a room with it’s laser and clean any room methodically. The robot starts with a new “map” of the room each time it starts cleaning. It makes decisions based on what it sees and therefore it may select a different path each time you use the robot to clean the floors. It sometimes separates rooms into two or three sections in order to clean the room completely which is normal in its programming. When it stops and turns in a circle, it is actually thinking about it’s path and where to go next.
It keeps track of what it has cleaned and what it still needs to clean. It will go back and clean an area it missed until it cleans all areas it determines it can reach.
The Neato will return to the base station using it’s map of the room when it’s battery is low. One thing you may try is to locate the base as far from the doorway as possible. This will increase the likelihood that it will recognize the doorway during its cleaning effort.
The Neato will come back out once charged and return to where it left off in order to continue cleaning. It will come out a maximum of 3 times. But, since it keeps the map of the room, it should not have any difficulties returning to dock. But, if your home has a lot of furniture, it is possible that it will not complete the last room. We have not seen this happen very often though except in very large areas such as office buildings.
The Neato is the best choice for your large floor plan. If the Neato cannot complete the entire floor, we would suggest moving the base station and having it start from the last room once every few days.
Do not hesitate if you need anything else.