Neato Robotics Botvac D3 Wi-Fi Robo Vac

I must preface this review by saying I have hardwood floors. People with carpet should look up carpet specific reviews, as I'll explain below. This robot has changed my life. It vacuums my floor better than I could ever do, and it vacuums while I do other things, which is a huge time saver. If you have the money, and you feel like you spend your whole life cleaning, just buy this robot now. I have previously owned a Neato XV-21 (I bought it refurbished), and I can say that the Neato robots consistently preform, and they have definitely improved from generation to generation. Neato, as a brand, is a solid investment. The robot works exactly as advertised. You can start the robot via the app, and it will send you a map of what it cleaned when it's done. the Neato does a fantastic job of picking up dirt, dust, and pet hair. It can navigate around pretty much any obstacle, but you have to watch it the first time to make sure it doesn't get stuck. It can get confused on certain things, like the domed base of a floor standing oscillating fan, but once you know how to prepare your floor, you can let the Neato clean without fear it'll get stuck. Although it can get over small bumps and obstacles on the floor, the limit for consistently being able to climb over something is about 3/4 inch. Bigger stuff usually makes it stop and confuses it. I had to build a ramp so Neato could go into my kitchen, but it was totally worth the hassle, since it now cleans my whole downstairs (about 1200 sq ft) CAVEAT: Owning the Neato will not keep you from having to work. You will need to maintain the Neato to continue to get optimal performance. Basically, you change your job from vacuuming the floors, to performing maintenance on the Neato. You'll need to empty the bin in between charge ups, clean and replace the filter when necessary, and also deep clean the Neato, to remove built up dirt and hair. Hair can really degrade the performance, so I like to cut it off the roller about once every couple of cleaning cycles. Cans of compressed air help a lot when cleaning dirt from crevasses and such. Also, these robots may require firmware upgrades in the future to keep them going. Sometimes, the robots get wonky, and start acting weird. My XV-21 recently needed a firmware update, and I had to go to some German website in order to get the firmware I needed. But, if you can do stuff like that, you should be able to keep your Neato running indefinitely. My XV-21 is still going strong, and it currently takes care of my upstairs (about 1000 sq ft). I haven't had any issues so far with the D3, but anyone who buys one of these should be prepared to put in a little elbow grease if they want to keep them running for years. I think some people can't fix them/give up when they break, which is why there is such a refurbished market for these. In fact, if you're handy, just get the refurbished and save some cash. If you have stairs, get the magnetic tape. The robot does have a drop-off sensor, but it's not 100% perfect, so the tape is strongly recommended. I suspect the Neato (possibly all other robot vacuums) does not perform as well as I have described on houses that are completely carpet. While I have mostly hardwood floors, I do have a few carpets placed throughout the house. The Neato does a good job of getting the dirt up from the carpets, but it leaves behind a lot of pet hair. I believe there is a carpet specific roller brush you can replace inside the Neato, and that would probably work better for carpet. I also have a small entryway carpet that is a berber-style (really short), and the Neato cleans that carpet about as good as the hardwood floor, getting pet hair and everything. One thing that I really like over the earlier models is that the D3 makes a map of what it cleaned that it sends to the app. You can see where the robot cleaned, and it's pretty detailed. The D3 seems to make better navigational decisions then the XV-21, and it cleans in a very organized path. Also, the D3 is much quieter than the XV-21. Neato vacuums, IMO, are far and away better than Roomba vacuums. I've had a Roomba, and it was basically instant garbage. It was SUPER loud, it ran around with no sense of direction, and it would die mid clean without being able to find it's recharge dock. I used that robot a little before I bought the XV-21, so the Roomba I'm talking about is a few years old. They may have gotten better since then, but the XV-21 was the direct competitor to the Neato at the same time, and it worked so much better. If the Roomba robots still perform the same way, as far as navigation, then they aren't really a viable replacement to manual cleaning, like the Neato is. Roomba was more of a novelty, whereas the Neato actually got stuff done. The Neato really has changed the way I clean, and how much time I spend cleaning. You should buy this robot.