NEATO XV-21 ROBOTIC VACUUM – The device you can’t live without!

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Meet Rusty, our year and a half old Golden Retriever that we rescued from a kill shelter a couple of months ago. He is the best-tempered dog that anyone can ask for – a perfect addition to our family.

Now that you have met Rusty, it is important that you meet the “mini Rustys”. Each day I walk around the house and Rusty’s fur balls lurk everywhere. I no sooner vacuum them up and there are more. It is like he is a mutant dog spawning mini clones everywhere he goes.

Fighting the fur ball battle has become the new daily chore in my house. I seem to be vacuuming my house as much as I brush my teeth. That is until I discovered the new Neato Robotics XV-21 Automatic Robotic Vacuum cleaner. Do you remember watching the cartoon The Jetsons back in the 1980’s? They had Rosie, the family’s housekeeper that just happened to be a robot. I remembered thinking as a kid how far-fetched that was; to have a robot that could clean your house. Who would have thought?

Here I am in 2012 and as I unpacked the XV-21 from the box, I wondered how this little device could make a difference in my house and battle the “mini Rustys”. Since it was a robot, you would think that it would require some time consuming programming before it could start working, right? Wrong! Basically the hardest thing I had to do was find an outlet for the base charger and wait for it to fully charge the battery. This is hard for me because I am impatient and don’t like to wait.Since I am a “typical” guy, I passed over the manual because real men don’t read manuals right? I clicked the menu button and went to the ‘schedule’ screen where I decided to setup the XV-21 to vacuum my house every day at noon. This time was good because on most days no one is home at that time. You can setup the XV-21 to clean daily, every other day or every three days. It took me about 5 minutes to set up the scheduling and I realized that it still was not fully charged. Now what was I going to do? Ok, so I decided to break out the manual while I waited. Please don’t tell anyone that I broke the “guy code”. The manual was rather simple, outlining the basic features of the unit but there was one main thing that it really emphasized; readying your home for a robot vacuum.

READYING THE HOME

To get the most from the XV-21 it was important to prepare my home for an automatic robot vacuum cleaner. This was very similar to how you might baby-proof your home to ready it for a new mobile toddler. I carefully went through each room and made sure things like cords from lamps and appliances were hidden and out of the path of the vacuum. I made sure that there were no loose socks or other small items that could get lodged in the vacuum’s brush. To be honest, this process is not much different that you would do for a normal vacuum. Anything that would entangle in a normal vacuum can have the same fate in the Neato XV-21. Fortunately, I don’t keep a cluttered home so this process did not take too long. This is a process that has become part of my daily routine. I make sure shoes are put away and clothes are not left on the floor. Its funny how the XV-21 has not only given me a cleaner house by vacuuming every day, but it has made me and my children think more about daily cleanup routines. A win-win!

IT’S CHARGED, NOW WHAT?

Well, I had the unit programmed to clean at noon each day, but it was 6pm and there was no way I was going to wait another day to see this thing work. Fortunately, you can press the large orange start button anytime you want and it will start the cleaning process on demand. So press it I did! As soon as I started the cleaning cycle, the robot moved away from its charge station and started up the powerful suction system. It was not what I would consider quiet, but it was nowhere near as loud as a typical upright or canister vacuum. Honestly, I don’t care if it sounded like a marching band. I was not pushing the vacuum around the house so I did not care.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The first thing the XV-21 does is to locate the outside of the room and with the utmost precision it starts to clean the perimeter of the room. It is actually performing double duty. As it cleans the perimeter of the room it is actually mapping out the area at the same time. The robot is designed to clean one room completely at a time. If it detects a doorway it will record its location and finish the room before moving on to the next area.

Robot vacuums are not new in the marketplace, however the technology that sets a good vacuum from a superior vacuum is night and day. Some units use camera or ultrasonic sensors to find their way around a room. Others use multiple sensors that you place around your home to guide the robot. While others simply bang around your house and bounce off objects while diverting each time to get the job done. Low light is often a problem for some of these units and I don’t know about you, but I do not want to incur a larger electric bill because I have to keep the lights on for my cordless robot vacuum to work.

The Neato XV-21 uses laser guided mapping technology. Basically there is a laser that scans 360 degrees around the unit taking precise measurements of furniture, walls, doorways and any other obstacles in your home. Once it makes a complete path around the first area it is set to clean, the XV-21 will begin to make passes back and forth in each room of your home slightly crossing over the previous path to ensure that every possible area is cleaned. Should someone or something appear in the room during the cleaning process, the XV-21 will respond by identifying that obstacle and cleaning around it. There is a bumper on the front of the unit that will stop the robot and change its direction should it inadvertently run into something. But it is very sensitive, so fear not. It will not break anything or mar your walls.

WHAT WILL IT CLEAN?

Some units on the market are designed for hard floors only while others are for carpet only. The XV-21 cleans both equally well. The traction wheels automatically adjust to go from hard wood to tile to carpet without any interaction from you. It will even go over thresholds that you often find where carpet meets a hard surface. Some of the carpets in my home are shaggy from the 1980s. Yes, I loved the move Austin Powers, but I did not decorate my home to reflect that era. The carpets just happened to be here when I moved in. I was concerned that they would strain the motor for the rotating brush on the unit, but this thing is powerful and had no problems with the carpet.

If the XV-21 encounters an elevation change from a sunken room or a flight of stairs, it will automatically sense this and avoid that area. This relieves you from worry that you will come home to find your robot upside down at the bottom of a flight of stairs.

THE COOLEST DAY EVER!

The first few days that I used the XV-21 I left the bedroom doors closed so it would only clean the living room, dining room, kitchen and hallways which are all either hardwood or tile. As a side note, that is a really cool feature of the XV-21; if you don’t want it to clean a room, simply keep the door closed. If you leave the door open it will find its way into the room and begin to clean it.

One day, I forgot to close the master bedroom door, and when I got home I walked in to get changed and I looked at the floor in amazement. The lines in the carpet from the XV-21 were perfect. It was the first time I could actually see the paths that the unit takes as it cleans. There were lines in every corner and even under the bed. Yes, the XV-21 cleaned under the bed, which is something I rarely do as my upright vacuum can’t fit. So I would need to physically move the bed to clean this area. The overall height of the robot is low and it easily fits under chairs, beds and other low clearance items in the house. Additionally, many robotic vacuums on the market are round which makes it hard to clean in corners. The XV-21 has a square front which allow it to get into tight corners completing the task of thoroughly cleaning your home.

I was totally amazed at how good of a job the vacuum did! I hate to say it but it did a way better job than I do with the upright machine.

WHAT WILL IT PICKUP?

I think the proper question is, “what wont it pickup?” The XV-21 has one of the largest debris containers on the market. The filtration system in the unit is designed to pick up all kinds of micro particles from pet dander to dust and more. Its powerful suction combined with the rotary brush ensures that anything in its path will end up in the debris container. I have even found LEGO pieces in there from my kids’ room. The rotary brush has both bristles and rubber cleaners on it to ensure that it not only picks up small particles but larger ones as well.

There is a direct path from the rotary brush to the debris bin so you don’t need to worry about hair and other debris getting tangled in the brush. Everything in its way ends up in the debris collection bin. The only real maintenance you need to do, is to empty the bin every day so it is ready to go for the next cleaning cycle.

THE HOUSE IS CLEAN, NOW WHAT?

Once the XV-21 has cleaned every available area in your home, it will automatically return to its base to recharge itself. It takes about an hour and a half to clean the main floor of my home so there is still enough battery to get it back to the charge station. If you have a larger home, as soon as the battery starts to run low, the robot will stop the cleaning cycle and return to its base to recharge itself. Once charged, it will return back to the exact location where it left off and resume cleaning.

The first time I came home at the end of the cleaning cycle, I heard the unit but did not hear the noise of the suction and brush. I walked down the hallway and it was navigating back to the base station. I did not realize what it was doing until I looked at the screen and it indicated that it was done cleaning and was returning to the charge station.

I have a very good understanding of how the robot works and how it maps out each room. But watching it roam the house on its way back to the base station really left me puzzled as to how it knows where to go. What makes it even cooler is that once it is in front of the charger, it turns around and slowly backs itself up until it presses against the spring loaded-charge contacts. Very NEATO!

If you have another level of your house other than where the charge station is, you can simply relocate the unit to another floor or room and start a clean cycle by pressing the orange start button. If you think that level is going to take longer than the two-hour battery capacity, you can move the charge station to that level as well. I do this all the time to clean the lower level of my home.

WHO WON? THE XV-21 OR RUSTY?

While Rusty may have won our hearts, the XV-21 has definitely won the battle. I have not seen a “mini Rusty” in weeks since we started using the Neato vacuum. Additionally, I have not touched the upright vacuum in that time-frame as well.

The initial cleaning did require some attention on our part to ensure that he bin was emptied several times as it collected all of Rusty’s fur balls. But after this initial cleaning, all we need to do is simply empty the bin every night and it is good to go for the next day. The floors have never looked cleaner!

FINAL THOUGHTS

I am sure you can tell from reading this that I LOVE my Neato XV-21 and I honestly cannot imagine being without it. While I can attest that the unit is very thorough and powerful, I would not say that it would replace your $1000 vacuum in terms of deep cleaning, especially on rugs. Sadly, it is probably not a bad idea to break out your regular vacuum to give the rugs a good deep cleaning at least once a month, but the XV-21 will take care of keeping things clean on a daily basis. The best part is that I figure I gained about 5 hours of freedom each month that I do not need to spend cleaning up after Rusty.

If you are a pet owner, have kids or have a lot of traffic throughout your home, then you owe it to yourself to consider adding a new family member – the Neato XV-21. It is the best $429.00 that you can spend to give you a cleaner home and gain valuable hours of your life back.

Now If I could just find a robot to take care of the dishes and the laundry I will be all set!

For more information, visit Neato Robotics at www.neatorobotics.com

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