Neato Robotics D6 Connected Laser Guided Robot Vacuum for Pet Hair, Works with Amazon Alexa, Black

First thing I did was give the Neato D6 a name!Then I read Neato’s quick start guide and got our Lucy up and running. Their quick start guide is a fast and easy to understand read. Next I surfed over to the neato robotics.com website to see their how-to-videos. After completely unboxing our new D6, now named “Lucy” she was set into the charging station for a full charge (mine took less than an hour). At first, I failed at the pairing / syncing Lucy to my network router, but the delay caused me to rethink about my networks’ overall security level and upgrade all my router’s devices encryption level and change all devices to WPA2 from their current WEP encryption to the better protected WPA2 level. I gave the router pairing process another try and bingo, success. I waited briefly while Lucy connected to my Wi-Fi network. Once the pairing / syncing was done with my router, everything worked perfectly and our Neato Lucy was ready to roll. Here’s faster way to add your Neato D6 to your router for those who lots of Wi-Fi devices already on their network, just add a WPA2 level “Guest Wi-Fi” access.This robotic vac has better thought out features:The D6’s design includes two squared off bumpers that permits better cleaning in corners and right up to the bottom edge of my walls, It’s simple, the combination of a square front and a rounded backside allows the D6 to truly clean those corners that escape other robo-vacs. Lucy’s tracking system is so smart that Lucy knows where she has been and where her charging base is at all times. When I would see my Lucy / D6 struggling, I usually just waited to see if Lucy got free by herself. When truly stuck, Lucy sends me message via my Neato phone app telling me exactly where she is stuck. Remember this suggestion, whenever you free up your D6, just place it within two feet from it where it got stuck and press the start/resume buttonand your D6 continues cleaning. If my D6 can’t clean the whole floor plan on one charge, my Lucy stops cleaning and beelines it back to the charging dock, then recharges, and afterwards returns to exactly where she stopped and continues her cleaning. I’ve calculated our D6 cleans close to 1300 square feet of hardwood floors including our several spots of really heavy carpet. At first you will be emptying your D6 dust bin frequently because it’s not huge. My home has a Sheltie fur factory living in it, so Lucy gets a real workout. After having our D6 for a few weeks, now I just have to empty the dust bin once between runs. Our carpets and floors have never been this clean. We discovered it is possible to control our D6 / Lucy from multiple smart phones, We can activate our D6 even while we are away at our work. The Neato app communicates with your D6 even when you’re not on the same Wi-Fi network.Neato’s App is loaded with features.I would have to write a small book to explain all the D6 features you can control right from your smart phone. This app is way more than a Start and Stop control app. Through the app I can tell the D6 to clean the whole house or just do spot cleaning. In the beginning you can use the included magnetic strip that comes with the D6 to create physical “No-Go” lines. You just place the magnetic strip on your floor and the D6 will clean up to it and not cross it. You can easily add and remove “No-Go” magnetic lines. Just use the mag strips to temporarily block off areas of your home that don’t need any cleaning. There’s a Quiet mode, an Eco setting, and a deep cleaning Turbo mode. You literally control the time, the locations, the level of cleaning to be done and how often your D6 cleans. My D6 / Lucy has no issues operating in a dark house at night, so it does not matter if you leave the house lights off. After your D6 has mapped out the whole house, you can designate many “No Go” cleaning boundaries via the apps digitized map of your home, Even before your digital floorplan is completed and learned by the D6 Neato app, many features will function. One such feature is a gentle cleaning navigation routine called “Extra Care” for those locations that have delicate or precariously placed furniture.Neato Robotics support system:I’ve had reason to contact Neato for tech support, mostly because of my own techie deficiencies’. They were fast to respond. Afterwards Neato tech support has checked in with me several times by email to make sure my Lucy was cleaning as I expected. I’m not used to any tech support group caring this much as Neato Robotics did. I’m thrilled with Neato Robotics and my new robotic vacuum. Our Sheltie hair collection is now under control which is quite amazing if you know how much a Sheltie can shed. Now my only chore is to empty Lucy’s dust bin and periodically clean her roller of pet hair. Was Lucy worth the cost? Absolutely Yes!

I'll start by saying we have a pretty ideal place for a botvac. It's all on a single level with hard floors with only the occasional throw rug. When we first got it, we spent a little time arranging cords and other obstacles so the Neato wouldn't get hung up on them. We expected the Neato would work well in this environment and we weren't disappointed. This is an amazing machine and it keeps our floors spotless. We have it clean about 950 sq. ft. and it takes about 90 minutes to do that.If you have a larger area to clean and Neato can't complete it on one battery charge, it will return to its docking station and take on enough of a charge to finish, then automatically do so. This happened for us only when we started a cleanng cycle without it being fully charged, but it's also useful if you simply have a larger home. It keeps track of where it has already vacuumed and how much it has left to do.I'll also note that Neato's customer service is first rate. Our first botvac failed. Customer service worked hard helping us troubleshoot it and when it couldn't be fixed, had us send it in (at their expense) and sent us a new one before they had even received the return. We were impressed. When we ran into a technical problem after a few weeks with the new one (more on that below), customer service was quickly and easily reached by phone and helped us get it back online. We've had no problems since.We chose the Neato largely because it has greater dirt bin capacity than others and because Neato notes that their botvacs excel at picking up pet hair. We have an 80 lb German Shepherd. We're in Phoenix over the summer, so she spends most of her time indoors. We run the Neato every day and it does a superb job of picking up her hair. Really, we had no idea she shed that much. We are glad the Neato has a large dirt bin.When we first got the Neato I uncharacteristically read the instructions and went through the tutorials and videos on the website. I highly recommend this. This is an amazing device, packed with sophisticated technology. It's not difficult to master, but there are a number of things to learn.We've been using it pretty much every day for the past four months. Although we did have to replace the first one after about a month, the replacement has worked almost flawlessly since then. It does a thorough job of keeping our floors spotless. We like that it's not random vacuuming – Neato makes a map of your house and generally operates in a fairly logical pattern, going in straight lines where it can. When it's done, you can see a map of the area it did on its last cleaning.There are a couple areas we like Neato to stay away from, such as our dog's water dish and my rocking recliner. The Neato app allows you to draw “no go” lines on the map the Neato has made of your place, and Neato will not go over these. Neato also provides physical strips you can put on the floor, but we haven't used those.I won't go over all the stuff that's included in the tutorials, but here are a couple things we learned that don't seem to be covered on the website.1. During a cleaning cycle, if Neato gets hung up and you move it more than a foot or so (which the instructions tell you not to do) it will become hopelessly lost. It will not be able to find the docking station. You'll have to carry it back and manually dock it. When you do this, Neato may not recognize that it's on its docking station. If that happens, do a “soft reboot”. I'm not certain all these steps are necessary, but they were suggested by the Neato tech and they worked for me. Remove Neato from the docking station. Remove the dirt bin. Press and hold the Start button until the lights go out (about 15 seconds). Replace the dirt bin and place the Neato back on its docking station. Press the Start button. and let it charge. If it has been vacuuming awhile, it can take a couple hours before it has enough power to operate properly.2. I had a problem connecting my Neato to my iPad. When I got to the step where it said connect my iPad WiFi to the Neato Access Point, there was no Neato Access Point in my list of available networks. My iPad and iPhone were both within 8 feet of the Neato with no obstacles. The tech on the phone couldn't figure this out either. Finally I noticed that the access point briefly appeared on my iPhone, but not my iPad. My iPhone was about a foot closer to the Neato, so I moved my iPad down next to the Neato and the access point promptly appeared. Connecting was then no problem. I don't think this is a common problem or the tech would have suggested this solution. It may have occurred simply because the battery charge was low from vacuuming. I mention it only in case it happens to someone else. Generally, unless something unusual has happened, you only need to make that connection once.The Neato has been a real benefit, saving us hours of vacuuming up dog hair every week. We used to run it with the scheduler, but found we prefer to simply start it when we're leaving the house. Although Neato can get stuck, most of the time it completes vacuuming the entire house and we find it recharging on its docking station when we return. We simply empty the dirt bin and it's ready for the next day.Finally I'll note I”m not affiliated with Neato, I haven't received any promotional or discount offers for a review, and they haven't pestered me to write one. I spent the time writing this one because I really like both the product and the customer service.