Neato XV-21 Robot Vacuum Cleaner: US purchase, delivery, experience

Before the appearance of the child, the wife washed the floor almost every day. However, after the birth of time, she became sorely lacking, and my help was clearly required. The only adequate way out of the situation that came into my IT head is to entrust this matter to a car, or rather a robot vacuum cleaner.

I only cared about two questions:

• Which robot to choose?
• Where to buy it?

In this article I would like to share with you the experience of choosing, buying and impressions of using a robot vacuum cleaner.

The choice

After reading several reviews and comparisons, here , here , here and many more where, I considered two popular gadgets - Neato and Roomba. They share among themselves almost the entire western market of robotic vacuum cleaners. Roomba is a much more popular robot, however, if you look at the real features and reviews, Neato liked more. Plus, a rumba would have to overpay about $ 300.

The first thing you notice in Neato is that the robot is not expensive for its parameters and functions. In America, this vacuum cleaner can be bought for about 10 thousand wooden, well, or $ 320 with free shipping in the US. At the same time, Neato cleans no worse than its more expensive counterparts - moreover, unlike the Roomba, it is equipped with a full-fledged navigation system and does not spend a lot of time on chaotic movement around the apartment. The presence of a toy of any kind of intelligence captivates - you want to pay for something really relevant, supporting the development of such technologies.
An important point that bribed me when reading reviews is that Neato works as a full-fledged vacuum cleaner, i.e. he has good traction, of course in connection with this and there is more noise from him.

Neato has several main advantages:

• High speed cleaning
• Less crashes
• Stable quality of cleaning - the robot does not miss any areas and, in general, cleans up very well

There are also disadvantages, but they are not so significant:

• The controversial design is something very bright and remotely resembling a transformer.
• The range finder-navigator is placed in a separate “turret”, which sticks out a little, so Neato may not get under some sofas or cabinets with low seating, as its competitors will do
• Lack of analysis of the degree of pollution - it seems to be unpleasant, but in fact it practically does not spoil the impression. If Neato cleans daily, contaminants that need to be given more attention simply do not have time to appear. A robot vacuum cleaner is bought specifically for permanent operation.
  

Since none of the shortcomings became critical for me, I decided to take the Neato XV-21 - the latest model that is available today in stores.

Purchase

In our stores, I didn’t even look at the robots - I had enough impressions of the prices, almost doubled up - so I started looking on eBay, Amazon and other large stores that the manufacturer recommends . By the way, there is no point in buying Neato on the official website - there are not those 30-40 percent discounts that make the price so tasty.
As for the prices of eBay and Amazon - they are almost the same, and here it is worth starting from what is more convenient to pay. If PayPal - then go to eBay, if a credit card - then to Amazon.

I bought the Neato XV-21 on eBay. It cost me $ 329, while on Amazon it could be ordered for $ 335.

On delivery, as often happens, the seller did not send goods anywhere except in the US, in connection with which I had to use the services of the Parcel Post , it is an intermediary in the states who receives your purchases in the USA and sends them to your address. Among the many intermediaries, the Parcel stands out for its unusually distinct and adequate pricing policy, as well as responsive Russian-language support. Which confirms my own experience in delivering devices through this service. And since they are not looking for good from good, I decided to entrust them with the delivery of an expensive purchase.

I issued the delivery with SPSR express. After 11 days, the courier delivered the parcel home to Ulyanovsk. It is important to note that the Russian Post did not touch my package and this is very pleasing.


Costs: vacuum cleaner + delivery 10429 + 4145 = 14574 rub
At the time of purchase, the most adequate prices in Russia started at 20,000 rubles, so the net savings amounted to approximately 5500 rubles.

Shipping cost is due to the large weight of the gadget itself - in the factory box it weighs about 7.3kg. Since the Parcel has a progressive reduction in the cost of sending one kilogram - simply, the more you order, the less it will cost 1 kg of delivery - in order to save money, it makes sense to buy an additional battery, brushes and filters, but I did not bother with this topic. In principle, the package can be supplemented with anything - the main thing is to comply with the limit: 1000 euros and 40 pounds of weight.

Impressions

Both my wife and I are extremely pleased with our new pet. This is a really useful gadget, it saves a lot of time. Carpets and a wide variety of coatings do not interfere with the robot in any way; we have tiles, laminate and carpet in our apartment. The only thing he is not friends with is with long curtains, it is better to pick them up during the cleaning; wires that should be hidden if possible, and with floor rags that he chews. The rest of the cleaning quality is impeccable!
Of course, in bachelor times, when I lived alone, the issue of cleaning the floors was solved quite simply - not to give slippers to guests, so all the main “paths” were clean)



An important point regarding noise. Yes, as indicated in the reviews and comparisons, the Neato XV-21 is noisy, and decently - in general, like a regular Wat vacuum cleaner at 1400, and initially I planned to use it only in our absence, but in fact we often turn it on when we are at home, and the child fell asleep a couple of times thanks to the rhythmic hum.
Video of the beginning of the cleaning, the boundary tape is also shown here


The video of how Neato parks is very funny by the way)


Neato also has a useful “Clear Spot” function that allows you to clean a small area of ​​about a meter by two, which is sometimes very useful. Is there such a function in rumba I can not say.

PS Actually in the article I described those moments that worried me when buying a robot, if you have any questions, ask, I will try to answer, check live.