Roomba - or a variation of it

Neato is better than Roomba. I love Rosie, my Neato.

We use our roomba almost daily. We have three (albeit smaller) dogs that all shed to some degree and it saves our house from becoming a furball overnight. It doesn't replace a good broom and we still mop regularly, but you don't feel like you need to nearly as much.

I am also interested in getting an electronic maid.

I have been doing a little research and it seems that the Neato XV-21 is a great deal at $259

Does anyone have experience with that particular model, or any other competitors in that price range?

I convinced my sister and a friend of mine to get a Neato. They both thank me for it.

I'm looking forward to some opinions on the Dyson 360 Eye: LINK

High cost at first so it hopefully will go down after a year or so.

I've been using a Rosie for a few years now and that bitch cleans everything.

Have had a neat for almost 2 years, this is my second one and I'm about to defend it back.

Both the ones I've had will start vacuuming and then give "my vision is blocked" errors randomly. Some days it will vacuum the whole house, others I'll have to acknowledge the error 6 or 7 times. Defeats the purpose of me having an automated vacuum cleaner if I need to I have to be there to acknowledge an error.

I had both the Roomba and Neato at the same time. I bought them from Costco and had the Roomba first and wanted to try the Neato and take back whatever we didn't like.

Paper towel test: We tore a small piece of paper towel and placed it all over the floors in little specks throughout the house. We wanted to see what each robot could and couldn't get.

Roomba:
Random pattern and way too fast. Would hit all the baseboards too hard. Eventually started to scuff them. On the paper towel test it got about 75% of them. Very loud and would sometimes get stuck.

Neato:
We got the Botvac version (newer). It is very organized and uses LiDAR to detect where to go. It does not go to different rooms unless it is complete with that one. After 3 days of paper towel tests, the Neato would get about 95-100%. It is much quieter and has a larger bin for dirt. The new Botvac has the side sweeper for the corners.

Overall, we are much much happier with the Neato. Both can be had around 300 at Costco and Costco will gladly accept a return.

I'll post a pic of the pattern Neato does in a sec.

Neato is my recommendation. Because it isn't randomized it seems better able to deal with crab traps (chairs under tables). Also, if I'm home I can start using an area of a room again because it won't come back to it after it cleans it (my dining room flows right into living room)

I'm sold on the Neato Botvac, but which model should I get? It seems like the only difference is the number/type of filters and the brushes. So just get the basic and buy up the accessories if needed?