While there’s no shortage of fly-by-night companies willing to sell you cheap robotic vacuums on the Internet these days, we’ve found from experience that it’s usually worth paying more for reputable companies that build durable machines. In an industry where nearly every machine comes with a paltry one year warranty, spending a few hundred dollars more can be the only way of assuring you’ll get a robot that’ll actually last as long as a mid-range upright or canister. So what’s worth getting these days if you’re going to buy a hands-free vacuum?
The truth is: not very much. To date, we’ve only found a handful of robots we’d trust to still be working at the 5-year mark. The Roomba 980 and 960 are two from the company that made robotic vacs a thing, and the Neato Botvac Connected is another. Today we’re going to review a fourth: the Neato Botvac D5 Connected Robot Vacuum. It’s a cheaper and newer version of the Botvac Connected, and while it’s not the cheapest vacuum on the market, it’s ideally going to last far, far longer than anything you bought for $200 at your local box store. Our full review is below, while our ten second review is that it’s basically the Connected with a smaller battery. You can buy it here.
Pros, Cons, and Key Features of the Neato Botvac Connected Robot Vacuum
The Neato Botvac D5 Connected is part of a line of confusingly-named Botvacs released over the years by Neato. Current models include the D7 Connected, the Connected we recently reviewed, the D5 Connected we’re reviewing today, the D80 / D5, and the D3 Connected. You can also find prior-gen models still for sale like the D79. No matter which Botvac you buy, the distinguishing feature they share is real-time laser mapping and navigation. Instead of using pre-programmed zig-zags or cameras to make their way through your home, the Botvacs collect information in real time with invisible lasers to guide them through your home, which theoretically–and practically–makes them much more accurate and efficient in cleaning than pretty much any other system on the market.
The D5 Connected is the third-highest Botvac currently produced. Beyond the laser navigation system, it can clean up to 4,500 square feet per cycle (with a cycle including 3 cleaning runs and 2 automatic battery recharges at the base). You can also control it via Wi-Fi through a smart phone or tablet, although you can set it up and program cleaning routines directly through the robot itself. It delivers 100 minutes of battery life through a Lithium-ion battery and takes 3 hours to recharge. It needs 4 inches of clearance to keep it from getting stuck beneath beds, furniture, and cabinets, and has a cleaning radius 13 inches wide. It weighs 8 pounds and ships with the robot, a charging base, a filter and cleaning tools, boundary markers, and combo and side brushes.
Aside from the too-short one year warranty for the vacuum itself (a flaw common to the entire robot vacuum industry), the most disappointing element of the D5 Connected is the far-too-short six month battery warranty.
What’s the difference between the Botvac D5 Connected, the “non-D5” Connected, and the Roomba 960?
While we applaud Neato for including some of the most sophisticated technology available in any robotic vacuums, we still don’t understand how they could have chosen such a confusing succession of model names. At any rate, the D5 is newer than the non-D5 Connected, but is considered a lower tier model. As a result, it has a number of omissions to steer buyers toward the non-D5 Connected.
Compared to the non-D5, the D5 Connected features the combo brush but omits the spiral brush. It doesn’t give you the option to choose between an Eco and Turbo mode to preserve battery life or tackle higher-pile carpeting. Its cleaning cycle is limited to 4,500 square feet vs 5,000 square feet in the non-D5. When you clean, you get statistics and a cleaning history but you don’t get a cleaning summary or a coverage map of where the D5 actually cleaned. You also can’t manually steer it with your smart phone. However, unlike the Connected, you do get a “Find Me” feature in the app that allows you to use the D5 as a homing beacon to locate it (e.g., if it gets stuck or runs out of battery while out of sight and earshot). And yes, battery life is shorter in the D5 than in the non-D5; we’d estimate 100 minutes vs 120 minutes to be the difference on a typical mix of carpets and bare floors.
Compared to the Roomba 960, the D5 Connected has the more sophisticated navigational system; it’s laser-mapping brain lets it move through rooms more systematically than the camera-guided brain in the 960. The D5 Connected, like the non-D5 Connected, is also comfortable cleaning in complete darkness, while you’ll need at least some light for the 960 to navigate. Both will return to their bases, charge up, and get back to work as needed. Battery life is longer in the D5 Connected at 10 minutes vs 75 minutes, but as with the non-D5 Connected, the battery’s longevity is a potential weak point; it’s only warranted for 6 months vs 12 months in the 960, and the 960 has a much better reputation for long-term reliability.
How well does the Neato Botvac D5 Connected clean carpets, hardwood floors, and cat and dog hair?
In two words: very well. Like the non-D5 Connected, the D5 Connected had a stellar command of our home after the first few runs; it made a map, learned from it, and then made swift work of each room. We’re not going to spend too much time in this area, as we’d largely end up repeating what we wrote for the Botvac Connected review. Suffice it to say that the D5 Connected cleans almost as well as the non-D5, and did just as good of a job on hardwood floors and low-pile carpets; the main differences we noted were that the battery life was less at 100 vs 120 minutes, as noted above, and the lack of an Eco / Turbo mode meant we couldn’t stretch out battery life or drive the D5 Connected over medium-pile and high-pile carpets the way we could with the non-D5 Connected.
In other words, if you want to clean higher piles, you’ll still want to invest in a Miele canister like the Soft Carpet or Electro+. If you’ve got simpler, lower-pile carpets like saxonies or berbers, the D5 Connected will do a perfectly fine job. It also cleaned up pet hair well enough to leave no traces of our golden retrievers on our carpets. We wish we could say the same for our sofas, but the D5, while adept, refused to climb onto them for us.
Wi-Fi and smart phone setup were easy as long as we followed the instructions and didn’t try to wing it. Essentially, you charge your robot, download the app you need (whether for your iPhone or Android), set up a Neato account, plug in your serial number, and make sure you’re on a 2.4GHz network instead of a 5 GHz network.
Why buy the Neato Botvac D5 Connected?
If you’re considering the Botvac D5 Connected, you’ve clearly decided it’s worth investing a little more to have a machine that cleans your home competently and does so for a number of years to come. While we have no doubt that the D5 Connected will clean and clean well, with the money it costs to buy it, we’d recommend you also consider the Roomba 960 if the longevity of your battery is a concern.
As with the non-D5 Connected, while we’re highly impressed with the sophistication and engineering within the D5, we feel the 960 is more likely to give the “set it and forget it” experience busy families and professionals are looking for in a high-end robotic vacuum. That said, if you’re not concerned about the possibility of needing to replace the battery in a few years (and the battery is an easy one to swap out), both the D5 and non-D5 Connected are fine machines. If you want the reliability and functionality of the 960 with a bigger battery, the Roomba 980 is where you’ll find robo-nirvana.
You can buy the Neato Botvac D5 Connected here or the Neato Botvac Connected here. Alternatively, you can buy the Roomba 960 here or buy the Roomba 980 here for a true upgrade to both.
Canadians can buy the Neato Botvac D5 Connected here, the Botvac Connected here, the Roomba 960 here, or the Roomba 980 here.
If you find our research on PMC helpful, you can follow our efforts to keep maniacally reviewing home cleaning tools by shopping through our links above. We promise to keep fighting the good fight against every horror children, animals, and grown, yet messy humans can inflict upon a clean home.