I adore the concept of robot vacuums. When I got a chance to review the newest Neato vacuum, I jumped at the chance to try it out and provide my honest feedback.
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I am not new to the world of robot vacuums. I have owned one for over 15 years, and the Neato D10 is my fifth robot vacuum.
Every day, I clean my house with my robot vacuums, and before the D10, I had three run each day. All three are different brands, with two running on my first floor and the third running upstairs.
Of the three brands, Neato has always been my favorite, as it cleans the best and is the least likely to get stuck under my furniture. One brand that I otherwise love continually gets stuck under my fridge, my dishwasher, my dining room hutch, etc.
That said, my previous Neato vacuum is a Neato XV Signature, which is an older model. Even with a new battery, it does not run as long as I would like, and it has memory issues now where it gets lost or thinks there’s something in its path.
However, it still cleans better than either of my other two vacuum brands.
I knew it was time to upgrade.
Should I buy the Neato D10 robot vacuum?
Absolutely I would purchase this. In summary, it cleans better and more quietly than any other robot vacuum I have owned.
It’s easy to clean, it finds its dock, and I know that it cleans my entire house rather than just a portion.
I’m also impressed by the battery length. Even using max power, it rarely uses more than 20% of its battery to clean my entire first floor.
Granted, it has to clean just about 370 square feet of floor space, but it does that in 35 to 40 minutes, faster and more effectively than my other robot vacuums that are about to get rehomed.
The battery lasts up to 300 minutes, which means that it has the capacity to clean much larger homes and spaces in a single run (up to 2700 square feet). And if it still has more to clean, it will pause cleaning to return to its base then resume cleaning to finish the space.
This vacuum has a true HEPA filter that captures 99.97% of allergens and fine dust particles as small as 0.3 microns. This is a big win for me, and I can truly tell the difference (see below).
With the app mapping, many people are legitimately concerned about privacy, but there is no need with the Neato D10. It has no microphones or cameras on the vacuum, and it uses laser navigation powered by LIDAR to navigate and create the maps.
Additionally, state-of-art encryption both on the robot and in the cloud ensure your security. Your data is never sold or shared.
Hands down yes, buy this. I’m so happy with my new vacuum – but keep reading for the specifics, including the bits I wish operated differently.
Don’t forget to use the Neato discount codes:
Buy any Neato Robotics vacuum and get a free brush or filter pack with the code CORNERS through 9/3/22.
Through 10/31/22, use the code W3DDING22 to save 11% on the purchase of the Neato D10 robot vacuum.
How well does the Neato D10 vacuum clean?
Oh my word, this robot vacuum does an amazing job of cleaning. I’ve done tests with this vacuum and my other vacuums, and the Neato D10 blows the other two away.
I mentioned that I run my vacuums every morning. Every day, I have dirt and dust collect in the dust bins of each vacuum, which isn’t a surprise with two kids and a cat during the summer.
I ran my other two vacuums, followed by the Neato D10 then the Neato D10 followed by the other two vacuums to see how much dirt each would collect after the other.
When I ran the other two vacuums first, I still collected a noticeable amount of debris in the D10. However, when I ran the D10 first and the other two vacuums after it, their dust bins remained empty.
Clearly the D10 is the superior cleaner, especially as I ran this test a few different days and got the same results each time.
How loud is the Neato D10?
In addition to not being able to run my previous robot vacuums if I left the house because they consistently get stuck, I also could not watch television while they ran. They. Are. Loud.
For reference, I usually watch tv with my volume set to 13. With either of my other vacuums running, I have to set it to near max volume in order to hear it – over 70.
Last night, I decided to watch a movie while I had my new Neato D10 robot vacuum do its business, and yes, I had to increase the volume. However, I only had to increase it to 23.
The volume difference in the vacuums is incredibly noticeable.
In addition, I run my Neato D10 on max mode, which is the most powerful cleaner but also the loudest of the three modes (which makes sense). If you run your robot vacuum on eco or turbo mode, it will be quieter than max.
And yes, I’ve tested each mode and can tell a noise difference between them.
How well does the Neato robot vacuum clean pet hair?
I’m pretty sure that the Neato D10 is the best robot vacuum for pet hair. We have a cat who sheds a ton, especially in the summer, and the amount of pet hair this vacuum picks up compared to my other robot vacuums is – frankly – embarrassing.
Additionally, I have long hair that sheds way more than I would like, and it definitely picks them up well both on my hardwood floors and on the rugs where my cat loves to lie.
Which Neato vacuum should I buy?
Neato has different vacuum models designed for different needs. Depending on the size of your home, you want to purchase either the D10 that I have (and love) or the Neato D8 or Neato D9.
The Neato D8 cleans up to 750 square feet well, running up to 100 minutes on a single battery charge. It offers the eco and turbo modes but not the max mode, and the remaining features are fairly similar.
The Neato D9 model cleans up to 1600 square feet (up to 200 minutes) on a single charge, so it is great for slightly larger homes. It also offers the eco and turbo modes, along with the features shared below.
The Neato D10 is the one I reviewed in depth, and it cleans up to 2700 square feet on a single charge, with up to 300 minutes of run time. This is great for larger houses, and it is the only one with the max mode for the deepest clean.
The Neato D10 also captures more allergens and finer dust particles than the D8 or D9, so that may be a purchase consideration if you are highly sensitive to allergens.
Whichever model you do purchase, don’t forget to pick up your Neato accessories. You will want to replace your HEPA filters every 1-2 months to ensure as many allergens and dust particles stay where they belong as possible. The same goes with the main brush, which you should replace every six months to keep it performing like new.
How easy is the Neato D10 setup?
Overall, the setup is incredibly easy. I love that the vacuum comes charged enough that I could use it out of the box – something I’m not used to with any electronic device I purchase.
Once you plug it in and set it up with its base – and be sure it has 12″ clearance on all sides where you place the base – you download the Neato app, which is readily available for both Apple and Android phones.
In the Neato app, you simply follow the clear prompts to connect your vacuum and get it up and running. If you run into any challenges – and I did – there is a quick and easy help button that connects you to Neato customer service chat or provides a phone number to call.
My vacuum initially didn’t want to connect to the Neato servers, the last step in the process. However, I tried a second time, and it connected appropriately.
How well does the Neato mapping work?
Initially, the map frustrated me. I am fine with a robot vacuum simply running its course through my house, which the D10 – and most newer robot vacuums – do not do.
Instead, it maps my house to identify barriers and walls, which also ensures that it cleans the entire area. This is definitely an upgrade over my other robot vacuums who I feel often clean only one portion of my house and skip a lot of the floorspace.
When I ran my initial clean, however, the D10 only captured about a third of my first floor before returning to its base and declaring it had finished cleaning the area. The same thing happened the second and third times, and I was definitely frustrated by this.
Granted, my first floor is filled with curves and turns. It is also small a small house overall, so getting from the foyer where it lives to the dining room and kitchen involves getting through my family room where the coffee table sits less than three feet from my entertainment center, and the couch is under two feet from the other side of my (wide) coffee table.
After a chat with the lovely customer service folks at Neato, I resolved to try it again, with several suggestions to resolve the issue from moving the base to cleaning the laser and sensors before performing a soft reset.
Thankfully, the robot vacuum made it past my coffee table on the fourth clean and mapped my entire first floor accurately. Every cleaning since then has been of the full area, so if you run into this issue early on, be patient and try again.
It is also fascinating to look at the map and identify what did and didn’t get cleaned.
The time I put my air filter in the middle of the floor after changing its filter? Yep, I saw a lovely white circle around that area where the vacuum couldn’t clean.
I can also identify each item of furniture on my map, down to the legs on my dining room table. I feel fully confident that finally – FINALLY – I have a robot vacuum that cleans my entire house.
What does the Neato app let you do?
The Neato app is pretty useful, letting you schedule cleanings, check the map, set No Go Zones and Clean Zones, start manual cleanings, and more.
The hamburger menu at the top left is one I will probably never use again, as it has just my account information. One note: do verify your robot through it and understand that you need to check your verification email on your mobile device as it will not verify from your computer. (Ask me how I know.)
The question mark at the top right side is the easy way to contact customer support. The chat is quick and effective, and it also provides a phone number if you prefer to speak to someone.
My chat sessions get emailed to me, and the agent also followed up with helpful articles from the Neato site related to my questions. They have been fantastic.
The bottom has five icons, each of which you are more likely to use.
Cleaning history
The far left shows the cleaning history. It tells you the time and date of each cleaning, along with the length of time the vacuum ran and how many square feet it covered.
If you click into a cleaning, you can then see exactly what did (blue) and did not (white) get cleaned that session, along with the mode you chose and which map the vacuum used.
This is interesting information, but I’m not sure how often I’ll use it once the novelty wears off.
Routines
This is where you set the schedule for how often your Neato vacuum runs. I choose to have a single schedule where the vacuum runs at the same time every single day, but you can set multiple routines.
Have your vacuum start later on the weekends when you want to sleep in.
Choose to only vacuum every other day.
Set it to deep clean on weekends and only eco clean during the week.
Assign your Neato D10 to clean only a specific zone on a particular day if you have a place that gets more traffic than others instead of having it clean the entire map each time.
I won’t say there are infinite possibilities, but you definitely have enough options to set a cleaning schedule that works for you.
Additionally, note that you need to choose the cleaning mode you want for each different routine. I made the initial assumption that the default cleaning mode I chose held for my routines, but I need to choose it there, as well.
Home field
This button shows you the status of your Neato vacuum, whether it is cleaning or docked, along with the map you are currently using.
You can start a manual clean of your whole map or a Clean Zone from this section – which is also the default screen when you open the app. This is perfect for those oops spills in the kitchen, for example.
If your vacuum for some reason is lost, it also has a locate button that causes your robot vacuum to make a sound so you can find it. Boy could I use this for my other robot vacuums!
Lastly, you can change the manual mode of cleaning here, but remember that this does not change what you set in your individual routines.
My Maps
This showcases the different maps that you have created for your Neato D10. I have just one map of my first floor, although that are infinite versions of the map that the vacuum creates each time it runs (see my comments below on this).
The software will be updated “soon” to incorporate multiple maps.
If you use your vacuum on different floors or in separate rooms, this is where it makes sense to create multiple maps. For me, I’ll stick with the one map.
This is also where you can add Clean Zones and No Go Zones, which I talk about more below.
My Robot
If you are lucky – or smart – enough to have multiple connected Neato robot vacuums, this will show each connected robot with its details and settings. Click on the robot you wish to view, and then you can utilize each of the previous screens as needed.
What do I not like about the newest Neato vacuum?
Overall, the Neato D10 vacuum is a huge step up from the robot vacuums I have owned in the past. That said, there are some features that I would like to see changed.
The filter
First up is the filter for the D10. My older Neato has a very similar filter, except this one has almost a cage over the pleated filter which makes it difficult or impossible for me access it to get the last of the dust out.
Granted, it has a much smarter “other” side of the filter that pulls (so far) all the dust and debris through the pleated part, and this is much easier to clean than the filters of any of my other robot vacuums. My best success has been to clean the metal side of it, then gently tap the pleated side onto my garbage can to release any remaining dust.
This isn’t ideal, but it works.
Related to this is the filter cleaner. Honestly, I do not understand this design for this style filter. It feels like they made a mistake and forgot to put the right cleaning tool with this vacuum.
The combs work well for the pleated part – which, as I mentioned above – I cannot access with this filter style. They do not work on the metal side at all.
No dirt bin full notifications
My Neato XV gives me a reminder when it’s time to empty my dust bin. It is the only of my vacuums that does this, and I love the feature – especially now that I can run my D10 when I’m not home.
Unfortunately, this feature fell by the wayside at some point. This seems like something that the vacuum could easily communicate to the app, given that I get an update and notification for so many other processes with the app.
Instead, I need to be disciplined about emptying it. This is not the end of the world at all, but it is a feature I will miss from my old Neato.
I cannot delete map versions
So the map is cool now that it’s working to fully capture my house. However, the robot vacuum creates a new version of the map every single time it cleans my house.
No thank you.
I do not need 50 hundred versions of my first floor. In fact, I would like to delete those first couple versions where it vacuumed only a third of my first floor.
I appreciate that I can select which version of the map I want to utilize – which is great for when I move furniture temporarily and want to vacuum that version until I move furniture back to the original place. However, I vacuum daily, and there’s no way I can or want to scroll through all the maps to find that one in particular.
I would love the ability to say that I’m good with the mapping and to just run with the existing maps rather than continuing to create new ones each day.
Creating the No Go Zones is not as intuitive as it should be
I love the idea of No Go Zones. For example, my spoiled cat has a water fountain he drinks from, and I would love to ensure the vacuum never goes near it for a variety of reasons.
In concept, No Go Zones are brilliant. I had to google how to do this, although it isn’t difficult to set up once you know how.
There is no spot clean function
I cook. A lot. And as such, I sometimes have oopses where I need a vacuum to come clean my mess.
I also have children who make messes that need cleaning.
One of my favorite features on every robot vacuum I have owned is the ability to do a spot clean of a specific area that either needs a deep clean or has a spill that needs to be swept up.
The Neato D10 does not have this feature, which seems odd to me – much like the removing of the dust bin cleaning alert.
However, I have found a sort of work around for it. In the No Go Zones, you can also set Clean Zones, which are specific areas you want the vacuum to clean without cleaning the full map.
I set my kitchen – since this is where most of my spills happen – to be a Clean Zone, and I can select this zone from the home screen to clean just that zone if I choose. It isn’t ideal, but it is a workaround.
Like the No Go Zones, I can set it to be as large or small as I like, so I could technically set the specific spill area as my Clean Zone each time. But by then, I may as well get out my broom and sweep it manually.
When it does get stuck, it gives an inaccurate error code
In general, I have run my new Neato vacuum nearly 20 times and had no issues with it getting stuck, versus my two not Neato robot vacuums that get stuck generally multiple times in a single run.
However, I had one time where the Neato D10 did get stuck under my (curved bottom) dining room hutch. I got a verbal warning of a 4101 error, which I googled and came up with a sensor failure.
The fix for this was to clean the laser and the sensor and then to do a soft reset, which I did. It then started a new clean, but did not recognize the need to return to its base and instead finished back where the error occurred.
That said, the D10 does not have an error code for being stuck under furniture, which I find fascinating.
Once I removed the D10, I could have simply pressed the power button and had it continue from where it left off. The solution is much simpler than the error code implies, though the app does give the appropriate suggestion for the fix.
How do you set up No Go Zones?
In the maps screen of the Neato app, select the map where you want to set a No Go Zone. Click on the pencil (which is where it was not intuitive for me – that should be editing the full map, no?)
From here, it’s fairly straightforward. Click the Add Zone button, then choose yes or no to the question “Should the robot clean in this zone?”
If you click yes, you create a Clean Zone. If you click no, you create a No Go Zone.
Resize the box to fit the length and width of the space you need, then drag it to the place where you want to create the No Go or Clean Zone. Tap anywhere on the map outside the zone you just created, and that saves it.
To remove a zone or to change the size or placement of it, simply tap the zone and either tap the trash can or edit it as needed.
How do you empty the Neato D10 dust bin?
This is one of my favorite features about the Neato vacuums: emptying the dustbin is so easy compared to others.
First, the dustbin has a large capacity at 0.7 liters, which helps since you don’t get a notification to empty it. That said, do it every couple cleanings to keep on top of it and help extend the life of your filter.
The bin easily lifts out from the middle of the Neato vacuum top. Tip it up, and pull it out to remove it.
To empty the bin itself, gently squeeze the two prongs on the filter to release it. Empty the main bin into your garbage, then scrape off any remaining dust and dirt.
Replace the filter the same way, fitting the filter back into the main dustbin and snapping it easily into place. Return the dustbin to the Neato vacuum, and it slides in easily.
How do you perform a soft reset on the Neato D10?
If your Neato vacuum has an error or gets stuck under furniture or otherwise needs to do a soft reset, the instructions in the error table often tell you to do a soft reset but do not tell you how.
To do a soft reset on the Neato D10 robot vacuum, press the large power button with the arrow on it and hold it for 15 seconds. This turns off the vacuum entirely.
Then hold the same button for three seconds to turn the vacuum on again.
At that point, you can dock your D10 or start cleaning again. Note that if you start cleaning again, it erases the memory of the previous clean, so you are starting a new one and it will finish at that spot rather than returning to its base.
Overall recommendation: Buy the Neato D10 robot vacuum
This vacuum does a fabulous job of cleaning, by far outperforming my other three robot vacuums.
It does not get stuck the way my other vacuums do, and it is easy to use both from the app and cleaning the dust bin.
I do have minor quibbles about features I don’t love or things I would like to see different about it, but nothing is enough that stops me from wholeheartedly recommending this new Neato vacuum. In fact, my two other first floor vacuums are about to find new homes because this one does the job better and more quietly than both of them.
Buy your own Neato D10 robot vacuum and don’t forget to use the code W3DDING22 to get 11% off!
