Neato D10

The Neato D10 has few major differences from the Neato D9. For example, it has a third Max vacuum mode for a more thorough cleaning.

 

Presentation

The D10 is currently the most high-end robot vacuum cleaner in the Neato catalog. Its specifications are very similar to those of the D9, its predecessor that we recently tested. If we rely on the latter, the only differences are in the number of suction powers (Eco, Turbo, Max for the D10, Eco and Max for the D9). In addition, the D10 is able to map up to three floors. Of course, this new flagship from the manufacturer is connected to the MyNeato app. Will these few extra things reconcile us with the manufacturer after a more than disappointing D9?

 

Convenience of use

The Neato D10 looks no different from its predecessor, the D9. It still benefits from the D-shape that allows it to reach the corners that a round vacuum cleaner can hardly clean. The only aesthetic difference is the color of the hood, since the D10 has a gray brushed metal finish that gives it a high-end look. Because of its height of 10 cm, you should not expect this robot to vacuum under low furniture in the home. It owes this height to its laser rangefinder on the hood. This allows it to find its way in space and to navigate methodically.

On the shell of the D10 - in a similar configuration to the Neato D9 - there are two physical buttons: one to turn on/off the robot and the second to know the status of the device (on, on its base, etc.).

 

Application and connectivity

Between the D9 and the D10, the app hasn't moved one iota. The interface is still quite poor in features. One of the only differences with its predecessor is the number of suction powers. Indeed, the D10 offers three modes (Eco, Turbo and Max), where the D9 only offered Eco and Turbo modes. In short, this minor disparity has little impact on the application itself.

MyNeato still doesn't have real-time mapping, so the user can't observe the robot's movements from a distance. To make matters worse, the maps are very basic and inaccurate. It is difficult to differentiate the kitchen from the living room or the bedroom just by looking at the screen. This is unfortunate because the Go Zones, which can be drawn directly on the map, are likely to be rather inaccurate. The user can also decide to use the Go Zone as a surface on which the robot should not pass or, on the contrary, into which it should suck.

Needless to say, the app is able to provide a cleaning history, as well as a weekly cleaning schedule function.

 

 

Maintenance

There are no major differences between the D9 and D10 in terms of maintenance. The D10 also has a large capacity 0.7 l collector so that the user does not have to change the water too often.

This collector is preceded by a "true" HEPA filter, according to the manufacturer, able to capture "up to 99.97% of allergens and dust particles of 0.3 µm". Nevertheless, we noticed that it clogged up very quickly.

Indeed, after having made our robot swallow 20 g of cocoa powder, we found 3.2 g in the filter. Even if this quantity seems negligible, the filter will in fact clog up very quickly with a harmful and rapid effect on the suction performance. You should therefore remember to remove the dust from the filter after each use of the vacuum cleaner to maintain optimum efficiency. We have known less constraining.

Turning the robot on its back, we notice that it looks like the D9 in every way: the same small side brush and the same main brush that takes the width of the robot. Both can be easily removed from the vacuum cleaner to remove hair or pet hair that has become entangled in it.

 

Navigation system

As far as navigation is concerned, it's night and day between the Neato D9 and the D10. While the D9 navigated in a totally random way, the D10 navigates in a rather methodical way and does not stop every 5 minutes to analyze its environment.

So we observed its movements in our laboratory in which we scattered sawdust to see what the D10 picked up. All along its path, the D10 takes care to avoid obstacles, to go under curtains or to go along baseboards to collect dirt. Its biggest flaw in this respect is its slowness, as it took 30 minutes to vacuum our laboratory, whereas most of the robots we tested took about 20 minutes.

Another drawback is that the robot does not systematically manage to return to its base when asked, and it has stopped several times in front of its charging station...

 

 

Vacuuming

The Neato D10 is slightly faster than its predecessor - probably because it is more methodical in its navigation - and therefore achieves better results. On hard floors, the D10 picked up 83% of the debris on Eco mode in 8 min 7 sec and all the debris in 4 min 6 sec on Max mode.

On fine carpet, the D10 is much slower, as it takes 20 min (and we were forced to return it to its base) to finally vacuum only 57% of the material in Eco mode. In Max mode, the result is much better as it takes 7 min 58 s to recover all the waste. Finally, on thick carpet, it works in just over 7 minutes to collect 85% of the waste in Eco mode; 78% in 4 min 38 s in Max mode.

 

Noise

The noise level of the D100 reaches 60 dB (A) on the Eco mode, which is in the average of the other robot vacuums of our comparison. Nevertheless, the noise emitted by this robot is particularly annoying, because it is very high-pitched.

In Max mode, the noise level reaches 65 dB (A), which is still quite high. If the noise emitted by the D10 is really not pleasant, we can overlook this weakness since robot vacuum cleaners usually work when no one is at home.

 

Autonomy

The D10 is an outstanding marathon runner. Placed on the Eco mode, it can run for more than 5 hours in a test area of 89 m² before recharging at its base: an endurance so far unmatched since the Rowenta Serie Xplorer-95 was the most autonomous with 3 h 15 min of operation in normal mode. On the other hand, the charging time is also particularly long. It will take 5 h 30 min for a 100% power supply.

 

Conclusion

The Neato D10 vacuum cleaner has a lot of good points, including the not inconsiderable fact that it navigates rather methodically and finds its way around the room, which was clearly not the case with its predecessor, the D9. In fact, the suction performance is slightly better. Nevertheless, we can't get past the slowness of this device, which takes an inordinately long time to vacuum the house...