iRobot and Neato Robotics are some of the big shot brands in the robot vacuum cleaner industry. We know a lot of people might have issues deciding between these two brands, hence, this iRobot Roomba 960 vs Neato D5 review.
These two robot vacuums have performed really well and have made lots of sales.
The Roomba 900 series used to be the most advanced line of robot vacuums from iRobot.
We said “used” to be because as at the time of writing this article, iRobot had released the Roomba e5 robot and the Roomba i7+. You should definitely check them out later for some cool robot vacuum tech.
Neato Robotics, on the other hand, is focused on creating robots that do house chores as intelligently as humans. Its line of robots is widely acclaimed and has been recognized with many awards.
This is a brand that is committed to making everyday household activities easy and rewarding through helpful and advanced robots.
We urge you to be clear on what you need a robot vacuum for. That way, this iRobot Roomba 960 vs Neato D5 comparison will be more beneficial to you.
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Comparison Overview – iRobot Roomba 960 vs Neato D5
You certainly are in for a swell time as we take you through the really cool things these two robots can do.
The Roomba 960 will deep clean your carpets with its 3-stage cleaning system. Furthermore, you won’t have to worry about cleaning hair tangles as it has rubberized brush rolls.
As for the Neato D5, it has longer battery life and will cover more grounds on a single charge. Its laser navigation can also let it perform optimally regardless of the lighting.
Both robots cost more than your average robot vacuum but they outperform them too. In essence, to whom much is paid for, much is expected. By our standards, these two will deliver on their promises.
Comparison Table – iRobot Roomba 960 vs Neato D5
| Roomba 960 | Neato D5 | |
| Battery Life | 75 minutes | 90 minutes |
| Navigation | iAdapt + vSLAM | Laser mapping and navigation |
| Filtration System | AeroForce HEPA filtration | Ultra performance filter |
| Weight | 8.7 lbs | 8 lbs |
| Dimension | 3.6 x 13.8 inches | 12.7 x 13.2 x 3.9 inches |
| Image | Title | Buy |
|---|---|---|
 | iRobot Roomba 960 Robot Vacuum- Wi-Fi Connected Mapping, Works with Alexa, Ideal for Pet Hair, Carpets, Hard Floors,Black | Buy Now |
 | Neato Botvac D5 Connected Laser Guided Robot Vacuum, Pet & Allergy, Works with Smartphones, Alexa, Smartwatches | Buy Now |
Who’s Each Best For? – iRobot Roomba 960 vs Neato D5
| Roomba 960 | Neato D5 |
| The Roomba 960 will automatically adjust to the floor type it is vacuuming on.
For instance, the cleaning head will adjust once it notices that it is on a carpet. This enables it to clean deeper into the carpet. |
If you’d like to have more ways of controlling your robot remotely. This one is a good option.
Robots that can be controlled with apps are a norm now but with the Neato D5, you can also control it with a smartwatch! |
| This robot also has a dirt detection sensor. This helps it identify parts of the floor that has more dirt compared to other parts.
Once it detects the concentration of dirt, it spends more time and effort on that spot to ensure that it is properly cleaned. |
The Neato D5 has a D-shape as the name implies. This shape is what gives it a cleaning advantage over the round robot vacuums.
The brush roll of this vacuum is located under the flat part of the robot. This means that the brush roll of this robot is wider than that of the circular robots.
With a wider brush roll, it will cover more surface area at a time. This makes the robot clean faster and more efficiently. |
| The Roomba 960 has a dual brush roll to deep clean your carpets. Not just that, these brush rolls do not have bristles, instead, they are rubberized.
The advantage this brings is that when it cleans pet hairs off your floors, you will not have to end up cleaning out hair tangles off the brush roll. |
Whether your home is large or small, the Neato D5 has sufficient runtime to keep your floors clean at all times.
Even if it happens that the robot did not get its job done till its battery runs out, it will not only go to plug itself in, once it is charged, it will resume from where it stops. |
Common Features – iRobot Roomba 960 vs Neato D5
One of the things these two robot vacuums have in common is that they get the job done.
There are also quite a number of others even though they might execute them differently.
We will let in on those similarities and how they affect the robot’s performance. Now let’s go!
Mapping Technology
Both the Roomba 960 and Neato D5 use advanced technology to find their way around your home. Though both vacuums use different navigation technologies, they do a great job covering your floor space.
The Roomba 960 uses the iAdapt navigation system in conjunction with the vSLAM technology to move around. So, don’t be surprised if your Roomba turns out knowing your home as much as you do because that’s what the technology is about.
The robot scans its surroundings and stores a map of it in its memory. It is this map that it uses to find its way and know exactly where it is going.
On the other hand, the Neato D5 does the same thing as the Roomba only that it uses a laser guiding system to navigate its way around.
Of course, it first scans your home and generates a map of your floor too. One cool thing about this laser guidance is that whether there is illumination or not, this Botvac is not deterred.
Both robot vacuums follow a definite pattern of movement. We were not kidding when we said that these two are smart.
They both follow a logical pattern of movement which ensures that they cover the entire floor. With this, you can rest assured there won’t be patches of dirt the robot missed.
They also have a suite of smart sensors around them that help them detect obstacles.
Another cool thing about these sensors is that they don’t just detect obstacles, they will also clean around them the best way they can.
There is also a sensor under both robots that help it detect changes in floor heights. Once these robots get to a stair, for instance, the sensor detects the difference in height and it turns back.
With this, your priced robot will not take a dive off the stairs. Now that’s a type of intelligence you will want these cleaning robots to have.
The Roomba 960 and Neato D5 have the ability to navigate through multiple rooms to clean them. Since they have the floor plan stored, doing this is a fairly easy business for them.
Both robots can cover a good amount of floor space. This is why they will still perform well even if your home is large. They will only have to go recharge and come back to continue their work.
So, you can be confident that whichever of these two robot vacuums you go for, you can have it clean all the rooms in your home.
Wi-Fi and Smart App
If you are wondering how Wi-Fi can make a robot vacuum cleaner better, keep reading, we will tell you how.
Wi-Fi lets the robots connect to your smartphone so that you can use it to control and monitor it. Furthermore, the Wi-Fi can also help the Neato D5 connect to your smartwatch.
These robots have a dedicated app that you need to download on your phone (available for both Android and iOS).
Once downloaded, you will then need to pair your robot vacuum with the app which is where the Wi-Fi comes in.
With this app, you can use your phone and/or smartwatch as a controller to issue commands to the robot remotely.
That way, you can have the robot clean your floors before you get back home. You can also monitor the status of the robot and how much of the floors it has cleaned.
That’s not all, for both robots, you can schedule future dates for your robot to do its job.
For instance, on both robot vacuums, you can schedule the robot to clean at certain times for every day of the week.
With this, you will always wake up or come back home to clean floors. You certainly won’t have any babysitting duties with these robots.
The Roomba app won’t take up much space on your phone and it is quite easy to use.
The Neato app gets a thumbs up for ease of use too. The floor plan it generates is quite accurate. That’s not all, you will get regular updates too.
Smart Home Compatibility
In this world where household appliances are tagged as smart, almost every home has a couple of such ‘gadgets’. If your home is already smart, your robot vacuum can have its own clique of smart devices.
You can add either of these robot vacuums to the list of devices on your smart home hub.
They are both compatible with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. Once these vacuums are connected, you can issue voice commands to them.
“Alexa, tell Roomba to schedule cleaning”. “…ask Roomba where it is”. “Alexa, tell Neato to bring me a cup of cappuccino”.
Highly Efficient Filter
As you already know that the filtration system in any vacuum is critical. This is an important feature to consider if you are allergic or asthmatic.
The filters on the Roomba 960 and Neato D5 robots are advanced. They are efficient enough to trap allergens and dust preventing them from getting back into your home.
The filters in both vacuums are capable of trapping 99% of the dust and allergens that pass through it down to 10 microns.
This is not as efficient as a HEPA filter but it will do a great job preventing allergic and asthmatic reactions.
To put things in context, the average human hair is 50 microns in diameter. So, for these filters to be able to trap something as small as 10 microns, you can rest assured you are well protected.
Recharge and Resume
This feature is one of the best features of the autonomy that robot vacuums have to offer.
Both the Roomba 960 and Neato D5 will spare you the effort of having to worry about charging your vacuum. This is because they will do that themselves.
For instance, if your robot is going about its chores and its battery falls below a certain point, it will stop and find its way back to its dock. This is where it literally plugs itself in to recharge.
There is another awesome part of either of these robot vacuums. Once it is done recharging, it simply goes back to where it stopped working and continues.
This is an awesome feature especially for those who will schedule the robots to work while they are not around.
Virtual Barriers
There are times and good reasons why you will not want your robot vacuum to go clean a certain part of your home.
It could be because you don’t want the robot disturbing you or you don’t want it to get stuck.
Both robot vacuums have what it takes to keep the robots from where you don’t want them.
You can curb the Neato D5’s movement by using no-go lines on the smart app. This will indicate to the robot not to go to the part of the house where you have indicated on the map.
Before we go any further, it is worthy of note that the D5 did not have the no-go line feature by default. Before now, the feature used to be exclusive to the Neato D7.
Thanks to the smart app upgrade, all Neato robot vacuums from the D3 through the D7 now have this feature.
As for the Roomba 960, it comes with a device that creates a virtual wall barrier.
This works by placing the device in the area you don’t want the robot to get to. Once the robot notices it, it sees that area as a wall and as such turns away.
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iRobot Roomba 960 vs Neato D5 – What’s Unique To Each Product?
Features Unique To Roomba 960
Premium 3 Stage Cleaning
Powerful suction is not all it takes for a vacuum cleaner to clean the floor well. The brush plays a significant role too.
The iRobot Roomba 960 combines both of them to provide a triple action cleaning.
This robot vacuum will loosen the dirt on your floor with its fast spinning brush roll and side brush. The brush roll, underneath the robot, works mainly for carpets.
Once the dirt is loose, the rubberized brushes further lift it off the floor or out from within the carpet fibers.
Finally, as the third stage of the process, the suction takes it all in into the dust cup. Now you are left with a deeply cleaned floor and carpet.
Dirt Detection
It is a good thing for a robot vacuum to clean floors on its own, it is even better when it can identify a concentration of dirt.
That is something the Roomba 960 can do. Whether it is on carpets or hard floors, it can tell what part of the floor has more dirt on it.
Once the dirt has been detected, it focuses on that area until it is clean. This will make the robot clean all your floors without leaving one part cleaner than the other.
Bristleless Brush Roll
The Roomba 960 uses a double brush roll located underneath it. Brush rolls can be problematic when they are often used to clean hairs. This is because hairs often tangle to the bristles of the brush rolls.
In this case, there are no bristles on the brush rolls. Instead of bristles, there are ridge-like protrusions on the brush rolls to comb through carpets.
The result simply is a good clean of pet hairs without tangles to deal with afterward. If you have had to cut through hair on a brush roll, this feature will excite you.
- Power-Lifting Suction delivers 5X the air power for improved pick-up performance. (Compared to Roomba 600 Series)
- Intelligently maps and cleans an entire level of your home. Patented iAdapt 2. 0 technology with vSLAM navigation actively captures thousands of precise measurements each millisecond to optimize coverage.
- Ideal for homes with pets. Premium 3-stage cleaning system cleans the dirt and pet hair you see and the allergens and dust you dont.
- Unique dual multi-surface rubber brushes adjust and flex to stay in constant contact with carpets and hard floors.
- High-Efficiency filter captures 99% of all allergens, pollen, and particles as small as 10 microns.
- Automatically recharges as needed, and then continues cleaning – until the job is done.
- Customize and control how you clean with the iRobot Home app, Alexa or the Google Assistant.
- Featuring Roomba essentials- wi-fi connected, smart navigation, patented dirt detect technology, edge-sweeping brush, auto-adjust cleaning head, works on carpets and hard floors
- Box content: 1 Roomba 960 wi-fi connected robot vacuum, 1 home base charging station, 1 North American line cord, 1 extra aeroforce high-efficiency filter, 1 extra side brush, 1 dual mode virtual wall barrier (2 AA batteries included), owner’s guide, documentation package
- IRobot does not certify the quality or authenticity of products purchased from non-authorized resellers on , and will not cover claims, provide service or offer replacements for products purchased from these sellers.
Features Unique To Neato D5
Innovative Chassis Design
If you have been following robot vacuums for a while, you will notice that most of them are circular. That is not so with the Neato D5, in fact, all Neato robot vacuums are all D-shaped.
This is not because its manufacturers just want it to stand out, far from it. Its shape is actually an innovative idea to help it clean better.
If you have seen one of those round robot vacuums at work, you probably have noticed that some of them have issues cleaning corners and edges.
This is mainly because of the way they are shaped. However, some of them have innovative designs that enable them to handle dirt in corners.
Now, imagine how the Neato Robotics D5 Robot Vacuum will fit into corners because of its shape.
Its side brush is also strategically placed so that it can reach into corners to clean it out. Isn’t that innovative?
Don’t get us wrong though, this does not mean that the round vacuums are not effective. There are some of them that can clean corners too. It just comes down to how innovative their manufacturers can get.
Multiple Floor Plans
The Neato D5 can now store up to 3 different floor plans and show them on the smart app. This is great news if you live in a home with multiple floors.
When this robot vacuum was released, it did not have this feature. It was only included with the software upgrade that was released in the Fall of 2018.
The manufacturer suggests that you get a charging dock for each floor for optimal performance.
This is one great thing about Neato robots, they actually keep getting better. Perhaps, there will be a software upgrade that will let the robot make you that cup of cappuccino after all.
- LaserSmart technology intelligently navigates and maps your home, cleaning in straight lines instead of a random pattern.
- D-shape design, large core brush, and side brush finds pet hair and debris where they hide - in corners and along walls.
- The ultra performance filter captures up to 99% of tiny dust mites and allergens as small as 10 microns.
- Perfect for cleaning on any surface - hardwood, carpet or tile
- Get up to 90 minutes of battery life*, perfect for most homes.
- Auto charge & resume lets your robot return to base to power up and then go back out and pick up where it left off.
- Use the Neato app to schedule cleanings daily, every other day, or on a schedule that works for you.
- Easily control your robot from your phone, smartwatch, Amazon Echo, and Google Home.
iRobot Roomba 960 vs Neato D5 – Unique Pros
Roomba 960
i. It uses rubberized brush rolls to prevent hair tangles.
ii. It has a dirt detection technology.
iii. The brush head automatically adjusts to floor types.
Neato D5
i. Its shape helps it clean corners better.
ii. The laser navigation allows this robot vacuum even in the dark.
iii. It has a large dust cup.
iv. You can interchange the new spiral combination brush with the regular combination brush that comes with the D5 by default.
iRobot Roomba 960 vs Neato D5 – Unique Cons
Roomba 960
i. The robot can get confused over dark patches on the floor because of its cliff sensors.
Neato D5
i. It does not have the ability to perform zone cleaning, yet.
iRobot Roomba 960 vs Neato D5 – Pros Common To Both Products
| Roomba 960 | Neato D5 |
| You can create virtual boundaries for this robot to deter it from going where you don’t want it. | Same as the Roomba.
However, while the Roomba 960 uses a device to create the boundaries, the Neato uses no-go lines drawn on the app. |
| The Roomba 960, however, has an indicator that lets you know when the dust cup needs to be emptied. This takes away the guesswork and points out what the problem is. | The Neato D5 too can give you feedback on the robot’s work progress.
You can find out on the app how much floor space it has covered and how much battery life is left. |
| The Roomba 960 has a high-performance filter that will trap 99% of particles down to 10 microns. | Same as the Roomba 960. |
iRobot Roomba 960 vs Neato D5 – Cons Common To Both Products
| Roomba 960 | Neato D5 |
| If you are on a budget, this vacuum might make you overshoot it. It costs quite a bit but we believe it is worth it. | Same as the Roomba 960. |
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iRobot Roomba 960 vs Neato D5 – General Feeling Among Users
| Roomba 960 | Neato D5 |
| Many users generally like the navigation system. The robot moves more intentionally as against the random movement of its predecessors. | The Neato D5 has been praised for being quiet with its operation as well as its long battery life. |
| Quite a number of users have said that the Roomba 960 cleans well on both hard floors and carpets. It handles different types of dirt as well as pet hairs. | Some users praised the Neato D5 for being intelligent. It moves in straight lines which ensures that the robot covers the entire floor space.
Its sensors also do good work keeping the robot out of trouble. For instance, when it senses an obstacle ahead, it slows down rather than bump into it with force. |
iRobot Roomba 960 vs Neato D5 – Bottom Line
| Roomba 960 | Neato D5 |
| You have read all the important things you need to know about the Roomba 960.
Does it have what it takes to meet your needs? If so, get yours below. |
You have seen what the Neato D5 has to offer and you will agree that they are quite impressive. This robot also keeps improving with software upgrades. Who knows what it would be able to do next?
If you feel that this robot can fulfill your vacuuming needs, then go for it. |
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