Roomba i7 vs Neato D7 comparison chart in 2020

When it comes to cleaning, there’s one thing we can all agree on: vacuuming is no fun. Our Roomba i7 vs Neato D7 comparison chart in 2020 will be useful to choose you the best one. First, there’s the setup that requires you to grab a clunky vacuum from your closet, find a nearby outlet, and somehow not trip on a long cord. Then, you pray for the thing to work, considering the lights flicker whenever its power button goes on. When you’re finally cleaning up week-old Cheerios or a dust colony, you realize the vacuum doesn’t suck up the mess. Oh, and we can’t forget about the noise. It’s an awful soundtrack of clicking, rolling, and picking up that drives you nuts and scares your pets.

Neato Robotics’ products, including the Botvac 70e and the Botvac D80, have sparked a lot of interest over the past few years. In August, Neato Robotics launched the Botvac D6 Connected, a robot vacuum that takes tidying to a new level with its anti-allergen defense and multiple floor plan mapping. Meanwhile, iRobot is making the smart home dream a reality with its innovative products. Following the launch of the Roomba floor vacuuming robot in 2002, the company has expanded their fleet with popular robot vacuums, including the Roomba 960 and the Roomba 675. This month, iRobot launched the Roomba i7+ , which has intelligent visual navigation and the ability to empty itself when paired with a Clean Base Automatic Dirt Disposal.  But which one is better – Roomba i7 vs Neato D7 comparison.

iRobot and Neato are companies specialized in designing and manufacturing robots for domestic purposes. The Roomba i7+ vs Neato D7 comparison presents the top robot vacuum from each brand.

The Roomba i7+ is the current flagship product from iRobot. It is clearly a leading robot vacuum as it offers an unprecedented feature. This is the first robot vacuum that can empty its own dust cup.

The Neato D7, even though it has been around a while before this Roomba, it is still one of the best robot vacuums out there.

This Roomba i7+ vs Neato D7 comparison promises to delight you with all the great stuff both robots have to offer.

If you want a lower version of robots from both brands, check out the Roomba 960 vs Neato D5 comparison.

Specifications – Roomba i7 vs Neato D7 comparison chart in 2020

Let’s take a quick look at the two devices Roomba i7 vs Neato D7 comparison side by side to determine precisely what they do and do not offer.

Common Features – Roomba i7 vs Neato D7

It is not rare for two competing robots to have a number of features in common. These two certainly do share similarities.

Although they achieve the same goals and benefits for the user, both robots approach their execution differently.

As a user, you really are not concerned about the approach your robot follows as long as it cleans your floors to your taste.

Advanced Navigation

The same goal different approach we mentioned earlier features here.

Both vacuums follow a logical pattern of movement on their voyage through your home. However, they use completely different technologies.

The Roomba i7+ uses the iAdapt 3.0 navigation system which is a new algorithm from iRobot.

This system works in conjunction with an onboard camera to find its way around your home.

It also uses the Imprint Smart Mapping which makes the robot learn and adapt to your home. As you can guess, the robot will find its way around your home easier every time it tries.

The camera scans its surroundings and stores a map of it in its memory. iRobot claims that the i7+ can store up to 10 different floor maps!

Just so we are clear, the brand says that you can take the robot to a different home and it will still vacuum there. As long as it has scanned the floor and created a map of it, it will remember! Now, that’s what we call cool.

On the other hand, the Neato D7 does the same thing as the Roomba only that it uses a laser guiding system to navigate its way around. First, it too will scan your home and generate a map of your floor.

The D7 too can memorize more than just one floor plan. It can store up to 3 so if you have multiple floors, you can use it to vacuum them all.

Sensors

In addition to the navigation technologies, there are sensors on both the Roomba i7+ and the Neato D7 robot vacuums that help them detect obstacles.

One cool thing about this is that they don’t just detect obstacles and turn away, they will also clean around them the best 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.

The two robots have a collection of sensors that do basically the same things. Considering both the navigation and sensors, they both are a match and perform really well.

Wi-Fi and Smart App

A lot of robot vacuums now have an app you can download on your phone and interact with them from.

Any robot that has an app automatically has Wi-Fi. This is so because you have to pair the robot with the app over a Wi-Fi connection.

First, you download the app on your phone (Android or iOS), then you do the pairing. Once that is done, you can issue commands or use your phone as a remote control.

There are different things you can do with your robot on your phone. You are only limited to what the manufacturers allow.

On both the Roomba and Neato, you can schedule future dates you want the robot to clean your floors.

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.

With this, you only need to remember to empty the dust cup every once in a while, for the D7 that is. You will even get notified if the dust cup gets filled.

With the Roomba i7+ that can empty its dust cup by itself, no more babysitting duties for you.

Both apps won’t take up much space on your phone and their interfaces are quite easy to navigate.

Both robot vacuums allow you to clean only particular areas of your home. For instance, if you have highly trafficked zones, you can easily have either robot go vacuum that portion alone.

If it is a specific room that gets dirty often, you can clean just that too. This zone cleaning feature gives you a lot of freedom to have the robot clean the way you want it to.

Smart Home Compatible

With more and more homes getting smart these days, your robot vacuums will fit in quite easily.

Both of these vacuums are compatible with smart devices. You can have them connect to Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.

In so doing, you can issue voice commands and have the robots respond. That way, you won’t always have to push a button on the robot or grab your phone.

Highly Efficient Filter

The filtration system of a vacuum cleaner is an important feature to consider if you are allergic or asthmatic.

You can be confident with either of these robots as their filters 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.

That level of efficiency is good enough to protect you from inhaling allergens. It’s just not as efficient as a HEPA filter.

So, for these filters to be able to trap something as small as 10 microns, you can rest assured you are well protected.

Virtual Barriers

You might have one reason or another why you don’t want your robot vacuum to get to certain parts of the home.

Whatever the reason is, you can curb your robot’s movement without running after it. All you have to do is to set a virtual barrier to keep it at bay.

As for the Roomba i7+, it comes with 2 devices that create a virtual wall barrier.

This works by placing the device in the area you don’t want the robot to get to. It sends a signal to the robot that makes it think there is an obstacle so, the robot turns away.

In the case of the Neato D7, the approach is quite different. The barrier you set here is truly virtual as you have to do it from the app.

The no-go lines, which is the virtual barrier for the D7, allows you to draw as many straight lines as you want on the map right there on your phone.

Once you are done, your robot will respond to the virtual lines as though they are walls. The amazing thing about this feature is how accurate it is.

The precision, as well as its efficacy, will blow your mind. You will find this easier to use than magnetic tapes or virtual wall devices.

This approach is really good for those who like to schedule their robots. If you do it right, you won’t come back home to meet the house half clean because the robot got stuck. This is really worth a try.

Recharge and Resume

All robot vacuums can find their way back to their docking station, at least in theory. Different circumstances can cause a robot to lose its way.

Both the Roomba i7+ and Neato D7 are smart enough to always find their way home.

This is provided that you follow the instructions concerning the placement of the docking station.

There are times that your robot vacuum is unable to complete its chores before its battery runs low. As expected it will go back to the docking station and plug itself in.

That’s not all, once it is done recharging, it will go back to where it stopped and continue!

This is an awesome feature especially for those who will schedule the robots to work while they are not around. With this feature, you won’t always come back home to an unfinished job.

Unique Features – Roomba i7+ vs Neato D7

Features Unique To Roomba i7+

Dust Cup Emptying Dock

We have seen many innovations in robot vacuums over the years. A self-emptying dust cup is one that is completely unprecedented.

iRobot has come up with another first yet again. The Roomba i7+ can be forgiven for having a small dust cup as it can automatically empty it several times before you need to intervene.

We know you have been itching to know how it works, you are about to find out.

How it works

The docking station is obviously larger than usual. This is because it is not only a docking station, it is also a dust cup emptying station.

Whenever the robot goes out to vacuum, it gathers dirt in its dust cup. Every time it comes back to dock, it dumps the contents in its dust cup.

There is a mechanism in the contraption that pumps dirt out of the Roomba into a bag inside the ‘tower’. So, every time the robot goes out to vacuum, it is doing so with an empty dust cup.

iRobot claims that the collection bag in the ‘tower’ can hold up to 34 dust cups of dirt! Let’s do the math, the Roomba i7+ has a dust cup capacity of 0.2 liters. If we multiply that by 34, that amounts to 6.8 liters.

Unless your home is constantly dirty, we don’t see how you will fill that up any time soon. 34 is a big number in this case, we are talking about weeks here.

If you don’t have pets or kids, maybe even months before you need to change the bag.

This feature is fantastic on different levels.

Secondly, you can have more confidence to schedule the robot as you won’t need to bother about emptying. Not anymore will your robot stop work halfway because of a filled dust cup.

Dual Rubberized Brush Roll

The Roomba i7+ uses a double brush roll located underneath it. We all know that brush rolls can become a hassle when they are often used to clean hairs.

Cleaning off tangles of hair afterward is something most people don’t find delight in doing.

The brush rolls on this Roomba do not have bristles. Instead of bristles, there are ridges on the brush rolls to comb through carpets instead.

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 surely please you.

Auto-Adjusting Cleaner Head

The Roomba i7+, like its predecessors, has a cleaning head above the brush rolls. It adjusts the height of the brush roll which in turn affects the efficacy of the brush rolls as they impact the floor.

This cleaning head is capable of responding to changes in floor types. As you know, cleaning hard floors is different from cleaning carpets.

So, as this robot transitions from hard floors to carpets, the cleaning head adjusts accordingly. This makes for a precise cleaning effect at all times.

Dirt Detection

The dirt detection technology has been a distinct feature of Roombas since the Roomba 600 series. It has done a great job for the Roomba’s cleaning capacity.

What this piece of technology does is to help the robot identify a concentration of dirt on the floor. Once identified, the robot will make extra effort to get the place sufficiently clean by spending more time there.

This is a great feature to have if you have highly trafficked floor areas in your home. You can rest assured the Roomba will keep it as clean as the rest of the house.

Features Unique To Neato D7

Smart Charging

Automatic charging and resuming is a great feature but this intelligent charging adds an extra quality to it.

For several reasons, your Neato D7 might not be able to complete its vacuuming before its battery gets depleted.

Ordinarily, that will not be a problem because the robot will find its way back to its docking station and literally plug itself in.

Here is the special thing about the Neato D7. It is truly smart. We know it will take a while for the robot to fully recharge and all that time the parts of the home it has not cleaned remains dirty.

In cases like this, what the Neato D7 does is to dash back to its docking station to recharge.

It will then calculate how much charge it needs to complete its task and once the battery gets there, it will go back to complete the job.

That way, your home won’t have to stay half cleaned for hours before it is completed.

This feature is certainly one you will not find in a lot of the other robot vacuums. However, for this feature to truly work, you must have saved the floor plan.

D-Shape

It is almost a standard that robot vacuums are round as most of them are. Although there are few exceptions and other shapes are getting common nowadays.

The Neato D7, however, is D-shaped. This is not because its manufacturers just want it to stand out. Its shape is actually part of what makes it work so well.

If you have seen one of those round robot vacuums at work, you probably have noticed that some of them have issues cleaning corners especially.

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 D7 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. This is definitely an innovative move.

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 creative their manufacturers can get.

That’s not all, the D-shape also gives the Neato D7 another advantage, a wider cleaning path. The brush roll is located at the flat end of the robot.

A wide cleaning path means that the robot can cover more grounds in a shorter time. This adds to the efficiency of the D7.

Spring Loaded Wheels

The wheels on the Neato D7 can retract and extend depending on the situation. This makes the robot move smoother and deal better with uneven floors.

The springs serve as a sort of shock absorber similar to the ones in vehicles. This allows it to climb over obstacles easier.

So, the ledges at your doorway will not stop it from making its way in and getting its job done. Transitions from hard floors to carpets too will be much easier.

Frequently Asked Questions

There are several questions that commonly come up when comparing these two models and I would like to take the opportunity to answer them for you here.

Q. What is the maintenance like for these two machines?

A. Maintenance is actually very simple for both models.You will need to perform regular maintenance and keep up on it. Otherwise, it can become a daunting chore. Each model has a specific recommended timeline for changing things such as filters, side brushes, etc.

The basic thing to keep in mind is that you need to keep the machines clean, the rollers free of debris and visually inspect the filters and brushes weekly. When the filters are too clogged to continue using, change them. When the brushes start to wear down, replace them.

The most difficult part will be keeping the brush roller on the Neato clean of hair and tangles. Because of the bristles, this can take some time. With the Roomba, it is much easier, though, you can wipe it off with your hands and put it back in within a matter of moments.

If you maintain a regular regimen, maintenance for either machine should only take about 20 minutes per week, less once you get the hang of it.

Q. How much will the collection bins hold?

A. Both bins are the same capacity, holding 0.7L worth of debris. Emptying them should be done after every cleaning cycle for the first few runs. They will collect a lot of dirt and debris until it gets to a more manageable routine.

After the third or fourth run through the home, you won’t have to empty as often. You can usually go two or even three cleanings with a bin that size. Just make sure you check it often and empty when needed.

One of the benefits of the Roomba i7 is the washable bin. It isn’t dishwasher safe, but it is waterproof. As long as you remove the filter first, you can rinse the bin out under warm running water and get all the dust an build up out.

The Roomba i7 can be upgraded to the Roomba i7+. The only difference here is the charging station and collection bin. The charging station comes with a tower that holds a vacuum bag and the collection bin has a suction port.

When the robot docks to recharge the battery, the tower suctions out the collection bin and stores it in the vacuum bag. You can usually hold 30 bins worth of dirt and debris before the bag needs to be changed.

Q. Are there other forms of containment besides mobile apps?

A. There certainly are! Both the Roomba and Neato come with physical barriers that you can use in addition to, or instead of, the mobile apps.

For the Neato, you will get a roll of magnetic strip tape. This is cut and laid wherever you want the robot to avoid entering. It can be used across doorways, in certain areas of specific rooms or around valuable items and wobbly furniture.

The Roomba uses a battery operated tower called a dual mode virtual wall barrier. You set these up in the same manner, in doorways, around objects or in certain areas of rooms. It has two modes (obviously) which either sends out a linear infrared beam (10-foot reach), or a circular infrared ring (four-foot diameter).

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