Wait for LG Hom-Bot 3.0 or get Neato XV-14?

[LEP30]

I was planning on buying my first Robotic vacuum, a Neato XV-14, but LG recently announced their Hom-Bot 3.0 robot at CES 2013. This robot can clean corners as well, due to it's square design and brushes. It also has two dual-cameras and multiple censors. The design looks much better as well, see http://www.trustedreviews.com/lg-hom-bo ... ner_review.

Is the LG Hom-Bot 3.0 better at vacuuming than the Neato XV-14?

[FreddyTex]

No, not if you want a cleaner for multiple rooms. Camera mapping still if inferior as pattern (as I can see on a Navibot S I still have).

[dinkydong]

LG's mapping system is much better than the Samsung Navibot S FYI! It handles multiple rooms without any issues and it does so consistently.

Between these 2, i'll pick the Hom-Bot 3.0 anytime.

[jin7]

Between these 2, i'll pick the Hom-Bot 3.0 anytime.

+1

I recently got this square (vr6270lvmb) and love it.
Reasons being:

-incredible corner/edge cleaning
-better build quality
-awesome carpet performance thanks to turbo mode
-possibly quieter than neato (louder than previous generations of robokings tho)
-Li ion batteries
-more convienent dustbin with hepa filter standard
-extra 1 year wty
-mute notifications
-multiple cleaning modes - zig zag, cell by cell, spot, run until battery dead, ... turbo option... (smart turbo on by default meaning it only turbos on carpet and rugs, while moving to hardfloor it lowers back vac engine to standard speeds)


Neato positives
-cheaper
-probably more suction
-parts more easily sourced
-bigger community following.. for now.

[dinkydong]

Well, i'm not sure if the Neato is actually cheaper. It is indeed cheaper to purchase but it may cost more to operate:

1) Higher power consumption => higher utility bills

2) Used on a daily basis, i could not get more than 8 months of operation from its NiMh batteries. On the other hand, my LG is now close to a year old, operated on a daily basis and its battery performance is still as good as day 1.

3) Practically hassle free during my 1-year ownership of the LG, compared to several issues with my Neato. Factor in the down time and it'll be quite costly!

4) In my experience, higher suction power does not necessarily equate to cleaner floors. There are many other factors to consider. I find that my LG actually picks up more dust than the Neato.


Now with the square design of the 3.0, the bot reaches deeper into corners. IMO, if u can afford it, this is the bot to get.

[FreddyTex]

just look at some youtube videos. Homebot can't deal with narrow entries. Multiple room isn't also as effective. A neato cleans 7 rooms in a row (architecture as you want). A friend has bought the LG 3.0 over here and I went over there with my Neato XV-25. The LG patterns aren't that effective and honestly, who's caring about "suction modes". The thing is commodity and should always run the "optimized" pattern. I do never use a "spot cleaning" option. (Then I use a regular vacuum (done in less time).
Suction power is also less!!

But yes, he's beautiful, quality is probably better and corner cleaning is effective.
The neato is fragile, lacks a "sidebrush" and is't beautiful.

[jin7]

Well, i'm not sure if the Neato is actually cheaper. It is indeed cheaper to purchase but it may cost more to operate.

I seriously doubt you'd run up $500+ charging 2 little batteries over one battery.


Another for Roboking:
-actively learns about it's surroundings each time it's started.
-better product development (compare previous generations of both robot lines: Lg keep incorporating new technology and upgrades in their robots... Neato, just like iRobot... Pretty much same old same old. Just fixes and minor improvements-in a different colour. New brush. New filter. Wheel mount fix.

[dinkydong]

I dont judge a product simply by looking at videos posted by others. I do so by having own bots from these 2 manufacturers for a period of time, used in my own environment.

just look at some youtube videos. Homebot can't deal with narrow entries. Multiple room isn't also as effective. A neato cleans 7 rooms in a row (architecture as you want). A friend has bought the LG 3.0 over here and I went over there with my Neato XV-25. The LG patterns aren't that effective and honestly, who's caring about "suction modes". The thing is commodity and should always run the "optimized" pattern. I do never use a "spot cleaning" option. (Then I use a regular vacuum (done in less time).
Suction power is also less!!

But yes, he's beautiful, quality is probably better and corner cleaning is effective.
The neato is fragile, lacks a "sidebrush" and is't beautiful.

[dinkydong]

No, u cant chalk up utility bills up to $500 simply charging those 2 little batteries but if u have to purchase a set of batteries every 8 months for the duration of the bot's lifespan and factor in the shipping of the bot to and fro for repairs, then that $500 difference wouldnt be very far fetched! In addition, i would gladly pay more for a bot that gets the job done reliably and with minimum hassle.

Well, i'm not sure if the Neato is actually cheaper. It is indeed cheaper to purchase but it may cost more to operate.

I seriously doubt you'd run up $500+ charging 2 little batteries over one battery.


Another for Roboking:
-actively learns about it's surroundings each time it's started.
-better product development (compare previous generations of both robot lines: Lg keep incorporating new technology and upgrades in their robots... Neato, just like iRobot... Pretty much same old same old. Just fixes and minor improvements-in a different colour. New brush. New filter. Wheel mount fix.

[warpi]

Hello,

I just purchased the LG Hom-bot square for €409 from Amazon.it. So I do not think that there is a $500 difference between the neato and lg anymore!
http://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B00A25H ... UTF8&psc=1

And the fact that neato is using NiMH just makes me think that this robot is from the 90ties.

In one week or so I will receive my hombot square and we'll see how good it is

[mfortuna]

NIMH battery technology is still evolving and I think it is far from dead. The 90s weren't all bad!

[dinkydong]

The difference in price is smaller now. I have just purchased a LG VR6270LVMB Roboking, aka LG Hom-Bot 3.0 for SGD599 (approx USD470 shipped from Korea and its too good a deal to pass up on!). My 2 years old LG VR6170LVM Roboking (the previous round model) is still going strong, operated on a daily basis. The Li-polymer battery used in the Robokings are rated for a 3-year operation lifespan and i have no reason to doubt that. If it uses NiMh battery instead, i would have to purchase 2 additional set of batteries by now! None of my previous bots, Roomba, Neato, etc. operated beyond 8 months on one set of batteries.

[robocleaner]

The Li-polymer battery used in the Robokings are rated for a 3-year operation lifespan and i have no reason to doubt that. If it uses NiMh battery instead, i would have to purchase 2 additional set of batteries by now! None of my previous bots, Roomba, Neato, etc. operated beyond 8 months on one set of batteries.

My 8-year old Karcher is still running on it's original NiMh batteries and delivering good run-times. It goes to show that with proper battery management it IS possible for NiMh to last. It does make me wonder why Neato, Roomba (and others) don't pay more attention to this and revise/update their battery management/usage patterns.

[dinkydong]

I am not so certain we should fault the other manufacturers for poor battery management. IMO, the reason why Karcher's NiMh batteries lasted for so many years of operation has to do with the way the bot operates. Typically, most other bots operate for the duration of 1 to 2 hours for each fully charged cycle. On the other hand, the Karcher only operates for 15-20 minutes before searching for its docking station. Even as the performance of the batteries is reduced with age, u may not notice it as much. Clearly the batteries for the Karcher are not subjected to a deep discharge for a long duration. They are also not subjected to a high charging current for each charge cycle. Heat is the no.1 enemy for all batteries. This probably explains why u can get such a high mileage out of Karcher's NiMh batteries.

[robocleaner]

Typically, most other NiMh bots deep discharge during running, delta-peak charge their batteries upon return to the dock, then let them fry indefinitely on trickle charge whilst constantly draining to keep the scheduling/IR functions going - they're never "off", just on standby, with permanent draining. As such, the batteries are already in a less than perfectly peaked state before even commencing a run.

Conversely, Karcher delta-peaks its' NiMh packs immediately before running, uses only that surplus energy during running, and never depleting below full rated value (it's a 12-volt pack, and is never depleted below 12 volts). It doesn't permanently trickle charge on dock either - it doesn't need to as it has no schedule function - and physically switches off completely after running, not causing a permanent drain on the pack(s).

I did quite a bit of testing to discover this here: http://www.robotreviews.com/chat/viewto ... =4&t=15929. It's a totally different approach to how other bots insist on using/destroying their NiMh packs, and an approach that seems to work well.

[mfortuna]

A battery that been fully fast charged and then trickle charged will remain fully charged. In fact, a pack of cells will tend to get equalized by the trickle charge.

The trickle charge current is also running the standby function of the robot so the battery is not being drained as long is the robot is docked.

The above info is for a roomba, not sure about the Neato. Mine seems to resume charging the pack while docked, maybe it doesn't trickle charge but instead monitors the battery voltage and does a topping up if the voltage dips too low.

A pack that has been sitting with no trickle charge will slowly lose charge, that is why the Karcher peaks the battery before running.

12V is a relaxed cut-off voltage, that is probably the main reason the Karcher packs survive so long. I bet the Karcher also has a fairly low charge rate which probably helps the battery as well.

[robocleaner]

Yes, I understand there is benefit to trickling to equalise cells. But from a Panasonic Cell Data Sheet, it suggests trickle charging to periodically balance the cells only (not permanently fry the poor little things), and even then no more than a maximum of 20-hours to avoid damage - and it lists specific (very tight) trickle-charging current/voltages depending upon cell groupings/capacity; even then, a freshly peaked pack is not the same as one that's kept trickling at some assumed voltage/current (when it pays no regard for the current health/state of the pack). EDIT: You can prove this by peak-charging any pack and immediately doing vic's load test. Then try the same load-test with that same pack after it's been recharged and then trickle-charged for a day or two; In my tests, the stored capacity is always notably greater from a freshly peaked pack.

I'm guessing most robots' packs aren't being treated with as much care as the cell-makers would wish, and the premature failure of most robots' packs seems to back-up that assumption!

[3kgt]

What is the modell nummber of the LG Homebot 3.0 ?
Is it LG VR6270LVMB or LRV790R ? Im in Europe/Sweden, and we dont have them on the offical lg site!

Know that this is not a universal robot topic, but i just cant not write my own experinse so here i go:

I own a Xv-25 today (XV 21)
And i can tell you that as almost all users i have a terrble battery life.
Mine is only 9 month old and im on secound battery pack. And tomorow will change to 3d battery pack cause im getting about 5-20 min from mine now!!!

So Neato
+ Vacum power
+ Less cleaning brushes and parts
+ smarter when its "workning", some times it can act really dum too!

- No side brush
- Battery SUCKS
- Faster cleaning and going on same spot once dosent always mean better cleaning!
- bad build quality.
- Laser part gets stuck sometimes.
- motor takes in much hair and dust
- Wheels quality sucks, mine is almost racing slate now!
- Not so good with driving over door woods (Dont now whats it called in english)

And i owned a bunch of roombas, wich latest was 780.
+ SIde brush
+ Awsome battery life. about 2-3 hours
+ remote controll
+ Overall much better cleaning that Neato cause of multi drives on same area

- Tottaly stupid, even with its lighthouses it misses spots! (By the way all robots do miss some spots!)
- Takes much time cleaning it
- Only 1 side brush. Would be better with 2
- Roomba models almost same over the year, not much happning under the hood! Dosent get any smarter.
- Dose bump into things all the times and get scratched

I might have missed some stuff..
And i did own an older samsung..

SO here im now thing about buying the new LG home bot 3.0 or the Roomba 880.. Dont know wich one.
And roomba 880 isnt avalble in Sweden yet! Prices are pretty expensive for both, but F**ck it, if its good so i dont care. I love these damn robots!

[Boomerang]

You'll want to read some of the recent postings on Amazon of purchasers experience with the LG Hom-Bot 3.0


http://www.amazon.com/LG-HomBot-3-0-Rob ... U5TF60MOIC