Robot Vacuum choice Neato vs Xiaomi

Hardware
1

Hi!

So, I’m starting to consider buying a new robot vaccum. Right now I have Neato D80 (or D85) without any ‘smart’ features or integrations. So here are my comparison thoughts.

1. The App

What got to be the selling point for Xiaomi for me at one moment was that they have No go lines and region cleaning, where you can just draw lines and squares on the map in the app. This is something I would really like to have, as this way I won’t have to go and close doors, put strips on the floor where I don’t want it to go (and their length is limited anyway).

But I see now they added it to Neato app as well. So I suppose it’s a Tie here now?

2. Price

I also see that Neato D3 Connected is priced about the same as Xiaomi’s roborock. But it does not have a side brush!!! And D5 is almost twice the price. So for a higher capacity battery and a sidebrush they ask about twice the price. This is ridiculous.

There are also cheaper Xiaomi models out there.

So even with D3 Xiaomi wins the battle here.

3. Cleaning

Judging from review Xiaomi and Neato clean about the same. With exception that D3 has no side brush, so it fails there.

So i’d say it’s a Tie but with a wink towards Xiaomi, since it offers a HUGE side brush for the same price.

4. HASS Integration

Last but not least is HASS integration. And this is where Xiaomi fails it for me completely.

Apparently Xiaomi does not wish to open it’s API? I see that for it to work you need to get access token, and it had to be retrieved by hacking into app’s data in the first place, but not it’s even worse than that, you have to download an older app or hack into SSL encrypted traffic between the app and the cloud. And there’s a high chance that they will cut even that at some point. And all in all, it does seem like Xiaomi devices which are not working through bridge are generally a mess when it comes to integration and apps.

Rooted firmware also did not seem like it’s a solution to me, as it seems to lose some functionality? Or am I wrong here?

Anyway, it seems like setting up Xiaomi may be too much work, and for me it may even justify higher price of Neato.

So I wonder what would your thoughts be on this matter? Did I miss anything? Is there an easier way to integrate Xiaomi into Hass? Or should I just not bother and go with Neato? Or did I miss something and their API is not as open as I think?

Thanks for your time and attention!

2

Mr. Davydov,

Honestly, I cannot understand what the problem is. Actually, you do not need to hack anything. Yes, token is required for integration. Getting token and downgrading is pretty easy I dare say.

Owning Xiaomi Robot Vacuum and not having Integrated it in HA yet, I can try doing this on the weekend and feedback to you if you wish.

Regards

3

Takes 5 minutes at most to get xiaomi working with home assistant and it has never failed on me yet since i installed it!

Hope that helps :slight_smile:

4

FYI these can only be used if executed from the app. From HA, it kicking off the vacuuming, can not use these virtual walls.

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@Hypnotia Thanks for response. Yes, your experience may be very useful.

I’m not saying it’s very hard. But still it requires quite some manual work. Finding apk, downloading, installing on a phone (and also going into settings to allow 3rd party apps), installing, extracting sql database, reading it to get a token. This would take about half an hour or an hour to get.

But this is only one part of the problem. Another part is that this is basically unofficial API. I’m not saying that I need to hack anything, I’m saying that HASS’s integration itself is Hacky. It’s not using any official API and is not supported by Xiaomi. Meaning that it may go down at any moment. And bye bye Hass integration. I don’t want to live with a feeling like this kind of thing may just stop working without any control over it.

I also don’t quite like that you need to mess with app’s locale, selecting mainland chine, and all that jazz. I have Xiaomi Air Purifier, not that it caused any problems so far, but it just feels… unreliable.

Neato on the other hand looks like you only need username and password and voila - everything works.

Maybe I’m wrong. That’s why I’m asking here. Very interested in people sharing their experience with it.

@Dean_Parry I’ve commented on ‘5 minutes’ above. Your time perception may not account for actual time it takes. Just finding and downloading the right APK, reading which one you need will already take 5 minutes at least.

And it may also fail at any moment, since Xiaomi does not seem to care about supporting it.

@callifo Yes, I know that, thanks

6

I’m looking into getting one of these… looks like the Neato is out already as I am not paying £700 for one :slight_smile:

How are people getting on with the Xiaomi please? Does it work on Carpet as 70% of my house is carpet… We are in a 2 floor house, so can you tell it that it is on a different floor if you pick it up and move it?

Cheers
Mark

7

I have the gen 2 Xiaomi Roborock. It works very well on carpet. It has no problem climbing up on rugs either.

The dust bin is small though. The first time I ran it the vacuum got full of dust bunnies as I hardly ever vacuum under the bed and the bedroom was the last room it cleaned. It then proceeded to spread the dust bunnies around the carpet in the bedroom. I simply emptied the dust container and directed it to re-clean the bedroom. Problem sorted. After that first clean it didn’t happen again.

I ran it twice a week for the first couple of weeks but noticed it was no longer bring back full bins of fluffy dust so I only run it once a week now.

No you cant. But that does not stop you picking it up and moving it. It re-maps the area every time you start a new clean. You just have to be ready to retrieve it when it notifies you that it has finished cleaning as it will be unable to find the dock unless you move that too.

There’s a youtube channel called Marco Reps that I subscribe to (electronics projects and reviews in a funny dry German humour), he did a tear down of the original Xiaomi robot vac and was very impressed with how it was designed for ease of repair. This pushed me over the edge to purchase one.

Honestly I’ve been so impressed with this little robot I’ve ordered a second one for downstairs. I’m selling my upright vacuum cleaner and buying a small stick vacuum for dusting and bits behind doors the robot does not get to. Some doors I can close/open on a bi-weekly basis but closing others would lock it out of the rooms.

1 Like
8

Thanks for such a detailed reply Tom

How does it decide when to “mop” please? as I was going to get a gen 1, but might as well go for a gen 2 :slight_smile:

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That’s one feature I haven’t used yet. I’ve heard it’s more like wiping the floor with a damp cloth than ‘mopping’. Apparently you just fill up the tank and clip it on the the vacuum. So unless you can confine the vacuum in the area to be mopped by closing doors you would have to vacuum first to draw a map then define the area to be cleaned so it does not try to mop the carpet (you can do this with a point and click / drag box in the app).

10

thanks Tom… one last question :slight_smile:

Can I tell it to do 1 room, i.e. the kitchen which always needs doing !! ? and can you give names to zones, so you and tell google/alexa to go clean the kitchen?

Cheers
Mark

11

Yes it’s called zone cleaning. You draw a box on the previously mapped area and press clean. It will make its way to and from the dock to the zone to be cleaned as long as you haven’t closed any doors since the map was made (last clean).

Nope. Though new features are being developed all the time. That would be a great suggestion to feedback to the manufacturer.

1 Like
12

It is compatible with version 2? Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum version 2

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Yes it is.

14

With a good deal you can have the Neato D5 the same price as the Xiaomi S50.
I would go with the neato D5 personally

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It does seem like Roborock’s integration has more features in Hass, though, no?

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And there’s really not much between the two (skip to the high end category) https://youtu.be/1-r2EOMJchU

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Tempted to grab the Xiaomi but can someone suggest which to go for? There seems to be a few models about.

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Comparison chart: https://smartrobotreviews.com/buying-guide/?tpl=1&tv

19

Thanks Tom. You’re running a S5? Can you suggest a place to buy in AU?

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I am using two Roborock S50 gen 2 vacuums.

I purchased them on sale lfrom this seller: https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/gearbite/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from= they are currently about $100 dearer than the price I purchased them for. If you keep an eye on OzBargain they are regularly advertised for much cheaper prices.