The great round-versus-D-shape argument about robot vacuums has been running for years. It got settled in the least satisfying way possible: the company that made the D-shaped ones closed.
In brief
- Neato Robotics closed in 2023 after 18 years in business.
- Botvac cloud services ended in late 2025; app control is gone.
- iRobot filed for Chapter 11 in December 2025 and emerged in January 2026.
- Roombas kept working throughout, now under Shenzhen Picea Robotics.
Where the two brands actually stand
Both companies had a difficult few years, but they ended up in very different places, and the difference matters more than any suction figure.
| iRobot Roomba | Neato Botvac | |
|---|---|---|
| Still sold new | Yes | No |
| App and scheduling | Working | Ended with the cloud shutdown |
| Voice control | Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant | No longer |
| Spare brushes and filters | Widely stocked | Third party only, dwindling |
Neato’s end was announced in the spring of 2023, when Vorwerk wound the business up after eighteen years, saying it had missed its economic targets for several years running. The cloud platform outlived the company by a while, then went too: Neato’s support site announced in October 2025 that the services were being retired through the fourth quarter, citing security and compliance obligations it could no longer meet on legacy systems.
iRobot’s story reads worse on paper and ended better. Amazon walked away from its planned acquisition in January 2024, the company issued a going concern warning, filed for Chapter 11 protection on 14 December 2025 and emerged just over a month later, on 23 January 2026, owned by Shenzhen Picea Robotics, the contract manufacturer that had been building its machines. Existing Roombas were unaffected throughout.
If there’s a Botvac in your hall cupboard
Don’t throw it out. The robot itself still cleans. What you’ve lost is the Neato Botvac Connected layer: the MyNeato app, the schedules, the no-go lines, the voice commands. You press the button, it goes, it comes back.
Two things worth doing this month rather than next year. Buy a set of filters, a side brush and a blade brush while third party sellers still stock them, because that supply only shrinks. And if the machine still holds a charge, keep charging it on its base rather than storing it flat, which is the fastest way to kill a robot vacuum battery for good.
Round or D-shaped: what the argument was really about
The shape debate was never about looks. It was about two genuinely different bets on where dirt lives in a home.
The D-shape and the corner problem
Botvac machines had a flat front edge and a full width brush, which let them push right into a corner and along a skirting board instead of curving away from it. Paired with the LaserSmart turret on top, which mapped the room and cleaned it in tidy parallel lines, it was a convincing answer to the complaint everyone had about early robots: they missed the edges.
The round shape and the furniture problem
Roomba’s circle can pivot on the spot without wedging itself against anything, which is why it gets out of trouble under a sideboard where a squarer machine gets stuck. iRobot’s answer to edges was a side brush that flicks debris into the path of the main rollers, and its Dirt Detect sensors, which make the robot linger where it picks up a lot at once. The early iAdapt navigation wandered semi-randomly; the current generations map properly, so that old criticism has largely gone.
What I’d look at instead of the badge
Having lived with tiled floors, an open terrace door and the fine grit that blows in off the coast from March onwards, these are the things that decide whether a robot earns its place.
- Brush type. Rubber rollers cope with long hair far better than bristles, which need cutting free with scissors every fortnight.
- Bin size against floor area. A small bin on a large tiled floor means the robot fills up halfway and pushes the rest around.
- Threshold clearance. Terrace door tracks and old tile transitions stop more robots than any carpet does. Check the stated climb height.
- Noise. Anything you run while you’re at home needs to be liveable with. This was a fair criticism of some Botvac models, and it’s still worth checking on any machine.
- Parts, five years out. Filters, brushes and a replacement battery should be easy to find. This is exactly what Neato owners are discovering the hard way.
One thing a robot won’t fix: a floor it can’t read. Very dark or high gloss surfaces confuse the drop sensors on some models, so if you’re changing the flooring at the same time, my comparison of Quick-Step and Pergo laminate is worth a look before you commit to a finish.
Quick answers
Is it still worth buying a second hand Botvac? Only at a token price, and only if you’re happy pressing a button. No app, no schedule, no map, and a parts supply on borrowed time.
Did the iRobot bankruptcy break anything for owners? No. The restructuring wiped out the shareholders, not the service. The app, the maps and the warranties carried on through the transition to Picea ownership.
Do these robots handle pet hair properly? The pet-oriented models of both ranges were built for it, with bigger bins and hair-friendly brushes. The variable is the brush design far more than the brand name on the lid.
How long does a charge last? It varies enormously between models and generations, and manufacturers quote figures from a fresh battery in ideal conditions. Judge it by the floor area you need covered in one run, not by the number on the box.
Buying other connected kit this year?
The same question applies: who keeps the servers running once the box is sold?
