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Have you ever dreamed of vacuuming your pet before their hair distributes itself around the house? Your chance has arrived with the Neabot Pet Vacuum, a real product that—we’re astonished to report—really works.
I’ve been told several times over the years that wire-haired dogs don’t shed. Despite this, Miss Bennet, a wiry Terrier-Schnauzer mix, persists in leaving fine white hairs everywhere she goes. My other dog, Logan, is a Black Labrador with a gorgeous coat that sheds in clumps roughly twice a year and smaller, but more consistent, quantities in between. Realizing that there was no possibility of winning the pet hair battle, we gave up and adopted Peaty, an orange tabby cat, a couple of years ago. He adds a third color to the piles of hair that accumulate in the corners of my house.
With three shedding animals around, it’s safe to say that vacuums and lint rollers have become my friends. And, on more than one occasion, I’ve—mostly jokingly—suggested the idea of vacuuming them directly, saving everyone the hassle of having to leave the hair on the sofa or rug or other surfaces for me to clean.
I’ll admit that the idea never went much further than that. After all, vacuums are the sworn enemies of house pets worldwide.
So when I learned about the Neabot P1 Pro Pet Grooming Kit & Vacuum, I was intrigued, amused, and skeptical. A pet grooming tool that cleans up the hair while it works? It sounded way too good to be true, a quirky gimmick intended to sell expensive pet devices. But how often do you get to test a product you joked about existing?
As it turns out, the joke is definitely on me. The Neabot pet vacuum isn’t too good to be true or a gimmick. In fact, this might be one of the most useful pet products I’ve ever owned.
Neabot Pet Vacuum: A New Wonder Tool in Pet Grooming
The Neabot P1 Pro Pet Grooming Kit & Vacuum launched in 2021 as a project on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter. It is a small canister vacuum that comes with a selection of attachments to brush, de-shed, clean, and trim your dog’s hair. In the crowdfunding listing, the company promised that the product would capture 99% of pet hair.
That’s quite a bold claim for any pet-loving household. Neabot set a goal of $5,000 for their Kickstarter, and enthusiastic pet lovers ultimately backed the project with nearly $50,000. The pet vacuum is now readily available at a number of retailers.
Unboxing the Pet Vacuum
The first thing I noticed about the pet vacuum was its quality. The machine and its attachments are lightweight but sleek and sturdy.
The vacuum’s tank holds an impressive one liter of dog hair and dust, according to the Kickstarter page. It also features two filters: one HEPA and one foam. In total, I pulled 13 separate pieces from the box, including the vacuum base, a user guide, a storage bag, and an array of handy attachments, including:
- Grooming brush
- Deshedding tool
- Electric clippers (with four clipping combs in various sizes)
- Cleaning brush
- Nozzle
Unboxing the Neabot pet vacuum.
Comparing the included items with the illustration in the user guide, I quickly noticed that I’d received two 24mm clipping combs and no 18mm as intended. I reached out to the Neabot support team at the email provided and got a response within a few hours; as of this writing, they’re in the process of sending me the missing piece.
After skimming through the user manual, I was ready to get started. The hose, tank, and filters came already attached to the base, so the rest was simple: all I had to do was plug the vacuum in and choose my attachment.
Attachments, Functions, and Testing the Pet Vacuum
Four of the attachments included with the Neabot pet vacuum are intended for grooming, while one—the nozzle, a long and narrow piece—is for all-purpose cleaning. This attachment will be handy for cleaning between sofa cushions, but I focused on the other four for testing purposes.
The attachment heads snap into the end of the vacuum hose. There’s no release button—you just pull to get them back out. Most of the attachments came out fairly easily, but I did have to yank pretty hard with one. That answered any of my concerns that the attachments might come loose.
Test 1: Grooming Brush
The grooming brush features several rows of thin, tightly-spaced metal bristles with white plastic tips to prevent scratching. The head is pretty large—roughly 4 inches by 4 inches—so while it can be used on all animals, it seems best suited for larger pets than cats or small dogs. The vacuum pulls air and hair through an opening in the middle.
This type of brush works well on both dogs, so it was the first attachment I chose. As I turned on the pet vacuum and began to move it over Logan’s coat, I noticed the hair building up on the brush. Pressing the lever marked “clean” on the back of the attachment pushed the hair to the end of the bristles, where it was sucked into the vacuum’s canister.
I started Logan on the low “eco” setting, then switched it to standard, then boost mode. He glanced at the device when I pushed up the power but seemed largely unbothered. Miss Bennet was less enthralled by the higher settings. She tolerated the lowest speed and wanted no part of the rest, which is pretty much how she rolls in general.
The Neabot pet vacuum filling with hair after a quick brush of both dogs.
Test 2: Deshedding Tool
The Neabot deshedding attachment features a single row of metal teeth. It functions similarly to a FURminator or other deshedding tools, which work by coming through the outer layer and pulling out the loose undercoat.
Deshedders are perfect for Logan’s dense coat, particularly in the spring when he starts shedding tufts of hair. He’s not there quite yet, but the tool still caught some of the loose hair underneath his shiny outer layer. Like the grooming brush, the deshedding attachment has a cleaning lever that pushes the collected hair off the end of the teeth, where the vacuum’s suction can catch and pull the hair through the tube. It got me a little too excited each time it happened.
Test 3: Cleaning Brush
To my surprise, the cleaning brush was one of my favorite attachments—possibly because it best represented my original idea of directly vacuuming my pets. Five inches tall and around 3.5 inches across at the widest point, it’s rimmed with a single row of soft nylon bristles. The center features a textile with a texture similar to the soft side of Velcro.
When no other grooming is needed, the cleaning brush is a great tool to capture loose hair directly from my pets—before it can cling to anything else. Plus, the manual describes this attachment as helpful in removing pet hair from clothes as well.
Test 4: Electric Clippers
Officially, the best way to groom a wire-haired dog is by “stripping” them, which consists of pulling out the dead hairs one by one. However, as a rescue pup of unknown heritage, Miss Bennet is unlikely to win any championship awards. Plus, stripping is a slow, tedious process for which neither of us has the patience.
Several years ago, Miss Bennet frolicked through the fields in central Texas and emerged covered head to toe in hundreds of tiny sticky seeds. We pulled as many of the seeds as we could by hand but made little progress. After trip to the store, we cut out the rest with dog clippers. Since then, she’s gotten haircuts once or twice a year when her scruff becomes particularly unruly. It helps control her shedding and minimizes the seeds, leaves, sticks, and ticks that she tends to collect too.
To trim Miss Bennet’s hair with the Neabot electric clippers attachment, I started with the 24mm clipping comb but quickly switched to the 12mm option. The clippers are light and easy to use, and they glided through her hair easily. I did wish at this point that the vacuum hose was a little bit longer; it got in the way of my work a few times. But the best part of the experience—hands down—was having almost no mess to clean up.
Miss Bennet before and after grooming with the Neabot.
Normally after a trim, I sweep and vacuum and sweep again, inevitably missing clumps of hair that floated away. With the Neabot pet vacuum, nearly all of Miss Bennet’s newly freed hair went straight into the vacuum canister. A swipe of the hose quickly took care of the little bit left on my floor. Start to finish, we were done in less than 20 minutes, and the house was just as clean as when we started.
I had anticipated needing to empty the vacuum’s canister at least once through my testing, but it held more than I expected. That said, my dogs aren’t in full shed mode yet, and they’re not particularly large. For big dogs with long hair, such as German Shepherds and Huskies, it might be helpful to keep a trash can nearby for regular emptying as you groom.
Conclusion: The Neabot Is a Silly Novelty That’s Seriously Worth It
Neabot P1 Pro Pet Grooming Kit & Vacuum
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The Neabot P1 Pro Pet Grooming Kit & Vacuum costs nearly $160 at the time of this writing. That’s no small amount, and it’s easy to balk at the price. I wouldn’t even have entertained the idea if not for the opportunity to write about it.
However, when you consider the number of tools that the vacuum replaces—and its convenience—the value behind that price becomes much more apparent. The Neabot grooming kit is effectively five grooming and cleaning tools in one. The addition of an integrated vacuum to those four grooming tools offers an element of functional novelty unlike anything I’ve seen.
But, more importantly, it works. Pet owners with heavy shedders should definitely consider the Neabot Grooming vacuum for their grooming toolbox, as should those sensitive to excessive amounts of hair.
I didn’t do the math, so I can’t say that the machine necessarily caught 99% of my dogs’ hair as promised. But the cleanup was definitely minimal. Emptying the canister was easy, as was using and swapping the attachments. And the dogs weren’t afraid of it, unlike the regular vacuum stored in my utility closet. They’re not necessarily friends either—it’s more of a relationship of tolerance than anything, which I can work with.
I, on the other hand, am now a full-on fan of the Neabot pet vacuum. I’m almost excited for Logan to start his big shedding phase this spring so we can really see what this little vacuum can do.
