Everyone’s favorite time of year is right around the corner – spring cleaning. With that in mind, nothing is more frustrating than rearranging all your furniture to vacuum. Fortunately, with the Deebot N79s, keeping your floors dust and debris is just 5 words away.
The Deebot N79S ($249 on Amazon (Special offer below)) is the latest robot vacuum cleaner from Chinese robotic appliance brand Ecovac Robotics. It features a 3-stage cleaning system, over 100 minutes of cleaning on a single charge, smart app remote control, and Amazon Alexa voice activation.
Built into the N79S are intelligent sensors that allow it to detect walls, furniture, as well as a drop sensor to prevent it from driving off stairs to it’s demise. A pair of side brushes circulate debris into the path of the vacuum while an efficient main brush and high powered suction motor draw dust, dirt, and other junk into its trap.
After spending a little over a week with the N79S, I found that the vacuum did a reasonable job of navigating our living room and kitchen and keeping the floor clean. We do quite a lot of cooking, and it’s not uncommon for seasonings and other food bits make their way to the floor of the kitchen, and with a toddler in the house, there’s often little bits of other stuff throughout the house.
Sending the Deebot out in Auto mode will begin the process of (seemingly) randomly navigating the available space until the battery is low enough that it needs to return home. This is great for general purpose cleaning, as it will get into those hard-to-reach spots under a couch or chair. Auto mode can also be scheduled with the Ecovac app, allowing you to pick days and times to run.
The N79S also offers spot cleaning, which begins in the middle of a room and spirals outwards. This is great for cleaning a specific spot of mess. Edge cleaning is also very useful, especially in a kitchen, as it will get the bits that have snuck under the edge of cabinets or appliances.
The headlining feature of the Deebot N79S is the integration with Amazon’s Alexa. Using the Ecovacs skill, you can start cleaning with a simple “Ask Deebot to start cleaning”. You can also send it back to it’s base by uttering “Ask Deebot to start charging” or halt everything with “Ask Deebot to stop!”
The Alexa skills are especially helpful when a toddler or pet decides to get curious about the robot driving around the house. The included remote control offers the same controls, and also allows for manual driving and activation of spot cleaning and edge cleaning without the use of the app.
The only caveat to using the Deebot is your room layouts, flooring, and general tidiness. Obscure rooms and obstacles on the floor will impact whether you can take advantage of robot vacuums cleaning. Thick rugs or carpeting, toys, TV or computer cords, and other household items can cause the machine to get stuck. Fortunately, the N79S will play a “help” tone if it finds itself stuck. In my testing, this happened 1 time, after attempting to drive over a stuffed animal.
Ultimately, the Deebot N79S is a great helper when it comes to cleaning simple rooms. It does a respectable job of cleaning, and checks a household task off of my to-do list. The small waste canister can pose an issue if you have pets (or other members of the house) that shed, or if you have a large space that is very filthy. While not perfectly suited for every house or every room, the added convenience of automating a small part of your daily or weekly chores is well worth the price.
If you’re in the market for a robot vacuum cleaner the Ecovac Deebot N79S is the perfect balance between power and price. You can get it for $249 on Amazon.
Right now, the Deebot N79S is $50 off, bringing the price down to $199!
Readers of MacTrast can score the Deebot N79S Accessory Kit (3 extra filters, 4 spare side brushes, and an extra main brush – a $25 value) for FREE with the purchase of the N79S by entering the code “2PHKUW9E” a checkout on Amazon!
Disclaimer: The Deebot N79S was provided at no cost for review. All views, experiences, and opinions are my own.