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  • Liam McCabe/Wirecutter

    The best robot vacuums

    by 
    Wirecutter
    Wirecutter
    02.04.2018

    By Liam McCabe This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the original article here. After running more than 90 cleaning cycles with 14 of the most promising robot vacuums in 2017, we think the EcoVacs Deebot N79 is the best choice for most people who want a basic, affordable bot that can actually keep their floors tidy. The Deebot N79 is nimble enough to navigate most homes without getting stuck often—and that's what really makes most bot owners happy. Its battery life is the longest we've seen, it runs the quietest, and it has one of the better control schemes we've seen for the price—including Wi-Fi and a smartphone app. It works best on short carpet and bare floors, in areas smaller than 1,200 square feet, with only modest amounts of pet hair—limitations that stronger, smarter, pricier bots don't have. But the Deebot N79 is the best of the affordable robot vacuums, and if you run it at least a few times per week, it can keep your floors free of obvious debris with very little effort on your part. EcoVacs also makes a newer, more-expensive version of this robot called the Deebot N79S. It's basically the same as the old one, but it works with Alexa voice commands and has an option where you can boost the suction. That feature reduces the battery run time, though, and we found that as a result of that trade-off, it picks up a similar amount of debris per session. We'd spend our own money on the older Deebot N79, in the interest of saving a few dollars. But the newer Deebot N79S does work well, if you think the voice-command functionality is worth paying extra.