Ecovacs Deebot R96 Robotic Wi-Fi Vacuum Discussions | Drop

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Ecovacs Deebot R96 Robotic Wi-Fi Vacuum

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Ecovacs Deebot R96 Robotic Wi-Fi Vacuum

hanryy

Apr 28, 2018

Does anyone know how this model differs from the N79 that the wirecutter recommends?

Rexar5

284

Apr 28, 2018

hanryyI have the n79s (slightly more powerful version of the n79). It's a great product but it's pretty dumb. It just bounces around and hopes it lasts long enough to clean everything. And honestly, it works pretty well. I don't regularlly vacuum the living room, hallway, or my bedroom any more because the n79s does a pretty good job of keeping it looking nice if I run it every day. (I separate all of tehse areas and leave it to do the hall and bedroom on one of each weekend days and run it in the living room/downstairs every weekday)
This one is smart. It actually maps out the whole room and it will vacuum across it methodically in rows and get every point. See in the app picture how it has created a virtual floor plan? And if it runs out of battery before it finishes, it can go charge and then pick up where it left off. Vs the n79 that just bounces around until it dies. And the n79 also isn't that good at finding its way back to the charger. But it costs a third as much.
TLDR, this one is smarter and will do a much better, more thorough job. It also has a mop.

boot2skull

Jun 21, 2018

hanryyI have the N79 and I love it. Like Rexar5 says, the N79 is a "dumb" smart vac that navigates via algorithm and uses wifi to set scheduled run times, view consumables usage (battery life, brush life), and manually direct it. It it's "dumb" because bumps something, and how it bumps tells the algorithm to turn it around a certain amount of degrees, and moves on. It detects a couch edge or cabinet/wall edge, it goes into edging mode and runs along it to clean. Eventually it will cover everything over the course of probably two runs. I schedule it to run every day. That said I have a short pile floor rug that it has no problems with. With medium+ pile carpet I wouldn't recommend it. My house is hard floors except for the bedrooms so I just shut the room doors at night. Really, the purpose was to get most of the crumbs off the floor each day because we have a toddler and can't bust out the big vacuum as frequently as necessary.
The only issue I have is, the wife and I think the sensing ability of the N79 decreased after the first two weeks. I may be wrong but I swear initially it could detect walls, cabinets, and big furniture and slow down when approaching without colliding. This made it very quiet as it wouldn't slam into doors while you're asleep. Now though it has to make contact with everything, which not only increases the noise, but also changes its behavior algorithm because it reacts differently when detecting by proximity versus detecting by bumping. I've cleaned the front bumper where all the sensors see through and it made no difference. Still, the thing rolls over pretty much every square foot and does edging around the sofa and cabinets, so I can't complain too much. Walking on the floors barefoot speaks for itself.

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