Today I’ll be comparing the Ecovacs Deebot N79S vs. Roomba 675. While Roomba is the more popular brand, it falls short with its 600 Series.
While Deebot N79S performs well despite lacking some premium features (expected at this price point), the Roomba 675 is sluggish, underpowered, and underwhelming.
Remember before going in that these are budget robot vacuums. They work well when you know how to work with them. For example, you’ll have to prep your home, they shouldn’t be used around shag carpets, and their cleaning algorithm isn’t as precise as premium models. They might go over the same spot 10 times while touching other spots for a moment. It will get the job done, but it’s a headache to watch.
Deebot N79S
Navigation
According to Ecovacs, the N79S lasts two hours. It usually takes about 1 hour and 45 minutes for it to finish cleaning before it returns to the charging base. When I tested this, the Deebot got stuck around my large 12×16” air grate almost every time, but rarely got stuck anywhere else. In fact, except for this anomaly, it got stuck far less than other robot vacuums I’ve tested, so this might be a fluke.
Creating barriers is essential with any robot vacuum to prevent it from getting stuck or going around cords, small toys, or other areas it shouldn’t. You can build a perimeter with boxes and other tall items that it cannot get over.
Navigation is fairly smooth and it will easily get around the whole room or house. Plus, it doesn’t bump hard into your walls unlike Roomba 675. This means you shouldn’t have any scuff marks around your walls and baseboard.
There are four cleaning modes. Automatic is the best so it can detect what needs to be cleaned, but sometimes the other modes are better. It can also spot clean, edge cleaning, or clean the middle portions of rooms. Out of these modes, the edging feature is my favorite to ensure it cleans around the edges of the room.
Suction
According to Ecovacs, the Deebot N79S has 1,000 Pa of suction power. In real-world testing, the Deebot and Eufy are neck-and-neck while the Roomba falls far behind. You can use max power from the app and it increases suction power, which is good around carpets. However, it reduces the battery power by about 20 minutes.
When it comes to carpet cleaning, the Deebot is the best of the three models I tested, and it’s the best of any robot vacuum under $300. There’s no competition between this and the Roomba, and it picked up a little more than the Eufy.
The Deebot did almost as good on hard floors. The Eufy model beat it by just a little, but it far outperformed the Roomba by picking up 50% more rice and debris in a five-minute cleaning session. This is a powerful robot vacuum that will get the job done on either surface.
Design
The Deebot N79S is quieter than the Roomba 675, despite being rated for the same noise level. It just sounds softer to me. The body design is lighter and slimmer than the Roomba and it comes with an amazing remote. This can be used to handle all scheduling.
You can also manually control the Deebot N79S by making it go forward, backward or side to side. This is very precise and good when you want it in a certain area. The large dust tray collects a good amount of dust and debris, plus it’s easy to empty and reach the filters.
Unlike most other robot vacuums that only allow you to charge through the port, you can charge this model with the port or through a power cord. Not an essential feature, but having more options is always better.
Software
The software side of Deebot is OK. Not bad, but it could have been done better. The remote and vacuum must be in sight of each other to make a schedule. Also, you can only schedule one routine through the remote. If you want your vacuum to do the same thing every day, then this isn’t too bad.
There’s an app that allows you to create custom schedules for each day, and it’s the only way to put the Deebot N79S in max mode (for some reason). While the app is larger and more intuitive than the remote, the design is just bad. It looks like an unskilled high schooler just started coding.
Syncing the vacuum and app is very tedious, but you’ll only have to do this once. Smart assistants like Google and Alexa can also be used.
Company
There’s not too much to say about Ecovacs. They don’t have a big reputation in the United States because they only recently started selling here. They have distributed in China exclusively until now, but the Deebot N79S is a strong showing in the affordable sector by being one of the best at this price point.
However, one downside is that this vacuum didn’t come with an extra filter or brush. Most other robot vacuums do, but you can buy them on Amazon if you need them.
Roomba 675
Navigation
The Roomba 675’s navigation is just bad. It only has an hour of battery life with underwhelming power. It rarely finishes the whole house and it even more rarely returns to the charging base before running out of juice.
Roomba says the 675 has an intuitive cleaning algorithm, but I didn’t see that. This lower-end model doesn’t have the room mapping of other models. It just lumbers around the room until it’s done (or the battery runs out). The only time you see an algorithm at work is when it spots bigger spots of dirt. A green light will go off and it will go over the spot (and waste more power) until the dirt is gone.
One good thing though is that Roomba has virtual walls. This black device gives off IR signals that tell the Roomba to stop, which keeps it away from certain areas. However, the virtual wall only came with the Roomba 690, but you can buy them on Amazon for $40.
The Roomba 600 slams into walls pretty hard, harder than the other models I’ve tested. While there hasn’t been any serious damage, there have been black marks along the baseboard. They can be cleaned, but it was still annoying.
Suction
Despite Roomba’s reputation, the Roomba 600 is the weakest model of any robot vacuum under $300. From poor suction to having no second side brush, it ends up removing far less debris than you would expect. That’s not to say that the entire brand is bad, but they don’t get great until you reach the $500 price point.
When it came to carpets, the Deebot was able to suck up 40% more rice and debris than the Roomba. Things were even worse on hard floors where the Deebot picked up 50% more rice. This is a poor showing for the Roomba 600 and it disappoints.
Design
Despite having the same decibel rating as the Deebot N79S, the Roomba 675 is substantially louder and more annoying. If you do get this model, then do yourself a favor and only run it when you’re out of the house. This is not the type of vacuum that you can run while watching TV and relaxing.
On top of that, the Roomba 600 series often gets stuck since it’s about a half-inch taller than the Deebot, three pounds heavier, and it has a harder time moving around. To perfectly complement it’s poor suction abilities, the Roomba 675 has a surprisingly small dustbin that’s also hard to access. The filters are just as difficult to reach.
Also, Roomba doesn’t have a remote. You can still control it from your phone, but this is a little annoying.
Software
The Roomba software is fantastic and it works great with the 675 and 690 series. You can use either Alexa or Google Assistant, and they have WiFi capabilities so that you can make custom schedules, check cleaning cycle logs, and see the vacuum’s battery life. Plus, it gives a notification when cleaning is complete.
The app also allows for firmware updates that may improve the cleaning algorithm. For example, this vacuum couldn’t originally use smart assistants, but that changed after an update.
Company
Roomba is made by iRobot and has been manufactured for 18 years. Their customer service is unparalleled and replacement parts are easy to order. Not only are Roombas durable (including the 600 series), but they are built to be repaired and kept around for a long time.
While there are several models within the 600 series, the differences are minor. The 614, 650, and 652 don’t have WiFi capabilities and don’t work with the app. The 675 is similar, but you can use the app. The 690 is like the 675 but it came with one virtual wall.