Telling your robotic vacuum cleaner to start cleaning the house is no longer a futuristic fantasy. Of course, you will need a Wi-Fi enabled smart robot vacuum and a voice activation system such as Amazon’s very popular Alexa. Luckily, it seems like most of the newer robotic vacuum cleaners are compatible with Amazon Alexa.
What is Amazon Alexa?
It is a voice activated system that works with a smart speaker, such as the Amazon Echo smart speaker. You address your voice commands to the smart speaker. The voice processing system listens with tiny microphones that are built into the Echo smart speaker (view it on Amazon).
Once you say the keyword “Alexa”, the program captures and sends the voice commands for analysis and response. It then processes and executes your voice commands for various Alexa compatible devices and services.
A smart speaker is an essential item if you have a smart home and want to use voice commands instead of a smartphone or buttons. If everything is set up and integrated, then you might achieve such futuristic effects such as walking into a darkened room and asking Alexa to turn on the lights.
Alexa has much more abilities, such as streaming and playing music and creating to-do lists. However, it is not a complex smart home system or smart home hub. Nonetheless, the one thing we are interested in is whether it can start and stop a robotic vacuum cleaner. Let us consider a few smart vacuum robots that are compatible with the Alexa voice command platform.
Deebot Robot Vacuum With Alexa
The Deebot N79S can be controlled with your voice once you have successfully connected it to an Alexa device. The Deebot only seems to work with a 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi signal. Enable the Ecovacs skill inside the Alexa app. Please take note that there seems to be a problem when you try to log in with an email address that contains upper case letters. The email address you enter should be all lower case. This is some kind of weird glitch that prevents you from logging in successfully!
There is not much you can do with Alexa and the Deebot N79S. You seem to have three voice commands available: ask Alexa to start, stop, or recharge the Deebot. You still have to use the Ecovacs smartphone app to schedule cleaning sessions and to monitor its progress. Nevertheless, the Deebot N79S has a list price of about $300 which makes it an affordable robotic vacuum cleaner with Alexa connectivity!
The Deebot 900 is another Ecovacs robotic vacuum cleaner that is certified to work with Alexa. However, it has both smart navigation and intelligent mapping. It creates its own floor map while it cleans. You can view and interact with this map on your smartphone with the Ecovacs app.
The Deebot 900 does not have the usual spot and edge cleaning modes, even though it still has an automatic mode. Instead, you can create custom areas on the virtual map that you want it to clean or to avoid. This model only works with a 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi network, therefore it is not suitable for 5G networks.
The Deebot 900 costs a little more than the Deebot N79S because it has a smarter navigation system with mapping technology.
The Deebot Ozmo 930 combines smart navigation, mapping technology, mopping ability and Alexa compatibility into a single robotic vacuum cleaner. You can ask Alexa to either start, stop or recharge the Deebot. The Ozmo mopping system is only intended for mopping hardwood floors. These features all come at a price: the Ozmo 930 costs more than the other Deebot vacuum cleaners. It is only worth paying the price if you really want the mopping function for your hardwood floors.
Roomba Robot Vacuum With Alexa
The Roomba 690 is a cheap Alexa compatible robot vacuum from iRobot which works with Wi-Fi and the iRobot Home app. It cleans both carpets and hard floor surfaces with its single edge-sweeping brush and two multi-surface brushes. The included virtual wall barrier can create an exclusion zone which the robot will avoid.
The list price of the iRobot Roomba 690 is in the same price class as the Deebot 900. However, the Roomba 690 does not have the virtual mapping abilities of the Deebot 900.
Then there is the Roomba 960, which also has Wi-Fi connectivity and can be voice controlled with an Alexa device. The iRobot Home app provides cleaning, scheduling and customization. In addition to these basic features, the Roomba 960 also supports a clean map report on the app. It shows you a virtual map of the areas that the robot vacuum cleaned. The Roomba 690 does not have support for clean map reports. Nevertheless, you are going to pay more money for the Roomba 960.
Botvac Robot Vacuum With Alexa
What can we say about the Botvac D7? There are other similar models such as the Botvac D3 and the Botvac D5, which also seems to support Alexa voice control. Nevertheless, we have chosen the D7 for our buying guide.
The Botvac D7 has the distinctive D-shape of the Neato Botvac robotic cleaners, which means that it can get close to the wall and corners. This D-shape also allows space for a 10-inch wide rotating brush and a large dust bin.
The D7 is a Wi-Fi enabled robotic vacuum cleaner that uses a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network signal. It might also support a 5GHz Wi-Fi connection, but two reviewers commented that they could not get it to work with 5G.
The Botvac D7 uses lasersmart navigation and mapping. It can map the floor plan of your home, even in the dark. You can view this coverage map on your smartphone with the Neato app. Draw a virtual “no-go” line to prevent the robot from cleaning a certain area of the house. However, it seems like Neato Robotics is still working on map support for multiple floor plans. The last time we checked, it only supported a single map.
Powerbot Robot Vacuum With Alexa
The Samsung company makes the Powerbot R9350 Turbo vacuum robot. It is called the “Turbo” because it apparently has the world’s most powerful suction. It cleans all floor types with its 12-inch wide brush and large dustbin.
The Powerbot R9350 is a voice enabled robot vacuum with Wi-Fi connectivity. You can give it a few very basic commands once you have paired it with an Alexa device.
The R9350 Turbo is not the only Powerbot robot vacuum that works with Alexa. However, it is the strongest and most expensive model. It has a list price of $1200. Why would you pay so much when you can get a Deebot N79S or a Roomba 690 for more than half the list price of the Powerbot R9350? We certainly would not pay that much for it!
Conclusion
Which of these robotic vacuum cleaners are the best when it comes to Alexa voice control? In the final analysis, here are my suggestions for the best Alexa compatible robotic vacuum cleaners.
The best cheap Alexa robot vacuum is probably the Deebot N79S. However, it is unfortunately not compatible with dual-band Wi-Fi systems because it can only connect to a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi router. Nevertheless, it seems like all the robot vacuums we looked at only works with 2.4GHz Wi-Fi.
The best robot vacuum with Alexa might be the Neato Botvac D7. I prefer this model because it offers the best balance between features, price and connectivity. The Botvac D7 costs more than some of the other options. Even so, it has a few interesting features that make it worth its list price.
At the end of the day, I think that this buying guide is now mostly obsolete, due to the fact that most robotic vacuum cleaners are compatible with Amazon Alexa. If you buy a new robot vacuum, then it should give you the ability to add voice control with the Alexa device of your choice.
Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash.