Robotic vacuum cleaners are divisive.
There’s skeptics who are yet to try one for fear of an underwhelming cleaning experience and those who can’t imagine living life without one again.
I’ve tried and tested entry and mid-tier robots (priced under $1,000) which I thought did a good job at cleaning my home, but I had always been eager to trial a premium robot vacuum with all the bells and whistles to see if it’s truly worth the investment.
Enter the brand-new Dreame X40 Ultra with a $2,799 price tag, making it one of the most expensive on the market. It boasts best-in-class technology but is it worth the investment?
Read on to find out!
Simple set-up
Unboxing and setting up the Dreame X40 Ultra was easy, despite its rather high-tech look and feel. I must admit, the Dreame X40 Ultra is ultra sleek and sexy with a black finish that elevates your home décor. It’s certainly something to show off and not hide away in a corner.
What’s included in the box? The Dreame X40 Ultra robot vacuum, base station, pre-installed main brush, brush guard, side brush, dust bag and dust box, as well as two mop pads and washboard. In addition, a cleaning tool, 200ml cleaning solution, base station ramp extension, quick start guide, and user manual.
Once you find a suitable spot for the all-in-one dock, download the Dreamehome app, connect to Wi-Fi and follow the easy step-by-step guide. The robot will then scan and map your home to familiarise with its surroundings and work out the most efficient cleaning path. It’ll be up and running ready to clean in under 30 minutes.
With RGB AI smart recognition, the Dreame X40 Ultra avoids a range of objects including shoes and cables so there’s no need to ‘clean before the clean’.
Dual functionality
The Dreame X40 Ultra is capable of vacuuming and mopping – singularly, simultaneously or doing one after the other.
Let’s start with its vacuum performance. The Dreame X40 Ultra boasts the highest suction power available on a robot vacuum at 12,000Pa, which can be adjusted via the app (more on that later). It was a powerhouse when cleaning up any kind of dry mess from dropped cereal or chip particles to general dirt and debris.
A major bug bear of robot vacuums is their round shape – not ideal for getting into corners – until now. One of the standout features of the Dreame X40 Ultra is the extendable and liftable side brush. This allows the robot to get into hard-to-reach corners, as well as intimately clean curved furniture such as table and chair legs. The robot delivers edge-to-edge cleaning with absolute precision and doesn’t leave a single hair or crumb behind. Its slimline design means it also fits under low profile furniture.
What seriously impressed me was the Anti-Tangle TriCut Brush. *Note: this accessory is sold separately for $199.95 but is worth it for detangling human or even pet hair *. Thanks to cutting-edge hair shredding technology, the brush collects hair then shreds it to reduce clogging. There’s nothing worse than having to pull out hair tangled around a vacuum brush, right? The Dreame brush accessory is easy to disassemble and clean to ensure ongoing optimal performance. Genius!
How about its mop performance? The Dreame X40 Ultra left my tiles sparkling without getting my rugs wet. The liftable side brush raises up to 10.5mm preventing cross-contamination between dry and wet mess.
Dreame takes mopping customisation to the next level with the ability to adjust the ‘wetness’ of the mop from slightly dry to moist to wet through a selection of 32 levels. You can also choose how often the robot washes its mop pads after cleaning – either by area (10m2 to 35m2), by time (10 minutes to 50 minutes) or by room (when it’s finished cleaning a single room or zone).
For those with a mix of hard floors and carpets, the Dreame X40 Ultra incorporates an intelligent cleaning carpet mode, which means it will avoid carpet during mopping and increase its suction when cleaning carpets, in addition to an intensive mode that vacuums twice at a reduced speed for a thorough clean.
Recognising that not everyone is comfortable to leave their robot of its own accord while away from home, a built-in LED light is a handy inclusion for those who prefer to clean up in the evening after a day’s work. This helps the robot see mess in dim spaces and dark rooms, so you don’t need to leave the lights on in unoccupied areas.
Another noteworthy inclusion is remote video supervision, which allows you to tap into the robot’s camera via the app and keep a close eye on the cleaning progress.
Overall, the Dreame X40 Ultra’s vacuum and mop performance was seriously impressive, far exceeding my expectations.
Hands-free maintenance
Another major pain point of any floorcare product is maintenance (unless it has an all-in-one dock like this one).
The Dreame X40 Ultra promises up to 75 days of hands-free cleaning, made possible by an industry-leading 3.2L dust bag capacity and water tank capacity of 4.5L for clean water and 4L for used water. I’ve only been using this vacuum for around 21 days but so far so good.
Even after a single use, you soon discover the all-in-one dock literally does it all and you don’t need to lift a finger during or after the clean-up. It automatically empties itself, refills the cleaning solution, refills the water for mopping, cleans the washboard, cleans and dries the mop pads using 70°C water and hot air respectively. It’s also possible to adjust the water temperature via the Dreamehome app with normal, mild, warm and hot options.
A newly added duo scraper means the self-cleaning base station simultaneously washes a mop and the washboard reducing stain residue, minimising odours and decreasing the need for manual intervention.
Dreamehome app
Moving onto the product software, the Dreamhome app is simple and intuitive, allowing you to fully customise and control the cleaning route and schedule, as well as check the battery and cleaning status remotely.
You can monitor the size of the area cleaned and how many minutes were spent cleaning, which is helpful when you’re not at home. It’s also possible to schedule clean-ups, set no-go zones and virtual walls, and there’s a newly added curtain zone for cleaning under curtains.
There are four cleaning modes to choose from – vacuum, mop, vac & mop and mop after vac and four suction power levels – quiet, standard, turbo and max.
The feature I love most in the app is CleanGenius which automatically identifies room types and recommends the most suitable cleaning strategy – another example of the Dreame X40 Ultra doing the thinking for you.
In this mode, you can choose to vac & mop simultaneously or mop after vacuuming. There’s also a deep cleaning mode for intensive mopping and enhanced cleaning for soiled areas.
Verdict
The Dreame X40 Ultra is the robot vacuum cleaner you never knew you needed. There’s no denying it’s a significant investment at $2,799 but its smart features and the time saving benefits it delivers make it worthwhile (budget permitting). It offers many industry-leading inclusions that ensure clean-up is convenient, customised, precise and of course, hands-free. What more could you want?