Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller: Bouncy vacuum mop

Dreame made a very strong entry into the vacuum mop market, and I received the Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller model for an extended review, which is one of the company’s premium models, including obstacle climbing capability, advanced navigation features and, as is the trend in most recent advanced vacuums, a roller brush as the main washing brush. The Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller has many sophisticated features and sometimes it is even too sophisticated. Want to know why? Keep reading.

At the front of the station there is a nice silver panel that also contains the indicator light, and below it another removable white panel, behind which are hidden the large dust bag (Dreame claim it only needs replacement once every three months, and it seems they deliver), and a cleaning fluid container. Similar to the parallel model from Ecovacs, there are two types of cleaning fluid here: One regular floor cleaning liquid, and another special liquid for breaking down and cleaning odors from pets, such as ammonia, for example. The Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller uses the additional liquid to also handle unpleasant pet-related cases. In general, this vacuum is very pet friendly and it is clear that Dreame put thought into this, but more on that later. At the bottom, of course, is the docking port of the vacuum, and it should be noted that it is relatively easy to clean this area, which tends to accumulate a lot of dirt.

Moving on to the vacuum itself. The Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller is a round vacuum, with a diameter of 35 cm, with a white (or black) body and cover, under which you will find the dust collection container and the power and pairing buttons. At the front there is a dual camera, which also serves for navigation and obstacle detection with front lighting.

But the uniqueness is the round silver control panel, which includes a home button and a power button, and is surrounded by a colored light ring. But this is not just a button panel: Under it is the LDR system, laser radar navigation, which unlike other vacuums where it is fixed and creates an unsightly protrusion from the body – here it simply sinks and disappears into the vacuum body when docked and not needed, and slides out during cleaning and navigation. A clean and impressive design.

On the bottom side is of course the brush system – in addition to a side brush sitting on an arm that allows it to extend from the vacuum body and reach corners, the central suction brush system is a dual system, one brushes, one rubber fins in opposite motion – a configuration that has become very popular mainly because it is indeed very efficient at collecting dust. In addition, this vacuum has a pressure of 30,000 pascals, a figure that in my opinion is somewhat meaningless because it represents the pressure the vacuum applies to the floor and all vacuums today boast high pascal numbers.

In addition to other suction openings and secondary navigation sensors on the sides (which measure, for example, proximity to walls), there is the washing brush, which is structured like a paint roller, extending from the vacuum body, and again, very reminiscent of the one found in Ecovacs, the competitors. Dreame, however, boast their unique washing processes, which include squeezing the brush cloth during operation and constant wetting with clean water.

And finally, one of the distinguishing advantages of the Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller – the wheels. The wheels sit on a spring loaded axle system, which can lift the front of the vacuum body, allowing it to jump over complex obstacles (up to four centimeters) such as balcony door tracks found in many homes in Israel, the safe room threshold that has become very relevant recently, and more. Dreame are very proud of this capability, which also allows the vacuum mop not to wet your carpet.

The cleaning quality is excellent. Although sometimes the Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller’s heightened avoidance of obstacles causes it to leave some dead zones, the areas it does clean are handled very efficiently and it shines, literally. With proper adjustment of the water amount, and the app offers very precise control over it, it leaves floors shiny, without wipe marks – but you need to let the small amount of water it leaves evaporate, in the sense of I just cleaned here, do not step if you do not want footprints. That said, when activating the deep cleaning function (see also in the app section), it consumes a lot of water, and the tanks need to be emptied more frequently.

And what about navigation? There are two aspects to this. In terms of general navigation, it does a good job overall, although sometimes its routes to bypass large obstacles may seem a bit puzzling. The machine vision with the pair of cameras indeed allows it to identify obstacles and it learns in the process, but you will also need to manually teach it later on the map about obstacles that were identified as obstacles but it could not classify into a clear category like shoes, for example. But it definitely excels at detecting and avoiding obstacles.

Secondly, as is the trend, the Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller also has an artificial intelligence agent mode, which manages completely autonomously choices such as water amounts, suction power, cleaning programs and schedules. I tried this mode for two weeks, one of which I was away from home. I did return to a clean house, but on the other hand the vacuum sometimes got stuck and tangled in places around the house and did not really know how to return home. Overall, this feature is not yet mature, it may improve with future software updates, but for now I would recommend skipping it entirely and sticking to manual cleaning program and schedule settings.

And finally, the highlight – the ability of the Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller to jump over obstacles and enter under sofas. Regarding the latter, the fact that the lidar can disappear into the low vacuum body and not create a height obstacle indeed allows it to enter even under particularly low furniture, even at a height of 10 cm or slightly less from floor height. In dark areas it will also turn on the front light for orientation. Its obstacle jumping capability is not bad – but not perfect yet. Yes, it is successful at climbing and lifting over tracks and it was the first vacuum I sent to clean the balcony as well – but not infrequently it started driving along the tracks or got stuck on thresholds with one pair of wheels in the air and needed rescue. Here too, innovation at its best – that is not yet one hundred percent mature.

The docking station does an excellent job in cleaning, and generally does not accumulate much dirt. The split structure of the docking base – with a removable plastic filter, allows easy cleaning. It is also not as noisy as other docking stations we have encountered. The washing process with hot water and high temperature drying leaves the vacuum brushes clean and ready for action. That said, in certain settings, the station drinks a lot of water, and I had to fill and empty the tanks relatively frequently.

The number of options in the app is dizzying: Four different options for carpet cleaning and additional sub options for cleaning behavior (with side brush or without? lift the vacuum body or not?), different options for floor cleaning, extending the side brush from the body, the method of jumping over thresholds, options for washing brushes including deep cleaning, and we have not even talked about experimental options such as stubborn stain treatment and large particle detection. Those who love precise settings and many options will feel at home. I also experienced occasional disconnections of the vacuum, and had to add it again, something in Dreame’s app somehow does not feel fully polished, it is good – but very overloaded.

Another interesting aspect that the Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller presents is a range of features for monitoring and caring for your pets, which is an interesting feature. Not only will the camera, thanks to its machine vision, identify your pets, it will also tell you in ongoing use where they mostly stay and lie, and includes special cleaning options for scattered dry food or litter around the cat box. In addition, Dreame also include a special cleaning material that breaks down pet urine acid odors. For owners of four legged companions there is definitely added value here.

The Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller is an excellent and innovative robotic vacuum mop. Yes, it is expensive, but it provides a comprehensive solution for your floor and carpet cleaning needs, and overall does a good job. Sometimes the extensive innovation incorporated into it works a bit against it, such as the artificial intelligence modes and the threshold jumping that works well overall, but still needs occasional fine tuning that I hope will come with future software updates. If you have pets, or a home that requires complex navigation, the Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller is a good option for you.