Dreame Bot W10 robot vacuum review

One-minute review

When it comes to robot vacuums that can mop as well as vacuum, many of the designs available on the market have left us underwhelmed. They’re great at sloshing water onto hard floors, but they lack the scrubbing action required to remove tough stains. 

Dreame hopes to change this with the Dreame Bot W10. A robot vacuum that can mop and vacuum, it features two rotating mop pads that, along with 10 newtons of pressure, perform a scrubbing motion of 180 revolutions per minute to help lift stubborn stains from your hard floors. 

Smarter than your average robot vacuum, the W10 uses water from a 4.2-quart tank located in its charging base to soak the mopping pads. It then periodically returns to the base to clean the pads and dislodge any dirt, emptying the dirty water into a separate 4.2-quart tank. It then uses hot air to dry the pads to ensure they don’t develop mold and mildew. 

The Dreame Bot W10 can vacuum or mop, or enlist both functions simultaneously, as well as engage its spot-clean function for particularly dirty areas. It offers four levels of suction and three levels of dampness for the mopping pads, along with a 15fl oz dust canister – which requires emptying manually. 

The D-shaped robot vacuum features a Lidar scanner to help it navigate around your home. The technology ensures the vacuum takes a logical path around your home, rather than a random route, for quick and efficient cleaning. Wi-Fi connectivity means it can be controlled via an app on your smartphone, or Amazon Alexa. Dreame claims the W10’s battery will last up to 210 minutes between charges. 

At $1,089 / AU$1,699, the Dreame Bot W10 is one of the more expensive robot vacuums we’ve tested. However, if you’re looking for a vacuum that can wash hard floors and vacuum, plus are after a hands-off approach to cleaning the mopping pads, we think it’s worth the investment. 

Dreame Bot W10 price and availability

•  List price: $1,089 / AU$1,699 

The Dreame Bot W10 costs $1,089 / AU$1,699, making it one of the more expensive robot vacuums offering mop functionality that we’ve tested. Available in the US and Australia through Amazon; currently the brand has no plans for its release in the UK. 

Dreame also offers a more affordable robot vacuum with mop. The Dreame Bot L10 pro sports a circular design, and lacks a self-cleaning base, which is reflected in the more affordable price of $489.99 / AU$648.95.

Design

• D-shaped design
• 15fl oz dust canister
• Base cleans and dries mopping pads

The Dreame Bot W10 is the first robot vacuum from the brand that sports a D-shaped design, similar to that of the Neato D8, complete with a plastic bumper that surrounds the flatter side of the appliance. Measuring 13.14 x 12.36 x 4.15in, it’s one of the larger robot vacuums on the market, and its height meant it struggled to get under furniture with low clearance in our tests. 

The glossy white robot vacuum features three buttons on the top that start and stop cleaning, activate the spot-cleaning mode for intense areas of debris, and enable the vacuum to return to the base station to recharge its battery. It also has a Lidar sensor, which is a 3in wide by 0.5in high disc that sits on top of the appliance at the back. 

Flip the W10 over and you’ll find two wheels and a swivel wheel on its underside, which help the robot vacuum to work its way around your home. There’s a brush bar, too, along with a side brush that can help sweep dirt from crevices into the vacuum’s path and two 5in mopping pads. Under the hood you’ll find the Lidar scanner, which, with the ability to map up to three different levels of your home, ensures the robot vacuum knows exactly where it is through cleaning to choose a logical path around your home. 

As mentioned, the robot vacuum offers four levels of suction, three cleaning modes and a 15fl oz dust canister. Also bundled in the package is a docking station that charges as well as empties dirty water from the appliance, and which cleans the mopping pads. It features two 4.2-quart tanks, one for fresh water and one for dirty water, and comes in the same glossy white finish as the robot vacuum itself. However, measuring 14.76 x 15.75 x 16.9in, the docking station takes up a fair amount of space. 

Performance

• Powerful suction
• Can mop as well as vacuum
• Dust canister is easy to empty

On test, the Dreame Bot W10 did a good job of collecting fine dust, cookie crumbs and larger debris – including cereal – from both hard floors and carpets when used on the two highest suction levels. However, on lower suction, the robot vacuum did require several passes to collect all of the fine dust. On thick-pile carpet, it even missed some nuggets of cereal completely. 

Capable of mopping as well as vacuuming hard floors, the W10 also impressed with its scrubbing action, successfully removing tough stains including Coca-Cola that had dried onto the hard floor, as well as fresh dirt. The robot vacuum can be used in either mopping or sweeping mode, although the mopping pads must be removed to ensure the robovac only vacuums; there’s a combined cleaning mode that utilizes both functions. We were impressed that when mapping out our home, the robot vacuum was able to sense the areas of carpet and wouldn’t enter those zones when set to mopping only or combination cleaning. 

Unlike many of the robot vacuums we’ve tested, the W10 doesn’t have its own water tank. Instead, it dampens the mopping pads at the docking station to one of three levels – selected in the app – and cleans anywhere from 54sq ft feet to 161sq ft before returning to the docking station to clean the pads with jets of clean water. 

At the docking station, the mopping pads spin rapidly against small grooves to dislodge any dirt, before the water is deposited in a separate tank. We were actually quite surprised at how dirty this water was after the robot vacuum had been used to sweep and mop an area of hard floor around 100sq ft. The mopping pads are then dried using hot air before the robot vacuum begins to recharge. 

The dust canister proved easy to remove and empty, simply requiring you to lift up the top of the robot vacuum. However, the canister does require several taps over a garbage bin to ensure all of the dirt and debris is removed. Re-fitting the canister into place was easy too. Given this cleaner’s price, though, we were disappointed that the W10 robovac isn’t able to empty its own dust canister, in the same way that iRobot Roomba i7+ does. 

When it comes to noise, the W10 registered a maximum of 71.6db on our decibel meter when sweeping and mopping on maximum power, which is the equivalent level of traffic when standing on a sidewalk. Even cleaning of the mopping pads didn’t reach this level. 

App

• App is simple to use
• Store maps of up to three levels
• Integration with Amazon Alexa 

Dreame doesn’t offer its own app to control the robot vacuum. Instead, it uses the Xiaomi Home app. This is relatively simple to use: once you’ve launched the app and connected the robot vacuum to your home Wi-Fi network, you can either set the robot vacuum on a fast mapping program, or set it to clean and map at the same time. 

Once it’s created a map of your floorplan – it can store maps of up to three different levels – you can then set no-go areas or identify and select zones. The app also allows you to adjust the suction level, cleaning mode, and dampness of the mopping pad, while also scheduling cleans. 

The app also features a locate function that ensures the robot vacuum issues an audible alert to its whereabouts. Integration with Alexa enables you to use your voice, rather than the app, to start the robot vacuum on a cleaning spree.

Battery life

• The battery lasts up 3 hours and 30 minutes
• Takes up to 6 hours to fully recharge
• Docking station displays the battery level

The Dreame Bot W10 is one of the longest-lasting robot vacuums we’ve tested, running for around 3 hours and 30 minutes between charges – although this is on the least powerful setting. When used on maximum power, we found the robot vacuum lasted just under one hour, which proved sufficient to fully clean a three-bedroom, two-storey house. 

We were impressed that when the battery became too low for the robot vacuum to continue cleaning, it automatically made its way back to the base station to recharge. Note that a full recharge can take around six hours. We also appreciated the battery level indicator on the docking station, which displays the remaining power level as a percentage. 

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First reviewed: January 2022

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