dreame L20 Ultra

At the time of this review, the L20 had just been released so I figure they will fix some of the flaws with updates in the near future. I used to own old zig-zag random Roombas until about 2013 but gave up on them when I decided the the downsides were more hassle than they were worth. Random zig zagging and knocking into every thing was starting to cause wear on furniture and baseboards. Also, they tended to eat things up and get stuck a lot. Using virtual wall, which had to also be programmed, was a hassle. This thing is completely different and once dialed in has been outstanding. The idea that I could tell it to clean a single room or zone on the other side of the house and that it would just do it and not even have to worry that it would get lost or not finish is mind blowing. Even more so that I could do it from anywhere in the world and even watch it through it's camera. That said, it's no without it's flaws. My house is single story 3400 square feet. Mapping presented issues due to the size and limits on how far it will map from the starting point. The base station is in the kitchen, which is on one side of the house. When trying to map from the base station, it will only go a little over 120 feet before it hits a virtual limit and will not go any further. This left the master suite, the laundry room, and a bedroom all at the other end of the house unmapped. The only work around was to map from a starting point closer to the center but then you're not starting from the base station. One massive bug is that if you start mapping without it leaving the base station, it will basically go forever. I finally stopped it after 80 minutes and after it had visited the entire house at least 5 times. Eventually, it started having shifts in it's position which resulted in the nearly perfect map up to that point become distorted as walls it had previously mapped were now being drawn as obstacles and new walls were going up at an angel to the actual walls. Eventually I discovered that if I click "dock" after it's created a map and is revisiting everything it already did in detail, that I could manually save the "temporary map". After that, if I manually drove the L20 close enough to the dock and then pressed home on the dock, the robot would dock and add the missing dock location to the map. So after hours of messing with it, I was eventually able to get it mapped and docked. Another setup issue was not having water. I tried manual mop cleaning 5 times and no water would come out. What I eventually did to fix this was to fill the clean water tank to the literal top and prime the input tube by pouring water into it. That fixed it but this will cause a few reviewers to knock a star or two off. Other issues. If you close a door which we sometimes do when it's cleaning in bedrooms and we don't want the sound coming down the hallway into the living room, when it finishes, rather than stopping at the closed door and sending a message asking me to clear the obstruction so it can get home, it just starts randomly wandering in all of the rooms it can get to. It's not lost because the position in the map on the app is accurate to where it really is. Also, if you close a door and it's part of a room being cleaned, in this case the hallway and the hallway door closing off the bedrooms from the living room, the robot will just stop and say it was obstructed rather than cleaning up go the edge of the door. This is perplexing given that you could put a new obstacle in a room even at a wall and it will happily navigate around it and mark it as an obstacle, but not so with closed doors. The work around for this is to split the two rooms on either side of the door into entry ways about 1.5 feet wide and then merge those into an "entry" zone that the door sits in the middle of. However, I'd have to do this to every bedroom door adjoining the hallway if I want to clean just the hallway but have the doors closed. Currently I have to open all the doors to all the bedrooms if i want clean the hallway....except for the one that I created the entry zone for. It really needs to have a concept of doors. We should be able to mark doors on the map and it should understand when doors are open and closed. It doesn't know when its dustbin is full and will just pack it tight until it's too full to be emptied at the the dock. This happened the first few cleanings and I had to pull all of the dust out of the bins myself. Clearly this means admitting my floors were a mess. After the first complete cleaning, this hasn't been an issue since, but it seems they should be able to know when the bin is full and even more so, should be able to message you in the app if the dock isn't able to empty it. Seems like that could be a photo sensor so it knows when to go home to empty and when it fails to suck out the dust. Editing is clunky and not complete. When it builds the map, sometimes floor standing items become walls. I'd like to be able to edit the walls and mark the floor standing items for what they are. Carpet marking is awkward. It assumes carpets are parallel to the floor plan rather than at angles which a number of my short pile throw rugs are. Wish I could save zones since there are several high traffic areas near each other but in different adjoining rooms. I can set zones in these areas and take care of them more frequently without having to do entire rooms, but I have to set it up every time. I can't save a zone config. Some times rooms next to each other get the same color even though they are split and marked as their own rooms. Wish I could change the color. The robot will sometimes avoid areas for no apparent reason. No obstacles marked and nothing there at all. I can put zones around the missed spots and it will happily clean them even though it didn't the first time. Cleaning history shows marked obstacle icons, but you can't click on them and view the photos like you can in the live map. This is super frustrating if you've already started another cleaning cycle somewhere else. The scheduled patrol is interesting but useless since it doesn't appear you can auto record video for later review. Despite the flaws, it's light years ahead of the old zig zagging roombas. Edit: after living with it for over a week, have run into some annoying bugs. Floor direction is ignored for zone cleaning. If I pick a zone in a room that has wood floors where I set the direction horizontal or vertical in the settings for that floor type, the robot ignores the setting and cleans against the grooves. Similarly, if I pick an entire room and select 2x, the first pass will be along the floor direction as specified but the second pass will be perpendicular cleaning across the floor grooves...similar to the zone bug above. Another issue is that the robot will frequently avoid areas..some times small all the way to large even though nothing was there in mapping and nothing was there during cleaning. Sending it for another cleaning usually results in the ignored areas getting done but it's annoying and happens randomly in every room. Doing 3x passes in a smallish area with vacuuming and mopping results in the robot sucking up lots of water and basically destroying the HEPA filter. They should prevent this from happening when the area is small enough to force vacuuming first and then mopping second so there's no water on the floor during the vacuuming phase.

*See 10 day UPDATE below. I have five indoor dogs, one (Belgian Malinois) of which is a heavy shredder periodically. Currently, we have snow accumulation in my area (Tennessee). So hair and wet paw tracks are an issue. I have trained my dogs to the “wet feet” command. Upon entering from outside during wet weather periods, I would state “wet feet” and they would sit and wait for me to clean/wipe their feet/paws. Further, the amount of grit and debris carried in from outside in their paws (x 4 per dog) is unbelievable! When you have as many dogs as I do, this can wreak havoc on your back; and especially at my age of 64 years. lol. So, between the grit, wet/muddy tracks, and hair-you spend much time and effort cleaning multiple times throughout each day-wiping feet, sweeping/vacuuming, mopping. Since acquiring this robot, if it’s terribly nasty-wet outside, I still do the “wet feet“ drill, but only if it’s excessively nasty out. My guys come inside onto an absorbent rug, then go about their way. Dried tracks on the floor are no longer a problem. I have scheduled robot cleanings twice per day-(1) midday vacuuming and light mopping in rooms where dogs are, and (2), all rooms vacuuming and mopping at the end of the day (approx 9 pm) when dogs are inside/gone to bed for the night. Then I also have a deep cleaning scheduled for all rooms once per week at 9 pm. The setup and app is not convoluted at all. I suggest you just take the time to review the app and familiarize yourself with it-setup your schedules based on your needs, then setup any shortcuts you might need in the interim of routine schedules. Initially, it seems overwhelming, but it’s really not. I currently have one shortcut set for “pet tracks” and if my guys have tracked and it isn’t in close proximity of my scheduled cleaning time(s), I activate this shortcut and it does a quick vacuuming and mopping of the rooms where my dogs are allowed and have tracked wet/muddy prints. You can setup shortcuts based on your needs per room/zone. The options and pros are voluminous and I’m still learning and adjusting as I go. What I don’t like at all is the cleaning solution situation. You can only use the specified solution per Dreame-and I’m mostly ok with that EXCEPT it is out of stock-everywhere. Another and equally important thing, you have to replace the entire solution container when you run out. There’s no refilling of the container. I find that to be unfortunate in the amount of plastic accumulated and trashed in the environment with each empty container, and most assuredly, more expensive. The solution container should be one capable of being refilled. I’m tempted to remove one star for this, but the robot in and off itself truly deserves 5 stars. That said, SHAME ON DREAME for their (1), failure in their cleaning solution design not being environmentally friendly, and (2), failure to have the cleaning solution available and in stock. If you’re going to design it so only your cleaning solution can be used-then ensure it’s available to your customers for goodness sake! Dreame really dropped the ball, holistically, with the cleaning solution situation. Absent my gripe about the cleaning solution situation- is this robot worth it? It is expensive, by all means; but yes! It is absolutely worth it. It’s been a real back-saving and quality of life improvement for me. PS. In advance, please forgive any typos as I did this review on my phone with autocorrect, which typically has a mind if it’s own. *UPDATE * Almost two weeks into using this robot daily, at a minimum-my life is soooo much easier and my floors are clean. As I have five dogs and it’s wet, winter weather here in Tennessee, I have tweaked the scheduled cleanings due to the nasty wet weather right nite-regular cleanings five days per week and deep cleanings two days per week. I continue to use the shortcut for pet tracks intermittently, for wet tracked paws. I haven’t had my Bissell multi-surface floor cleaner out one time since. Now, does this robot clean deeply like I would? No. But it’s pretty dang close. There’s a few spots in my house it can’t get to such as under my sofa, under the coffee table, my pedestal dining table feet…those are things which will have to be moved under any circumstances to clean underneath. That’s ok. Since this robot was so expensive, I did purchase the 2-year extended warranty for added peace of mind. I was really on the fence with this robot and one of the Roborock’s (7+) and ended up going with this one. No regrets thus far…At all.

Update: I hate this vacuum more than ever before and will never recommend Dreame to anyone. I honestly can't understand the praise that Vacuum Wars on YouTube gives Dreame. They are constantly ranked as one of the highest on their website through a lot of thorough testing. From a real custom experience, it's but nothing but horrible. This thing is still dragging pet fur all around the house and leaving clumps of it everywhere. It basically sweeps it into clumps and then you have to come by with an upright vacuum or broom and finish the job. The most frustrating part of it all, is still the obstacle avoidance. It can't handle barstools or dog bowls that have flat legs for some reason. Wouldn't this be the equivalent of it avoiding it as a regular obstacle? Instead it's constantly trying to climb the dog bowl and dragging it across the floor, spilling water everywhere. The only way around this is to set this as a no-go zone but I feel like it's ridiculous to have to do that for a $1200 vacuum. I will put my money elsewhere in the future. Wish it lived up to its hype. Original Review: I don’t know what to think of this product anymore. First off, it’s extremely expensive and when something is this expensive, you expect it to be next to perfect. I’m constantly going back and forth with this thing and the worst part is that it’s way past the return point so there’s nothing I can do about it. I used to be pleased with it’s performance but lately it has just fallen so short of what it should be capable of. It was a huge step up from the previous Eufy X9 Pro I previously had and returned but it still falls way short of what it should be able to handle. It can’t even mop dried dirt off the floor, which is a basic task for a $1200+ machine that’s built to mop. It simply just doesn’t have the power. If you want this to just be a daily clean to take the dirt off the floor it’s fine but anything more and it seems to not be able to handle it. If you have a pet, what’s a whole other story. Vacuums of this size just can’t keep up and that goes for all brands. The dust bins just don’t have the capacity that’s required to handle pet hair. They just recently added a feature to where it will empty the bin into the home base more frequently but it’s just not enough. All too often I will see the vacuum dragging around huge chunks of pet hair because it’s full so it’s just pushing it around. What good does that do anybody? These devices really need to implement a feature that senses when the bin is full and automatically empty it. I will say that the AI is way ahead of what the Eufy was capable of. This one can actually recognize most things and will even show you a picture on the app of what it detected and most of the times, it’s right and will do a good job avoiding the obstacles. I recently got new barstools though and it kept running over the legs for some reason and couldn’t recognize that they were an obstacle. Eventually it fixed one day, perhaps with an update. The good thing about Dreame is they seem to constantly be improving. At the same time, your device quickly feels outdated because new features were added to a new model just a year later and now you’re stuck with a $1200-1500 machine that no one wants to buy again just for a couple of new features. For example, the new version has a side brush that swings out just like the mop pad does, while this model doesn’t. Not sure if I’ll keep buying Dreame products in the future. All products of this style seem to have caveats. I will continue to use it since I put the money into it. Pros Lots of settings and customization Easy mapping of your home Large capacity home base dust bin and water tanks Above average AI detection Includes mopping solution and auto adds to water Has a swinging mop pad to get close to base boards Mop pads detach and are left behind when not needed Cons Doesn’t fit under most couches Does not recognize when dust bin is full Roller brush gets tangled with long hair regardless of brush design (all vacuums do) Can’t handle tough mopping jobs Requires No custom icons for room labeling Water tank doesn’t have handles so pouring out dirty water is not that easy (other vacuums have this) Horrible widgets

So I purchased this during a Black Friday sale, along with the deal/discount that came with signing up for a Prime Visa. So that made the cost worth it, after a lot of research on which vac to buy, since had just moved into a larger new home. I then waited until we got our new place set up and furniture in its final position etc. I have run it for two weeks and I am honestly super impressed by how smart it is, how well it cleans, and the mop is quite impressive. We have hardwood floors with a few rugs placed around typical spots. Once you get the home mapped out, and use the app to place items and rugs on the map, it’s pretty crazy how awesome this thing is a navigation and cleaning different surface types (both mop and vac). I love that you can have custom schedules with different days for different cleaning types. I do max vacuum in our busy areas, then vac + mop. We have 2 dogs, and it does well to get their hair. (They are trained well so I don’t worry about accidents like others mention) Left off 1 star because I do notice it doesn’t get pet hair well where the hardwood meets the rugs, and the app map customization is a bit finicky (dividing and merging rooms is hard to do after the initial mapping) Other than that, this things is great, and I would recommend it if you can find it on sale or discounted for sure.

Had been using a Roborock S6 for a long while until it ran over cat puke. Decided I wanted to get something with a forward facing camera and AI smarts to try and avoid running over stuff including wires. Also wanted something that could mop our hardwoods. Wanted to avoid the vibrating mob pads like the current Roborocks (except the Q-Revo) because I've read they can cause scratching on floors. The Q-Revo doesn't have a camera and the obstacle avoidance I want. I was leery about trying out a bot that is so new... from a company I had never heard of with a limited track record, especially at this price point (note I did pick it up during fall Prime $300 off sale which certainly helped). I fully expected to get it, have it not perform well, and send it back but so far, several weeks in I'm really happy with it. The obstacle avoidance is great. It has only gotten hung on a wire once and that was one that was hanging from a table... black wire... at night. I blame myself on that one. Otherwise, it has never gotten stuck anywhere or drug anything around which was constant with our S6. The map generation is great. I have no complaints with the app. It seems fully featured and highly customizable. I assumed the app would be an issue, but they seem to have their s*** together there as well. The mopping is where it really shines ;). Being able to kick out one pad to get close to the wall really provides for great coverage. I've included some before and after photos. It really made a drastic improvement on our floors as evidenced by the dirty water that I emptied out. It's not going to remove really stuck on spots... you can see one in one of the photos... but for standard maintenance and keeping things looking good it's great. I was disappointed that when it got here, I found the cleaning solution contains alcohol. The people who refinished our floors told us not to use alcohol products. I thought that might happen and assumed I could just pour my own vinegar-based solution into the cleaning solution tank but didn't realize that there is no cleaning solution tank. You literally insert their cleaner bottle into the unit so there's no way to use your own cleaner. I don't know if this is a way to try and force you to purchase their cleaner or not. Unless and until they come out with a cleaner that does not contain alcohol, I can't go along with this. Thus, I drilled a hole in the top of their bottle, emptied out their solution and filled it with my own with a funnel. Then I inserted that into the unit, and it's been working great. There are warnings in the manual about using their own solution, stating it could cause issues with the base station, but the solution I'm using seems to be working great. I'm using this stuff by the way: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N6EECEY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I read some stuff on Reddit about the mob extend ridding up on the wall edge if you have quarter round molding but if that was an issue at some point, they must have patched it as I haven't seen that. One issue that people have mentioned that I will agree with is if you are mopping and vacuuming at the same time you might end up with wet edges on your rugs. I don't really mind that too much on my entry way rug as it's intended to deal with wet shoes. You can avoid this by setting up your cleaning routine to vac and mop separately in areas where that could be an issue. This thing is certainly an investment. For people like us that I would call... motivationally challenge.... keeping things clean has never been easy so this thing is a godsend for us. If you're on the fence and waiting for some more people to test it out like I was... I'd say give it a shot. Until Roborock comes out with a Q-Revo with a camera and AI... I think this is probably the best robovac on the market.

First of two L20 ultra's: It worked the first three days. Then on day four when it came off the dock to start mopping it rebooted on its own and then did a factory reset. Nothing I could do to stop it. When it worked, it was awesome. If you don’t get a defective unit, you will be happy. Not taking a chance that it will do that again. I’m in my return window. It’s going back. Support has been both helpful and frustrating. If the problem you have is easy, they have a solution. If not…..good luck you’ll need it. Second of two L20 Ultra's: Support was decent with the first defective unit, so I decided to try another. Once again it cleaned a very well. However the software and the hardware have issues. This time after mopping my bathroom ( mop only), it returned to the dock, dropped its pads, came off the dock and repeated those steps again. When it came off the dock the second time it went into the carpeted bedroom ( for no reason, until it bumped into a wall. Then it returned to the dock and completed the task washing and drying its pads. The next day I sent it out to vacuum carpeted bedrooms. When it returned to the dock, I heard it was having difficulty getting into the base. On inspection both mop pads had somehow stacked on each other and this prevented the robot from returning. When it works, it really is awesome. But its clear to me that part of the hardware and the software are not ready for autonomous reliability. It needs to be baby sat. This is not tolerable. It's being returned. Will I risk buying another Dreame model? What do you think?

UPDATE: The Customer service contacted me to address the issues with the 1st L20 machine which as a 3 star rating. This is the reason why the L20 is now at a 4 start rating at this time. The customer rep has been extremely helpful and has reassured me that all of the issues were due to a defect in my machine. Once the vacuum has remapped my house and has had the same amount of time as the original L20 (3 months) I will update this review) (The Original review for the 1st L20) I have had my Dreame L20 for 3 months now. Here’s the pros and cons: Con:1 it’s gets all dinged up including the camera lenses. I have once camera lens that has a scratch on the glass all ready. Pro: Once you finally figure out how to put the carpet in your rooms it does a great job on separating long hair so it doesn’t interrupt your vacuuming and the quality of your vacuuming. Con: I’m still learning how to use there app, and I’ve had to delete and reinstall the all because of issues with it mapping out my house and the app not saving its work each the vacuum had a successful run. If you are first using the map and the map shifts and your walls are no longer correct you have to start all over again. PRO: this one it big: it is the first robotic vacuum that has been able to vacuum hard and carpeted floors, BUT been able to actually clean the floors!!! I had another vacuum that is pretty much that same as this except for the mopping of the floors. This vacuum has it! My tips: make sure you allow the vacuum to leave its obstacles when possible, move kitchen table chairs if you can. Their cleaner lasts a long time. I hope my kitchen floor, and hallway every night and 2 bathrooms once a week and the cleaning bottle is at 75% full. Do not use the generic bags they don’t work right yet. The generic main wheel works perfectly only with the side brush and air filter. This is all true if you are reading the reviews as well. All in all I would buy this vacuum again, but I would’ve waited so I wasn’t paying so much money. Update on 1/24/2024!! Now 5 Star Review!!!After having the new vacuum and having it run for a sold 3 months my review for this product has changed. This is an amazing vacuum that is everything I hoped it would be when I originally bought it plus more! My floors have never looked cleaner, it is so much more quieter, along with it using the extended arms like it was suppose to. When it does to the dock and cleans the pads it is no longer loud, but emptying the garbage into the bag isn't the quietest. There are functions that weren't available on the first one 1 received that I now have. There also isn't anymore running into the walls or my furniture. All I have to do is create a short cut or set my schedule and the work is done for me. I couldn't ask for a better system especially with me being disabled. What a lifesaver!!! I would highly recommend!!

I am a bit of a neat freak and with a dog that sheds I found myself vacuuming every other day. Needless to say…annoying. After reading and watching various reviews this vacuum kept coming up as the best available currently and it hasn’t disappointed. A few notes: we have all hardwood floors, a one floor apartment, with one low pile carpet in the living room, so fairly easy surfaces to for the vacuum to clean. The vacuum and docking station look and feel very high quality. Setup was easy following the instructions and it mapped the house pretty much flawlessly on the first try. I was amazed that it identifies things like a cord plugged into the wall as an obstacle and it’s also great that you can set “no-go” areas if you want it to stay away from certain spots. Once mapped it has navigated flawlessly, making its way around furniture and through various rooms without getting stuck. I’ve set it up to run every day, vacuuming the common areas on one day and the bedrooms and bathrooms on the next, the flexibility it great. I found that it didn’t do a great job of picking up pet hair on the lowest suction setting, but does a great job on the highest, and the battery still lasts two hours on this mode. I was also able to buy the brush version of the roller for the L10 vacuum here on Amazon to better pick up pet hair (it swaps onto the L20 vacuum easily). The self-empty function works flawlessly, though the voice guidance doesn’t seem to warn you when the bag is getting full, which would have been a nice feature. The mopping function works great on our floors and I appreciate that the app allows you to moderate the amount of water used since we have engineered floors and I don’t want puddles of water seeping into the cracks. The fact that you can have it vacuum then mop (rather than doing both at once) so it’s not simply smearing around dirt was a thoughtful addition. It will clean the mop pads on its own when they get too dirty, and if you set it up to, it will take off the pads before vacuuming your carpet to avoid water damage. Awesome! I’ve had the vacuum 2.5 weeks now and haven’t had to vacuum once, it’s saving me so much time and is actually doing a great job. SO WORTH IT!

Bastante buena y en un muy bien precio, aspira y trapea bastante bien el espacio

It was a great investment done . I checked a lot of robot vacuum but this was one of the best selection I did . 1- the Vaccum power is good enough to take most of the dust and dirt from the ground. Best part it has an option to leave the mop pads at the base station while vacuuming floor and carpets. 2- the rotating mopping function is needed to remove the stains better rather than a pad just viping the whole house. 3- mapping function is good which allows the zone wise cleaning and room cleaning whichever is needed. 4-if you don’t want to keep spending money on the dirt bag collector much . You have the manual removal of the dirt from the robo itself. 5-easy cleaning of the dirty water collector and adding fresh water to the base station. I would recommend this dreame Vaccum than any other in the market . The built quality is amazing

Great product and I am so happy with the performance. Thank you

Es una aparato maravilloso, cumple con lo que dice, es un gran aditamento a la rutina de limpieza del hogar, es muy cómodo tenerla. Le indicas donde limpiar, lo limpia. La intensidad también puedes modificarla, se limpia sola, te avisa cuando ocupa ser aseada. Aspira super bien los pelos de mascota, nosotros tenemos dos pugs dentro de la casa y lo hace maravilloso. Lo unico es que el liquido para trapear la mopa tarda en llegar bastante y no es nada barato, de todo lo demas, estoy fascinada. No pide aguinaldo y no se le enferman los hijos a cada rato, así que lo super recomiendo para las personas que les gusta tener su casa limpia, y no tienen el tiempo de hacerlo a profundidad. Comprenlo no se van a arrepentir.

Worst experience after using this for an year. This is an issue box. Before purchasing please check for the services. The services are pathetic as you have to carry the entire setup to the shop for fixing. This is cheap