Dreame L40 Ultra Is Better at Vacuuming Than Mopping
The Dreame L40 Ultra is an expensive robot vacuum cleaner that is worth a look if you can get one on sale. Over the past year I have had a very successful experience with Dreame robots. I was impressed with the L10 , an inexpensive model that had a lot of high-end features for its price. But the L20, the more expensive model, was a disappointment. I was also extremely disappointed with the A1, which I could barely get working . While there are better robots at this model’s original price ($1,499.99, but now on sale for $1,049.99), I don’t think it’s a bad buy.
High footprint
The L40 Ultra is only available in white; If you want a black machine, you may want to consider the similar Dreame X40 Ultra . The L40 has one of the tallest docking stations I’ve ever encountered, standing at nearly 24 inches tall—if you want to hide the docking station under a counter or in a cabinet, that height can be problematic. The L40’s water reservoirs are large enough that I didn’t have to change the water after every run.
Magnetic brushes and easy setup.
The most notable feature of the robot is the rotating magnetic mop heads. Instead of snapping into place, the robot activates a magnet when it’s ready to leave the dock. Otherwise, the robot turns off the brushes to better clean and rinse them. This is a new trend and I have to say that it made me worry that the robot would drop the brushes, but that didn’t happen. One of the brushes is also attached to the sweeping arm, meaning the brush extends out from under the robot and rests against the walls. The robot has one roller and the same three-prong sweeper you see on most robots.
It was a pleasure to unpack – the station was almost completely assembled, and the robot needed almost nothing to start working right away. The Dreame app detected the robot instantly – it connected to Wi-Fi on the second try after the timeout, and there have been no problems since then.
Smooth navigation
The L40 Ultra uses LiDAR, which is now the industry standard, so it barely needs to cross the room to create a map. Although the robot took a 15-minute tour of my home, the map was almost flawless in the first few minutes. Maps can be customized to combine or separate spaces that the robot perceives as rooms. Like many modern robots, the L40 does not allow you to save “zones”, but they can be set to run once. To effectively save an area, you need to designate it as a “room”, but this is true for most robots these days.
The robot had no problems under sofas or tables and successfully moved out from under them on multiple occasions. He struggled a bit when I sent him into the zone from another part of the house instead of starting from the dock and gave up. This happened over and over again and I eventually reached out for support; they were unable to successfully fix the problem. When you send a robot from the dock, it can easily reach any location; it was only difficult for him to get from another part of the house to his new job without first stopping at the pier.
The L40 Ultra is a champion vacuum cleaner.
The L40 never struggled or got stuck. The wheels were a little more durable, so even when the edge of the mat was rolled away, the robot rolled over it and continued moving. As a vacuum cleaner, the robot really excels, getting surprisingly close to objects in the room. My white tiles looked immaculate and my carpets were noticeably cleaner afterward. The L40 pressed right up against the baseboard, so there wasn’t the usual three-inch strip of debris around the room that other robots left behind.
On carpet, the L40 still held its own, sweeping up small debris like dust bunnies and more problematic debris like hair ties. In any case, the matter was not delayed. L40 does not like large debris, but does not get stuck in rollers; The dream simply avoids it. This includes lint from pet toys and stray socks that other robots will try to vacuum up and get stuck. The L40 also never caught the cord.
Of course, the L40 is a self-cleaning vacuum, and during my testing I never had to clean it manually. The docking station did an excellent job of evacuating everything from the vacuum cleaner.
Mopping the floors is a bit disappointing
What makes Dreame different from other brands is that it allows the robot to vacuum and mop the floor at the same time rather than sequentially (though you can choose this as an option as well). I’ve found that letting the robot do both jobs at once is most effective, but this leads me to my main disappointment with the Dreame: it only does cleaning well.
It’s peak muddy paw print season here in PNZ, which means my white tiles are exposed to dirt nine to 10 times a day. I had very high hopes for the mop’s rotating heads and the ability to determine how much water the robot was using and how many passes it was making.
In turn, the L40 makes very predictable movements when cleaning, tracking the outer surface and then moving in parallel lines. However, in one pass he only smeared the dirt around. On two passes, it still left marks in the middle of the track, where the mud was heaviest, but did a little better on the outside of the track. After three passes the tracks were barely visible, but they were still there. And this is on the wettest setting, which leaves a significant amount of water on the floor.
I wouldn’t say the mop was a complete failure; it saved me from having to get up and clean the floor 10 times a day. If, for example, you are cleaning up spilled juice, the robot will do the job perfectly. But I don’t think dirty paw prints are beyond what you’d expect from a robot vacuum cleaner. The L40 did a similar job with regular dirt from walking on wood floors and tiles. He cleaned some things, but didn’t seem to be able to handle anything that could be mopped.
One more note about the robot rushing to clean up a spill: L40 takes a minute or two to get the robot ready to go; if you are in a hurry, you will most likely not wait and solve the problem yourself.
Mostly hands-off, but there is room for improvement.
The L40 Ultra is currently on sale for $1,049.99, and the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra, one of my favorite models, is on sale for $899.99. You’d think it would be easy to say, “Get Roborock instead,” but Dreame has several advantages. First, I love how rarely I had to fill the water tanks. I think the magnetic squeegee pads are much cleaner than the traditional pads that Roborock used on the S8 Pro Ultra. The Dreame’s retractable brush and pads are closer to the walls than the Roborock’s. In the Roborock’s favor, I think the single mop pad still does a better job of cleaning and does a better job of navigating places away from the dock.
If cleaning your floors is that important to you, you should go for a higher-end model like the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra, which costs $1,599. But at $1,000, I think the Dreame is still a pretty decent price for most families. Stubborn stains will still require some manual work, but the L40 will mostly take care of itself, with minimal intervention.