Test drive of the new Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Track S robovac

Xiaomi backed Dreame is expanding its range of home automation gear rapidly, and there’s much to choose from now, including no fewer than 10 robotic vacuum cleaners. 

Dreame sent an Aqua10 Ultra Track S for review, which retails for $3499 RRP (shop around for much better pricing), and comes with a three-year warranty.

It follows the now established robovac form factor which means it’s a round unit, about 350 x 350 x 97.5-119 mm (retracted and lifted LDS respectively) that lives in a fairly chunky dock (420 x 440 x 500 mm). 

The dock also houses the dust bag the robovac purges itself into, and detergent, pet smell neutraliser and water for the mopping.

Setting up the Aqua10 Ultra was very simple. Get the Dreamehome app, scan a QR code to connect to the Aqua10 Ultra with Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz is needed for reach), and you’re done. The newer and more secure WPA2/WPA3 authentication is supported, which is good to see.

I received one firmware update with bug fixes and performance updates during month-long review period.

It's possible to add other users to Dreamehome to operate the Aqua10 Ultra, and you can manually start cleaning and send the robovac to the dock by pressing a button on the LiDAR pop-up, or with voice commands. The Aqua10 runs through a robo-monologue as it goes through cleaning tasks, and it can be turned off.

Amazon Alexa, Google Home and Apple Siri personal assistants can be used to create command shortcuts for the Aqua10 Ultra as well.

The Dreamehome app is relatively straightforward to figure out, and claims to have machine learning (ML) capabilities. It has lots of settings to play with, possibly too many, but if you want to micromanage your cleaning as Dreame puts it, the app has you covered.

Being pet-less currently, I wasn’t able to check out how the Aqua10 Ultra manages to avoid sleeping cats in its way. It is said to be able to recognise pets though, using artificial intelligence (AI), and other objects such as dark socks and plastic bags, preventing them getting tangled up in the Aqua10 Ultra.

Pumped up Pascals

Dreame says the Aqua10 Ultra has up to 30,000 Pascal suction force, which is more than the 20,000 Pa on the X50 Ultra I tried out in May. 

Generally, the Aqua10 Ultra does a good job of vacuuming with the stronger suction picking up dust and debris, rolling over carpets and floors with an anti-hair-tangle brush, to dislocate dirt. It hoovered up unwanted particles from crevices well, which robovacs often struggle with.

Dreame doesn’t give a floor area estimate of how much the 6400 mAh battery charge covers, but I was able to run the Aqua10 Ultra for 45-50 minutes doing deep cleans with vacuuming carpet and mopping hard floor, on around 30 m2 of space. This was with the battery at 80 per cent, after which the robovac rolled back to charge with 10 per cent battery left. Deep cleans uses the most power so expect the Aqua10 Ultra to last longer with lighter tasks.

Despite the additional Pascal-power, the Aqua10 is reasonably quiet in use. 

The Aqua10 Ultra scoots around on wheels mounted on extensible legs, called Proleap. In the new robovac, the tech has been improved so the device jumps more gently and can get across up to six centimetres obstacles without getting hung up and stuck.

Navigation is through a combo of camera (with a light) and laser distance sensor LiDAR mapping. A little round tower pops up for the Light Detection and Ranging, and it can retract to go underneath furniture.

Mopping it up

Unlike the X50 Ultra which has two rotating mopping discs that the robovac attaches and detaches as needed, the Aqua10 Ultra uses a fixed square unit. Like the discs on the X50 Ultra, the mopping unit on the Aqua 10 Ultra extends outwards to reach close to edges and underneath furniture and whiteware.

The square mop cleans quite well as the Aqua10 can heat up the water to 45C and applies greater force to the floor. It also handles spills nicely, mopping up liquid without splashing wet stuff all over the place.

It would be good if the Aqua10 Ultra could be persuaded to mop closer to the edges though. The robovac would also studiously avoid mopping one narrow-ish area of hard floor that it was happy to vacuum, even when I tried zone cleans for the spot in the Dreamehome app.

Once done, the Aqua10 Ultra returns to the dock, washes the mop, and can zap it with ultra-violet light to kill bacteria plus heat it to a 100 degrees Celsius to keep it super clean. 

Maintenance, security and privacy

Regular maintenance of the robovac is straightforward, from swapping bags to emptying out the dirty mopping water (don’t forget this; the app will remind you). Disassembling the Aqua10 vacuuming and mopping parts for cleaning is easy too, and you can replace them when worn out.

Speaking of consumables, this is what they cost from Dreame.

The bags last an estimated two months each with regular use, and cost nearly $50 for three. A litre of the cleaning fluid (Dreame strictly says to use theirs only) is also nearly $50. So, running costs are on the high side, but this is not a budget robovac.

Privacy and security are on everyone’s mind, and Dreame was quick to emphasise that when I spoke to the company earlier this year. The Aqua10 Ultra has microphones, and a high resolution video camera that’s accessible remotely over the Internet, so security is very important.

Unfortunately, a security issue cropped up for Dreame during the review period.

I asked Dreame about this and received a statement outlining the company’s approach to network security and privacy. This includes being certified for wireless security as is mandatory in the European Union, for following privacy protection best practices, and the safety of internet-connected devices.

That last bit means using hardware security mechanisms, plus encryption for app communications and the video feature. Dreame also said they’re going to implement a security operations centre (SOC) and to organise quarterly penetration testing with computer emergency response teams (CERTS). 

All good stuff and Dreame should step up to communicate the effort so as to reassure customers that problems are being handled quickly and properly.

Verdict

The high suction power of the premium level Aqua10 Ultra Track S means Dreame’s new robovac model eats dust very well. I can see pet owners in particular liking it, and the robovac is easy to set up and use.

When it mops where you want it to, the Aqua10 Ultra Track S does a good job, and handles spills neatly too. That said, mopping could be more consistent, and I hope Dreame will address this with updates.