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Dreame Bot L10 Pro: test / review
Published on: 21-06-2021 / Modified: 11-12-2022
I bought my first robot vacuum cleaner in 2018 and although it was a stupid one, it did its job picking up the little everyday grime. I still have it today but its role is limited to vacuuming bedrooms as these are easier rooms to clean for a robot with a slightly random path. At the beginning of 2021, I really moved into the 21st century with a Yeedi robot vacuum cleaner which replaced the old iLife robot for the living rooms. So now I have a good base to test other robots and now it's the turn of the Dreame Bot L10 Pro which looks like something out of a sci-fi movie
Price comparison
About Dreame
You may not be familiar with Dreame yet so I'm taking a quick detour to give you a little background. Dreame is a Chinese company founded in 2015 and is part of the Xiaomi eco-system. All of this may not mean anything to you but Xiaomi is one of the most important technology companies in China and its international presence is only growing. Dreame has the support of a Chinese tech giant, so it is not a small manufacturer without importance. Dreame is positioned at the top end of the Chinese market and you'll see from the pictures, these are products designed to be in the premium range.
Overview
5 years ago, robot vacuum cleaners were still a curiosity that only a few geeks used, the situation is quite different today, there are many products and making a choice is not always easy. This Dreame Bot L10 Pro is the third robot cleaner I've tested, so I don't have a huge experience but it's probably 3 times more than most people.
Features
1. Lidar detection system.
The lidar scans its environment in 3 dimensions and in theory allows it to better detect obstacles and adapt the route without running into every obstacle it encounters. Previous robots I have tested tend to touch their environment to detect obstacles.
2. Suction power
The Dreame L10 Pro uses two brushes to facilitate the vacuuming process, the first brush is designed to bring the dirt under the vacuum cleaner, the second brush brings the dirt into the vacuum cleaner which then does the vacuuming. The Dreame L10 Pro has a suction force of 4000 Pa, which is almost twice as much as the Yeedi I tested a few weeks ago. The price/vacuum ratio is better with the Dreame.
3. Large dust tank
The dust tank has a capacity of 570ml, which is the largest tank I have tested so far, it occupies almost the entire width of the robot and is equipped with Hepa filters along its entire length. These filters are replaceable.
4. 5200 mAh battery
With a battery of this type, the Dreame Bot L10 Pro should be able to run for 2.5 hours, we'll see in practice if this is the case but with such a battery capacity, the autonomy should be good.
A little overview
The detection system is very visible both in front of and above the robot, you can't miss it.
The surface of the robot is shiny, it's quite nice to look at but as with phones you'll soon leave fingerprints on it.
The cover opens easily, the tank is easy to access and there is also a wifi indicator to see if the vacuum cleaner is connected. A reset button allows you to reset the robot.
The notched wheels allow for better grip on difficult surfaces and springs allow the robot to be lifted so that it can slide over certain surfaces such as going over a carpet.
The internal brush is removable and easy to clean, if something gets stuck, the robot vacuum cleaner will call you for help.
The mop is mounted at the back, it is reusable but static, so it slides on the floor according to the movements of the vacuum cleaner. The water tank is quite small, it can hold 270ml.
Sensors are present everywhere and here in particular to avoid falling down stairs.
The Dreame Bot L10 Pro offers everything you would expect from a vacuum cleaner, here are all the pictures I took before testing it.
Unpacking
The packaging is not very important in the use of a product, but in principle it gives a fairly clear idea of its positioning. Dreame is targeting the premium segment. The box contains the robot vacuum cleaner, two manuals, a removable brush to remove the dirt from under the vacuum cleaner, a mop and a docking station. The docking station is powered from the side, which I think is not optimal as it means that the connection cable will always be visible and within reach of the robot.
Application/Configuration
To control the Dreame Bot L10 Pro you need to use the Xiaomi Home app. I was a little apprehensive before I had to use this app because this app was developed to control many different devices and this often leads to a loss of specialization for certain features. Fortunately this is not quite the case.
The first step is to put the vacuum cleaner in "discovery" mode by pressing the square and house buttons at the same time. Then you have to use the app's scanner to find the cleaner. I never managed to find the vacuum cleaner in automatic mode with the scanner, I had to do it manually but it's not very complicated either. There is a little trick to avoid going round in circles for too long. To associate the vacuum cleaner after putting it in "discovery" mode you need to go to your wifi menu to list all available wifi networks. From there you should see the Dreame appear in the list, connect to that network and if your phone says it can't find an internet connection, that's ok, you can ignore the message. I had to repeat the operation several times not because the association didn't work but because I wasn't back in the main menu of the application (because it's not clear). So you don't just have to go back one step because as soon as you hear the voice in English (you can change the language with the app) that confirms the association, you can go back to the home screen of the app, you will see your Dreame there.
The Xiaomi Home app is quite well designed, it will show you the map of where the vacuum cleaner has been, it will show you the obstacles as well as where the robot has actually been during the last cleaning. You can then launch the vacuum cleaner for a normal cleaning session or ask it to clean a room or an area within a room. The map is very detailed and obstacles are clearly visible.
It is possible to configure the vacuum cleaner from the 3 vertical dots at the top right of the screen, it is not very visible but everything is in this menu. You can change the language of the vacuum cleaner, change the cleaning intensity, set time slots, manage the water level or create automation scenarios such as cleaning the kitchen after dinner or cleaning a room when no one is sleeping.
It is possible to send the vacuum cleaner to clean/vacuum an area within a room, this feature works but I noticed a mismatch between the chosen area and the actual area.
If you move your furniture or obstacles, the robot will have to try to locate itself with other items that have not moved but this locating time will slightly lengthen the cleaning time.
Obstacle detection test
Obstacle detection is one of the features Dreame has highlighted for this model of vacuum cleaner. All vacuum cleaners of this type have obstacle detection, but most of the time the detection range is quite short and the robot tends to touch or even push obstacles to map the area. The Dreame Bot L10 Pro works a little differently, it uses Lidar technology to scan the environment up to a few meters away. I noticed this quite quickly when I started the first cleaning because some adjacent rooms were showing up on the map that the vacuum cleaner had never been to.
Detecting in advance is good but is it really useful? I found it quite useful as the Dreame is much less likely to bump into its surroundings and therefore less likely to move objects that are not properly attached. I've had examples with other vacuums where a robot got lodged under a chain and travelled with the chair that got stuck around it, I also have an example where a vacuum almost dropped a light fixture because it hit it too hard. Here is a video of the first start up, you can see that the Dreame does not hit obstacles, it anticipates them much better than a normal vacuum cleaner.
Beware: dark objects are less detected, the vacuum cleaner may come much closer to them.
The Dreame is much more cautious of obstacles but you should avoid leaving objects such as cables or wires lying around as the Dreame will not avoid them. I had made an arrow bow with a piece of wood and a string for my son, I left it on the ground to see how the Dreame would react and he did not see it. He went over and the string got wrapped in one of the wheels and the robot kept moving. I had to cut the rope so I could remove the arrow bow. So at the very least, you need to remove any objects close to the ground that might get stuck in the wheels. See for yourself:
I then did a little test where I left my chairs under the table except for one to create an opening, the aim was to see if the robot would manage to get into this enclosed space and if it was able to get out before the battery failed it.
The Dreame Bot not only managed to get into the area under the table, it cleared some of the area and managed to get out. What's quite interesting is that it didn't bump into any chairs, it adapted completely. What you can't see on the video is that he then came back to clean the area he had ignored.
In this second example, I lifted the cover over a chair to see if the robot would go under it. The Dreame has a protrusion on its back which makes it higher than other cleaners, so it won't fit everywhere. However, in the following example we can see that the detection is quite accurate as it passes within a few millimetres of the edge of the chair, comes out to rescan the environment and then moves more purposefully towards the chair. The side is on the other hand lower, it will not enter by this side, same thing if the cover is lowered, the vacuum cleaner will not pass.
I have also tested the detection of smaller objects like this Playmobil and the Dreame L10 Pro is the first vacuum cleaner that didn't run into the Playmobil:
I repeated this test several times and the Playmobil fell once or twice, while in the other cases the robot passed by.
Suction test
The Dreame Bot L10 Pro is unique in that it only has one brush to bring the dirt back into the suction area, this is the first time I've tested a robot with only one brush and I initially found its behaviour to be a bit odd. The reason? Because the brush is located on the right hand side, the vacuum cleaner has to match its right hand side with the walls or furniture it encounters on its way to be able to attract the dirt to the suction area. Where a two-brush vacuum cleaner can go either way, this model must go one way.
There are 4 suction modes: quiet, standard (the one used in the previous video), strong and turbo. I found the standard mode to be a little louder than other vacuum cleaners of this type that I have tested. The other modes will be the subject of a separate video.
In standard mode, the suction force is sufficient for regular cleaning and the suction force is quite comparable to what I have seen on other vacuum cleaners of this type. If your rooms have a lot of hard-to-reach corners, then you will need to increase the power to hope to pick up dirt in corners that the robot cannot reach.
I tested the suction capacity of the Dreame L10 Pro by putting large bread crumbs on the floor, I don't have a dog or cat, so I tried to find something as close to dog/cat food as possible. The Dreame L10 Pro did quite well, it literally went through the dirt leaving nothing behind. After several passes, only a small crumb survived the robot's passage.
Cleaning test
The water tank is located at the back of the robot and can be removed by pressing a button on each side of the vacuum cleaner, the procedure is quite easy. The tank is very small and its flat shape makes it difficult to fill it up, as you can't tilt it too much to fill it completely. The mop is reusable and easily removable. Just clean it with water after use.
The Dreame Bot L10 Pro is more economical in its use of water than the Yeedi I tested a few weeks ago. The intensity of the water can be adjusted but the amount of water left by the "medium" mode:
Robotic cleaners with this type of mop are only effective for superficial stains because the robot only drags the mop behind it, so stubborn stains will not disappear. The mop mode will not replace human intervention but should be seen as a back-up solution. If you've just made a stain and it's not yet dry, you can also send the vacuum cleaner directly to the scene of the crime to wipe away any traces before the dirt dries.
Operating noise
Not yet available
Autonomy
I don't have any measuring tools to assess the autonomy of a vacuum cleaner, so I can only go by an estimate. I haven't allowed the vacuum cleaner to go anywhere, so it has a surface area of about 40 square metres that it cleans between 40 and 45 minutes depending on obstacles. Over this 45 minute period the battery drops to about 60% in standard mode.
Google/Alexa voice commands
Not yet available
Conclusion / Final opinion
Not yet available
LAURENT WILLENHead of myself on this blog
I share my passions on my blog in my free time since 2006, I prefer that to watching nonsense on TV or on social networks. I work alone, I am undoubtedly one of the last survivors of the world of blogs and personal sites.
My speciality? Digital in all its forms. I have spent the last 25 years working for multinationals where I managed digital teams and generated revenues of over €500 million per year. I have expertise in telecoms, media, aviation, travel and tourism.
Questions/Comments