DreameBot D10s Plus review: Obstacle avoidance is its X factor

Price When Reviewed

$349.99

Best Prices Today: DreameBot D10s Plus

Based on the name alone, you’d be forgiven for thinking not much separates Dreametech’s new DreameBot D10s Plus from the DreameBot D10 Plus we reviewed several months ago. But the 10s Plus has some feature enhancements that justify its slightly higher price tag, including AI-assisted obstacle avoidance, stronger suction, greater dust capacity, and a longer runtime.

Cosmetically, the D10s Plus robot strongly resembles its sibling. Home, Dock, and Spot Cleaning buttons run along the tempered-glass top adjacent to a turret containing the robot’s laser distance sensor. A hinged lid conceals a 570mL dustbin that slots into the top of the robot. Recessed in the front bumper are a camera and AI visual sensor that enables the robot to identify rooms and obstacles, so it can suggest more efficient cleaning strategies. (The camera can also be used to remotely monitor your home, effectively turning the robot into a roaming sentinel.) The vacuum uses a rubber roller brush and single spinning side brush to sweep dust, debris, and pet hair from hard and carpeted floors. A 235mL water tank can be attached to the bottom of the robot for mopping.

The auto-empty base measures 16 x 12 x 20 inches. You need to clear 20 inches on each side of the base and 60 inches in front, to provide the robot easy ingress and egress. The base’s canister houses a 4L dust bag with an E12 HEPA Filter, which captures 99.5% of small particles. After each cleaning job is completed or when its dustbin is full, the robot returns to the base, and its dust box contents are sucked into the dust bag. Dreametech says the bag only needs to be changed about once every 65 days, which is about two-and-a-half times the average capacity of many other self-emptying robot vacuums and 20 days more than the D10 Plus.

This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best robot vacuums.

Michael Ansaldo/Foundry

Setup and performance

The bulk of the setup process is clearing ample space for the base station. Once that’s squared away, you need only snap the side brush to the bottom of the robot and set it on the contacts to fully charge. The robot uses a 5,200mAh battery that when fully charged delivers up to 280 minutes of runtime according to Dreametech, that’s about 100 more minutes than the D10 Plus. While you’re waiting, you’ll need to download the Dreamehome app and scan the QR code beneath the robot’s lid. That will launch a wizard that prompts you through the process of connecting the vacuum to your Wi-Fi network.

When you open the app for your first cleaning job, you’re given the option to have the robot map your space without vacuuming. This allows it to get the layout of your home in a fraction of the time it would take it to do so while cleaning at the same time. The robot divides the mapped floorplan into numbered rooms, which you can rename by tagging them with proper names (kitchen, bedroom, etc.) from a list. The map also labels any obstacles the robot identifies—including furniture, cables, and even shoes—with appropriate icons.

You can modify any completed map to make it more accurate by splitting and merging rooms. You also to set virtual walls, no-go zones, and no-mop zones to keep the robot out of designated areas. The upside of all this tinkering is the ability to customize your cleaning. It allows you to send the robot to clean a specific room by selecting it on the map, choose the order in which rooms are cleaned, and save customized cleaning settings for each room.

The D10s Plus offers the same four vacuum modes as the D10 Plus—Quiet, Standard, Strong, and Turbo—but it has a greater maximum suction of 5000Pa. In my week of testing, standard mode was sufficient for most household dirt, including pet hair. The robot automatically boosts suction on carpet, and it did a decent cleaning job on a pair of throw rugs in my living room. For whole-room cleaning, the robot starts by vacuuming along the walls and then cleans the rest of the room in an S-shaped pattern. To vacuum an area of concentrated dirt, you pause the robot and press the Spot Cleaning button; the robot will clean a 60 x 60-inch square-shaped area and then return to its starting point.

Michael Ansaldo/Foundry

The D10s Plus has the same basic mop as the D10 Plus: a microfiber cloth attached to the bottom of the water tank. You need to dampen the cloth and install it on the tank, then fill the tank with tap water and slide it onto the bottom of the robot until it clicks into place. You can tailor water usage according to how dirty your floors are by selecting from three moisture levels in the app. For best results, Dreametech recommends you vacuum the floor three times before mopping it. Even then, the mopping results in my tests were average at best. Because the robot just drags the dampened cloth across the floor, it mostly removes surface dirt while leaving deeper grime and stains in place. The mopping cloth must be hand cleaned and air dried after each use. Most mopping robot vacuums I’ve used include a spare mopping cloth, but here–as with the D10 Plus–Dreametech doesn’t, so you’d be wise to purchase a backup. Dreametech sells a two-pack separately for $21.99.

The Dreamehome app makes it easy to navigate the D10s Plus’s various features and settings. The most critical controls are accessible from the robot’s home screen. These include the current map, vacuum, and mopping modes, and real-time cleaning stats. You can schedule cleanings, view your cleaning history, customize AI recognition, and more in a separate settings menu.

Overall, the D10s Plus did an admirable job keeping my floors free of dirt and pet hair while automating away the parts of vacuuming I hate most. The addition of AI obstacle avoidance was the X factor for me because, with kids and pets in my home, the floors are rarely clutter-free. The robot’s ability to recognize and avoid shoes, stray charging cables, video-game controllers, and the like meant I didn’t have to stick around in case it needed to be rescued. Its limited mopping capabilities didn’t put my stick mop out of a job though, so if you’re considering enlisting the D10s Plus in your war on dirt, calibrate your expectations accordingly or consider spending a bit more for the DreameBot W10, which uses pair of rotating mopping pads rather than a microfiber cloth to remove even the toughest stains.