Dreame Technology is a part of the Xiaomi ecological chain and has been producing cordless vacuum cleaners since 2015. In 2019 they presented their first robot vacuum, the Dreame F9, which has camera-based navigation, strong suction, and a large battery. The Dreame D9 is its second robot vacuum and first Lidar-guided model. We finally got our hands on the D9, so let’s see what this device brings to the table.
Dreame D9 The Main Features
- Alexa integration
- Creates an accurate map
- Uses Lidar and other sensors to navigate around
- Customizable cleaning settings for each room on a schedule
- One of the biggest electronic water tanks
- Increases suction on carpet automatically
- Can do mopping and vacuuming at the same time
- A large battery provides long runtime
- Can be ordered to work in a specific room
- Supports no-go zones as well as no-mop zones
- Has zoned cleaning
- Suitable for pet and long human hair
Navigation & Mapping
- Uses Lidar to create an accurate map
- Follows a purposeful back-and-forth navigation pattern
- Saves a map after cleaning
- Gentle on furniture
The Dreame D9 uses the LDS laser in tandem with other sensors to navigate around the house and create a map of the cleaning area. As it cleans it moves back-and-forth methodically covering the room without skipping a spot.
Navigation is very close to the Roborock robots the robot is pretty gentle with furniture and overall coverage is close to perfect. When it cleaned the first time, it finishes cleaning in 44 minutes which is the fastest so far. Other Lidar-guided robots need up to 50-60 minutes when running the first time.
I haven't noticed any flaws with navigation and was surprised by how well the D9 navigates.
When the map is complete, the robot automatically divides it into separate sections (rooms) so you can make it work in a specific room further.
Design
- Matte finish
- Cleaning brush with detachable tips for better maintenance
The design of the D9 kind of reminds me of the Roborock S6 Pure. A 570 ml dustbin with a HEPA filter sits under the lid. The robot comes with one of the biggest water tanks in the industry (270 ml). One side brush helps to catch debris but in my opinion, spins a little too fast which causes scattering on hard floors. Tho on carpets it does the job just fine.
The cleaning brush has detachable side tips which is perfect for cleaning the brush off clogged hair which mostly gets tangled around the edges.
The charging dock also looks very similar to the Roborock S5 Max.
Cleaning performance
- Long-lasting battery
- Automatically increases suction on carpet
- Has a good climbing ability
The robot can climb on an obstacle up to 20 mm / 0.79 in tall which makes the robot suitable for medium-pile carpets. It also automatically increases suction on carpet.
So far I noticed carpet boost does not work as it supposed to be. It looks like it's always on even when the robot on hard floor. When shutting it off in the app, the robot does not increase suction on carpet but the cleaning modes work accurately. I think it’s a software issue and do hope DreameTeach will fix it in the next firmware update.
A large 5,200 mah battery makes the robot last up to 150 minutes on low power settings and up to 90 minutes on max power. Those are impressive numbers as usually the working time on max mode drops significantly compared to low power results.
As to noise, the Dreame is not as loud as some cheaper models but is not the quietest either. I would say it is not distracting on low power but a bit noticeable on max mode which is what you expect the robot to be.
Dreame D9 cleaning & navigation tests
We did a few cleaning tests to find out how it performs on different floor surfaces.
The Dreame D9 was tested on hard floors, low and medium-pile carpets.
As to hard floors pickup, the side brush tends to scatter heavy debris like rice or quinoa. In the end, it scored 98.8% on Max suction and 98.3% on low power settings. Those are good results for premium segment robots.
As to cleaning sand on hard floor, the D9 didn't have noticeable issues as well. It was able to pick up 98.4% of sand which is one of the best results so far. Normally sand is hard to pick up as it is heavy and small in size. Worth mentioning that the Dreame D9 pickup sand a bit better than the Roborock S5 Max, at least on bare floors.
On low-pile capret, the D9 did well too. It picked up 99.9% debris which is a great result.
As to picking up sand on a low-pile carpet, the robot was able to score 87.4%.
Cleaning results on a medium-pile carpet with debris were one of the best too. The robot picked up 99.5% of debris.
The overall average score for the robot - 97.06% which is very good especially considering the price.
Noteworthy, the D9 handles hair better than most robots too. It has a standard cleaning brush similar to those the Xiaomi and Roborock are equipped with. The brush is easy to clean off clogged hair. After testing, the hair ended up on a brush and in the dustbin 50/50. Taking to account that I spent less than a minute to remove the hair off the brush, I conclude that the D9 is ideal for pet and long human hair.
Mopping & Performance
- One of the biggest electronic water tank
- Covers up to 200 square meters (2152.78 sqft) in mopping mode
The robot is equipped with a large 270 ml electronic water tank which means you can control the water level output in the app.
I've had an issue with the mopping when the robot almost not used any water while mopping and the floor was dry. But after some testing, I noticed that the rubber cap has a small hole which prevents the formation of vacuum inside the water tank. The water pump can't supply water when there is a vacuum inside the water tank, so that's why the mopping didn't work as expected.
As to mopping performance, the robot did okay. No better or worse than the others with a similar water tank. Enough to maintain your floors clean but would not be able to get rid of stubborn stains.
App & Features
- no-go zones support
- no-mop zones support
- customized area cleaning
- can work in a particular room
- has a wide range of customizable settings when setting schedules
- alerts when the water tank has to be removed
The Dreame D9 can be controlled by your smartphone via the Mi Home app (iOS/Android). In the app, you can switch between cleaning models and water level outputs as well as starting and stopping the robot.
Additional features allow setting no-go zones, customize cleaning area, and make the robot clean a particular room.
Before starting the cleaning, you can select among cleaning modes, and when the water tank is attached, set among three water level outputs.
In the "Room" menu, the robot can go clean the room up to two times.
"Zone" allows the robot to go over the same area up to two times.
"Virtual wall/restricted area" has the following options:
Virtual Walls. Those are boundary tapes you can set to prevent the robot from crossing some areas.
Cleaning the Restricted Area is better known as No-Go zones. Those are square form zones that are better to use for carpeting areas or some furniture.
Mopping No-Go Zone is active only when the water tank is attached. Those prevent the robot from going over carpets in mopping mode. Unlike the No-Go zones, those become inactive once the mopping attachments are removed.
In "Map management," you can edit areas (rooms) and reset the current map if you are not satisfied with the current map.
As to the other options, you can change a voice pack and robot's voice volume; carpet boost that currently is not working correctly; turn on resume cleanup that makes the robot to finish cleaning after recharging; DND mode prevents the robot from resuming cleaning, for example at night (scheduled cleanups, however, will still be on); mop cleaning alerts when the robot finishes mopping so you remove the water tank. You can choose from three options: 15, 30, and 45 minutes after finishing cleaning. I haven't seen such a feature in any robot vacuum and this is handy as I often forget to remove the tank which might cause floor damage.
Scheduled setting. This has some cool features.
You can choose from cleaning the whole place or one or a few rooms. When choosing a few rooms, you can make the robot start in the kitchen first, then the bedroom, then the living room.
Then you choosing cleaning time and when to repeat (up to 7 days a week). After everything is selected, set cleaning mode (silent, standard, strong, and turbo) and water level setting (low, medium, high). Customizable options like this only available in a few models such as the Roborock S5 Max and S6 MaxV, however, with the Roborock you can set cleaning modes for each room separately. To select different cleaning modes for each room, you can make a few separate schedulings.
The map easily can be zoomed in and out if needed. So far tho, the robot saves one map only, but Dreame promised to add multimap support within a few months.
Ease of Use
As to using the Dreame D9, I would say I didn't notice lots of things that make it challenging.
The dustbin is easy to remove and empty. Some robots have those tricky bins that you have to figure out how to open.
The cleaning brush is essential for everyone who has long hair and pets. Hair tends to get clogged around the edges the most so the removable tips help a ton. It takes a few moments to clean the brush tho I would do it after every other cleaning (as someone whose hair is long).
As to the app, I like how easily you can set no-go and no-mop zones. The map is zoomed easily which makes it convenient to set restricted areas or zoned cleaning. Overall, I didn't notice any significant bugs in the app. It is stable, does not crush, and works more or less smoothly.
What I wish would be better
When switching between the cleaning modes, sometimes you need to tap twice on the mode icon. I think this will be fixed with future updates.
Probably one of the most frustrating things about the app is the battery indicator. You can't see the actual remaining battery life in percentages. This is just an icon so you are not sure the battery is 20% or 40% charged.
The robot does not come with a water-proof mat. I actually only saw the Roborocks coming with one in the box and this is a handy thing if you use mopping every other cleaning cycle. Tho you can set the alerts so the robot reminds you when the tank should be removed.
Another thing is the app language. Sometimes it is not very understandable. As someone who tested a couple of other robots, I figured what each feature does, but I believe most people wouldn't. Gladly it is something that can be fixed with future updates too.
Price & Where to buy
The Dreame D9 is available on Amazon for $299.99.
About Dreame
Dreame Technology was established in 2015 and since then been producing cordless vacuum cleaners & robot vacuums. At the end of 2017, Dreame joined the Xiaomi Ecological Chain, as the driving force and leading enterprise of smart household cleaning appliances.
The connection to what you eat, how you feel, and your level of happiness is so important to pay attention to. Not only do we believe in being mindful to the planet by eating a plant-based diet, but we also believe in living mindful everyday with each other and with ourselves, — Dreame Technology
To sum up
The Dreame D9 is a decent robot vacuum. For such a price, you would not get anything similar that would have a good vacuum and mopping performance. The cheapest Lidar Roborock with mopping would cost more.
As to issues the robot currently has such as carpet boost that works weird and map distortion/rotation issue (which I had only once, but it mentioned by other users as well), I would say those might not be a big deal for most people and I do believe those will be fixed as soon as possible.
The app is stable, in my experience, it didn't crush even once; but the response time can be a bit long sometimes when servers are overloaded. Navigation is very close to the Roborock robots that are the best in this area; as to cleaning, the robot does the job better than most robots in this price range. If you want something similar to the Roborock S5 Max, have a look at the Dreame D9, it is cheaper, does the job just fine, and overall a decent competitor to most high-end devices.
