We received the latest robotic vacuum cleaner from the Dreame brand, which is sold under the model name Dream D9. These are high-end model from this brand, which offers a suction power of 3000 Pa, endurance of 150 minutes and a moping function. We tested it in detail, and since we only recently reviewed the popular Viomi SE, you will find a brief comparison at the end.
In short, about the Dreame brand
We assume that the brand Dreamer is well known to all our readers. It was founded in 2015 with a focus on vacuum cleaners and other electrical appliances designed to keep the household clean. At the end of 2017, the company joined the Chinese giant Xiaomi.
Since its inception, Dreame has come up with many innovations and more than 150 patents in his field. In its portfolio we can find, in addition to a pair of robotic vacuum cleaners, also several rod vacuum cleaners.
Where to buy Dreame D9
We purchased the Dreame D9 robotic vacuum cleaner for review from our partner Geekbuying, where it was available in European stock. Thanks to that, it was delivered to us in a few working days without any customs duties or VAT.
Dreame D9 robotic vacuum cleaner
Basic parameters in brief
The Dreame D9 robotic vacuum cleaner measures 350 x 350 x 96.8 mm and weighs 3.8 kg. Sold only in white. The drive is provided by a high-quality, Japanese, carbon-free Nidec engine.
The vacuum cleaner uses an advanced laser system for its navigation LDS 3.0. This system can scan 2080 dots per second and its accuracy is around 10 mm. Dreame's patented SLAM system takes care of route planning. It is a new, intelligent algorithm that, according to the manufacturer, can be compared to the human brain.
The integrated battery has 5200 mAh and the endurance per charge is approximately 150 minutes. Thanks to its sensors, the vacuum cleaner can recognize the carpet and adapt its vacuuming style to it. The dust container has a volume of 570 ml, while the intelligent water tank has 270 ml.
Suction power is available 3000 Pa, 4 levels of vacuuming and 3 levels of moping. The HEPA filter captures particles from 0.3 microns in size and mopping removes up to 99.9% of bacteria.
The vacuum cleaner also supports voice control using Amazon Alexa.
Package content and processing quality
The vacuum cleaner comes in a white box, which is inserted into another, classic box. If we have written in previous reviews about products that are very precisely packaged, Dreame D9 has just trumpeted all the other products. Everything is beautifully placed in a separate box and then in a white package. At the same time, each box has its own place to create the perfect space for the vacuum cleaner.
In the upper part there is an instruction manual and below it is the vacuum cleaner itself. In the mentioned small boxes under the vacuum cleaner you will find a docking station, a cable for connection to electricity, a three-arm whisk and a mop with a water tank. There are no spare parts or extra filter.
The vacuum cleaner is all white, except for the navigation system, which is red inside. On the top you will find 3 buttons for: on / off, return home and zone vacuuming. At the same time, there is an openable cover, under which a transparent dust container with a HEPA filter is hidden. In addition, there is a small whisk with a curved end for cleaning the rotating cylinder and removing hair.
The underside is dominated by an orange rotating brush with black bristlesnami and large deep-tread rubber wheels. The entire part with the rotating brush is not fixed, which allows the vacuum cleaner to adapt the pressure of the brush to the vacuumed surface. Of course, the rotary brush can be dismantled and cleaned, or washed under running water.
First turn on and add to Xiaomi Home
As Dreame belongs to Xiaomi, Dreame D9 uses the Xiaomi Home application. The vacuum cleaner is switched on by the middle button at the top. Immediately after switching on, a voice message will sound asking you to connect to the application. The whole pairing is accompanied by pleasant audio messages, which are in English, but are very clean and understandable.
As you probably already know, after opening the Xiaomi Home application, you have the option of adding a new device at the top. The application can automatically detect a new device in the area, so it immediately offered us the addition of a Dreame D9 vacuum cleaner. If this does not happen, the device can also be searched for in the list manually.
Immediately after adding the robotic vacuum cleaner to the application, we were offered an update of its firmware. It lasted an endless 40 minutes, which surprised us unpleasantly. Perhaps no device has been updated for us for so long. However, the update was successful.
First vacuuming, space mapping and obstacles
Discovering space and creating a map is automatically associated with the first vacuuming. Dreame D9 is one of the robotic vacuum cleaners that recognize obstacles by impact. Half of the perimeter of the vacuum cleaner is a kind of bumper, which is pushed in contact with an obstacle, on the basis of which the vacuum cleaner knows that there has been contact with the obstacle.
The vacuum cleaner passed the first room around its perimeter and then vacuumed it in a well-known way, the so-called esíčkami. Gradually, he went through the whole apartment, except for the bathroom and toilet, where we have thresholds higher than 2 cm (specifically 2.3 cm). The maximum height of the obstacle that he can still overcome is just 2 cm.
The individual rooms are displayed in the application gradually, as their vacuum cleaner discovers. However, the first vacuuming does not take longer than a normal vacuuming.
Vacuum levels and its quality
Dreame D9 offers 4 levels of vacuuming, which are divided by power. Specifically, you will find the following modes: quiet, standard, powerful and turbo. The difference in vacuum quality between them is not very visible, nor is the noise level almost unchanged. Ordinary dust is vacuumed even in silent mode, but let's see how it handles something heavier.
We spilled rice and lentils on the kitchen floor. We sent a vacuum cleaner to vacuum only this space in standard mode. As you can see in the photos, there was quite a lot of dirt left on the floor. He removed most of it on the second try, but it was still not perfect. Several grains of rice remained on the floor, and a few vacuum cleaners shot them into the next room with a three-armed bristle.
Unlike conventional vacuum cleaners, robotic vacuum cleaners generally collect dirt mainly by means of rotary brush bristles. Therefore, they usually have a problem with solid impurities of coarser grains.
Surprisingly, Dreame D9 has a problem with carpets with longer hair. It happened to us several times that the vacuum cleaner got stuck on such a carpet and the application told us to clean the brush. The carpet is not long enough to get tangled in the rotating brush. In the application you will find an option where the vacuum cleaner automatically increases the power when it is on the carpet. Therefore, we did not expect him to have a problem with the carpet.
Moping
Dreame D9 has a removable mop with an antibacterial cloth, which is easily inserted into the mop and fastened with Velcro. In this case, the water is poured into a plastic tank, which is in a removable plastic mop, not in a dust container. It is transparent, so you can see the hoses that bring water to the cloth.
There are 3 levels to choose from when moping: low, medium and high. These levels are graded based on the amount of water the vacuum cleaner uses during mopping.
We did not expect very good washing, but at the highest level, the floor is really wet without missing parts. This time we spilled water mixed with cocoa, water with toothpaste on the tiles and we spread the toothpaste itself in one place. We let it all dry overnight and in the morning we turned on the mop at the highest power.
As we expected, since the vacuum cleaner only passes through each area once, it cannot remove the dried dirt from the floor once. But can he do it after repeated washing? Not really. Even after the third wash, stains remained on the floor. So even the Dreame D9 can't wash well enough, just like other robotic vacuum cleaners.
Map and its customization
After the first vacuuming, a map of the apartment was displayed in the application. Unfortunately, it was not automatically divided into individual rooms. We had to do this manually in map management. In addition to dividing the map into rooms, it is also possible to delete the map, merge rooms or rename them. But renaming doesn't work by naming the room by your own name. You have to choose from the rooms that are available in English. Then only the room logo, no name, will appear on the map.
The rooms are color-coded, but probably only 4 colors are available, as some rooms have been given the same color. While dividing the map into smaller rooms, we encountered a problem when the application reported to us that the divided part is smaller than 1 m2which is not true.
A slight negative is the long loading of the map. Almost always after opening the Mi Home application and clicking on the vacuum cleaner, it took quite a long time for the map to load. Until this happens, various tips for using the vacuum cleaner are displayed in its place. With frequent use during testing, we began to mind long reads, because it sometimes took a minute.
After several vacuums, a non-existent space appeared on the map. This is probably caused by a chrome floor lamp with a larger shiny base, as shiny objects that cause different reflections sometimes cause problems for robotic vacuum cleaners. However, this space could not be deleted from the map, so we had to reset the map. After resetting, the vacuum cleaner read a differently rotated map, so you can see various maps in the screenshots in the article.
Cleaning options
As mentioned above, the Dreame D9 offers vacuuming and mopping on several levels. If you connect a mop to the vacuum cleaner, it will automatically mop the next time it is switched on. While mopping, the Dreame D9 probably also vacuums. Nowhere is this information given, but we judge it by the noise level.
There are three cleaning options on the home screen. The robotic vacuum cleaner can pass through the entire apartment, selected rooms (one or more), or just a specific zone, which you mark on the map. From the main screen, you can also mark forbidden places on the map, or virtual walls, which the vacuum cleaner avoids.
Additional settings in the application
Dreame D9 supports several different settings. Let's remember at least the more interesting ones. Here you will find, for example, adjusting the volume of audio notifications from a vacuum cleaner with a choice of language. However, neither Slovak nor Czech are here. Here you can turn on or off the function of increased performance when vacuuming carpets, continue vacuuming after charging if the vacuum cleaner discharges during vacuuming or DND mode.
Vacuuming and moping levels are also selected in the settings. We'd rather see this option on the home screen. From the settings, you can schedule vacuuming or moping for a specific time, which can also be repeated.
You can also check the current wear of the main brush, side brush and filter here. These values are calculated only on the basis of the number of vacuums and their duration. After replacing these components, their wear is reset manually, so there are no sensors waiting to inform you about the real condition of these consumables.
There is also a history of all activities, where you will also find statistical information on how many square meters you have already cleaned, how many times the vacuum cleaner was turned on and how many minutes it worked.
If you have some smart home devices or sensors that you could use to automate your home using a robotic vacuum cleaner, you will also find this option in the settings. The remaining settings no longer offer anything extra worth mentioning. You will find device sharing here, but you can also do it directly from the Mi Home application, rename the vacuum cleaner, check the current firmware version and so on.
Endurance and charging
The area of the apartment that Dreame D9 went through when vacuuming our apartment was 36 m2, it took him 33 minutes. Until fully discharged, the robotic vacuum cleaner was able to operate in turbo mode for 110 minutes. If the battery capacity is insufficient, the vacuum cleaner returns to the charging station and, after charging to sufficient capacity, continues vacuuming where it left off.
Charging to 100% takes approximately 4 hours. The application does not display the battery status as a percentage.
Conclusion and brief comparison with Viomi SE
Viomi SE offers very similar parameters at the same price level. Dreame D9 has larger volume of tanks for dust and water, slightly higher suction power, but does not offer the possibility of storing more maps or the so-called Y-shaped mop. Which is better? For us, it was Viomi SE. He had no problem with a carpet with longer hair and had a better moping style.
The Dreame D9 vacuums faster, but its routes do not overlap at all, unlike the Viomi SE, whose routes always overlapped slightly during vacuuming, so the Dreame D9 is more likely to miss out on dirt. See it on maps after vacuuming from individual vacuum cleaners. On the screens you can see that Viomi SE has these routes denser, even if they are in the opposite direction.
In addition, Viomi SE had no problem with long map loading or discovering non-existent rooms and offers more settings, including saving different maps (max 5).
This is not to say that the Dreame D9 robotic vacuum cleaner would be bad, but it has its flies. As we mentioned, it takes a very long time to load the map, gets stuck on the carpet with longer hair, and doesn't go through the room so thoroughly.
Dreame D9 robotic vacuum cleaner
However, given the purchase price, this is a decent vacuum cleaner, and if you opt for the Dreame D9 for any reason, you will definitely be satisfied. It absorbs common dirt well, offers an elegant design, low noise, high-volume dust and water containers and, above all, good durability.
Good evening, we have this vacuum cleaner and we are happy with it. Since it is our first I have nothing to compare with but we praise it very much. I just can't find replacement hepa filters for him yet. We are just happy with the vacuum, sometimes the map goes crazy, but only when the children get to it and start "playing" with it 😁.
I also have the detector. Everything is nice and beautiful. There's one minus to me. After reading the map, sharing the rooms and selecting only one room to go to the room, the diner finishes to this room, and the work also turns to communicating that the room has been finished and returns to the base. Back to the problem-free base. I read the map a few times, I shared the rooms and the same thing. I don't know what I'm talking about. Current software. Should you like this?