Dreame L40 Ultra robot vacuum and mop review

Dreame L40 Ultra: Introduction

• Type: Robot vacuum with mopping
• Docking: Self cleaning, self emptying dock
• Navigation system: LiDAR

The Dreame L40 Ultra marks a big step forward for the company, moving smoothly from more budget robot vacuum cleaners, such as the Dreame D10 Plus, to a flagship model that competes with the best and, in many cases, eclipses them.

Its price-tag puts it up against the likes of the Samsung Bespoke Jet Bot Combo but it actually beats that hands-down and is more on a par with more expensive models such as the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra.

The L40 Ultra has it all: extendable side brushes and mop, AI-powered obstacle avoidance, tons of suction, hot-water mop cleaning, and a powerful app.

With multiple options for dealing with carpet to avoid soaking it with the mopping pads, this is one of the best robot vacuum cleaners I have tested.

Read on for our full review to find out why…

Design and components

• Self-empty and self-clean docking station
• Extendable side brush and mop pad
• Optional Water Hookup Kit

As with so many recent robot vacuum cleaners, such as the Roborock Qrevo Slim, the Dreame L40 Ultra comes with a self-empty, self-clean docking station.

It’s a similar size to those from the competition, which means you need to have a fair amount of space (width and height) in order to fit it in.

This docking station contains two water tanks: a 4.5-litre one for clean water, which is used to fill the robot’s mopping tank and to clean the mop pads with hot water at 65°C (followed by hot air drying), and a 4-litre tank for dirty water.

At this ratio, the dirty tank needs emptying at about the same time as the clean tank needs refilling, as some water is always left behind on the floor.

If you don’t want to mess about with water tanks, there’s an optional Water Hookup Kit, which connects the station to your mains water and drainage.

Flip open the front of the docking station, and there’s a pull-out detergent holder, which is a nice addition at this price.

Normally, detergent is reserved for the most expensive robot vacuum cleaners, such as the Eufy Omni S1 Pro.

Dreame provides a 250ml bottle of its cleaning solution in the box, with replacement 1-litre bottles available for £12.99.

Next to the detergent holder is the 3.2-litre bag, which slides in. That’s quite a large bag, so each one should last around two months. Replacements are $15 / £15 for a pack of three, which is about what the competition charges.

As this is a high-end robot vacuum cleaner, the Dreame L40 Ultra is packed with the latest technology.

A LiDAR dome on top is used for fast, accurate mapping and navigation, and the AI Action camera joins this at the front, which is used for dirt detection and obstacle avoidance.

Inside the robot is a small 300ml bin – the size doesn’t matter, as the robot returns to the dock to empty this regularly.

It is worth removing the bin and cleaning it and its filter out once a month to maintain optimal suction power.

On the underside are dual microfibre mopping pads, which spin to agitate and remove dirt. These mop pads can lift up to 10.5mm off the ground when carpet is detected to prevent soft flooring from getting wet.

That will let the robot move over most short-pile carpets, but the Dreame L40 Ultra has another trick for dealing with longer pile carpets: it can leave its mopping pads behind in the dock.

The dual option of lift or remove is something that I’ve only seen on the more expensive Samsung Bespoke Jet Bot Combo AI+ 3-in-1.

For better edge performance, the side brush is a SideReach model and the left-hand mopping pad is a MopExtend model, which means that both can swing out from the robot’s body.

Dreame provides two brushes. There’s the standard floor brush, but also a TriCut model that has grooves in it for keeping hair straight, so that it goes into the bin, rather than getting tangled. If you have pets or people with long hair in your home, install the TriCut brush.

The app

• Lots of cleaning options
• Far too many mop wetness levels
• Allows for granular cleaning

Dreame’s app is advanced and has all of the features and more that you’d expect. Life with the Dreame L40 Ultra starts with a mapping run, where the robot learns the layout of your home.

At the end of this, the app suggests rooms automatically, and it was pretty good, with just a few minor tweaks, such as merging and splitting rooms to get the correct layout.

Rooms can be named, and I could also add furniture in its rough location, such as tables, sofas and beds. These are handy to add, as furniture acts as quick-select zones, so it’s easy to clean around an area, such as cleaning up after eating.

There are also options to set no-go and no-mop zones, so you can keep the Dreame L40 Ultra away from any areas it might get stuck, or if you have delicate flooring or rugs that you’d rather handle by hand.

For each room, you can select the flooring type, with an option for vertical or horizontal hard floors. This lets the robot clean along the floor’s direction to make sure it gets everything between joins.

After a first clean, the app also suggested adding carpet zones, but I found that it was overzealous selecting my entire floor.

Using this option prevented the robot from being able to mop the hard floor area in the kitchen, so I removed the carpet layer and let the robot automatically detect the floor type as it cleaned.

For carpets, the default option is to lift the mopping pads, but you can override this and tell the Dreame L40 Ultra to drop its mop pads; mop pad removal is automatic when the robot is put into vacuum-only mode.

It’s worth playing with the more advanced settings to get the type of clean that you want.

For example, MopExtend can be set to swing out when a gap is detected for cleaning under furniture that the robot can’t fit under, such as a fridge; there’s also an option to clean around furniture legs intensively.

General cleaning options include cleaning the entire home, a specific room (or rooms), or zones that you draw on the map.

Dreame defaults to using CleanGenius, where it will adapt power and water flow based on need. This setting can be combined with Auto-recleaning mode, where the robot will automatically return to very dirty areas to give them a second clean.

However, you can also set the robot manually, with a choice of vacuum, mop, vac & mop, mop after vac, and custom room settings, where you can set the mode on a per-room basis.

With manual options, there’s a choice of four suction modes, and 32 settings for mop wetness. The latter is clearly overkill and makes it difficult to work out which mode to use. After all, is there much difference between setting 24 and 25?

Most modes give a choice of quick or standard routing, depending on the level of cleaning you want, but select mop-only mode, and you can choose intensive and deep routing modes for an even deeper clean.

The camera on the front is used for object avoidance, but turn on Stain Recognition and the Dreame L40 Ultra will also intensively mop any areas where is spots mess. Based on my tests, I’d definitely turn this feature on.

There is a remote viewing mode for the camera, so you can use the robot to see what’s going on in your home.

Given the camera’s low down and aimed at spotting things on the floor, you can’t see much of what’s happening, but it may occasionally be useful, such as for locating a pet.

Performance

• 11,000Pa suction power
• Excellent mopping
• Powerful edge cleaning

Rated at 11,000Pa, the Dreame L40 Ultra is right up there with the most powerful robot vacuum cleaners. That shows as goes about its business.

I found that this robot easily cleaned even the toughest of spills on hard floors and carpets. The cleaning is about as good as you’d get by doing it by hand with a cordless vacuum cleaner.

Use the edge modes with mopping and vacuuming, and this robot can get extremely close to the sides of the room, to the point where I’d only realistically need to edge clean by hand once a month or so.

This robot shines at mopping. With detergent and hot water to get the pads ready, the Dreame L40 Ultra made short work of most stains, and even very tough stains, such as ketchup could be removed with four passes in total.

Use this robot daily for maintenance and you’ll have shiny, clean hard floors, free from debris and you’ll rarely need to bother mopping by hand.

I also found that the robot managed to avoid getting tangled with hair, despite being used in a home with three people with long hair. It’s always good to see anti-tangle brushes work properly, as cutting away matted hair is not a fun job.

Battery life is rated at 194 minutes on the lowest power setting. That effectively means that you don’t need to worry about running out of power, even setting the robot to maximum suction and setting it to make two passes of an area.

At 71.3dB on the highest setting, the Dreame L40 Ultra is a touch louder than some of the competition, although the trade-off is that the clean is so good that I don’t mind a bit of extra noise. And, this robot is not particularly annoying to hear.

Navigation is great, and the Dreame L40 Ultra managed to get close to furniture for a deep clean but without bashing into it.

It also avoided cables, and fake pet mess that I had around, marking obstacles on the map, so I knew where to tidy to allow the L40 Ultra to clean next time it went out.

Final thoughts

The Dreame L40 Ultra is fighting it out in a very crowded space within the robot vacuum cleaner market, but has enough about it to make it stand out.

For flexibility and power, this combination is very hard to beat, with excellent vacuuming and mopping performance, and a very flexible app.

How we test

When we publish our reviews, you can rest assured that they are the result of “living with” long term tests.

Robot cleaners usually live within an ecosystem, or a range of products that – supposedly – all work in harmony. And they are designed to offer a range of different cleaning options. Therefore, it’s impossible to use a robo cleaner for a week and deliver a verdict.

Because we’re testing smart home kit all day, everyday, we know what matters and how a particular smart cleaning machine compares to alternatives that you might also be considering.

Our reviews are comprehensive, objective and fair and, of course, we are never paid directly to review a device.

Read our guide on how we test robot vacuum cleaners to learn more.

FAQs

Dreame L40 Ultra: Specifications