Dreame has released so many robot vacuums over the past year that even I sometimes need a moment to remember which model does what. The Aqua 10 Roller AE does not make matters any easier and at a glance, looks remarkably similar to the higher-end Aqua 10 Ultra Roller. It uses the same roller-style mopping system and even has the same 30,000Pa suction power, but the “AE” in its name is important because this is the cheaper version, with a list price of S$1,499 compared with S$2,099 for the Ultra Roller.
That is still a lot of money for a robot vacuum, although Dreame is currently selling both models at considerably lower promotional prices. More interesting though, is how it has brought the cost down. The company has not removed the roller mop away from the Roller AE model and has instead pared back some of the cleverer technology found in the original. These include the Ultra’s FluffRoll system, retractable LiDAR sensor, camera-assisted object recognition, larger battery and more capable threshold-climbing legs.
It sounds like an extensive list of compromises, but I found that some of those omissions mattered far less than others. The Roller AE still cleaned much like the Ultra Roller in my home, particularly across the marble and parquet flooring. What changed was not so much what the floor looked like afterwards, but how much preparation and supervision the robot needed along the way.
What has Dreame actually taken away?
In shape and form, the Aqua 10 Roller AE robot vacuum is very similar to the Aqua 10 Ultra Roller.
Photo: HWZ
The AquaRoll system is still key here. Its 260mm roller is supplied with clean water through 12 nozzles, while a scraper removes the dirty water as it turns. In other words, it is constantly rinsing itself instead of dragging the same damp and increasingly grimy pad around the home. I have reviewed more than a few robot vacuums with two rotating mop pads and, while they can be useful for everyday maintenance, some of them are really glorified wet wipes once the pads become dirty.
The Roller AE does a pretty good job too. My floors are evenly cleaned without the circular streaks that rotating pads sometimes leave behind, and it dealt well with the usual footprints and smudges that build up over time. Perhaps more importantly, its results were not far removed from what I remembered getting from the Ultra Roller. That surprised me because the AE does not have FluffRoll, the small counter-rotating roller used by the Ultra to lift the mop fibres and stop them from becoming “flattened” during a cleaning run.
Read Full Article At Source
