Dreame D30 Ultra Review: Entry-Level Series, High-End Features and Performance

Dreame is becoming a popular robot vacuum brand. The Xiaomi-backed brand has launched their new D30 Ultra in India recently, which is the most premium robot vacuum in their D series of entry-level robot vacuums. Priced at around ₹60,000 in India, the Dreame D3 Ultra brings new features like object detection, mop washing, and more in the D series for the first time. I have been using the Dreame D30 Ultra for the past few days and here is everything I think about this new robot vacuum from Dreame.

Starting with the basics, the D30 is the most advanced member of Dreame’s entry-level D-series. It’s the D-series vacuum cleaner that has mop washing in the base station, and it has a dedicated obstacle avoidance system, which isn’t standard on the D lineup. This is also the priciest member of the series, retailing at ₹54,999 in India. 

Dreame D30 Ultra Robot Vacuum Review – What I Liked

So the Dreame D30 Ultra has very good vacuuming. With a 25,000 Pa suction rating, it sucks most tiny things in its way, and the fixed side brush helps sweep debris into the path of the main vacuum, which then goes into the  Dreame’s Tri-Cut anti-tangle main brush. The Tri-Cut has tiny teeth that are meant to slice long hair to prevent it from wrapping, and you usually have to purchase it separately. The Dreame D30 did great at its main job of sweeping debris of all sizes from the surfaces of both hard floors and carpets, with basically no scattering of fine debris. Awesome. It also has a carpet boost feature that automatically increases its suction, and it cleaned the carpet in my living room pretty good. You can also set the robot to avoid carpets altogether for further carpet protection.

With the hair tangle solution, however, the Dreame didn’t really impress me because despite the tri-cut brush and the anti-tangle systems, it still picked up hair that eventually got tangled in the brush. The tri-cut brush mostly cuts the longer, thicker strands of hair or thread but the smaller hair still gets stuck. For those who have pets, this will entangle itself quite often. 

Even on crevices or joints in floors, the Dreame D30 Ultra never got stuck and in-fact rolled over the crevices and bumps effortlessly, which is great if your house floor has a lot of joints or crevices. It also did better than average in our crevice test, which is good news for homes that have deep grout or joints between floorboards. 

Coming to the navigation, this I felt is where the Dreame D30 Ultra works most flawlessly. The D30 Ultra uses a top-mounted LiDAR sensor for routing itself throughout the house. The efficient navigation and mopping also helped the Dreame vacuum and mop my whole apartment’s floor plan in just about 70 minutes. Almost an hour to vacuum and mop a 3 BHK apartment with a lot of furniture is impressive for any kind of robot vacuum. 

The battery life is also very good with the Dreame D30 Ultra. The Dreame D30 Ultra uses a 5,200 mAh battery that charges itself in the dock. During my usage, the Dreame D30 Ultra cleaned my whole house at the “Intense” setting with both vacuum and mop functions on and it still had about 25% battery left to spare. Even the charging is fast enough, with the brand claiming a 30 percent faster charging as compared to previous models. The good battery and navigation make the D30 Ultra have a higher estimated square feet per charge than the last Robot Vacuum that we reviewed.

The Dreame D30 Ultra also comes with Dock automations which allows the robot to empty its debris into a disposable bag, but also washes and dries the mop pads within the dock, making it the first D-series vacuum to come with this feature. Not washing the pads with your hands is a great feature and would definitely have many takers in this segment. The dock also refills the robot’s water tank, has a self-cleaning washboard, and supports fast charging.

Now finally, the app. The Dreame app is simple and easy to use. You get features like setting no-go zones around the house, schedule cleaning, adjust the setting to “no mop zones” where the robot will go, but won’t use the mop function. You can also edit the map and remap any time you wish, and there are also features like room settings, mopping along the direction of the floor, and more. The app is simple to use, easy to set up and get used to. Nothing special to talk about here.

Dreame D30 Ultra Robot Vacuum Review: What I Didn’t Like

Now let us talk about the mopping performance of the Dreame D30 Ultra. The system uses the dual spinning mop pads that scrub with downward pressure. One pad extends to the side to clean tough edges, and the pads lift about 0.4 inches when the Dreame is vacuuming the floor. 

Moving on to what I didn’t like about the Dreame D30 Ultra robot vacuum. First and foremost is obstacle avoidance. While this model comes with a proper LiDAR sensor for detecting obstacles, the performance didn’t really blow me away. It didn’t perform well in terms of avoiding all obstacles and required a little bit of tidying up before turning the Dreame on. 

The second thing I wasn’t impressed with is the mopping test. The D30 Ultra did not score well in the dried stain test, coming in way below average, and we saw this pattern repeat on multiple occasions. The stains on white marble floors took a couple of attempts to clean, but it got the job done. One thing I liked here is that the Dreame doesn’t use a lot of water, which could potentially leave stains or water marks on the floor. So the mopping function isn’t for intensive cleaning, but to keep things clean. In case there is a tough job for the vacuum, it will take a couple of attempts to get stains like coffee cleaned. 

The third thing, as mentioned above, is the hair pickup. While this comes with a tri-cut functionality in the brush, the hair pickup for smaller strands isn’t good. The D30 was either getting tangled or wasn’t picking up too small pieces of hair during my tests, which means that if you have a lot of pet hair to contend with, this robot may not be up to the task.

And finally, the smaller-than-average dustbin could also pose a challenge for homes with pets. It didn’t give me any issues whatsoever, but the floors I used this on are cleaned everyday so the task at hand for the Dreame wasn’t too tough. For a bigger cleaning job, the bin can overfill before the robot gets a chance to dock itself and empty it. These are things to bear in mind.

Dreame D30 Ultra Robot Vacuum Review: Should You Buy It?

Overall, the Dreame D30 Ultra offers many new features in the D-series of robot vacuums from the Xiaomi-backed brand. This performed well in the larger scheme of things and is a pretty good purchase for those who want to keep their floors clean without any effort or house helps. The D-series has historically been the Dreame budget option, but the D30 Ultra gives it a premium, heavy-duty option to offer. It performed well in most things, like normal vacuuming,  carpet cleaning, and the navigation and battery life make this an outstanding choice for larger homes. However, if you want powerful and clean mopping and if you have a lot of pet hair to take into consideration, there might be better options for you.