DreameBot L20 Ultra robot vacuum review: A noisy, expensive dum-dum that can't avoid cords
Looking for the best automatic floor cleaner? This isn't it.
Let me get this out of the way right now: If I'm going to spend $1,500 on a robot vacuum and mop, it better be smart enough not to get tangled up in cords. That's Robovac 101, something I've seen plenty of models manage just fine. (See our list of the best robot vacuums for some examples.)
Unfortunately, the DreameBot L20 Ultra isn't that smart, despite the presence of "AI-powered obstacle avoidance." Cords, shoelaces, baby toys ... it tried to eat them all. On the other hand, I can't deny it's a powerful and versatile cleaning machine, so maybe it's worth forgiving that one failure? Here's my DreamBot L20 Ultra review.
VERDICT: The DreameBot L20 Ultra cleans your floors and cleans them well, but other models do the same job for less — and manage to avoid getting tangled up in cords. That problem, along with questionable floor navigation, make this a tough robot to recommend.
- Detailed, illustrated user manual makes initial setup easy
- Attractive base station
- Large clean- and dirty-water tanks
- Excellent suction
- Auto-extending and -detaching mop pads
- Expensive
- Slow and noisy
- No instructions provided for using the app
- Poor obstacle avoidance and floor detection
- Mop pads don't raise high enough for standard carpet
- Confusing map-editing tools
- Slow mop-drying process
The DreameBot L20 arrives almost ready to run, with its dual mop pads and main brush already installed; you just need to snap the side brush onto the underside, then slide the vac into the base station (a large but nicely styled unit) for its initial charging. From there you'll install the Dreamehome app, create an account, then walk through a few simple steps to connect the machine to your home Wi-Fi network.
Curiously, the instruction guide recommends putting a "physical barrier" at the edge of stairs and sofas to "ensure the secure and smooth operations of the robot." That's strange, because for years, robot vacuums have been smart enough to avoid toppling down stairs. And any model worth its mettle should know whether it can fit under a sofa.
The guide also recommends tidying up things like toys, slippers and cords — another curiosity, because a $1,500 robot should have no trouble detecting and avoiding such things.
But this one does, unfortunately. In my tests, the L20 routinely gobbled up cords and shoelaces. And when faced with the curved, tapering leg of a baby swing, it didn't steer around; it rolled right up onto it.
This seemed especially strange given that a previous DreameBot I tested, the L10S Ultra, was a champ at avoiding obstacles. (Unfortunately, about three months into using that model, it developed an "ultrasonic sensor error" that prevented it from detecting carpet properly; it consequently tried to mop everywhere all the time.)
Within the Dreamehome companion app, there are countless settings, so I checked to make sure that obstacle-avoidance wasn't toggled off or something (though I can't imagine why that would even be an option). I couldn't find anything that would cause it to behave this way.
Meanwhile, I couldn't understand the logic driving the L20's cleaning patterns. Upon starting a job in CleanGenius mode, for example, it would make a beeline for my carpeted living room (bringing the mop pads along with it), spend a moment or two circling in there, then return to the hardwood kitchen floor and start mopping — but only in a small area. Then it came back to the living room and spent some time there. Maybe this thing has an ultrasonic sensor error, too, because I noticed the mop pads were out and it was scrubbing the carpet!
This was especially frustrating because I'd enabled the mop-detach feature in Carpet Settings. In theory, this forces the L20 to mop hard floors first, return to the base station, disconnect its mop pads (an automated function, very cool), then venture out again to vacuum carpeted areas.
That's an alternative to the L20's mop-raise capabilities, which lifts the pads 10.5 millimeters when it rolls onto carpet. That's actually a bit higher than many other mop-raising vacs (which lift maybe 7mm or 9mm), it's still not enough to keep the pads off my medium-pile carpets. But detaching the mop pads altogether is a great solution — if only it worked properly.
If you're still reading at this point, you're probably wondering if there's anything good about the DreameBot L20 Ultra. And that's the rub: It does a great job at both vacuuming and mopping. It's on the slow and noisy side for both, but I can attest that when it's done, my floors are clean. (One look inside the dirty-water tank proves that.)
The mop-extend feature is neat to see in action; the spinning pads swing out an extra inch or so for more effective cleaning in corners and under cabinets.
Meanwhile, I found I could work around some of the cleaning issues by specifying various zones and rooms within the app. For example, it's easy enough to draw a rectangle on the virtual map and send the bot to clean just that area. However, if you want to go beyond that and permanently designate specific rooms (so you can, for example, instruct the machine to "clean the kitchen"), you'll find the app-based map-editing tool a pain to use. For whatever reason, it wouldn't accept certain drawn lines as room or area divisions.
I could go on regarding the unit's other features (it has a built-in camera, for instance), but I don't see much point. While the DreameBot L20 Ultra has its merits, I can't recommend a $1,500 robot vacuum that's not smart enough to avoid basic obstacles.
Indeed, the whole point of these things is to make your life easier. It seemed that every time I used the L20, it required intervention or caused some sort of frustration. It's a solid floor-cleaner, no question, but there are definitely smarter ones out there — to say nothing of equally good cleaners that cost less. Unless there's a substantial discount, I recommend looking elsewhere.
