Dreame H14 Ultra Wet Cordless Wet & Dry Vacuum Cleaner – Review

When it comes to modern vacuums, there’s one British name that has dominated brand perception for the last decade, but in recent months, Dyson has had to suck it up as new players with superior products are openly challenging the incumbent.

There’s no denying that Dyson redefined the bulky home vacuum on wheels, which traditionally comes with an attached hose, that navigates around your home while bumping into furniture and taking up plenty of space in the storeroom. Its now iconic handy vacuum on a handle, with no wheels or hose, fits into tight spaces, is easy to charge, clean and store… but offers little else

Meanwhile, Chinese brands including Xiaomi and Roborock have studied Dyson’s playbook, and improved on the innovator, offering robot and handheld cleaners that not only vacuum, traverse around the home on its own, and also offer wet, mop-like features. And the latest company that has entered the fray and expanded overseas is Dreame, a Chinese home appliance company that mirrors Dyson in many ways, offering cordless vacuums, hairdryers, robot vacuum cleaners and mops, and even lawnmowers.

Its latest, the Dreame H14 Ultra is a wet and dry vacuum, and a combination of a handheld and a robot cleaner, in that it comes with a docking station for charging and cleaning. The H14 Ultra is a slightly larger handheld vacuum due to its wet feature, which means it has two containers –  a larger 880ml one on the front for fresh water, and a smaller 650ml one on the rear to collect the used water. But what this means is a unit that can be operated with one hand.

Out of the box, it comes in three main parts – the grip handle, the main body and the charging base. Combine the first two, and set it on the charging base that comes with a power cord. The unit also comes with a spare brush roller, replacement filter and cleaning brush.

The handle comes with a loop grip with three physical buttons – Self-Cleaning at the top, and a Power and Mode Switch where your thumb sits when you operate the device. The Modes are where it gets tricky. Upon turning on the machine, the Auto Mode is the default setting and this is where the machine detects the level of dirt and sets the suction capabilities. If you need some level of deep cleaning, opt for the second Ultra Mode that turns up the cleaning prowess of the machine, which is great for the occasional use under the bed or couch. Do note that both these modes uses water to clean, so you need to fill the clean water container, and make sure the receptacle for used water is empty.

The 5.7kg device (depending on the amount of water within) itself isn’t heavy by any measure, and alongside the smooth roller, are two smooth-gliding wheels that makes this easy to maneuver around sharp corners and tight turns. The 27.5cm width of the device’s roller head, and 25cm depth means this can fit in and around anywhere in the house, including the gaps between the wheel frame of your gaming chair, or the legs of your dining table. The Power switch actually turns the machine on, but does not activate the suction. Once you select the Mode, simply push down on the handle, and the machine will start operations. With the wheels, it effortlessly glides across the marble floors of my home, leaving a light damp trail across the floor. By looking at the reflection of the water that evaporates easily, you can tell which parts of the floor have not been tracked by the H14 Ultra. To stop operations, simply place the handle in a vertical position.

The handle of the machine can actually be positioned to lay flat on the ground, which brings the height of the unit up to 14mm, so it fits nicely under the couch and the bed, and can go all the way under your furniture, up to the full length of the unit and however far your arm can stretch under the furniture. But because it needs water, if the tilt of the machine levels the water to under that spout on the fresh water container that extracts the water, the machine will issue a warning. And for the used water tank, don’t get it past 450ml filled if you intend to use it horizontally. This means that if you intend to do any wet cleaning under the furniture, do it at the start when the fresh container is full and the used one empty, so that any shift in water levels doesn’t affect the performance of the unit.

If your home uses a carpet, or if you think that the Auto Mode doesn’t quite cut it but Ultra Mode is an overkill, there is a Custom Mode that allows you to tweak the settings of the device, and this can be done via the Dremhome app on your phone. 

The app serves as the operational interface of the unit, and you can tell if the unit has been placed back on the cradle and if it’s fully charge. With Custom Mode, you can tweak the settings for the device, such as choose how much suction power, which in turns impacts the sound generation by the machine.

But for all its operational use, there’s the one additional thing that makes this a must have for the home – a self cleaning and drying function, which is what the cradle is for. Simply put the unit back on the cradle, and you can turn on cleaning mode. This uses the remaining fresh water to wash the fabric roller but not only that – it heats up the water before cleaning, effectively removing any smells and dirt from the roller.

The previous model, Dreame H14 was also able to wash the roller but only for temperatures at 60°C, but the H14 Ultra can do it at 100°C for intensive cleaning, and at 75°C for regular cleaning. After the wash, it also blow dries the roller, at 75°C for 5 minutes on the H14 Ultra, compared to 60°C for 5 minutes on the H14.

Anyone who has ever used a Dyson handheld, or those from its competitors would know – cleaning up can be a pain. The roller cannot get wet because once it does, the fabric on the roller turns damp, and liquids mixed with dirt starts to smell. If you don’t strip the roller, wash it and dry it in the sun, and instead leave it attached to the unit to dry, the roller will start to stink really bad. But such cleaning is time-consuming and troublesome, so you end up avoiding using it over wet spots.

But with the H14 Ultra, you can now clean up wet spots and spills of any kind, from sugared drinks, wine, sauces, and you know that cleaning the roller is as easy as the push of a button. Having the option to deep clean it after cleaning up sauces and flavoured drinks, and know it will be cleaned at high temperatures, provides peace of mind. The app is also able to inform you once cleaning is done, reminding you to clear out the first water container.

With a 6 x 5,000mAh battery pack, the unit can clean for 40 mins, which is more than enough to clean an apartment completely. With a full tank of fresh water, the unit could clean my apartment twice on normal wet mode, and run the roller through a cleaning and drying process each time, before I had to dump the dirty water and replace the fresh water container.

So what happens if you want to vacuum your home without using the wet mode? That’s the third mode you have to switch to, and it’s best to remember that because a damp roller is best clean and dried, rather than left to dry on its own.

Even with these features, the most impressive thing about the 14 Ultra isn’t really a feature but more of a thoughtful attribute that anyone who as ever used a vacuum would understand and appreciate – a tangle-free experience. Vacuums and hair go together like air in a bag of chips, and even if no one wants the air, you have to deal with it. Hair gets trapped in between the rollers and bristles of a roller head and can jam up the gears. It gets a lot worse if you have family members with long hair as they get stuck everywhere and the H14 Ultra has a scrapper that severs long hair on the roller, allowing the machine to extract the stray hairs into the used water container.

In the four weeks of use, there were no strands of hair trapped on the roller or any of the gears, and when peering through the grey plastic of the used water container, you can see strands of hair floating in the water trapped within that a simple pour into the drain would clear. The end result is a used vacuum with a clean roller that feels, looks and smells brand new each time it’s used. 

Priced at S$1,099, and available at around S$850 during sale periods, the Dreame H14 Ultra is an impressive cleaning, and self-cleaning machine that requires minimal effort to use, and even less to upkeep.

HSALS

Hsals needs more space in his house, and more money in his bank account to pay for all the toys, collectibles and other geek related items that companies are churning out. Free-time? Girlfriend? Who’s got time for those?