INTRODUCTION

   Even though my pets have been the primary reason i reluctantly decided to start testing home appliances like robot and cordless vacuum cleaners i recently found out that there's something even "worse" around, toddlers. Yes, pets leave lots of hair on just about everything so cordless and robot vacuum cleaners are great solutions for that but toddlers take things to a whole new level and i imagine this is partially why dry and wet cordless vacuums made their market debut a few years back in the first place. I mean let's face it, some of the hardest things to clean are spilled milk, juice, cereal and numerous other small "disasters" toddlers clearly excel at causing (let alone if you happen to have not one but two). With their flagship H11 Max Wet and Dry Vacuum (VWV8) Dreame all but guarantees effortless floor cleaning and today I’m taking them up on that.

   Dreame Technology, established in 2017, is an innovative company with the vision to "enhance the living quality of global users". The Company focus on high-end cleaning appliances by leveraging astrodynamics technologies. At the end of 2017, Dreame joined the Xiaomi Ecological Chain, as the driving force and leading enterprise of smart household cleaning appliances. After years of hard work, Dreame has come up with a series of core inventions and over 150 core patents, such as the high-speed motor, monocular machine vision, SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) and the multi-cone cyclone separation, among which multiple patents are in a global leading position.

   Just like the Tineco Floor One S5 (review here) and the Liectroux i5 Pro before it (review here) the H11 Max is a dual purpose cordless vacuum since not only can it sweep the floor from both solid dirt and liquids but at the same time it can also mop, quite effectively at that. This is largely thanks to a smart sensor located at its base which essentially detects wet and dry debris (mess as Dreame calls it) and automatically adjusts suction power (brushless motor with a max power of 200W/10.000PA) in real-time. Needless to say, the H11 Max also features a large removable cleaning roller (560 rotations per minute for optimal results) complete with a self-cleaning function, large top LED screen (indicates remaining battery life, dirt detection and error reporting), voice assistant and two water tanks for storing of clean (900ml) and dirty water (500ml). Finally, inside the somewhat futuristic design of the H11 Max Dreame has placed an 4000mAh lithium-ion rechargeable battery pack which allows for the vacuum to be used continuously for up to 36 minutes. So, as you can certainly see from its features and specifications the H11 Max Wet And Dry Cordless Vacuum by Dreame seems to easily take on the Floor One S5 by Tineco so let's see if that's really the case.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

A large product picture is located at the front of the box right next to the main product features and under the company logo.

We see the same exact things on the left side of the box whereas at the bottom Dreame has placed 2 product pictures showcasing the main product features in 5 languages.

Every part of the bundle is placed in its own cardboard box while the main body of the H11 Max is wrapped inside a synthetic cover.

Along with the main body of the H11 Max inside the box you'll also find a long plastic and aluminum handle, charging base, charging adapter, plastic accessories holder, extra cleaning/brush roller, cleaning brush, extra dry filter, cleaning solution, vacuum cleaning instructions, warranty information paper and the user manual.

THE H11 MAX

Thanks to its design the Dreame H11 Max looks quite unique but also a bit bulkier compared to the Tineco Floor One S5 (without the handle attached the H11 Max measures roughly 663mm in height).

Dreame has placed their logo along with an explanation at the front.

Both water tanks are placed at the front, the top 900ml one is used to store clean water whereas the bottom 500ml one is used to store dirty water (strangely enough however the bottom tank is bigger).

At the base of the H11 Max we find the cleaning roller brush which is very easy to remove and clean or swap with the extra one.

Moving at the rear of the H11 Max we find the voice assistant enable/disable/volume/change language button right next to a small speaker.

Dreame has used probably the largest LED display I've seen to date with a cordless vacuun and yes this is a good thing especially for older people.

The handle is made out of plastic and aluminum and has two buttons at the front (on/off and water button) and one button at the top (self-cleaning).

With the handle attached the H11 Max now measures no less than roughly 1130mm in height.

No doubt some of you will be wondering how the Dreame H11 Max compares in size with the Tineco Floor One S5 and Liectroux i5 Pro so i placed them right next to each other.

Just like with the two others the charging base of the H11 Max is made out of plastic and has an accessories holder for both the extra roller and the cleaning brush.

Here you can see the top LED screen while the vacuum is operational (45% is battery life and the green ring around it is the amount of dirt detected by the smart sensor).

TEST RESULTS

Just like with robot vacuums all cordless handheld vacuum models will be thoroughly tested (for a duration of at least 20 days) to properly and accurately record/measure total battery life (using just the corner nozzle/flat suction tip for cordless vacuum sticks) and noise levels (from around 50cm distance using the ExTech HD600 dBA meter) in all available modes.

* As of March 2022, dry and wet cordless vacuums are placed in separate charts.

CONCLUSION

   With 3 dry and wet cordless vacuums having arrived in the lab so far, I decided to make dedicated charts for them, makes it far easier to compare similar models so this was the next logical move. Now as you tell from those said charts all 3 models perform very close to each other, both in terms of battery life and noise levels (the i5 not so much in noise levels). But which does a better job at cleaning? Honestly since I have all three here (at least right now) I was able to test them with 5 identical scenarios (I used spilled milk, coca cola, yogurt, mud and oil) and the results varied quite a bit really with the Tineco Floor One S5 doing a slightly better job with liquids (namely milk and coca cola), the H11 Max doing a slightly better job with thicker and more solid ones (yogurt, mud and oil) and the i5 Pro actually taking the third place (it just doesn’t wipe as fast and deep as the other two – it is quite faster to recharge however and also has an UV sterilization feature which the other two lack). Overall, I am very satisfied with the performance of the Dreame H11 Max, yes, I would like the ability to manually control the speed of the motor (would also allow me to take more accurate measurements since auto isn’t stable) and a WiFi smart app would be nice to have but those are clearly not significant drawbacks.

   As I type this review the Dreame H11 Max Wet & Dry Cordless Vacuum retails for USD499.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 469.99Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) a price tag which is set pretty much on par with what the competition asks (still not quite “affordable”). At the end of the day the Dreame H11 Max is right up there with the Tineco Floor One S5 so whichever you decide on you’ll certainly be satisfied. Yes, the S5 has a nice WiFi app but at the same time i like the design of the H11 Max better (not to mention that it also comes with voice prompts and a larger LED display) so it basically comes down to what your priorities are. That aside however the H11 Max by Dreame is without doubt a great wet and dry vacuum and for that it deserves the Platinum Award.

PROS

- Very Good Build Quality
- Smart Mess Sensor
- Large LED Display
- Clean & Dirty Water Tanks
- Self Cleaning Function
- Voice Assistant
- Charging Base

CONS

- Size / Weight (For Some)
- Battery Life (Up To 36 Minutes)
- No Android / iOS App