I have mixed feelings about this device. It does exactly what I hoped for, which is vacuuming without having to put away the dog and cat toys first. This was a nuisance with my previous, cheaper vacuum cleaner, which never worked on schedule because I had to put everything away first.
The Aqua10 does this almost perfectly. It recognizes anything lying on the floor or in the way as an obstacle and then neatly navigates around it, vacuuming and mopping. Since I've been using it, it hasn't gotten stuck once in this situation.
The other reason I wanted the Aqua10 is its ability to easily navigate over thresholds. In practice, this doesn't work quite as well (at least in my experience). I have a few cabinets with metal frames underneath. Cheaper robots try to bluff themselves over these, which often causes them to get stuck. This robot should be able to do this, according to the marketing. In reality, the Aqua10 ultimately does the same thing. The wheels could cause it to "fall" over, but the robot keeps getting stuck even though it should be easy. I should mention that Dreame indicates this is because my cabinet is black. I tested this by taping the cabinet's frame with masking tape. This made no difference, and the robot manages to get over it once or twice every 10 attempts. This involves a 1.5cm threshold.
What does work is over thresholds in the house, such as the one leading to the bathroom.
Dreame support is easily accessible and responsive. However, in this case, they weren't able to find a solution. They do genuinely offer input, which in my opinion is a welcome bonus when you're spending such a large amount of money on a product.
The Dreame app is comprehensive and self-explanatory. It can sometimes take a bit of searching, but that's mainly due to the many options. Once everything is configured, the basic options are easy to access, and searching is a thing of the past. From the home page, you can configure where the robot should vacuum and/or mop, in what order, and with which settings. This works great. I would recommend vacuuming first and then mopping. In my experience, this gives the best end result.
I don't have the ability to measure whether the 25,000 Pa power is achieved. One positive thing I do notice is that the Aqua10 vacuums cat litter from the floor even on a silent/low setting. From reviews, I see that many robots struggle with this. The mopping works great. I'm a fan of the mop roller, but that remains a personal preference.
After mopping, the Aqua10 sometimes decides to visit a few more places in the house. The device does this without doing anything else, and it's not due to its function to clean somewhere extra. I haven't figured out why this is happening. It doesn't detract from the performance, but it is a peculiarity.
Small addition: There are (American) reviews reporting that the base station leaks. I personally don't experience this problem. I've been keeping a close eye on it because of the reports. I also don't experience the dripping while mopping, which I've read about here and there. I hope this continues, and I don't know if it started immediately for these people. For now, it's not too bad.
Although there are some shortcomings that can hopefully be resolved with a firmware update, I'm very satisfied with the Aqua10.
