Key Takeaways
- Dreame X40 Ultra offers wider reach with its extending brush and mop pad, providing strong cleaning performance.
- The X40 Ultra has large capacity reservoirs, 12,000Pa suction, and a 360-degree camera system for “4D” mapping.
- The docking station is large but offers benefits like washing and drying mopping pads and auto-refilling and draining options.
The Dreame X40 Ultra doesn’t look different from most other combo vacuum and mop robots. However, with a few small tweaks like its extending brush and mop pad, it has a much wider reach than most. It gathered crumbs and dirt even better than I expected.
Dreame X40 Ultra
The X40 Ultra empties dirt for 75 days, dries mops with hot air, smartly refills water and the solution, and cleans the mop and washboard with 158F hot water—all in one robot vacuum.
- Excellent object avoidance
- Strong suction
- Detachable mop pads and extending brush arm are nice unique features
- One of the most expensive robot vacuums
- Large base station
Price and Availability
The Dreame X40 Ultra retails for $1,899.99 and is available now. Its cleaning station dock can hook up to a water supply for auto refilling and draining, but it requires an additional accessory. (That piece was not tested.)
The X40 Ultra Compares Well Against Other Robot Vacuums and Mops
The Dreame X40 Ultra is only a comparatively small update over the previous X30 Ultra—adding things like stronger suction and hotter mop drying—but on the whole, the X40 Ultra is just a beast. (Just to be clear, if you bought the X30 Ultra, there’s no need to upgrade this year.)
The X40 Ultra has large capacity reservoirs for dirt and water. Its suction reaches 12,000Pa. It has a long battery life and a complete 360-degree camera system for “4D” mapping. It should be able to identify 120+ objects too in an attempt to best maneuver around items. If you want to remotely check in on pets, you can view the camera feed on your phone.
The X40 Ultra compares well against other premium robot vacuums and mops when going down the checklist of features. I found it matched or exceeded the specs of most of the recent ones I’ve tried, like the Ecovacs Deebot T30S Combo, Eufy Omni S1 Pro, Narwal Freo X Ultra, and Eufy X10 Pro Omni X.
More than individual specs, however, I liked some of the smaller touches and the total package the X40 Ultra offers. For example, if you perform a vacuum-only task, the robot will detach its mopping pads and leave them behind in the base station. If it doesn’t need the mopping pads then it won’t drag them around.
If you are mopping your floors, its spinning pad can extend out to reach more areas under cabinets. The same is true about its side brush which can extend and lift itself to be more efficient in its tasks.
Cleaning Performance Is Strong
As alluded to, the X40 Ultra puts all its features together to clean thoroughly and thoughtfully. In my tests across a thick shag carpet and hardwood floors, it had enough power to pull up crumbs and managed to get hard-to-reach areas using its extending arms. I do wish it had been more liberal in extending its brush though. The mop pad regularly swung out to reach more areas, but the robot was more conservative about extending the brush.
Sprinkling rice across taped-off sections of my floors showed a little more objectively how the robot was able to gather nearly all the dirt in its path. Watching the vacuum tackle these controlled tests I was impressed by the paths it took to try and make sure it wasn’t flinging any debris that it wouldn’t be able to get at some point in its travels. There were several times I was disappointed to see it miss a crumb or two only for it to get them before it was finished.
In the Dreame mobile app are plenty of customizations for the way the robot cleans. It can only vacuum or only mop or mix and match those in different ways. There are five levels of vacuuming available, including the Max+, but I primarily stuck to the middle standard and turbo options.
Dreame’s CleanGenius will automate these choices for you and clean rooms based on their projected dirtiness and time since the last clean. I like the setting but tended to shy away from using it day-to-day because of my varied schedule.
Overall I had very few complaints about the cleaning performance of the X40 Ultra, either vacuuming or mopping. Its battery life was able to support all the cleaning it did as well. The unit isn’t flawless though and there are still common pitfalls like most other units.
For example, the ultra-powerful 12,000Pa suction can get pretty loud. The vacuum is quiet on its lowest setting, but very loud on its highest one.
Although the X40 Ultra did better in corners and hard-to-reach places, it still couldn’t reach everything. A few far reaches of my kitchen floors presented a little trouble that no robot has been able to clean. Again, I wish it would have tried to use its extending brush more than I saw it attempt to.
A Big Docking Station, For a Reason
The docking station that comes with the X40 Ultra isn’t small—it’s huge. For apartments and places without a ton of room, this could be an issue. If you can find space for it, however, I do think it (mostly) justifies the area it consumes.
Like most high-end premium docks, it will wash and dry the mopping pads so you shouldn’t smell those. Without washing and drying, mopping pads will smell within a few days. Another way it keeps bad smells away is by using a washing solution that comes in the box.
One nice trick is the station’s ability to connect directly to a home’s plumbing with an optional accessory for auto-refilling and draining. This will let you avoid ever needing to dump dirty water, but most homes in the US aren’t set up for this and don’t have accessible areas for it to work.
The station’s dirt collection is advertised as 75 days’ worth of dirt, but this will largely depend on each home and whether furry pets are present. Regardless, you shouldn’t need to touch the dirtbag for at least two months.
The black and metallic appearance of the charging station isn’t camouflage, but I didn’t find it obnoxious. It at least has the potential to disappear in the right spot in your home.
Should You Buy the Dreame X40 Ultra?
The Dreame X40 Ultra is a premium robot vacuum and mop because of its features, but also because of its top-tier price. Its $1,900 retail cost is steep no matter how you justify it. But it’s one of the few robots that had every feature I wanted and needed almost no assistance throughout my testing period. It did all its tasks without a lot of fanfare.
To make the choice even more difficult, the last generation X30 Ultra has been on sale at times for as low as $1,300. But if you can swing the full cost and have enough room for its large base station, the X40 Ultra is a terrific cleaning assistant.
Dreame X40 Ultra
The X40 Ultra empties dirt for 75 days, dries mops with hot air, smartly refills water and the solution, and cleans the mop and washboard with 158F hot water—all in one robot vacuum.
