The most underrated robot vacuum I’ve tested just hit its lowest price ever

Technology

robot vacuum and mop is on sale, priced at $800 for a limited time.


Pet hair is one of my biggest grievances at home. I have a mixed-breed dog whose DNA test confirmed that he’s a mutt (not a border collie, as most people believe) made up of mostly high-shedding breeds. It is fun to test how well robot vacuums tackle his pet hair, which easily finds its way into corners where robot vacuums don’t always reach.

is the latest to tackle my home’s pet hair piles, and I’m glad to say it’s done so successfully. 

Sweet Luca’s black-and-white coloring means I must vacuum every day to avoid seeing gray clumps of hair everywhere. The Dreame L40 Ultra expertly tackles even the corners other robot vacuums don’t reach with a side brush and mop pad extending up to 20mm.

I performed controlled testing with the Dreame L40 Ultra before unleashing it to clean my entire home’s floors. 

In my tests, the Dreame L40 Ultra picked up 94.5% of debris, a great score that few models can beat. It stuck to its map about 85% of the time, which is likely why it can maintain such a high cleaning efficacy. Other models I’ve tested average between 65% to 75% in navigation, so 85% is pretty impressive.

This long-exposure overhead image captures the path the Dreame L40 Ultra followed when cleaning a room in our lab. An LED light bar on the robot helps visualize its coverage and navigation. As you can see, the L40 Ultra demonstrates top-tier thoroughness for a robot vacuum.

Eric Snyder/ZDNET

The Dreame L40 Ultra successfully avoided obstacles like socks, my desk’s panel legs, and charging cables. I realized it’s so good at cleaning thoroughly while avoiding cables that I gave it the toughest job: cleaning my office daily. 

Also: The most customizable smart home accessory I’ve tested is 40% off right now

My home office is where I keep all sorts of review units, from portable power stations to smart home devices. It’s also where my dog sleeps, naps, eats, and drinks water. While different items always come in and out of my home office, two things are constant: pet hair and chargers.

Maria Diaz/ZDNET

I’ve never been able to run a robot vacuum daily in the home office because the floor is always strewn with charging cables, my dog’s chewed-up toys, and random kibble. Robot vacuums typically get stuck on these items, so while I run my vacuum daily in the living room, I make a virtual boundary to keep the vacuum out of the home office, which I then manually vacuum and mop.

The Dreame L40 Ultra robot vacuum and mop has been running on a daily schedule in the home office for over a month, keeping the 300-square-foot space clean and free of pet hair with no effort on my end. This has helped my allergies immensely, as even the air purifier in the office runs less often because the room has less pet hair and dust. 

Dreame L40 Ultra robot vacuum and mop

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The Dreame L40 Ultra

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