Very Affordable LIDAR Mapping Makes The D9 A Great Buy
Thanks to its 3,000Pa suction power, I found that the D9 picks leaves very little dirt behind on both hard and carpeted floors.
It is well designed, and the large wheels mean it very rarely gets stuck on obstacles such as changes in floor height or other small items left in its way.
The mopping functionality won’t have you throwing away your mop and bucket though, but it is ok to keep the floors clean in between manual mopping.
The main downside of this model is the lack of map saving – meaning it becomes a real pain to use in multi-level dwellings.
Great Value!
Cleaning Power
Boasting 3,000Pa of sucking power and mopping functionality, the Dreame D9 has some serious cleaning power. Let’s take a deeper dive into this robotic vacuum cleaner.
Vacuum Functionality
When it comes to robot vacuums, 3,000Pa of suction power is a lot. When you compare it to the flagship offerings of Roborock and iRobot (both 2,500pa) you realize how much of a boast that suction specification is. In saying that though, the 500Pa of extra suction did not make any noticeable difference in my test.
The Dreame D9 performed well in our practical cleaning tests and there were no obvious flaws in its operation. I tested it on high pile carpet, low pile rugs, and timber and tile floors. All these floors were vacuumed well – no detectable loose debris was left behind.
However, I did notice that the rotating brush needs occasional cleaning, especially when there is a lot of long hair on the floor. Most of the hair got tangled around the brush, making it less efficient.
The sweeping brush does a good job at cleaning along edges, although it’s more effective on hard floors than carpet. As with any robot vacuum that has a round shape, it can struggle maneuvering right into corners.
Dustbin Size
The dustbin size in the D9 is a very generous 570 ml, which is larger than a lot of competitors’ models that include mopping as well.
Depending on the size of your house, and how dirty your floors are, you should be able to get at least 2 full battery discharge cycles before needing to empty the dustbin.
The dustbin is easy to empty and includes a washable HEPA filter to ensure all traces of dust and allergens are removed from your house.
Mopping Functionality
If you have read any of our robotic vacuum reviews in the past, you will know that I am not a fan of the mopping capabilities of these units. And that opinion remains for the D9.
The mopping capability basically consists of dragging a wet cloth over the floor, which is ok as a stop-gap – but it’s not designed to replace a mop and bucket, unfortunately.
The app allows you to set no-mop zones, so there is no need to worry about accidentally mopping your carpet – although I do recommend removing the mop pad and tank unless you specifically want the unit to mop.
Water Tank Size
The water tank size on the Dreame D9 is 270ml which is not huge. Depending on how much floor you want to mop, you may find that the water runs out mid clean.
Battery Life
The D9 has a built-in 5,200 mAh battery which is recharged via the docking station. The unit is advertised as having 150 minutes of battery life which is a little on the low side, but it really depends on what power settings you use. Turning the suction power to high will drastically drain the battery.
Although the low battery life problem is mitigated by the ability to smart charge. During a clean, if the battery is low the robot will calculate how much charge it needs to finish the clean. Then it will go back to the dock and recharge only enough to complete the cleaning cycle – this eliminates the need to wait for a full charge before continuing.
Navigation
In my opinion, all robot vacuums should have LIDAR. The improvements to mapping and navigation that this technology offers are huge, and it makes any vacuum that doesn’t include it seem way outdated.
Thankfully the Xiaomi Dreame D9 includes a full LIDAR system that utilizes SLAM technology to give the robot some real smarts when it comes to Navigation.
On the first clean, the robot will navigate around the entire house and create an internal map (which can be viewed via the app). This map can then be used to mark no go zones, no mop zones, invisible walls, etc. It also allows the robot to be much more efficient as it knows exactly where it is going and what is the most efficient way to get there and clean.
It’s a much better solution than the ‘drive around till you bump into things’ method of older/cheaper units.
Smartphone App
You can program and connect to the Xiaomi Dreame D9 via the Xiaomi Home app. You can download it on the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.
It offers very similar functionality to its competitor’s app – in fact, it looks almost identical to the Roborock App.
Live Map
The ability to see where your D9 is in real time is handy in several situations, so I was glad to see that the Xiaomi App includes a live map.
One of our biggest complaints with the unit is that it can’t save multiple maps. This makes it a real pain to transfer the unit to other areas such as multi-level dwellings. Although this feature will likely be added with a future firmware update.
When the robot has finished its first clean, you will be able to edit the map as required and separate rooms, and name them.
Room Cleaning
If you don’t want the vacuum to clean all the areas on the map, you can select specific rooms. For multiple room cleaning, the vacuum will clean them in the order you selected them.
Another handy feature is the ability to tell the D9 to clean the room multiple times. You can also set the vacuum power level and the mop water amount.
No Go Zones and Invisible Walls
No Go zones make it easy to mark areas that are out of bounds to the vacuum.
Just some examples of when I have found this to be useful:
- Avoid items of furniture such as lamps that may be pulled over by the vacuum
- Avoid toys that are set up in a certain area
- Avoid areas where the vacuum tends to get stuck
Invisible walls act similarly, but instead, they act as a virtual wall that the vacuum cannot pass. This is useful if you need to stop the vacuum from going into certain rooms that don’t have closeable doors.
No Mop Zones
No mop zones are simply areas of the map where the vacuum will not mop the floors. I found this useful in our living area where we have tiled floors that need mopping, but also have a rug on the floor in front of the TV.
Obviously, I don’t want the rug to me mopped, so I set that as a no mop zone and that solved the problem
Carpet Boost
Carpet boost is a feature that ramps up the suction power when the vacuum detects it is on a carpeted floor. The Dreame D9 detected carpets fairly accurately and the extra suction is great, especially on high pile carpets.
Scheduling
If you want to truly automate your cleaning, then taking advantage of the scheduling function is the way to do it. Simply choose the times you want the vacuum to start its clean, and it will automatically go about its business. You will, of course, have to empty the dustbin still.
