Great robot vac that’s a little too needy

With a long list of impressive specifications and features, there’s very little that the Dreame X60 Max Ultra ($1699.99 at Amazon) cannot do on paper. As an automated floor cleaning system, this robot vacuum offers 35,000Pa of suction, up to 15N of mopping pressure, and a base station that makes ongoing operation a breeze.

With many great things going for it on the surface, how well does it perform in the real world? I ran the Dreame X60 Max Ultra Complete in my home for a couple of months to find out.

The Dreame X60 Max Ultra offers top-tier specs and features, including a whopping 35,000Pa of suction pressure, a thin profile with a retractable LiDAR turret to get under low furniture, multi-sensor, AI-driven navigation and obstacle avoidance, heated mop washing, self-cleaning systems, the ability to climb fairly significant floor transitions, 15N of mopping pressure, excellent hair anti-tangle features, and more.

If you’ve been browsing Dreame’s robot vacuum catalog, you might have spotted the Dreame X60 Max Ultra sat next to the Dreame X60 Ultra ($1499.99 at Amazon). The Max Ultra version adds the dual-detergent option for pet cleaning, multi-spectral dirt detection, and a retractable vacuum pressure chamber, but they’re otherwise very similar.

The setup for the X60 Max Ultra unit I received was straightforward, and the X60 Max Ultra Complete package (you currently can’t buy the vac separately from the Complete bundle) comes with a generous number of parts and accessories. The dry debris bag and detergent are located behind the front cover of the base station, while the clean and dirty water containers rest under the top lid. The mop pads use magnets to connect to the bot, allowing it to leave them behind when not needed. Extending arms allows the X60 Max Ultra to reach into corners to sweep and mop.

Battery life has been great, with the vac able to run for several hours before returning to base for a charge in my testing. The app is relatively complex compared to some competitors, but after you get to grips with it it’s easy to use, and voice controls are a handy extra. Scheduling, too, makes a whole-home clean effortless, at least until the mop water needs to be swapped — more on that later.

What I’m trying to say here is that the Dreame X60 Max Ultra Complete is, for the most part, on par with the very best robot vacuums on the market today, which is what you’d hope for with the ultra-premium price tag. However, there are some areas where Dreame could improve the mopping experience that fall short.

I’ve been testing the very best robot vacuums for a while now, and the Dreame X60 Max Ultra has traits that put it among the best in the business; however, it’s the little things that make the difference for me at this price point, considering the level of polish you typically get at this tier. One real differentiator of elite performance is how often you have to manually intervene, and unfortunately, the X60 Max Ultra has required a fair number of interventions during my time with it.

The first concern I have is that under normal load, the X60 Max Ultra uses a lot of water. I find I need to swap water after about 600sqft of cleaning. That means I need to swap water every 1.5 times it cleans my house, or every other day. That’s a lot compared to the competition, which can go multiple days without any fuss.

The other frequent intervention is to rescue the mop pads. The magnetic connection for the mop pads is a pro and a con, and this really isn’t a problem with the magnets; it’s a navigation issue I’ve encountered with the X60 Max Ultra around rugs. When the bot gets into my bathrooms or to my front entryway, it fails to jump up onto the rugs. It pushes into them, bunching up the rugs, and then tries to clean too close. I love that the bot is cleaning under the edges of the rugs, but the mop pads almost always get stuck and pop off.

On the flip side, the X60 Max Ultra measures just 3.13 inches tall with the turret lowered; this is much shorter than many bots out there and much lower than all of the furniture in my home. It’s fantastic to see the bot go under the couch and tables and come out again.

Overall, the Dreame X60 Max Ultra leaves behind nice shiny floors. The detergent works well on my wood and tile floors; the vacuum and sweeping arms get along the edges and pick up all the dust. Best of all, the X60 Max Ultra has been really good about identifying the step down into my living room and avoiding crashes.

The Dreame X60 Max Ultra is a solid offering from a smart home brand in ascendancy that wants you to buy one of its products for essentially every smart home niche. And top-tier specs and features show that Dreame is paying attention to what it takes to compete in the modern robot vacuum market. The overall performance of the X60 Max Ultra series tells me it cares about its offerings, too, and taken in isolation, it’s a fantastic floor cleaning machine.

Bottom line, you would not go wrong purchasing the Dreame X60 Ultra series for your home. It navigates and cleans as well as the best bots on the market, but it just needs a bit more hands-on attention than the direct competition.