This robotic pool cleaner gave me a rocky start, but a happy ending

Price When Reviewed

$1,099

Best Prices Today: Dreame Z1 Pro

From the beginning, Dreame’s Z1 Pro robotic pool cleaner definitely appears to verify off all of the packing containers. Its options record touts nearly all the pieces: The capability to wash ground, partitions, and waterline. Big, twin, front-mounted brushes. Three hours of operating time. Mobile app assist. And a distant management within the field. I’m undecided what the touted “Triple Surround Fusion Perception System” is, however that sounds good, too.

Specifications

I’ll begin with what I preferred essentially the most: After unboxing, I found that the 27-pound robotic affords probably the most handy charging techniques I’ve seen to this point, because of a magnetic charging mechanism that merely snaps onto the system’s chassis, with no plugs or rubber gaskets concerned—and no have to hoist the robotic onto a cumbersome charging station, both. There’s even a small microfiber material hooked up to the tip of the charging cable for wiping off any moisture on the contacts; that’s a considerate contact.

The Dreame {hardware} seems to be powerful, however it’s not garish: a silver-and-black system with large-wheeled treads and promised assist for scrubbing as much as 2,160 sq. ft of pool floor space. The included light-pulse distant fees through USB-C, and even the distant’s coloration and form match the Z1 Pro’s design theme.

Christopher Null/Foundry

LEDs on prime of the Z1 Pro present a helpful indication of battery-charging standing and working mode (ground, partitions, waterline, or all the pieces, accessed through a single selector button). A top-mounted hatch offers you entry to a single-piece filter basket that pops out simply. The backside of the filter opens on a hinge to permit for straightforward cleansing after a run.

Dreame’s cell app is possibly its coolest function, the primary I’ve seen that may visually map the pool after a run. With assist for each Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, the app additionally makes it straightforward to get a fast have a look at the robotic’s standing (offered it’s turned on and out of the water), set cleansing settings remotely, and to configure a routine cleansing schedule if you happen to go away your robotic within the pool for a number of days at a time. (The non-Pro Dreame Z1 loses a couple of options, together with the distant, and prices $200 much less.)

Christopher Null/Foundry

So, there’s lots to love right here, which was all of the extra saddening when my preliminary expertise with the system didn’t go very nicely.

Performance

My first problem concerned the distant management. Out of the field, it didn’t work in any respect, unable to activate. Some troubleshooting with Dreame in the end ended with the corporate sending me a brand new one altogether. The new distant did work, however not overly nicely. A strong inexperienced gentle should be aimed pretty exactly at a sensor on prime of the robotic, with pulses directing the robotic to pause/restart its process, clear round a sure spot, or return to the floor for retrieval.

But getting the robotic to answer any of those instructions was an train in each frustration and trial and error, usually requiring as much as a minute of repeatedly stabbing at buttons, waving the distant round, and hoping one thing would lastly stick.

The excellent news was that finally, it often would, although I in the end discovered the distant helpful just for telling it to climb to the waterline so I might retrieve it from the pool. It’s simply too erratic to make use of for a lot else.

Christopher Null/Foundry

My subsequent problem with the Z1 Pro was its initially poor cleansing high quality. As I do with all robotic pool cleaners I take a look at, I put the Z1 Pro to work in each natural and artificial circumstances to gauge its efficiency. After a very huge storm one night time, I woke to search out the right testing circumstances in a pool filled with particles. I dropped the Z1 Pro within the pool and watched it get to work. Three hours later, I retrieved the robotic to search out its filter basket lower than half full, and the pool trying like subsequent to no cleansing in any respect had occurred. (I then dropped in one other robotic, which took care of issues way more successfully.)

I noticed comparable outcomes with artificial leaves scattered within the pool: The Z1 Pro was solely in a position to scoop up about two-thirds of the leaves, leaving the remainder behind and enormous areas of the pool clearly untouched. That’s concerning the worst efficiency I’ve ever seen in a premium-priced pool robotic like this one.

A fortuitous firmware replace

Fortunately, Dreame pushed a firmware replace throughout my testing, and after a complete of six full cleansing runs (plus a number of shorter periods), I used to be lastly in a position to see efficiency enhance considerably. Eventually I used to be in a position to obtain a cleansing charge of about 90 %. That’s good however not nice, and it nonetheless left behind seen particles even on its finest days, notably on and round steps.

Christopher Null/Foundry

Observing the Dreame in motion reveals a little bit about what is perhaps happening, as operations didn’t all the time make a number of sense. At one level, about midway via the run, I discovered the robotic stopped in the course of the pool, spinning round and round in a single spot for almost 10 minutes. Was it mapping the partitions? Pondering the long run? Plotting in opposition to me? Eventually it did no less than get again to work, ending the remainder of the cleansing process with out incident. That stated, the robotic is without doubt one of the slowest—if not absolutely the slowest—I’ve ever seen, actually crawling throughout the ground of the pool at a turtle’s tempo. Its lack of pace could also be a contributing problem to its efficiency, as particles is all the time transferring in a pool.

When completed, the robotic climbs to the waterline and waits for retrieval (nonetheless chugging away to maintain itself moored in place, as it might probably’t float in any other case), however just for 5 minutes, after which it sinks again to the underside and should be retrieved through the included hook or through distant management. If you need to seize it when it’s docked, preserve an in depth eye in your cell app notifications.

Christopher Null/Foundry

The Dreame app was surprisingly profitable at mapping my pool, offering an affordable facsimile of what my L-shaped pool seems to be like, no less than as soon as. Again, this was the primary among the many pool robots I’ve examined through the years to do that. But subsequent runs weren’t as stable, leaving me with a map that seemed extra like a dunce cap.

This overview is a part of TechHive’s in-depth protection of the best robotic pool cleaners.

The report issued on the finish of every run was often correct, although once more, not all the time: Once I obtained a notice {that a} near-two-hour run had cleaned simply 3 sq. meters of the pool. Other odd errors, like a mysterious “charging error” within the log whereas the unit was 100-percent charged, defied rationalization.

Should you purchase the Dreame Z1 Pro?

At $1,099, the Dreame Z1 Pro has a premium value, and customers can be nicely justified to demand the best tier of efficiency from it. Some of its options are extraordinarily compelling, particularly its app.

But to advantage a wholesale advice, I’d have to see one other step up in cleansing efficiency. Might one other firmware replace ship it?