Dreame H12 Wet and Dry Vacuum Review

One of the most common electrical home appliances that we always need but do not bother to really look into is the vacuum cleaner. Granted, not everyone put the vacuum cleaner on top of their priority list of home appliances but once you get the hang of actually using one to clean your home, you’d wish you paid better attention to the unit you bought.

For smaller homes or a one bed-room condo unit, a small or portable vacuum cleaner might suffice. However, if you have a sizable house – perhaps two floors with 3 or more bedrooms — it would be wise to get a vacuum that works more efficiently and effectively.

As someone who’ve tried multiple vacuum cleaners before, here are some features that you’d want to look for when considering purchasing a new one:

• It must have enough suction power – you don’t want your vacuum to do just half the job and leave the rest to you to clean up manually.
• It should be able to clean both wet and dry surfaces. Don’t just settle with cleaning the usual dust and dirt; your vacuum should also be able to clean up on spills, wet carpets and rugs, and be able to suck up all the liquid dirt on the floor.
• It should be cordless – free yourself from the limitations of wires, especially if you have a sizable space to clean up.
• It should not be too bulky, should be easy to assemble and clean. Well, that’s pretty self-explanatory.

Given those items in our wish list, one vacuum cleaner that we’ve tried and fits the bill is the Dreame H12 Wet & Dry vacuum. The Dreame brand has been around for some time now and their focus is on high-end cleaning appliances. The first time we encountered the brand was with their popular robot vacuum cleaner, which became popular a few years back. They’ve also joined the Xiaomi Ecological Chain which means they’re an independent operating company invested by Xiaomi (i.e. they’re a non-Xiaomi subsidiary).

Anyway, the Dreame H12 is the company’s flagship vacuum cleaner. It’s cordless and supports wet and dry cleaning, with a lot of additional features you don’t normally see in typical vacuum cleaners.

Parts and Assembly

Right out of the box, the Dreame H12 is pretty easy to assemble and set up. Everything was straightforward and we didn’t even need the manual to figure out the whole kit.

The whole set includes the main body, handle, the charging base and power adapter, spare brush roller, two accessory holder, cleaning brush and the cleaning solution.

The vacuum itself has a small footprint, occupies about 1 square foot of storage space along with the docking station or charging base.

Design

The vacuum comes with two water tanks – a 900mL clean water tank and a 500mL used water tank. The handle is long and sturdy with an ergonomic design to provide comfortable handling when operating the vacuum.

There is an LED display at the top of the main body to indicate operating mode and battery life. The whole assembly is actually not that heavy to use and you can choose between either Automatic or Suction Mode.

In Automatic Mode, the vacuum detects the level of dirt and adjust accordingly. Just power on the vacuum and slide the handle downwards to start operation. Once the brush rolls, the vacuum will actually crawl forward and you just need to guide it.

There’s a second button just above the power button that activates the Suction Mode which vacuums the liquid from the floor or carpet without the mopping mechanism.

The LED display also shows different colors when it detects the level of mess it is cleaning – a blinking red ring for super dirty, orange for moderately dirty and green for light dirt.

The brush roller reaches all the way to one edge so you can basically clean up hard-to-reach corners using the vacuum. This edge-cleaning feature makes it easier to operate the vacuum and allows for a much thorough sweep of the entire floor.

Cleaning Time and Battery Life

For the usual mess and dirt, cleaning time is a breeze and for the most part, you just need a single pass to effectively vacuum the dirt. For more messy situations, you might need to do multiple passes.

The result is a clean sweep for dry dirt and very minimal moisture for liquid dirt and similar spills. The used water tank can handle a lot of liquid before you need to empty it.

Once you return the vacuum to the charging base, simply press the self-cleaning button and the roller will simply rinse itself until it is clean. It’s a nifty feature to make sure the next time you use the vacuum, no residue or liquid spills out of the roller.

In terms of battery life, the Dreame H12 packs about six 4,000mAh cells which it claims can run the vacuum for a little over half an hour. That’s quite close to what we are getting in our experience, although it will really depend on how messy the area to be cleaned or the operating mode you use.

Pricing and Availability

The Dreame H12 Wet and Dry Vacuum retails for Php25,990USD 443INR 37,545EUR 422CNY 3,225 and they have a flagship store in Lazada (click here 49), Dreame SM, MOA Square and Shopee Official Store. It’s actually a good deal considering you get a cordless, heavy-duty wet and dry vacuum that’s efficient and effective, plus a few extra features on the side.

For more information about Dreame products, check out their website here or talk to them via their social media channels here 22.