Dreame H15 Pro Heat review

The Dreame H15 Pro Heat pairs decent cleaning on hard floors with a sleek look and an effective heated wash mode. But is it one of the best vacuum cleaners around? I’m not so sure. It provides decent wet and dry cleaning on hard floors, but on carpets, it doesn’t do much.

I had issues setting up the companion app, too, which seem to be common with this vacuum model and meant I was missing out on some of the best features. The self-propulsion is very eager, and the battery drains shockingly fast when using heat mode.

But with that said, there's still a lot I like about the vacuum, and you can find out more by reading this full Dreame H15 Pro Heat review.

Dreame H15 Pro Heat review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? A wet and dry vacuum, best suited to hard floors.
• Who is it for? People with hard floors that get dirty, such as those who have pets.
• What does it do well? The heated cleaning mode is effective, and it’s good at dry cleaning hard floors too.
• What are its weaknesses? There are issues with the companion software setup, the self-propulsion is a little eager, it’s not good for carpet, and the battery drains super fast.

Dreame H15 Pro Heat review: Specs

Dreame H15 Pro Heat review: Price & availability

The Dreame H15 Pro Heat is available at Amazon U.S. for $899, but unfortunately, it's not available in the U.K. The version of this wet and dry vacuum with the heat setting is only available in America, Canada and some European regions.

The regular Dreame H15 Pro without the heat setting is $699 at Amazon U.S. and £499 from Amazon U.K., so if you don’t need the heat setting, you can save yourself some cash.

The Dreame H15 Pro Heat is on the pricier side for wet and dry vacuums and sits around the same price as the Dyson V15S Detect Submarine ($895). However, the Dreame is often on sale. As I write this, it's down to $636 at Amazon U.S., but has previously been on sale for as little as $599. So if you can hold out, this could be a good budget option.

For a more budget-friendly option, the Eureka Rapidwash NEW730BK ($499), which has a lot of the same features as the Dreame, like a voice assistant and a self-cleaning function, but no heat wash option.

Dreame H15 Pro Heat review: Design

The Dreame H15 Pro Heat looks premium and sleek with a shiny black, glass-like finish on the body, plus a matte grey plastic handle. The vacuum weighs 13.7 pounds, so it’s light enough that I was able to carry it up and down my stairs and pick it up with complete ease.

That said, when the clean water tank at the front of the body is full with 27.1 fl oz of water, the vacuum gets a little heavy. I was still able to carry it, but had to maneuver the stairs slightly slower than when the vacuum was empty. The dirty water tank on the back of the body holds 21.9 fl oz of water when standing, and 13.5 fl oz of water when in the lie-flat position, so be wary of this difference when using the vacuum, as it could spill over.

Because of the added weight of the water tanks, I wish there were a carry handle positioned lower down on the body of the hoover for stability. It's precarious to balance when it gets heavier.

There’s an LCD screen at the top of the water tank section of the vacuum, which looks pretty futuristic, but I like the intuitive way it shows the battery life and settings of the device. This, combined with the voice assistant, meant that I always knew what setting I was using, how much charge I had remaining, and when it needed a cleaning cycle. The screen is also on while the vacuum charges, so you know when to unplug it to save some energy.

The vacuum can lie flat at a 180-degree angle, so it can easily fit underneath furniture. The glide wheels also make this a lot easier as they take away a lot of the usual arm and shoulder strain that comes with the push and pull of vacuuming, but the wheels can run away at times, so some stiffer bearings would’ve been nice.

Included with the H15 Pro Heat you get a spare roller brush, which is easily interchangeable; a cleaning brush, which was useful for cleaning the dirty water tank; and a replacement filter too. It also comes with a bottle of the Dreame multi-surface cleaner. Only this cleaner can officially be used with the device, which is slightly annoying, but it's effective at removing grime from floors with ease. A bottle of the multi-surface cleaner costs $17 at Amazon U.S. for a 500ml bottle, but you only need 10ml per 800ml of water, so this bottle will last a while.

The design of the H15 Pro Heat is very similar to the Dreame H12 Pro wet and dry vacuum, with a few smart additions to make the cleaning process easier and more efficient. One of these additions is the GapFree AI robotic arm technology. This isn’t really “AI”, but more sensor technology. This arm is supposed to address the common 2mm gap issue that comes when vacuums can’t get close enough to the baseboards of the wall, leaving a rim around the room. However, I still experienced this issue with the H15 Pro Heat.

Dreame H15 Pro Heat review: Smart home connectivity

There's Smart Home connectivity available for the Dreame H15 Pro Heat through the Dreame Home app. This is a beneficial feature that can offer customization for settings, self-clean advice, as well as remote navigation of the vacuum… if it worked.

I spent two hours attempting and failing to connect the vacuum to my home Wi-Fi network so I could use it with the Dreame app. I tried absolutely every solution I could think of, including deleting and re-downloading the app, turning everything on and off again, and I even tried using three different phones — but nothing.

As a professional reviewer, I battle with stubborn technology daily. But as you can imagine, around the 50-minute mark, I started to lose my patience. And with the combination of the Dreame voice assistant telling me the Wi-Fi configuration process was set up every two minutes, it quickly became nightmare-inducing.

So, as any person verging on insanity would do, I turned to Google. It told me what I had feared: I wasn’t alone in this battle.

It turns out that not being able to connect the vacuum to Wi-Fi, and subsequently the app, is a common issue. Some advice suggests that while your phone jumps between Wi-Fi networks, if it’s connected to mobile data services, this can affect the frequency of your home router, or the type of phone you use, among other factors. I even tried changing the region of the app as per advice on the Dreame website, but nothing worked. In short, Goldilocks has some serious competition.

Dreame H15 Pro Heat review: Cleaning performance

While the Dreame H15 Pro Heat gives a pretty impressive performance in cleaning hard flooring, it’s worth considering that if you need something to work on your carpets, you should look elsewhere.

There's triple-edge cleaning to ensure the vacuum picks up from all sides, and I could tell the vacuum was tackling the edges of the room with ease. However, there was still a gap from the front of the device where the Dreame just couldn’t get to when hitting base boards, despite the GapFree Arm upgrade I discussed earlier.

Carpet

If you need to vacuum carpet, you need to buy a model like the Dreame R10 Pro, Dreame Z30 or the Samsung Bespoke Jet AI Ultra, because, beyond a very short pile carpet, the suction mode on the H15 Pro Heat does nothing. It was able to pick up very surface-level dust or small bits of treats tactfully left around by my dog, but it couldn’t pick up any fur or hair at all.

On a thicker carpet, the wheels simply left track marks without picking anything up. It’s fine for a light dusting, but when you want to clean, you need more.

Hard floors — Dry

Hard flooring is where the Dreame H15 Pro Heat really starts to shine. Cleaning was effortless with the vacuum in suction mode.

I had leaves, twigs, and dirt just inside the door where my dog had trampled them, and these were no problem for the Dreame. It was also very easy to move the vacuum along the grain of the floor, and the glide wheels really aided with this.

The vacuum managed to pick up everything and didn’t push any larger pieces away. However, near the baseboards of the wall, it again struggled to pick up dirt, so I had to do that myself with a handheld vacuum.

Hard floors — Wet

When I used the Dreame H15 Pro Heat on hard floors with its wet setting, I was impressed… and mildly disgusted. As I’ve mentioned, we have a dog in the house who gives it his best shot at bringing in as much mud as possible, and in the winter, this only gets worse. However much we clean up after him, there's always going to be some dirt by the door — but such is life with a dog.

I used the heat setting on the vacuum first of all, and this did a great job of getting the tile floors sparkling with 185 degrees Fahrenheit water. I used 10ml of the multi-surface cleaning solution that comes in the box too, and this made the room smell great. The only annoyance was when I was filling the clean water tank there was no max fill line, which would have been useful — you need to be wary about overfilling and causing more mess or damaging the machine.

I also tried out the smart clean option in the bathroom, which uses RGB sensors to detect dirt and stain types to judge what level of cleaning is needed. This setting conserves a lot more power than using heat, so it can run for a lot longer.

The H15 Pro Heat left no grimey water streaks like we experienced when testing the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine. This is because the comb on the Dreame always ensures the roller brush is clean.

Ease of use

Handling the Dreame H15 Pro Heat was easy when using it for straightforward cleaning, but it became a little tricky to maneuver around corners. The vacuum has self-propulsion, so it naturally pulls forward. In fact, it was doing a lot of the work for me, but pulling it back is a little tricky depending on the setting being used. It was like an excited puppy on a walk, pulling me forward. But if you’ve tried walking an excited puppy, you have a hard job trying to rein it back in.

It could also benefit from an attachment like a crevice tool or upholstery tool to get into hard-to-reach places. This would also solve the issue of the gap around the edge of the room.

Volume

The Dreame mops at 480RPM for an effective clean, but the operating sound was louder than I expected it to be. I got a reading of between 70 and 74 decibels when using the DecibelX app. This is a little quieter than the previous Dreame H12 Pro model, which operates at around 75 decibels.

I also got the same readings when running the self-cleaning cycle on the H15 Pro Heat.

Dreame H15 Pro Heat review: Battery life

The Dreame H15 Pro Heat has a maximum run time of 72 minutes. This is when using the lowest intensity settings. However, I found it drained much faster than that, and it was more like 50 minutes when I was using it.

When the heat setting is used, the rated run time drops to 20 minutes, but I could only get about 15 minutes of use before I needed to put it back on the charging dock. I was literally watching the battery percentage deplete on the LCD screen, and it felt like a bit of a race against the clock to get all the cleaning done.

Dreame H15 Pro Heat review: Storage & maintenance

Once you find a place for it, the Dreame H15 Pro Heat is easy to store on the included docking station, which is used for charging and self-cleaning. The self-cleaning option starts with the press of a button on the vacuum handle, and it intuitively decides how well to clean itself based on the condition of the roller.

There's a deodorizer in the dirty water tank to take care of any smells and a bristle brush to clean any hard-to-reach areas too.

Dreame H15 Pro Heat review: Verdict

The Dreame H15 Pro Heat is a competent wet and dry vacuum with sleek looks, but don’t try using it on your carpet unless you enjoy disappointment. It’s best suited to hard floors, where admittedly, its talents really shine.

The heated wash mode offers effective cleaning and shiny floors. There's also decent dry cleaning on hard floors.

But my issues with the companion app made the vacuum difficult to deal with at times, and the battery drains very fast, especially in heated modes. The self-propulsion is also very eager, making it feel like you’re walking an excited puppy.

So while the H15 Pro isn’t totally flawed, and in fact I want to love it, I can’t help but feel like it needs more work.