Vacuum cleaners are something fantastic! I’m repeating myself here, but I think that a vacuum cleaner belongs in every household with children or pets.
However, many vacuum cleaners are relatively expensive, especially the branded devices.
With the H11 Core, Dreame has now brought a “basic model” onto the market, which is supposed to offer all the important functions but foregoes the “gimmicks” of the luxury models.
Accordingly, the price is very low at €200 for a brand model! Let’s take a look at the test to see whether this concept works and whether the vacuum cleaner really offers good performance at the low price!
At this point, many thanks to Dreame for providing the wax vacuum for this test.
Dreame H11 Core in Test
The Dreame H11 Core relies on the familiar design that most vacuum cleaners use. Here we also have a stick vacuum cleaner in which the tanks and the electronics are housed in the “handle”.
This handle stands on a large floor brush. This in turn has a large rotating roller. This roller is sprayed with water from above, which then results in wet cleaning.
The Dreame H11 Core also has two water tanks. A 900 ml fresh water tank and a 500 ml dirty water tank.
This means the tanks are pleasingly large! Especially since large tanks are usually a feature of the “premium” models.
Excitingly, the battery is also very decent, at least on paper! Dreame speaks of 22 minutes and 6x 2500mAh cells. Remarkable!
The vacuum cleaner is controlled as usual using three buttons on the handle. There is also a small LC display on the top of the vacuum cleaner, which informs you about things such as the battery level.
A “base station” is also included in the scope of delivery. The vacuum cleaner is placed in this for charging and for self-cleaning.
No automatic suction
Most large vacuum cleaners support automatic suction power adjustment. If they recognize that you are vacuuming a lot of dirt, they automatically turn the power up or down again.
The H11 Core cannot do this! This only has two power levels, ECO and MAX, which you can choose between manually.
To be honest, this is not a drama or a big loss for me, but just a point where something was saved.
High cleaning performance despite a low price
The H11 CORE is optimized for a high price/performance, but fortunately the suction and cleaning performance is at a very high level.
Even in ECO mode, the H11 CORE can easily handle house dust, small amounts of animal hair, most spilled liquids, etc.
It is always impressive how well modern vacuum cleaners can deal with spilled liquid. I’ve already gone over a stain of cola 1-2 times and it has completely disappeared in the H11 CORE without leaving a sticky film behind.
In principle, the H11 CORE can also handle somewhat coarser dirt. For example jams or Nutella stains etc.
And yes, the cleaning performance is really as good as I describe it here. A vacuum cleaner is a real blessing, especially if you have pets or children in your home.
Muddy footprints on the light tiles after a walk in the forest? No problem! Briefly took the H11 CORE from the charging station, drove over it 1-2 times and back to the station.
With a cleaning bucket this would feel like a half hour job, but it can be done in 5 minutes.
The same applies to spilled liquids. A tipped over bottle no longer has to be a drama. Just quickly get the vacuum cleaner and run over it. Even if you have young animals in the house, a vacuum cleaner can be very useful and I speak from experience here.
But where does the H11 CORE reach its limit?
Essentially in the same places where the other large models have problems. Extremely greasy dirt is always a problem.
It is better not to remove spilled oil or large amounts of mayonnaise with a vacuum cleaner. This simply glues the rollers together.
Even very large amounts of hair can get stuck inside or not be absorbed well. It is no problem to vacuum up a “cloud” of hair. But for really large quantities I would recommend a normal vacuum cleaner.
Here we also notice the weaker engine performance of the H11 Core a little more.
Even very large particles such as leaves are too much.
But apart from that, you can vacuum or clean practically anything with the H11 CORE. This one doesn’t perform any worse than the €500+ models.
It is only a little weaker for things like cleaning edges and sometimes you have to work a little slower because it takes a little longer to pick up dirt/rinse the roller.
Also for carpets?
A “universal” vacuum cleaner like the H11 CORE is not suitable for carpets, or is only suitable to a very limited extent.
Short carpets or carpets can definitely be vacuumed on the surface. The H11 CORE can also “wipe out” spilled liquids on carpets, but it does not offer deep cleaning on carpets.
With self-cleaning
The H11 CORE also has a self-cleaning function. If you place it on its station and press a button on the handle, the roller will automatically be flushed with plenty of water.
This is actually very effective and manual washing of the roller, for example, is almost never necessary. Every now and then you should remove it to clean the cracks behind it, where hair tends to get stuck together, but apart from that, the H11 CORE is low-maintenance.
Conclusion
The Dreame H11 CORE* is fantastic! Is this the best vacuum cleaner on the market? Of course not, but the price of around €200 is simply super attractive.
The H11 CORE offers almost the same comfort and suction power as the larger models. In practice you will only feel a few differences between this and a €500+ model.
The H11 CORE also vacuums and cleans wonderfully. The children left footprints on the tiles? Take the H11 CORE from its station, drive over it twice and you’re done. Did you spill a bottle? Simply grab the vacuum cleaner, move over it and you’re done.
Cleaning takes just a few minutes and you don’t have to deal with rags and buckets.
The suction power +- is at the same level as the larger models. Yes, these may have a little more “engine power” on paper, but in practice you hardly notice it.
Where do you notice differences due to the low price? We don’t have an automatic suction power setting and the display is not that detailed. The engine power also appears to be slightly lower, which can be noticeable when dealing with large amounts of hair, for example, but is usually not a problem in practice (you have to drive a little slower).
But those were essentially the points where Dreame saved. I think this is absolutely bearable given the price is sometimes less than €200, depending on the dealer!