Note: This review was first published on 3 July 2024.
The Xiaomi Truclean W10 Ultra.
Another day, another vacuum review, but the Xiaomi Truclean W10 Ultra is quite bit different than the LG A9T-Steam and Samsung Bespoke Jet AI. It’s a wet and dry hard floor vacuum-mop that has more similarities to the Dyson V12s Detect Slim Submarine, which I must admit was the initial reasoning to call this in for comparison. But since then, Dyson themselves have announced their own dedicated hard floor cleaner like the W10 Ultra called the WashG1, so you can probably expect that review sometime in the future.
The TL;DR version:
Not versatile enough for the whole home, but the Xiaomi Truclean W10 Ultra is a viable kitchen cleaner for those messy spills and stains...if you can get it at a deep discount.
Note: You can find the Xiaomi W10 Ultra on Shopee and Lazada.
Design and Features
For now, let’s look at what the Truclean W10 Ultra can, and cannot do. It’s a wet mop vacuum that can be used to clean both dry dirt and wet spills. Because it is able to suck up water, it can even be used to clean your bathroom floor if you wanted to with no ill effects. The W10 Ultra is not like a standard vacuum cleaner in the respect that there are no attachments or alternative brush heads. It comes as is and should only be used on hard floor surfaces.
As a wet mop vacuum, everything is integrated and you use the W10 Ultra as is without optional attachments. It can also only be used on hard floors.
Besides regular mopping, the W10 Ultra also has a hot water cleaning mode. In this mode, the water in its reservoir is heated to 75 degrees Celsius, which helps break up and sanitise stubborn stains. This is similar in functionality to what the steam mop on the LG A9T-Steam attempted to accomplish, except on the W10 Ultra, it works.
The only caveat here is that the W10 Ultra vacuum unit itself has no heating capabilities. Water is heated at the docking station and then pumped into the vacuum’s reservoir before you start using it. The logic here is that Xiaomi expects you to use the mop immediately, so the water continues to stay hot for the duration of your cleaning. In practice, I found this to work out quite well. If the water in the vacuum is no longer hot, you can press a button on the handle to cycle the water back into the docking station to be reheated. There’s an LED display on the vacuum that will show the current temperature of the water, and if you’re worried that it will cool down too fast before cleaning your home and thus losing hot water efficiency, you need not be. The battery will die before the water cools down.
The docking station has a 3L clean water reservoir with heating capabilities and quick-glance light indicators to show water level.
the LED display shows the current water temperature in the vacuum.
This is the biggest issue I have with the W10 Ultra, and the only vacuum tested in recent memory that has not been able to clean my home within a single charge. Xiaomi claims a 3,680mAh battery that lasts up to 35 minutes. In my experience, I average only about 20 minutes before it dies on me. The battery is also integrated, so I can’t just replace a battery pack and keep going; I am forced to dock it for charging.
Cleaning performance
When it is charged though, I must say that I am impressed with the cleaning effectiveness of a wet mop vacuum. I don’t have to worry about the type of dirt or stain on my floor like other vacuums. In an extreme test, I threw down crumbly coffee grounds, wet soy sauce, viscous hot sauces, and even a sticky honey citron jam and the W10 Ultra mopped and sucked everything up without spreading the dirt around from its original spots. The roller spins at 15 rotations per second, and the vacuum has a dirt pickup sensor that can automatically adjust suction power on the Auto setting. It was even able to separate dirty water and solid materials such as coffee grounds and citron rind in its bin.
Coffee grounds on top, then some soy sauce, a splatter of hot sauce, and finish with a good smearing of citron honey paste.
Looks like the W10 Ultra is up to the task indeed. Impressive.
There are limitations, though. Because it is not recommended to use floor cleaning liquids and detergents in the water reservoir, it’s not able to deep clean certain types of spills. In the example above, while it cleared up the honey citron jam, there was still a sticky residual feeling that would not go away. And I expect the same will happen for oily spills as well.
Another thing to note is that the W10 Ultra has these two wheels at the back of the brush head to assist in gliding the vacuum forward while cleaning. Because of this, you do not want to move the W10 Ultra backwards and forwards while cleaning like in other traditional vacuums, as dirt can get stuck on the wheels. You should always only move forward and make a u-turn to go back. This way, the vacuum roller clears the path ahead for the wheels.
If you move the brush head in a forward and backwards motion, the rollers can trap dirt that hasn't been cleaned yet.
Still, I think the cleaning benefits outweigh these limitations. The W10 Ultra will let you effortlessly clear up most spills without getting your hands dirty, leaving only a light wipe down of the remaining residue, saving water and time.
More automation needed
Once you’re done cleaning, you’ll have to empty the bin manually, which comprises two compartments for liquid and solids, respectively. This part can get a little messy depending on the type of dirt you’ve been sucking up, but thankfully the whole contraption can be hosed down, including the filter.
The W10 Ultra can separate liquids and solids when cleaning. The entire bin can be washed after emptying.
You must also remember to clean and fully dry the roller brush as well. The good news is that the W10 Ultra has a self-cleaning mode with hot air-drying, The bad news is that it’s not automated. There’s a button on the vacuum handle that manually starts the self-clean cycle. I found out the hard way that if I forget to do this and leave it to dry on its own, I’ll start getting that damp smell coming from the roller the next time I use the vacuum, which can stink up the home.
The handle has a few buttons to activate roller self-cleaning as well as hot water cycling.
The roller area can be easily disassembled for deep cleaning.
Lastly, the W10 Ultra’s docking station feels like a wasted opportunity for improved functionality. Only one side is used as a clean water reservoir. The other side is just an empty compartment to store the replacement roller brush and filter that comes with the machine. It could have been put to much better use as a dirty water reservoir with automatic emptying of the vacuum, or even a battery charging station with a modular battery pack design to extend the running time of the W10 Ultra.
You'd think that the docking station could be put to better use than just storage for spare parts.
Thoughts and conclusion
The Xiaomi Truclean W10 Ultra has a recommended price of S$1,499. However, it is almost perpetually on sale for S$710 for the past few months that I've been checking its price, and I've noticed it going for as low as S$599. I wouldn't recommend the W10 Ultra at full sticker price, and I would still use a regular vacuum like the Samsung Bespoke Jet AI, LG A9T-Steam, or Dyson V12s Detect Slim Submarine for the rest of the home. Even Xiaomi's own stick vacuums like the G10 Plus would be preferable. The W10 Ultra is just too limited in functionality and maneuverability to be a general purpose home cleaner.
However, if you are able to grab one at a deep discount, I think the W10 Ultra has its place as a dedicated kitchen cleaner and can be really handy to have around to spot clean messy spills that would otherwise require you to get down and dirty with gloves, a scrub brush and copious amounts of kitchen towels.
Note: You can find the Xiaomi W10 Ultra on Shopee and Lazada.
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