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One thing about vacuum companies? They're all gonna release an air purifier eventually. Then, most of those vacuum brand purifiers just start blending together. Dreame dropping an air purifier feature called "Furcatch" immediately hinted that the Dreame FP10 wasn't just another purifier touting a filter that lasts longer than usual, like the Dyson HushJet or Shark NeverChange.
I've been running the Dreame FP10 Furcatch purifier in my two-cat apartment for about two weeks. Here's how it's going.
Design: Kinda big, but a complete vibe
As someone who tests robot vacuums at home every week, I've grown excruciatingly bored with plasticky black appliances shoved into every corner of my living space. I was naturally drawn to the Dreame FP10's curb appeal, like the minimalistic rounded shape and the modern cream color that doesn't stick out like a sore thumb amongst my decor or white walls.
The FP10 measures just over two feet tall with a diameter of around 14 inches. That's standard for a large room purifier, and there's something to be said for a large room air purifier that doesn't aggressively look like it was meant to live in a garage.
The vent runs 360 degrees around the bottom of the cylinder, so the FP10 does its best work when it can suck particles from the air in every direction. I've been pulling the purifier out from the wall while I work from home during the day, as well as overnight. But given its size (and close proximity to the foot of my couch chaise), it's just easier to leave the FP10 in the corner during heavy foot traffic hours in the living room. My cats spend a ton of time at the living room windowsills and nearby cat tree, so there's constant hair and dust floating near that wall, anyway.
Furcatch roller = no interaction with the filter for two years
The Dreame FP10 gets the "Furcatch" part of its name from a fur-cleaning microfiber roller that lives under the hood with the HEPA filter. Every so often, the roller flicks back and forth for several seconds to comb hair off the rotating filter as it passes through. The roller's material and motion remind me of using a ChomChom to clean cat hair off furniture.
If you have pets, you're probably familiar with the gray fluff that builds up unsettlingly quickly on the filter of an air purifier or vacuum. (If you're not familiar and are wondering why your vacuum stopped sucking stuff up, that's probably why.) The more gray fluff caked onto the filter, the more air flow is cut off into the purifier — which means no new air is actually being filtered.
Depending on the severity of shedding in your home, pet parents could wind up pulling tufts of fur out of a filter on a weekly basis. It's enough to get you to ditch the air purifier altogether, even if you know deep down that it's kind of crucial for your health. Dreame's genius roller idea does that for you, meaning the FP10 purifier requires no regular cleaning or replacement filters. FP10 filters are expected to last nearly two years each, and the app keeps you posted on exactly how many days are left.
A moment for the other pet-friendly features
As any air purifier geared toward pets should, the FP10 was designed to anticipate various cat behaviors — like sitting on top of your air purifier, whether they're "supposed to" or not. Its flat canvas top supports a maximum weight of 33 pounds and is bottom-heavy to prevent toppling over. (It automatically shuts off if tipped over.)
The adjustable LED light strip that circles the FP10 has also turned out to be a great night light for my cats when I'm out and about. It feels less wasteful than turning on a whole lamp, and I never have to stress over whether I actually did remember to turn on a light before I left. It's just always on.
Noise level: Surprisingly subtle for its size
The Dreame FP10 Furcatch purifier has a few purification modes: AI Purify, Pet Purify, and Sleep Purification, plus a custom option to drag the fan level up or down as you please. Sleep Purification, plus AI Purify or a fan speed at 4 or less, is as good as silent to me — you'd think the whole thing accidentally got unplugged if the light wasn't on.
Pet Purify (around 52 decibels from an inch away) is a more audible constant hum, and fan speed 10 is the loudest (about 61 decibels from an inch away), but neither is "loud" at all. The Dreame FP10 doesn't get much louder than the Dyson HushJet's strongest setting.
Performance: The app says particles like fur are, in fact, being caught
The Dreame FP10 purifier has been doing an excellent job of mitigating lingering odors in my living space with shitty ventilation. Why would someone design a kitchen with no windows or HVAC vents? I would love to know! But you can imagine the potential mugginess.
I've noticed that I don't really catch a whiff of a full Litter-Robot unless I'm on the floor to swap the drawer liner. The stench from the open drawer doesn't hover as long, either. Dreame's website specifically says that the FP10 was designed with pet odors like feces, litter and urine, and pet food in mind. The activated carbon layer of the filter traps the stinky gas, which then hits the unique metal layer where they're chemically neutralized.
The Dreame app monitors two types of indoor pollution: VOCs (volatile organic compounds that can come from paint, bleach and other harsh chemicals, or new furniture) and PM1, 2.5, and 10 (tiny particulate matter and allergens like dander, mold spores, or smoke from outdoor emissions or lit candles). I hated finding out that microplastics are another type of microscopic particle that can float and live in dust, and that there are a ton of them seeping off just about everything I own. So I'll take any crumb of relief I can get, like when my Dyson PencilVac laser points out that less dust and cat hair are settling on the hardwood in the FP10 room.
While my apartment's VOC levels have been in the green (shout-out to non-toxic cleaning products), I've noticed several spikes in the particulate matter department. Most of them seem to coincide with fume-heavy cooking (frying seitan and cooking bacon) or the times that I'm burping the common area by opening the singular openable window. The graph would be easier to read if it would let me toggle to a 12-hour clock.
The Dyson HushJet that I was previously using has since been moved to my bedroom. It did a pretty good job of clearing smells from the entryway and couch radius, but its 203-square-foot capacity just didn't have the reach to freshen such a large open-concept living space. The Dreame FP10's 1,346-square-foot capacity is much better suited to my ~800-square-foot common area.
No firm disadvantages yet, just things to keep in mind
I have nothing bad to say about the Dreame Furcatch air purifier yet. That doesn't necessarily mean it's the right air purifier for every single household. Even if you need more oomph than a true tabletop air purifier, the FP10 Furcatch is hardly the most compact floor air purifier for a small space. Most of Dreame's staged product photos show the Furcatch casually chilling in the middle of a huge room with no cord in sight. In the real world, the ease of incorporating a larger model like this one into your home relies a lot on convenient outlet placement.
Is the Dreame FP10 air purifier worth it?
As long as you have the floor space, I'd say that the Dreame FP10 is the best air purifier for homes with multiple pets. If the Furcatch roller remains as self-sufficient over the next two years as Dreame claims, it's hard to picture a heavy-duty air purifier better equipped to deal with a shit ton of shedding.
For comparison's sake, the Dreame FP10 air purification covers six times the square footage that the Dyson HushJet does, yet only costs $150 more. The 1,346-square-foot FP10 does cost $100 more than the 1,400-square-foot Shark NeverChange model, but NeverChange doesn't mean NeverClean — the Shark filter still requires manual maintenance on a regular basis, whereas the Dreame is completely hands-free. Is Dreame's FP10 Furcatch purifier more expensive up front than the long-lasting purifiers from Shark and Dyson? Yes. But is Dreame's Furcatch a better value over time? Also yes.
Topics Health Mashable Choice Pets
