Growing up, my parents were convinced by a door-to-door salesman that the best vacuum on the planet was made by Kirby. That company has been in existence for well over a hundred years and certainly produced some serious carpet sucking machines. But they were constructed like a bank vault, needed constant dust bag swaps and were generally a menace to lug around the house. That period during the early 90’s is about the last time I gave vacuums even a passing thought. Until my 10-month old arrived, that’s when it became all about Dyson for me.
My Dyson Ride.
Funnily enough I originally purchased a Dyson DC26 with HEPA filter around four years ago. The bagless yet smaller unit was perfect for the smaller duplex my wife and I lived in at the time. For incidental jobs I also invested in the DC56, a handheld, cordless unit that served its purpose very well right up until the battery eventually died.
It was at this point we went all out and bought the Dyson V8 Absolute. This stick-style vacuum sat almost at the top of the Dyson cordless range, not cheap with a price tag north of $700. The ability to mount it to the wall and then simply grab it when needed provided almost daily inspiration to completely suck the house dry of anything our new arrival could swallow.
But now Dyson has outdone me just months after my rather extravagant investment, with the Dyson V10. I’ve been using it heavily over the last two weeks and I’m pretty sure the death of mains powered vacuums has now arrived.
It’s Got the Power.
This is where this review will start to sound like one of my car test drives. The new Dyson digital motor is smaller, lighter (by almost half) and most importantly more powerful. The new engine has 20% more suction, uses a new in-line format so the dust bin and extension pipe are in line rather than at a 90-degree angle. Emptying the bin is a simple point and shoot affair, although you must remove the pipe or attachment now to do so.
The digital motor can spin up to 2000 times a second, or 125,000rpm, power to weight ratio has tripled since the original V2. The cyclone technology that Dyson relies on to draw in as much dirt and dust as possible now uses an eight-pole design, switching between each up to 16,000 times a second. This simply removes the dust from the ingested air, at an incredible rate and spins a new diagonal impeller to increase more airflow. Even the motor now has a ceramic shaft, to help keep weight down and increase strength. The actual unit looks much larger than the previous model but still manages to feel just as lithe and well-weighted as the numbers suggest.
It Knows Where You Are.
Remarkably the Dyson V10 also knows what the altitude, barometric pressure, temperature and weather is. This helps the digital motor perform at its best no matter where you live. So sensitive are the pressure sensors it even knows if you have a two-level house or are vacuuming something on the roof, for example an air conditioning duct.
The filtration system is so good on this vacuum I’d be happy to breath the expelled air directly. It even just smells fresh, if that’s possible. Pre and post-motor filters remove 99.97% of allergens as small as 0.3 microns.
The actual dirt bin has always been a tad small for a full house job but is now 40% bigger, holding half a litre. Dyson claims this is the most powerful cord-free stick vacuum. You can go on and on with the technical data such as the internal 14 cyclones that travel at up to 193 km/h and generate over 79,000. But how does it work in the real world?
The Battery.
The Dyson V8 I own is good for seven-minutes on max mode and anywhere between 25 and 45 minutes on normal mode, the latter I rarely use. The new V10 has three different max mode suction rates, at the highest setting I’m getting close to 10 minutes. The claim is 60 minutes of run time on normal mode depending on what type of motorised head you’re using, carpet or hard floor for example.
To be honest running in the highest suction mode is not required, I just like to extract the most performance from any engine. The big test for me was running it over the carpet in a room that our cat spends 90 per cent of its life. Despite being regularly cleaned by the V8 model, the V10 still managed to collect a substantial amount of cat hair into the bin. The suction is in fact so powerful it partially lifts the carpet. Those with more delicate carpet should elect for the lower suction modes.
Bits and Pieces.
The actual cleaner heads have been revised, there’s a direct-drive cleaner head that includes a motor located inside the brush bar. Nylon bristles massage the carpet deeply while carbon fibre filaments remove fine dust from hard floors. A separate soft-roller head is excellent at picking up the aftermath of one of our 10-month old highchair meals. There’s a combined larger roller covered in soft woven nylon and anti-static carbon fibre again to collect fine dust. Both heads with their direct-drive motors do an excellent job of pivoting for low-down access and edge cleaning.
The Absolute + model comes with a plethora of accessories that easily attach to reach just about any crevice possible, along with a handy storage bag.
Literally Handy.
The V10, like the V8, also converts into a handheld vacuum, perfect for the car for example. This is where the vast array of smaller brushes and crevices tools really come in handy. I will say however that the new in-line design hampers the ergonomics a little when applied in this way. The bin kind of gets in the way when using the smaller combination tools although an extension hose can overcome some of these situations.
Worth It?
At basically a thousand dollars you’d have to really take vacuuming seriously. But with the convenience of a powered wall-mounted dock, and not having to lug a heavy corded unit, it’s a whole lot easier to be motivated and dare I say, suck it up!
The Dyson Cyclone V10 Absolute+ cord-free has a RRP of $999 and the Dyson Cyclone V10 Animal is available from $899. You can purchase one at Dyson Australia now or major electrical retailers from Friday 6th April 2018.
