My view of the Dyson V6 and DC59 cordless vacuums.
First of all, motor-wise they are the same. The V6 line is just rebranded DC59s. That’s not a bad thing; just something to keep in mind if you’re shopping.
We have a dog who sheds like crazy, all year long. If I don’t feel like hauling out the big upright vacuum cleaner, it’s not long before the tumbleweeds appear. What I really wanted is a convenient vacuum that I can grab and run on a daily basis, and the Dyson V6 and DC59 vacuums I have are just about perfect. (Yes, I have both; it’s a long story.)
The vacuum is so easy to assemble that you barely need to look at the instructions. You just click the wand on the motor end, click the floor tool or another tool at the end of the wand, and you’re done. Or, take off the wand and click a different attachment to the motor end, and you can use it as a hand vacuum to clean stairs, furniture or your car.
The vacuum takes about three hours to charge. How long it will run depends on whether or not you use it on the Max setting. (To boost to Max power, the vacuum must be running. You just press the button that’s facing you as you hold the handle.) If you use Max power the whole time, you’ll run out of juice in 6-8 minutes. If I don’t use Max power, I’ve found I can go 18-22 minutes.
I don’t find the Max power setting necessary, except on a rug that might have a lot of embedded dirt and dog hair. The first time I used a Dyson cordless, I was shocked how much crud it pulled out of our living room rug––and this was after cleaning with a Miele vacuum. So I kept using the Max setting on the rug for a few times until I felt it was really clean. Now I only use the Max setting once in a while; maybe once every couple of weeks.
It’s a pleasure to have such a powerful vacuum that is also lightweight and cordless. When I let the dog out, I just grab the vacuum and do a quick run. Now that I vacuum nearly every day, there are no more tumbleweeds and my floors look good all the time. I can also grab the Dyson to suck up cobwebs when I spot them and get rid of the gnats that swarm and get all over the ceiling when I open the door at night.
The floor attachment is low profile and you can get it all the way under furniture. It also cleans the floor edges and corners very well. It just takes a quick click to swap out attachments, and the mini motorized tool works very well on upholstery and stairs. I have to admit, though, that the vacuum is so lightweight that I just pop it up on the couch with the floor attachment on it to suck up the dog hair on the cushions.
There are some definite cons to this vacuum, and they are common to all the Dyson cordless vacuums:
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Limited run time. My cordless power tools have interchangeable battery packs, so it’s a mystery to me why the Dysons don’t offer this. Nothing is more frustrating than being in the middle of vacuuming, having the vacuum stop dead and then having to wait hours for it to charge so that you can finish the job. Once you get to know the vacuum better, this is a lot easier to avoid, but still, come on, Dyson.
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Tiny bin. The bin is really, really small. If you have pets, you will have to empty it multiple times. And if you do collect pet hair, it’s actually unlikely that the hair and dirt will just drop out of the bin when you open the bottom. You will have to use your finger, a plastic knife, skewer or some other implement to fish it out. I’m used to it, but someone with serious dust allergies would probably find this a real problem.
Because the bin is so small, it’s easy to accidentally overfill. Most of the time, that’s no problem, but you could end up with a blockage. If the vacuum cycles on and off about every second while you’re holding down the trigger, that’s a sign of a blockage; the cycling is a safety feature ensuring that the motor doesn’t overheat. Take a look at the instruction manual, which shows you exactly how to look for and clear blockages. It’s pretty easy to clear a blockage, but once you have to do it, it’ll make you more careful of overfilling in the future.
- The trigger. The vacuum will only run if you hold down the trigger. I’m listing this as a con because a lot of people seem to have concerns about this. In my own experience, though, it isn’t really a problem at all. I think Dyson designed the vacuum to work this way to conserve battery power, which makes sense. The trigger takes hardly any pressure to hold down, really no more pressure than it takes to hold onto the handle, and it’s placed right where your index finger would be anyway as you grasp the handle.
The only problem I have with the trigger is that it’s easy to hit it accidentally when you empty the bin. Nothing bad happens, but it’s a bit of a surprise.
- The filter. There is a filter that drops into the top of the motor. If, for some reason, you tilt the motor toward the floor, the filter might drop out. In normal use, you won’t be holding the motor that way, but it’s still a pretty dubious design.
For me, the vacuum’s cons are far outweighed by its ease of use and excellent performance. Yes, someday I hope Dyson will make swappable battery packs and will improve the bin design, but I can manage until then. The key point for me is that this vacuum makes me a better and happier housekeeper, and that’s a very big deal.
One final note about the different versions of the V6, which are the Animal, the Motorhead and the Absolute.
The V6 Animal, Motorhead and Absolute all come with a direct-drive motorized cleaner head, which the base V6 lacks. I would definitely want that feature, because it contributes so much to cleaning rugs and carpets. The difference between the V6 Animal and the V6 Motorhead is that the Animal includes a mini motorized tool and a mini soft dusting brush that’s handy for cleaning electronics and delicate items.
The top-of-the-line V6 Absolute has two features that all other V6s lack: a HEPA filter and a soft roller brush floor attachment. I can’t get excited about the HEPA filter when you consider the exposure to dust just from emptying the bin. But I’ve had the opportunity to use the soft roller brush floor attachment, and I like it. It does a better job cleaning hard surfaces. It gets rid of that very fine dust layer, leaving your floors looking shinier, and it doesn’t fling debris out, the way brush rollers sometimes do. There is a big jump up in price as you move from the Animal and Motorhead to the Absolute, and only you can decide if the two extra features are worth it to you.
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