Dyson V16 Piston Animal

Introduction

While the most recent Dyson cordless vacuum cleaners have been very good, it feels as though each new iteration was built to be a bit more powerful, rather than rethinking and redesigning the entire experience. That changes with the Dyson V16 Piston Animal, which is a radical rethink of how a cordless vacuum cleaner should be designed.

Sure, the new model is more powerful than its predecessor, but suction power isn’t everything and Dyson has addressed other areas: the new cleaner is lighter, its integrated crevice tools more practical, the dust bin easier to empty (and it compacts), and it integrates with the MyDyson app for user guides and firmware updates. And, it’s the first floor head from Dyson to work on hard and soft flooring.

Design and features

• Floor head works on hard floors and carpet
• Clever dust compaction
• Automatic mode via dust sensor

As good as the Dyson Gen5detect Review is, the vacuum cleaner is a bit of a beast and not that comfortable to use over long periods. It also had a few design choices that made it a little annoying to use in some situations.

With the V16 Piston Animal, Dyson hasn’t just made a more powerful vacuum cleaner, it also has completely new, making for a smoother experience. That starts from the moment of purchase, with just two versions of the vacuum cleaner available: the Dyson V16 Piston Animal that I have on review, and the Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine.

The difference between the two is that the Submarine version also includes the hard floor cleaner head, which is similar to the one that ships with the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine. Otherwise, both versions are the same, and you can buy the Submarine floorhead separately if you want it at a later date.

With previous versions of Dyson vacuum cleaners, there were many versions to choose from, each with different tools. Now, tools, beyond the standard ones, are available as separate packs, such as the Car Cleaning Kit, Deep Cleaning Kit and Extended Reach Kit.

It’s a good decision, as it removes confusion at the point of purchase, and you can buy the tools that you want at a later date.

Externally, the Dyson V16 Piston Animal is definitely a Dyson cleaner, with the bold-coloured plastic shroud around the cyclones at the back of the cleaner. This vacuum has been slimmed down from the previous model, and the handheld unit weighs 2.14kg only, and the cleaner with wand and floor head just 3.4kg.

With better balance, the V16 Piston Animal is far easier to use, whether I was cleaning out the car, vacuuming the floors or even sucking up spider webs around the ceiling.

A smaller body means a smaller dust bin, but that’s not a problem, as there’s a new dust compactor. Use the slide underneath the bin, and the plunger inside compacts dust, giving space for 1.3-litres of dust, which is a lot, so you can definitely clean an entire house without having to empty part way through.

There’s then a separate eject button for flipping open the end of the bin. By compacting first, then opening the bin, and then using the plunger again to push dirt out, this vacuum cleaner is a lot easier to empty without getting dust everywhere.

The plunger does a good job of pushing most dust out, but fine particles can get trapped in the bin. For a deep clean, the bin can be removed.

As with other Dyson cleaners, this one has a washable HEPA filter at the back, which unscrews and lifts out. I think it’s worth buying another one, so you can wash one and immediately get cleaning without having to wait 24 hours for your filter to dry.

In handheld mode, the wand connector doubles up as a crevice tool, so I could quickly do some detail cleaning without having to search for a tool.

In the box, there’s a longer reach crevice tool, a 2-in-1 tool and a motorised pet tool.

The min tool has a screw inside that guides hair to the end, where it falls off and is sucked up without tangling.

While the Gen5detect had a built-in crevice tool, the design was a bit odd, as it couldn’t be used at the end of the wand. The new design fixes that, as the bundled crevice tool can be plugged into the handheld unit or at the end of the wand.

Not that you’ll necessarily need it much, as Dyson has also redesigned the wand, so that it also has a mini crevice tool built into the end.

A collar at the top of the wand let me remove the wand from the floor head, and quickly vacuum around the edge without having to bend over. It’s little touches like this that make vacuuming with the V16 Piston such a pleasurable experience.

All of the aforementioned tools can plug into the end of the wand, too. The end result is a cleaner that’s more versatile and easier to use. Ultimately, part of how good a cordless vacuum cleaner is, is down to how quickly and easily it lets you achieve what you want.

One potential annoyance for owners of previous Dyson vacuum cleaners was the need for two floor heads: one designed for hard floors and one for carpet. It meant swapping the heads a lot and could be frustrating, particularly in rooms with hard floors and area rugs.

With the Dyson V16 Piston Animal, there’s a new All Floor Cones Sense floor head. Rather than making something similar to the floor head that Shark uses on its cleaners, such as the Shark PowerDetect Clean & Empty IP3251UKT, the All Floor Cones Sense head is completely different.

This uses two cones that have different brushes for different floor types, which rub up against a set of stiff brushes aligned like a comb. The idea is that hair gets picked up, slides down to the end of the cone, drops off and is sucked up into the bin.

This floor head can also sense the type of flooring it’s on, adjusting the brush bar speed automatically.

I’m pleased to say that the Optic part of the old Fluffy head has made it to this cleaner. This shines a precise beam of green light onto the floor to highlight dust. It works best on hard floors, but you can choose to have it turned on all of the time if you want to try it with carpet. While dust highlighting on carpet isn’t that effective, the green light does help illuminate the area you’re cleaning.

On hard floors, the green light really does highlight all of the dust on the floor. I’ve got three cats and often think the floor looks clean, but as soon as the Dyson V16 Piston Animal’s light turns on, I can see all of the loose hairs and mess. It makes it far easier to clean, as I can see where I’ve missed and where it needs more attention.

The Dyson V16 Piston Animal is a very nice vacuuming cleaner to use: it’s easy to push on floors (and there’s a vent you can open if you need a bit more airflow through to stop the head suctioning to the floor because of the high suction levels).

Being able to dash between hard floor and carpet really makes the Dyson V16 Piston Animal far easier to use than its predecessors, particularly in my house where I have a lot of hard floors and some area rugs.

With the Gen5detect, I’d have to vacuum the rugs first, then switch to the hard floor cleaners to do around the rugs; now, I can just move seamlessly from one floor type to another.

Using the vacuum cleaner is easy. There’s a power button on the end that turns the cleaner on in Auto mode, with a button to switch between modes, which also include Boost and Eco.

Auto mode uses the integrated dust sensor to adjust power on the fly to cope with the level of detected debris. The screen at the back shows a graph of detected particle sizes; once the graphs drop down to low levels, you know an area is clean and you can move on.

Auto mode is a brilliant way to balance battery life and power, as the vacuum uses the right amount of power at any one point, taking the guesswork out of which mode to use.

This time around, the Auto mode also works when using the crevice tool, adjusting power based on the level of dirt detected. That’s handy, and makes a lot of jobs easier to manage as I didn’t have to think about which power mode to use.

As well as showing the dust level, the screen also shows battery life remaining in minutes and seconds. Few other companies offer this, but I really like it, as I can see exactly how much longer I can clean for.

If there’s an error, such as a blockage, the screen can also display instructions on how to clear the issue. There’s also one more trick from the Dyson V16 Piston Animal: it works with the MyDyson app via Bluetooth.

Using the app, you can view help guides, get more information on errors, such as blockages, and run firmware updates on the vacuum cleaner. For the latter, that  can add more modes, such as the Beta Task detect mode, where the cleaner detects the current task and adjusts suction power. In theory, firmware updates will enable Dyson to fine-tune the Dyson V16 Piston Animal’s performance and optimise it for even better results in the future.

The app also gives control over the light. By default, the green light only turns on when the cleaner is on hard floor, but you can change this so that the light is on permanently.

When you’re done, the replaceable battery can be charged by plugging the power adaptor straight into the body, or you can use the wall-mountable charging bracket. This is similar to the ones for the Gen5detect and V15. I really like it: drop to charge and then your vacuum cleaner is always ready to go when you need it.

This docking station also has slots for two tools, so you can keep them neatly stored when not in use.

Performance

• High levels of suction
• Doesn’t get tangled with hair
• Cleans brilliantly on all surfaces

To get an idea of raw power, I measure the suction power in air watts (AW) at the handle. On Boost power, the Dyson V16 Piston Animal managed 401AW, which is the first time that I’ve seen a cordless cleaner deliver this much power. That’s quite a staggering amount of suction.

Put into Auto mode, the cleaner starts at 98AW, up from 75AW on the Gen5detect. However, the power mode does increase as dust is detected.

On Eco mode, the 45AW power is plenty for lighter jobs when you don’t need much suction.

To see what this means, I put the Dyson V16 Piston Animal through some real-world tests, starting with my rice suction test. I lined up a row of rice next to a tape measure and then recorded from how far away I could collect granuals. At 2.5cm distance, the Dyson V16 Piston Animal has plenty of suction power on boost, so cleaning out a car or a drawer should be fast.

Next, I added 20g of flour to my test carpet. Running the cleaner backwards and forwards through the middle of the mess on auto power, you can see that there’s a nice clean sweep with sharp edges to it.

I then finished cleaning the carpet, running the Dyson V16 Piston Animal on Auto mode, and swiping backwards and forwards slowly until the sensors showed the carpet was fully clean. At the end, I found that 99.8% of the dust had been picked up, putting the V16 at the top of my tests.

I then moved to the edge test where I added 10g of flour to carpet tiles, right up to the skirting board. Here, I found that the Auto mode was all that was required and a couple of swipes along the skirting board saw 99% of the dust collected.

On hard floor, 20g of rice was collected easily with no grains dropping out, for a 100% pass rate. That’s as I’d expect from a modern cleaner.

Cat hair was removed with ease, even thick clumps from a long-haired cat stuck in a Berber rug.

I added some human hair to the floor, too. I put down a greater concentration than I normally test with to see how good the cones are in the floor heads. Every strand was collected, and nothing was left wrapped around the floor head.

I was very impressed with the dust compression tech, too. My area rug tends to shed a lot when vacuumed, and I’d normally have to empty the Gen5detect after cleaning it. While the Dyson V16 Piston Animal’s bin was full, a quick slide down of the compressor and I had plenty of space left to clean the rest of the house.

Sound ranged between 63.3dB on Eco and 75.1dB on Boost, with the mid-range power mode coming in at 70.4dB.

In Eco mode, I found that the battery lasted 1h 7m 27s with the motorised floor head, which is a lot. In Boost mode, battery life fdropped to 16m 26s, which is good for this level of power, but doesn’t get you much of a clean, so use it sparingly.

I tested Auto mode by cleaning around my home until the battery ran out, which gave me 44m 40s of life from a full charge. That’s a lot, and a big improvement over the Gen5detect. I put this down to the quality of the engineering, and how responsive the dust detection system is, with the vacuum ramping power up and down quickly to maximise battery life.

Should you buy it?

FAQs