India is one of the worst affected countries when it comes to dust and air pollution. According to a recent report, at least 12 out of the top 25 most polluted cities in the world are in India. Therefore, it has become essential for one to clean their homes on a regular basis to avoid health issues. While some enjoy doing it, people like me find it to be a boring chore. To make things easier and interesting for me, Dyson sent their new vacuum cleaner in India, the Dyson V12 Detect Slim.
How can a vacuum cleaner make cleaning interesting, you might wonder. Well, it is a combination of many things. First, the Dyson V12 Detect Slim is lighter, slimmer and handy. What’s in a name they say. The vacuum cleaner weighs about 2.2 kgs on paper but because of its vertical, slim design, the machine can be moved easily. This does not feel a lot if you are coming from the traditional vacuum cleaners that had a tall dust-sucking nozzle attached with a huge bin. While the 0.35L bin is significantly small compared to my older vacuum cleaner, it is certainly a lot more convenient to hold and manoeuvre around the house.
There is one major change though. The trigger button, which essentially switches on the motor, has been replaced by a big red button. I did not get a chance to use the V11 which came with a trigger gun. But the company told me that it chose to replace the cool-looking feature with something a lot more practical based on user feedback. One, the trigger caused wrist fatigue as users were required to keep it pressed, which also caused inconvenience while manoeuvring the machine. Second, there were times when users accidentally pressed the trigger while trying to get a good grip of the machine. The red button on the barrel fixed this as a one-click solution.
On top of the barrel, the Dyson V12 also has a tiny circular screen that is large enough to show you various types of pollutants that were caught and detected by the machine. This happens in real-time, which is quite impressive if you ask me. The LCD shows four bars for the different size ranges of dust particles(>10, >60, >180 microns and >500 microns). On top of each bar, the machine also shows the number of dust particles captured of each size.
That being said, only cleaning nerds might fancy the feature and the average Joe like me would be happy that the vacuum cleaner is doing its job right. Other than the sub-10-micron particles, the LCD also displays the battery life and various modes that you can switch to for your cleaning needs. While we are at it, let’s get to the performance bit
Dyson V12 review: Performance and battery life
Though the Dyson V12 might look compact, it has a powerful Hyperdymium motor inside. Its 11 root cyclones generate forces of up to 100,000G to capture dust and debris from the airflow and therefore, there is no loss of suction. The vacuum cleaner has three modes - Eco, Auto and Boost. For everyday cleaning, the Eco mode is powerful enough while saving you some battery life. However, if you, like me, are likely to clean your house once a week, try sticking to the Auto mode. The machine adjusts the suction power according to the density of the dust particles, which it calculates using the piezo sensor inside. This is the same sensor that also helps you identify the size of dust particles in real-time.
Like most Dyson vacuum cleaners, you get a tall wand to attach a bunch of tools for various cleaning needs. The USP of the new vacuum cleaner from Dyson is its Laser fluffy head tool. The right side of the fluffy head cleaning tool throws a green-coloured laser light to show minute-sized dust particles lying on the floor. This fluffy head tool is best suitable for hard floors, which are found in most Indian households. I kid you not, the laser light can show you dust particles lying on an off-white coloured flooring too.
There is also a standard soft roller that covers slightly more ground. Along with that, you get a new Hair Screw tool too, which like the name suggests, can be useful to collect hair from carpets and other flat surfaces. The cone-shaped screw is designed in a way to avoid hair getting tangled inside. I initially was quite sceptical but the new Dyson V12’s tool does do a really good job. If you have a pet at home, this one might be a saviour. That being said, the footprint of this tool is quite small, resulting in taking longer to clean the floor.
Can you use the Hair Screw tool on older Dyson vacuum cleaners? No. All non-motorised tools are compatible, however, motorised tools for Dyson V12 are designed specifically for this machine. It is still considerably better than my old-school vacuum cleaner, which had hair stuck in the pipe as well as the bin. Check the images below to see the results.
Coming to the battery life, Dyson claims that users can expect up to 60 minutes of cleaning time using the Eco mode. And that is the case most of the time. Switch to Auto mode and the time drops to between 35 and 45 minutes depending on the dust and suction speed. Boost mode is the most powerful, of course, but it is a battery sucker. This one time we used the V12 in Boost Mode and it showed us a maximum cleaning time of about 7 minutes on a full charge. Therefore, use this mode only when you think that the Auto mode is not good enough.
You can purchase an additional battery pack to get more running time. However, we did not feel the need to get one during our Dyson V12 review period. While the battery time might be enough for most, the charging time that the machine takes might test your patience. Dyson’s new vacuum cleaner takes about four hours to charge. Hopefully, there is a fast charging tech available for vacuum cleaners in the future that reduces the charge time without deteriorating the battery health.
Verdict
Dyson V12 price in India is set at Rs 58,900. That certainly is not cheap and is the most expensive vacuum cleaner from the brand. However, for the price, you get a powerful vacuum cleaner that is easy to use and also one that isn’t very loud. On top of that, you also get a bunch of tools, some of which are not found on any other vacuum cleaner currently in India. One of my favourite tools is the Hair Screw tool which can be used to vacuum loose hair without having the struggle to unstable them. The Laser Fluffy Head is also a first for me. This tool might impress those who want their house to be “Monica-Clean”. You would get the reference if you have watched Friends.
It also backs the claim by providing scientific data of the collected particles in a simple, no-rocket-science format. The machine is also well designed and can be mounted on a wall for charging. In comparison to traditional vacuum cleaners, the Dyson V12 saves up some space. This is coming from someone who lives in Bombay’s small houses, where space crunch is a thing even for 2BHK flats. It is also easier to manoeuvre compared to older vacuum cleaners. That being said, one major compromise here is the bin size. You might need to empty the bin every time you clean a room. Of course, the amount of dust collected will vary depending on the area and frequency of use but you get the point.
If you are looking for a slightly less expensive option and do not want the Hair Screw tool or the laser fluffy head, check our Dyson Omni-glide vacuum cleaner review
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