Dyson V6 Review

The Dyson V6 cordless vacuum cleaner is the entry-level cordless Dyson vacuum, but don't let that put you off, it is superb.  The V6 is powerful, light and fit for purpose. It's light and nimble, making it highly manoeuvrable, but that comes at the price of having a short battery life and small dust bin. The V6 comes in 7 different flavours:

• V6 Standard

• V6 Animal

• V6 Animal Extra

• V6 Total Clean

• V6 Fluffy

• V6 Absolute

• V6 Flexi

With the exception of the Absolute, all of the models are effectively the same but come in different colours and with different toolsets.  We'll cover each in detail later on in the review.  It's important to choose the right tools for your home, as it will make a different to which Dyson V6 cordless vacuum you choose to invest in. You'll find that through this Dyson V6 review we'll spend a lot of time highlighting the attachments and tools that come with the vacuum, rather than the vacuum itself.  The tools are hugely important and one of the reasons why the Dyson cordless vacuum range is one of the best in the market.

One of the key criteria for us when reviewing a cordless vacuum cleaner is performance.  Performance is actually a lot more difficult to measure than you might think, because we don't measure performance based on how much suction something has, or how quickly it can suck up dust from a flat surface. Dyson vacuum cleaners don't have the best suction on the market, not by a long way.  Dyson cordless vacuum cleaners have even less suction than their corded counterparts.  Does that mean they don't perform well?  No, of course not, they're fantastic. Cleaning floors is about displacing as much material and dirt that doesn't belong there as possible, whilst sucking that into a container.  Many cordless vacuum cleaners are good at the sucking part, but not so good at the displacing part. The Dyson V6 range comes with an array of tools to suit your home's floors.  Do you have hardwood floors throughout?  That's fine, the Dyson V6 Fluffy comes with a soft roller cleaner head to pick up dust and solid bits from your floors.  More of a carpet person?  Maybe you have pets that malt a lot?  The Dyson V6 Animal and Dyson V6 Animal Extra have a direct-drive cleaner head that has a bristled head which will pull pet hair out of the carpets and into the suction compartment of the cordless vacuum.

Dyson products are renowned for their design and the V6 isn't much different.  When people picture a cordless vacuum in their head they probably don't imagine the Dyson cordless range, but that isn't a bad thing. The base unit is small and looks nothing like a vacuum cleaner.  Its small compact design keeps the weight down, but also keeps the centre of gravity close to the operator which is a huge advantage when pointing it in the ceiling corners of rooms, as there is no heavy body forcing the other end down.

Having a small compact main body has other advantages too.  The Dyson V6 range enables the operator to quickly pop off the main cleaning tube and replace the head, turning it into a compact handheld. Although the different models of the V6 available are driven mainly by the attachments that come with it, there is also a colour choice based on these models.

The Dyson V6 is probably one of the lightest cordless vacuums on the market due to its small body but long cleaning tubes and attachments.  The V6 weighs in at just 2.1kg (slightly more with the Absolute model). As mentioned earlier, just as important as the weight itself is the centre of gravity.  Because the unit itself is quite small all of the weight is kept close to the operator. This unique design makes it easy to point at the ceiling corners of a room, something we're probably all a little guilty of not doing from time to time!

Due to its size the Dyson V6 range is highly maneuvrable. We’re not just talking about on the floor maneuverability, because of its lightweight nature you can throw the Dyson V6 cordless vacuums all round wherever you need to.

The array of available attachments also means that there aren’t really any areas you can’t reach.

• Up into ceilings

• In between banister spindles (a pet peeve of mine!)

• Crevice tool

• ‘Up Top’ tool which arches over the tops of cupboards

• Flexi crevice tool that will bend and flex into the difficult areas

• and the combination tool for everything else!

Please note: not all of the above tools are available in all models. See each model description for more info.

It’s been all smiles so far for the Dyson V6 cordless, but now comes the downside.

If you reason any of the Dyson V6 cordless vacuum reviews from consumers out there you’ll find a common theme; no body likes the battery life. I don’t blame them really, it’s a bit of a let down.

Dyson say you get 20 minutes on normal mode and 6 minutes on MAX mode – I’d say that’s pretty much bang on, even after 6-12 months of usage. MAX mode is where the Dyson V6 turns it up a few notches and goes all out on suction (gets quite loud too!). It’s designed for tackling stubborn or hard-worn areas. I believe a lot of the bad reviews come from a misconception of the MAX mode, in that you can just use that the whole time and be fine.

I’d say you can probably average about 17 minutes on a charge, if you’re throwing in the odd burst of MAX mode. From personal experience I can’t imagine many people’s vacuuming taking longer than that.

One advantage Dyson have over competitors here is their wall mount. The wall mount that comes with the Dyson V6 cordless vacuum means that to put it away you have to charge it. There’s no real chance of you throwing it in the cupboard and hoping to get another charge out of it. When it’s away, it’s charging. So as long as you can vacuum your house in 20 minutes – which if you time yourself, I bet it’s more than enough time.

There are several models of Dyson V6 available.  The standard model comes with the Dyson V6 base unit, a combi tool and rigid crevice tool.

It does the job, but really you probably want to go for one of the more niche models. The more specific models can be around the same price but you get more attachments.

The Dyson V6 Standard is available online for around £220. Personally I’d opt for one of the more specific models, but you can check out pricing here.

The Dyson V6 Animal is probably the most popular Dyson cordless vacuum cleaner, and no wonder.  It comes with the standard Dyson V6 unit, but also comes with a motorised cleaner head, a mini motorised tool along with the standard stuff from the Dyson V6 Standard.

Heard enough and want to buy? You can buy the Dyson V6 Animal online. It retails for around £250.

The Dyson V6 Animal Extra is the exact same model as the Dyson V6 Animal, with the different of ‘75% additional more brush bar power’.

That translates to it having more power on the direct-drive cleaner head, which means it will get pet hair out of your carpet more easily.  75% more?  I’m not quite that convinced but it’s unquestionably better than the standard Dyson V6 Animal.

The Dyson V6 Total Clean model comes with the main base unit, as well as the direct-drive cleaner head, mini motorised tool from the Animal range, the standard combination and rigid crevice tools and the new soft roller cleaner head.

The soft roller cleaner head is amazing on hard floors.  Really, it is.  The thing just picks up everything.  A word of warning though, don’t try it on carpet – you’ll be sending out static shocks for a while!

Interested in buying the Dyson V6 Total Clean? It’s around £275, you can buy it online and see latest pricing here.

Dyson’s V6 Fluffy comes with the standard rigid crevice attachment and the motorised mini tool. You also get the standard combination tool.

On top of the standard stuff you also get the soft roller cleaner head, which is great for hard floors.

It’s also a very fetching blue colour. Go for this one if your house is mostly hard floors.

The Dyson V6 Fluffy is around £260, and you can buy it online here.

Dyson V6 Flexi is the white model with flexible attachments. It comes with the standard combination tool and rigid crevice tool, but it also ships with a stubborn dirt brush, flexi crevice tool and up top tool.

The flexi crevice tool is basically a silicon tube attached to a crevice tool, and it’s great if you need to vacuum in hard to reach places. I find it useful for getting in nooks you couldn’t normally reach.

Up top tool is for cleaning on top of cupboards. It arches over in a U-shape, so you can vacuum as if you’re above a cupboard. If you have suspended cupboards or dusty wardrobes then this is a must-have tool.

The Dyson V6 Flexi comes in around £210, a solid all-rounder. Want to buy now?

The top of the range Dyson V6 cordless vacuum, the absolute is the top dog.

On top of the main unit is an extra block which filters out allergens. This is something that other V6 models don’t have. If you’re particularly susceptible to allergens then this is the model for you.

As for attachments you get all of the standards; rigid crevice and combination tool. The direct-drive head is larger on this model. You also get the mini motorised head. Lastly, you get a hard wood cleaning head, which is different to the soft roller head. The hard wood floor head is more adapt at collecting dust particles.

The Dyson V6 Absolute retails for around the £450 mark, so it’s the most expensive by a long way. Interested? Check out the pricing and buy now.