Watching James Dyson explain his latest vacuum cleaner is just a joy, whether we need the product or not. The man loves solving problems and there are definitely good reasons for his latest hard floor cleaner. But I reckon Mr Dyson buried the lead during the Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones cleaner launch (video embedded above) because it wasn’t until almost five minutes into the presentation we heard about the electric motor. The Hyperdymium™ 140k motor spins at a top speed of 140,000 rpm and as James Dyson pointed out, that’s fast.
“A Formula 1 car goes about 16,000 rpm, a jet engine is about 16,000 rpm, this is 140,000 rpm,” said Mr Dyson.
Although there is a wide variation in jet engine rpm results, they come nowhere near the spinning speed of this new Dyson vacuum.
“I mean no one’s made electric motors that go this fast before, this is (a) complete breakthrough. As usual our motors are getting smaller and smaller and even more powerful.”
THE HAIR PROBLEM
Not only did Dyson engineers make the motor spin at 140,000 rpm, they squeezed it to fit in the shaft of the PencilVac. It’s the world’s slimmest vacuum cleaner at just 38mm. It’s also the first vacuum with four soft conical brush bars that de-tangle long hair. But before you can suck up the hair, you need to wait for it to fall off the end of the rollers. This works because the hair is in one manageable clump once it’s ‘ejected’ by the brush bar. Obviously many homes have a lot of hair on the floor, otherwise this wouldn’t exist.
SMOOTH OPERATOR
The cleaner head glides on a forward and rearward brush bar, each spinning in the opposite direction. Dyson says cleaning is ‘excellent’ both forwards and backwards, while also cleaning right to the wall. The rollers protrude slightly, enabling contact with skirting boards. The head essentially ‘floats’ on the floor making the cleaning process effortless for even the smallest person. It only weighs 1.8kg. The head also pivots for easy twisting and turning between objects while also allowing the user to get under future and hard-to-reach places.
Laser-like illumination both in front and behind reveals invisible dust on hard floors on both strokes, while giving you visible proof that all dust has been removed.
CLEANING POWER
The HyperdymiumTM 140k motor provides an extraordinary 55AW of suction and when combined with the motors that turn the brush bars, you’ll have little problem cleaning your hard floors. A new 22mm linear dust separation system captures 99.99% of
particles as small as 0.3 microns. A new air-compressing bin design compresses dust as it is separated from the airflow in the bin,
so it holds five times more dust and debris than its 0.08L capacity. You don’t have a large bin but given it’s trivial to empty, that’s not a problem. The new syringe, no-touch bin ejection mechanism means hygienic bin emptying and shroud wiping in one stroke.
BATTERY
Dyson says you’ll get up to 30-minutes of ‘fade-free’ suction before needing to recharge for four hours. There’s a swappable battery pack available but 30-mins should be fine for most households, given how quick this cleaner to whips across a floor.
EXTRAS
The magnetic charging dock makes for convenient storage of the vacuum and extra tools. A rotating combi-crevice tool gets into gaps and the brush helps with high, hard-to-reach places. You can also attach the hair screw head which removes heavy duty hair deposits from beds and carpets.
PRICING AND AVAILABILITY
Dyson hasn’t confirmed a date but the Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones cleaner is coming to Australia. Expect to pay between A$900-A$1000.
