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Dyson v6 review: A large price drop makes the Dyson v6 a whole new Animal

Complete with a reasonable new price, the Dyson v6 stands tall as one of the better stick vacs we've tested.

Katie Pilkington Associate Editor / Reviews - Appliances
Katie is a writer, a humor blogger, a Vietnam War historian, and an avid cook. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and is hard at work on her first novel. When she's not writing about tech, she's reading about armored cavalry units in Vietnam, or teaching her labradoodle, Lola, to overcome her lack of opposable thumbs.
Andrew Gebhart Former senior producer
Katie Pilkington
11 min read

Editors' Note, February 12, 2015: Dyson renamed the DC59 Animal and changed the price. It's now called the Dyson v6, and sits at the low end of the rebranded v6 line of stick vacs. The price dropped from $500 to $300, increasing the value significantly while only losing a couple of included attachments. We've updated the review accordingly.

8.4

Dyson v6

The Good

The Dyson v6 performs well and maneuvers easily, keeping up with more expensive Dyson stick vacs for less.

The Bad

With only one attachment, the v6 is now feature-poor and loses to the cheaper Oreck Touch on pet hair and large particle performance.

The Bottom Line

The updated $300 price of the newly named v6 makes it stand out as one of the best stick vac buys we've tested.

A newcomer to reasonably priced machines, Dyson makes its old Animal look pretty good now that it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Formerly called the Dyson DC59 Animal, the newly dubbed Dyson v6 got a fresh coat of paint and lost a couple of attachments in the changeover, but also dropped in price from $500 to $300. That's a great trade, and since you no longer have to pay twice as much as any other stick vacuum to get it, the solid performance of the Dyson v6 shines even brighter than before.

That said, it's still not a clear cut winner in the category. The $180 Hoover Linx outdoes it with pet hair and Cheerios, and those are the most important benchmarks for the typical spot cleaning tasks assigned to a stick vac. However, the Dyson v6 wasn't far behind on either, and it far outclasses the Linx when it comes to deep cleaning. It falls short of being an upright replacement, but comes closer than the Linx. For that reason, especially at its $300 price point, it's well worth your consideration.

The sleek, trigger-powered Dyson v6 (pictures)

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Design and Features
The Dyson v6 is an ultra-lightweight, cordless, cyclonic vacuum. The in-hand component, which includes the motor, cyclones, and dustbin, weighs only 4.6 pounds by itself. Granted, you have to add weight for each attachment you might use, but even with the extension wand and floor cleaning nozzle, I still found it to be incredibly light and portable. These attachments lock into place with ease and you can switch between them with the touch of a button.

The number of attachments you get with the v6 has dropped quite a bit since it was called the DC59 Animal. To go along with the price cut, you'll now only get a combi tool and a docking station to hang your vac on the wall while it charges. The rest of the v6 line offers more attachments, topping off with the $600 Dyson v6 Absolute, which includes a crevice tool, a combi tool, a mini motorized tool, and a dusting brush.

The floor cleaning nozzle is 10 inches wide and 3 inches tall. Its lower profile means that the v6 can sweep further under lower furniture than models like the Gtech AirRam . It doesn't clean along a very wide path compared to a standard upright, but it's similar to other lightweight models on the market, like the Electrolux Ergorapido Power , which boasts a 10.25-inch wide cleaning base.

Colin West McDonald/CNET

The appearance of the v6 was revolutionary when it first came out, because you hold all of the mechanics and the bin in your hand, rather than in the body of the vacuum. I found that design gave the v6 strong ergonomics. The $180 Shark Rocket has a similar design, though it also has a cord. The Dyson dust bin's capacity is relatively small, though not much smaller than similar models. A button across from the trigger releases the bin's latch. I know we've complained about emptying Dyson dustbins in other reviews, but I found the bin on the v6 incredibly user-friendly. In addition, the release mechanism didn't inspire any durability concerns like its larger companions.

In order to preserve battery life and reduce wasted energy, Dyson uses a trigger in lieu of an on/off switch. With a trigger, you only use the vacuum when you're approaching debris, rather than it running continuously while you move furniture or go to a different location, thereby preserving battery life. I found the trigger to be very responsive, sometimes too responsive in that I accidentally depressed it a few times while carrying the Dyson from place to place. The battery life isn't bad, but the Gtech AirRam, Electrolux UltraPower Studio and Electrolux Ergorapido Power vacuumed longer without needing a charge.

The blue indicator light on the base of the v6 will flash when the battery is low. Unfortunately, due to its size and placement, I never noticed it while vacuuming and the vacuum died on me a few times as a result. I wish there was a more obvious indicator like the four-stage light bar on the AirRam, which always visually presented when the battery was running low in a clear, easily-observed manner. Still, if you're using your v6 as a light cleaning or touch-up vacuum and store it on the charging dock, you shouldn't have to worry about running out of battery in the middle of a run.

Colin West McDonald/CNET

While I love the convenience afforded by this cordless design, what's most impressive about the v6 is that it boasts better performance than some of the full-size upright vacuums we tested. This is likely attributable to the digital motor and nickel manganese cobalt Lithium-ion battery. The motor spins up to 110,000 times a minute, which Dyson says translates to 28 air watts (an airflow measurement for vacuums) when used in standard mode, or 100 air watts in boosted mode.

Generally speaking, the higher the wattage, the greater the suction. The v6's standard mode air watts are the same as the previous model, the DC44 Animal. The DC59's boosted mode is, however, a significant improvement upon the DC44's boosted 65 air watts. For comparison, the Dyson Ball Compact Animal claims 128 air watts.

Granted, this is significantly more than the v6 can boast in its standard mode but the Ball Compact Animal is meant to be the primary vacuuming appliance in the home, suitable for both deep and spot cleaning alike. The v6, on the other hand, is not meant to be the vacuum used to deep-clean carpet. As such, these numbers aren't troubling. Rather, it's impressive that the v6 can produce 100 air watts when necessary, albeit for a shorter period of time.

Colin West McDonald/CNET

Usability
In my testing of the v6, I found it to be incredibly manoeuvrable. This is due in part to its light weight, but also because of a pivoting ball on the cleaner head reminiscent of the full-size Dyson ball technology. As the bulk of the weight rests in your hand, the v6 is easy to push forward when using the extension wand but you'll have no trouble using it with attachments either. While the distribution of the appliance's weight has something to do with this, the triggered power certainly doesn't hurt. Its responsiveness makes you feel completely in control, enabling you to vacuum where you need to without draining the battery more than necessary.

I also appreciate that the attachments snap into place and unlock with the press of a button. The same is true of the bin, which empties without any hiccups. In addition, I also found it incredibly intuitive to load the v6 onto the charging/wall dock. In terms of useful design, I think Dyson hit it out of the park with this model. I wasn't a fan of the design of the full-size Dysons, but it's clear that a lot of thought went into making the v6 easy to use without sacrificing any of the sleek, modern appeal that has become the company's hallmark.

Colin West McDonald/CNET

Performance
As with all appliances we review, we put the v6 through a series of rigorous tests to assess both performance and usability. Our tests are intended to mimic the characteristics of common household debris, including Fruity Cheerios, a sand and sawdust blend to simulate fine particulate debris, pet hair, and human hair, which we took from a set of hair extensions. We performed each test three times on three different surfaces, which included low-pile carpet, mid-pile carpet, and hardwood/laminate floors. We also conducted a torture test that involved bobby pins and nuts.

In the charts and pictures below, the v6 is still referred to as the DC59.

In addition to these performance tests, we tested each vacuum's suction power at the floor, via a sealed homemade box with a 1-by-6-inch slot on top and a 2-inch diameter PVC pipe connected to the side. Placing the vacuum's cleaning head over the slot on the lid, we used an anemometer at the PVC opening to record suction power in CFM or cubic feet per minute.

(Click to enlarge)

These measurements represent how much suction each vacuum has on the floor, independent of debris type. The v6 has two modes, a default power and a high power setting. On the high setting, the Dyson boasted the second best suction of the lightweight vacuums we tested in this group. On normal power, the v6 produced average suction, though less than both the Electrolux Ergorapido Power or the Shark Rocket on their default power settings.

Suction power isn't the only key to a vacuum's success, however. The design of the roller brush and cleaning head, as well as how well that brush seals to the carpet will also have an impact on overall performance, but the suction power measurement gives us an idea of the raw cleaning power each vacuum can muster. The v6 is capable of strong suction, but it's carbon fiber brush bar took it over the top in terms of performance. The fibers sit close enough together to trap debris, but they're also fine enough that they release the debris so that the suction can carry it to the bin. For our performance tests, we tested every vacuum in its default performance mode.

Cheerios, 1 oz. (percentage picked up)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Hardwood
Midpile
Low-pile

On low-pile carpet, the v6 was at or near the top of the pack in every test in terms of performance, though the top scores were all close. This vacuum seems to excel on this carpet, largely because the base plate could get over top of the debris. If you expect to vacuum a lot of larger debris like cereal, this ability will be especially important to you.

Pet hair, 1 oz. (percentage picked up)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Hardwood
Midpile
Low-pile
Shark Rocket
100
100
100
Hoover LiNX
100
100
100
Dyson DC59
67
92
100
Gtech AirRam
N/A
75
67

With the exception of pet hair, the v6 was again in the top three in terms of performance on mid-pile carpet. With higher-pile carpet, agitation is important, especially when fine particulates or clingy pet hair are involved. The v6 performed admirably, though it didn't blow us away in terms of mid-pile carpet performance. Like most stick vacs, the v6 might be the vacuum you use for frequent light cleaning, but you'll still need a full-sized vacuum to really agitate your higher-pile carpet to clean it well.

Sand/sawdust, 1 oz. (percentage picked up)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Hardwood
Midpile
Low-pile

Hard floors seem to be challenging for vacuum cleaners. For vacuums with good suction, fine particulates or small debris shouldn't be a problem. Even with the most powerful vacuums, however, large debris can prove problematic, especially if the bottom plate of the cleaner head is unable to clear it. It's a problem that the softer brushroll of the v6 Absolute helped address and one of the main advantages you get from the more expensive model.

On hard floors, without that softer brushroll, the v6 struggled with large debris, but it excelled at picking up fine particles. The latter is a testament to the v6's suction power as well as the fine, closely-space carbon fiber bristles. It's also worth noting that, while it didn't pick up all of the pet hair, it picked up more than half of it.

Closely-spaced, carbon fiber bristles gave the DC59 the upper hand with fine debris on hard floors. While they weren't the best for agitating small debris on mid-pile carpet, the DC59's excellent suction helped to make up some of the difference. Colin West McDonald/CNET

With our standard-sized, upright vacuums, I thought that the hard floor tests, while important for our review, were somewhat unrealistic in terms of practical, real-life application. After all, for cereal spills, you'd likely use your broom and dustpan before going to the trouble of pulling out and plugging in the vacuum cleaner. I think that the v6 would be perfect for spot cleaning in the kitchen or on any of your other hard surfaces. Given it's performance with fine debris, it would also be an excellent answer for dusty baseboards or crumbs under the cabinet.

While it didn't necessarily excel with large debris like the Cheerios when the wand and floor cleaning head were attached, I had no trouble sweeping them up when I attached the combination tool, making the v6 function more like the dust busters of old. I love this flexible functionality.

Human hair was challenging for many of the upright vacuums we tested, no matter the flooring type. If your home is populated by short-haired inhabitants, this will not be a concern for you. If your home is like mine, however, and inhabited by long-haired humans and animals alike, this may be more important. With regards to brushroll tangling, the v6 wasn't the best, but it certainly wasn't the worst. Fortunately, I found it easy to access the brushroll and to pull the hair from around it.

In addition to the more practical tests, we also subjected all of the vacuums to a bit of a torture test. For these lightweight vacuums, that meant spreading 1.25 ounces of bobby pins and small nuts onto low pile carpet. This final test wasn't a performance test as much as it was a test of overall ruggedness. We wanted to know if the appliance would break if you accidentally vacuum over a bobby pin or a coin. The v6 wasn't able to complete the testing because the nuts kept jamming the roller brush. Of the 25 bobby pins in the total weight, this Dyson collected only three into its bin. That said, even with the brush jam, the vacuum didn't break. While it didn't excel, the v6 did pass this test.

Colin West McDonald/CNET

Maintenance and Support
The v6 requires the same maintenance of cyclonic upright vacuums, which involves regularly emptying the bin and rinsing the filter once a month, according to Dyson's directions. Beyond that, Dyson offers a two-year parts and labor warranty. This isn't ungenerous, but the cheaper Shark Rocket comes standard with a five-year limited warranty. That's an outlier, though, and the Dyson's warranty matches that of the rest of the vacuums in this test group.

Conclusion

Finally, with the $300 Dyson v6, you can obtain a Dyson machine without feeling like you have to take out a loan. To make things better, the v6 is a very good stick vacuum. You only get one attachment with this model, but the combi tool is a good one. The rest of the line includes more and uses a direct drive brushroll. The top model, the v6 Absolute , even adds a hardwood specific soft roller. Other than extras, though, the engine and core of each v6 is the same.

So to me, shelling out the extra dough for the $400 v6 Motorhead , the $500 v6 Animal, or the $600 v6 Absolute doesn't feel worth it. $300 is just right. Compared with other brands, it's still a pretty costly stick vac, but at least this one's in the same ballpark. Our main issue with the usually competent Dyson has always been price. The v6 fixes that and it's now much easier to recommend. Don't forget about the excellent $180 Hoover Linx in your shopping, but the Dyson v6 is definitely worth a look.

8.4

Dyson v6

Score Breakdown

Performance 8.5Features 7Design 9Usability 9