Hello, my name’s Tom and this is Proper Honest Tech.
My fiance and I recently moved, going from a 1 bedroom flat that we’d lived in for 6 years,
to a 4 bedroom house, and in doing so, realised that the Dyson V7 that we’d owned
for years was simply no longer up to the task of keeping our home clean. With that in mind,
we invested in a Dyson V15 Detect Ultimate, Dyson’s current flagship vacuum cleaner. We’ve
both been using the V15 now for a couple of weeks, and so in this video, I’m going to review it. Now,
I’ll be reviewing this from an entirely practical perspective, I’m not going to be throwing cereal
on my floor or attaching this to suction measuring devices or anything like that, there are plenty of
excellent channels on YouTube who can give you that kind of super-detailed information. This
review is a real world review, based on using this vacuum several times a day, every day for the past
10 days as the main way for us to keep our house clean. So with that in mind, let’s get started.
Opening the box up, you get a LOT of additional kit in the Ultimate package. Obviously you get
the vacuum itself, complete with battery and charging cable, but you also get a number of
extra attachments. You get the wonderfully named Laser Slim Fluffy Cleaner Head which we’ll talk
more about separately, then an anti tangle high torque cleaner head suitable for all floors, an
anti tangle hair screw tool specifically designed for areas where you know you’re going to have
a lot of long hair or pet hair, a stubborn dirt brush, a mini soft dusting brush, a crevice tool,
a combination tool and an extending wand that allows you to attach to any of the previously
mentioned tools. You can then of course either use the vacuum on floors without having to bend down,
or use it to reach high, hard to reach areas of your home.
Beyond that, the box itself includes very little else, only a mounting bracket which
I do recommend installing if you’re able to find the space in your home for it,
and some minimal paperwork and instructions. In fairness, the Dyson is extremely easy to setup,
with the majority of people not needing instructions at all, attachments simply
click into one another as needed, and come apart just as easily, it’s all very straightforward.
The V15 needs to be fully charged before it’s first use, which takes a few hours to do. The
vacuum does thankfully remind you of this, if like me, you squeeze the trigger when taking the
vacuum out of the box the first time, the little LED at the rear of the device encourages you to
plug in before you go any further. Dyson claim that this is needed to ensure that the vacuum
can accurately display the remaining battery time left, so don’t skip this step. The LED also serves
other functions, once you actually get to using this thing. By pushing the silver button directly
underneath the LED, you can choose between the different suction methods available, either
Auto/Medium, Eco or Boost. Eco reduces the suction of the vacuum down to 26 air watts, but will in
turn give you the longest battery life, while boost does the opposite, ramping everything up
to 230 air watts but killing your battery rapidly. Auto/Medium is the default setting that the vacuum
goes to each time you switch it on, and honestly I think most people should leave it on this setting
most of the time, with the vacuum making the decisions about what power setting to use,
when and for how long. It’s pretty clever when you notice this happening, you’ll be happily
cleaning away, only to hear the vacuum kick into overdrive when it notices a particularly
grubby part of your floor. It’s impressive and shame-inducing all at the same time.
As mentioned already, the LED shows a timer which gives you an idea of how long you’ve got
left on the current charge, based on the current settings. I view this a bit like the timer on a
washing machine, you have to take it with a pinch of salt, and it changes pretty frequently, but it
does at least give you an idea of how much longer you could use it for before it gives up the ghost.
Dyson claim you can get an hour of use out of this. I suspect that there’s a pretty large caveat
there about it being used on the Eco setting, as I found that our battery consumption in Auto
mode wasn’t what you’d expect it to be for a full hour of constant usage. That said, I did use this
the other day to vacuum the entire house, which took around 40 minutes, and there was still quite
a bit of charge left over should I have wanted to continue. Your usage is going to depend on lots of
things like the size of your home, how often you use it and how regularly you charge it. We setup
our included wall bracket, so now my fiance and I know that whenever we grab it from the dock, it’s
going to be fully charged and ready to use, and so long as we return it to said dock after each use,
it’s going to be ready for the next person to grab as well. The battery on this is removable, so if
you were the kind of house where you know you’re going to need several hours of use each day,
you may want to invest in a spare. The dock by the way is very good, and despite feeling a bit cheap
and plasticky, holds the vacuum well and guides the charging cable in without issue each time.
The LED screen also shows you information about the current vacuuming session,
and this is where things all get a bit scientific and, if I’m honest, a bit gimmicky.
Dyson refer to this as particle detection, whereby a Piezo sensor is constantly
monitoring the quantity and size of dust particles being sucked into the vacuum,
then displaying this information on the display. The first time I saw this updating on the screen,
I thought it was pretty cool, even if it didn’t mean much to me. Beyond that first time though,
I’ve not even considered that information in the slightest. I can’t help but feel like this
is the kind of data that Dyson’s engineers find really useful when they’re creating their vacuums,
and that someone at Dyson thought, wouldn’t it be amazing to give the end user this information too?
I guess if Piezo sensors and dust particles float your boat, you might get a kick out of this,
but I’d guess that 99% of people won’t pay any attention to this whatsoever,
and would have been nice if Dyson gave the option to view something else here instead.
OK, so how about practical use? This is where the V15 really shines. The vacuum is comfortable
in the hand, heavy enough that you know you’re holding a powerful piece of kit, yet not so heavy
to make it awkward to use. And because the weight is in the part closest to your hand, you can
use the wand function to reach high-up parts of your home without too much strain on your wrist.
Granted, I wouldn’t want to be doing this all day, but that’s true of any vacuum, and not exclusive
to Dyson. The attachments all work really well, with the carpet roller doing a fantastic job of
our carpeted rooms, and the smaller version being super capable both as a carpeted stairs cleaner,
and as a tool for getting your car clean. My fiance has long hair, and hair tangles
used to be the bane of my life with the previous vacuum, but it’s never been an issue with the V15.
We also had a friend over, who brought their dog, and this did an amazing job of picking up all of
the dog hair in the rooms that the dog had been in. No matter what part of your home you’re trying
to clean, there’s most likely a tool included in the Ultimate package. If you opt for one of the
cheaper packages instead, you can purchase tools that you might find useful directly from Dyson.
But of course, all of this means nothing if the Dyson isn’t able to offer powerful cleaning,
and that thankfully isn’t an issue here at all, with the Dyson offering incredible suction power
to cover your entire home. As I mentioned at the start of this review, I’m not able to measure the
suction of this thing myself, beyond looking at the floor of our house and the waste bin of
the vacuum, but let’s be honest, for most of us, that’s all that matters. And I have to say, I’ve
been super impressed. I’ve been a Dyson fan for a number of years now, and the one criticism that
I’ve had of some of the earlier hand-held models was that they weren’t quite as powerful as a
corded equivalent. That’s definitely not the case here, with the V15 offering the power of a corded
vacuum with the convenience of a cordless, which is exactly what I wanted. Really impressive stuff.
And let’s talk about that Laster Slim Fluffy Cleaner Head for a moment,
as that really is the star of the show here. Dyson claimed that in testing,
they considered opting for lights at the front of the vacuum, like you get from other manufacturers,
to help you see where you’re cleaning and get a feel for where the clean is most needed.
But the light wasn’t good at showing up dirt, so they instead opted for a green laser,
projected out at an angle on the ground in front of you. And, it really does work,
I was horrified at how dirty our supposedly clean floors were the first time that I used this.
Once the bin is full, the V15 uses what I can only refer to as a pump action shotgun
mechanism for emptying it, pushing the dirt away from you into the bin with a satisfying click.
You do then end up with an annoying dust cloud over and around your bin,
and so far the only manufacturer I’ve seen solve this issue is Samsung with their clean station,
but that costs £200 for what is essentially a bin. If you really suffer with allergies,
this might be an issue for you, otherwise I’d suggest perhaps emptying this outside or in a
well ventilated room. The included filter is at the rear of the vacuum, and Dyson recommend
you clean this once a month for optimum running. The fluffy head is also washable, as is the bin.
So, loads to like. What don’t I like? In truth, not much, but there are a few things I wish Dyson
had included, the number one being an always-on trigger button, rather than the current one which
you have to have pressed down all the time while you’re using it. It’s not painful or uncomfortable
to use or anything like that, but it would be great if Dyson gave you the option to perhaps
click once to have it held down. Dyson claim that not including this is actually a feature,
in order to maintain battery life, but I’m not convinced. Most people would know to switch it off
when they’re not using it, even if just to pick up a cable or move to a different room for example.
I also wish that the LED was a touch more customisable,
and put less of a focus on information that I simply couldn’t care less about.
But these are small gripes in a vacuum that otherwise does the job it’s been purchased for,
and does it extremely well. Yes, it’s expensive,
but Dyson is an expensive brand, although I do believe you’re getting what you pay for here.
If you’re comfortable spending this kind of money on a vacuum, and you want the best bang for your
buck possible along with convenience and ease of use, you should definitely consider the V15.
What about you? Do you own a Dyson? If you do, what do you think of it?
Or are you not a fan of Dyson? Whatever you think, drop me a comment and let’s talk about it.
And as ever, if you found this video useful, do please consider leaving me a like,
and subscribing to my channel for more content like this in the future.
See you on the next video.