Dyson V7 Trigger Handheld Vacuum Review

Consumer Ratings
Over 270 consumer ratings were found for the V7 Trigger which gives us a high level of confidence in the score (a large sample size helps increase the confidence when we compute the weighted average). When averaged these ratings provide an overall score of 87.4 out of 100 (or about 4.4 stars out of 5).  This is a good score and you can compare it to the scores of other handhelds we have reviewed in our Handheld Vacuum Ratings table if you like. You can also see ALL our vacuum ratngs in the Vacuum Cleaner Finder tool.

 

The Trigger is widely available and the owner ratings we found were at the following retail outlets:
 

Source	Consumer Rating	# Ratings
Amazon	4.3 stars out of 5	163
Best Buy	4.6 stars out of 5	34
Bed Bath & Beyond	4.5 stars out of 5	33
Home Depot	4.6 stars out of 5	15
Target	4.0 stars out of 5	15
Wayfair	4.6 stars out of 5	11

 

A thorough review of owner comments as well as our own testing and analysis of the V7 Trigger has yielded the following pros and cons.

 

PROS
- Easy to empty
- Fast recharge time
- Lightweight
- Powerful suction in Max power mode
- Not too loud in Low power mode
- Pickup on carpet and bare floors is good
- The mini motorized tool is fairly effective on pet hair

 

CONS
- Short run time in Max mode
- Some folks say unit doesn’t run for full 30 minutes
- Doesn’t come with wall mount
- A bit pricey for a handheld vacuum

 

 

What Are Owners Saying?
Many folks really like how well the mini motorized tool picks up pet hair.  This is a very common remark.  We did a test ourselves and found it to be pretty good at pulling up long white dog hair on medium pile carpet, although we did find that quite a bit of hair got tangled in the brushroll.
 
Owners report that the V7 is not very loud.  Some handheld units can be onerous to operate due to the high noise output.   We also found the V7 fairly quiet in Low Power Mode which is the mode we found ourselves using most of the time.  We did notice, however, that the vacuum does get quite a bit louder in Max Power Mode.

 

Most people feel the V7 is lightweight and easy to use.  We like that it feels balanced in the hand.  The bulk of the weight is in the battery which is below the hand not in front of the hand.  We feel that this results in less stress on the wrist.  Many owners also highlight that the V7 Trigger is easy to empty, although some find the emptying system awkward at first (but they quickly get used to it).  We like the rather ingenious “Hygienic Dirt Ejector” system which is effective at limiting the extent to which you have to manually dig out dust/debris from the dust canister.

 

 

Owners are also pleased with the attachments, reporting that they are useful and well-built.  They also feel the vacuum recharges quickly and that it is great for managing quick pickups around the home.

 

Suction is something of a mixed bag.  Most owners say that the suction in Low Power Mode is sufficient but there are some who feel that the suction in this mode is not adequate.  Most folks agree that the suction in Max Power Mode is very good but that it is also short lived.

 

One very common complaint is that the run time is not what owners expect.  In our opinion this is likely due to some confusion with respect to run times, power settings, and motorized vs non-motorized tools.  The Dyson marketing materials state “Up to 30 minutes of powerful suction” and it may be that some folks expect the V7 to provide 30 minutes of run time in all configurations.  This is not the case.  We walk through the different run-time/power scenarios further down in the article. 

 

Quite a few people were disappointed that the vacuum did not come with a wall mount. Many people like to mount a handheld on a wall in a closet or on a wall in a shop, or some place similar.  It is a little odd that you get a wall mount with the Dyson stick vacuums but not this handheld.  It would have been nice.

 

A few other issues that cause some owner grumbling include the short run time in Max Power Mode and the fact that the battery is not designed to be swapped out.  Owners would like the ability to quickly and easily remove a discharged battery and install a freshly charged battery.  Alas, you cannot do this with the V7 Trigger.  Nor can you do this with any of the popular Dyson stick vacs (V6/V7/V8/V10) as the handhelds and the stick vacs all share common design features.  The stick vacs also share short run times in Max Power Mode.

 

You can read many V7 Trigger owner comments on Amazon.
 

The Dyson V7 Trigger includes the handheld vacuum (with filter), a charging unit, three different tools, a warranty card, and a vacuum cleaner manual.

 

 

 

Battery
This is a cordless (or cord-free) handheld vacuum which makes it easy to just grab and start cleaning.  No searching for electrical outlets or being tethered by a power cord.  The battery on the V7 Trigger is a Lithium-Ion unit and it has what Dyson refers to as “Fade-Free Power”.  What this means is that it will provide full power until such time as the battery is exhausted, then it will simply shut off.  It happens quickly.  One minute you are vacuuming with plenty of power and the next minute the machine shuts down.  In our opinion this is a better solution than batteries that slowly wear down providing lower and lower levels of suction until they stop.

 

Specifications for the V7 Trigger battery are as follows:
- 1.6 V
- 2100 mAh
- 46 Wh
- 16.2 A

 

This is a battery pack with six rechargeable nickel-cobalt-aluminium cells.  On a side note it has the same specifications as the battery in our Dyson V7 Motorhead stick vacuum.

 

The battery recharge time is 3.5 hours.

 

Power Modes
There are 2 power modes on the vacuum: Low and Maximum.  In Low Power Mode the vacuum generates 21 air watts of suction, and in Max Power Mode it generates 100 air watts of suction.  This is the same output as the V7 series of stick vacuums.  Note that Dyson sometimes refer to “Low Power” as “Powerful Power” but this, in our opinion, doesn’t differentiate it very well from “Maximum Power”, so we refer to the lowest power mode as “Low Power Mode”.

 

A slider on top of the handheld allows you to easily switch back and forth between the power modes.

 

 

Tools
Three tools are provided with the V7 Trigger.  Tools are both motorized and non-motorized:

 

- MOTORIZED: Mini motorized tool (Left in image below. Has a stiff bristled brushroll and a pivoting head to maintain maximum contact with surface area being cleaned).
- NON-MOTORIZED: Combination tool, crevice tool.

 

We like that the tools all “click fit” into place.  There is a satisfying “click” when a tool is mounted and you know it will not fall off.  They can be removed by pressing the large red button.  

 

 

Some vacuums come with tools that are “compression fit” meaning they are essentially pushed on and held on by friction.  These sometimes fall off or can even crack if you push them on to tightly.  You may also find that a compression fit tool becomes difficult to remove.  All-in-all the method used by Dyson is a good one.

Run Times
This area is always confusing for folks buying Dyson cordless machines.  In the case of the V7 Trigger we’ve seen quite a few complaints from folks who feel the vacuum does not provide the run time (sometimes referred to as “battery life”) they expected.  The vacuum is advertised as providing up to 30 minutes of powerful suction.  This is true but there are several different configurations in which one can run this vacuum.  The V7 Trigger has both Low Power and Max Power modes, and it also has both motorized tools and non-motorized tools. 

 

According to the Dyson V7 Trigger Manual the vacuum will provide the following run times:

 

MAX Mode:

-  All Tools – 6 minutes

LOW Mode
-  Motorized Tool – 20 minutes
-  Non-Motorized Tools – 30 Minutes

 

To see how close Dyson is to estimating the actual run times, we tested our Trigger in all the above scenarios.  For each test we fully charged the Trigger, emptied the dust canister, and made sure the filter was clean.  For the non-motorized tool test we used the crevice tool.  For the motorized tool test we used the motorized mini tool and ran it on medium pile carpet.  We were pleasantly surprised with the results which are provided in the table below:

 

	Official Suction	Official Run Time	Tested Run Time
Low Power, Non-motorized tool	21 Air Watts	30 minutes	32 min 45 seconds
Low Power, Motorized tool	21 Air Watts	20 minutes	28 min 45 seconds
MAX Power, All tools	100 Air Watts	6 minutes	6 min 08 seconds

 

In all of our tests the V7 run times were longer than the official published times.  We were especially taken aback by how long the V7 Trigger ran with the motorized tool attached.  So we did this test twice.  The first time resulted in a run time of 29 min 22 seconds, and the second test resulted in a run time of 28 min 7 seconds.  We averaged the two to get a run time of 28 min 45 seconds which is frankly very good, expecially considering that Dyson states you should get 20 minutes.  Please note that we did not test the suction.

 

It is possible that owners who have been disappointed with the run time may have expected a full 30 minutes of run time with the motorized tool and perhaps even 30 minutes with tools in Max Power Mode. 

We put down some debris on our low pile, white carpet.  The debris consisted of finely ground Cheerios (or Froot Loops), flax seeds, dried split green peas, and full size Cheerios.  The idea was to get a good cross section of sizes. At first we tried to use the mini motorized tool but it became fairly apparent that this wasn’t the best choice for this particular test.  WIth this much large, loose debris the motorized tool results in scattering.  It is a better tool for smaller, ground-in dust/dirt on carpet or upholstery.  So for this test we used the combo tool.  We set the vacuum to Low Power Mode and pickup was quite good although it took a while to pick up everything.  You can see our test in the video below:

 

 

Cleaning on a Hard Floor
We also did a test on a hard surface – in this case tile.  We put down the same debris and again used the combo tool while the vacuum was in Low Power Mode.  Pickup was again quite good – nothing was left behind. It was easier to vacuum up the debris on the hard surface than it was on the carpet (understandably).  See video below:

 

 

Would using Max Power Mode make a big difference?  We re-ran the hard floor test in Max Power to find out.  Pickup was definitely faster.  See video below:

 

 

How did the motorized tool do at picking up the debris on the tile floor?  Not so good.  See our attempt below:

 

 

Pet Hair Pickup
We ground bunches of long white dog hair into a piece of medium pile carpet and ran the V7 Trigger with the mini-motorized tool attached.  This is the right kind of tool for this test.  The tool had no problem removing the pet hair from the carpet and it didn’t take much time or effort.  However we did notice that about half of the pet hair was left tangled in the brushroll of the mini motorized tool (the remainder had made its way into the dust canister).  It would have been nice if more (or even all) of the hair had gone into the dust canister – but frankly tangling in the brushroll isn’t uncommon for these kinds of tools.  When using this on pet hair it definitely picks it up well but you would have to make an effort to clean the brushroll frequently.  This is probably one of the reasons Dyson created the Tangle Free Turbine Tool which does a great job of ensuring no tangling (doesn’t fit on the V7 though).   See our pet hair pickup video below:

 

 

Dust Canister
The dust canister on the Trigger has a volume of 0.15 gallons and is emptied by using what Dyson refers to as a “Hygienic Dirt Ejector”.  This is an interesting approach to emptying a dust canister and we haven't seen it on the V6 (handhelds or stick vacs).  It is available on the V7/V8/V10 stick vacs however.  The video below shows us using the V7 hygienic dirt ejector and we also empty the dust canister on the V6 Mattress handheld vacuum which does not have the hygienic dirt ejector.

 

 

Some folks find the hygienic dirt ejection system a little awkward to use but most owners like it.  We prefer the hygienic dirt ejection system as it really does help when it comes to clearing debris from the canister.

 

Filtration
Filtration on the Trigger is fairly straightforward.  The unit has a post motor filter which is designed to last the lifetime of the vacuum.  It is very easy to access (located in the center of the cyclones when looking down on the vacuum) and it can be pulled out easily with one hand.  This filter can be rinsed in cold water.  When it is completely dry you simply insert it back into the vacuum and you are good to go.

 

 

The Trigger is a fairly lightweight vacuum and it weighs in at 3.04 lbs (with no tools attached).  We found it easy to lift and move around, and not stressful on the wrist or arm, although you may start to feel it with prolonged use of the motorized tool.  The V7 handhelds appear to be slightly heavier than the V6 handhelds but not by much.  The unit carries a 2-year parts & labor warranty.

 

Vacuum Cleaner Manual
The manual, like all Dyson vacuum manuals, is straightforward and very image driven.  It does not go into too much detail.  You can check it out here:  Dyson V7 Trigger Handheld Vacuum Manual