Dyson V8 Pros & Cons

In this article we highlight the pros and cons of the Dyson V8 Absolute stick vacuum.  The V8 is a popular machine and it is getting very good reviews and ratings from owners.  It is Dyson's next generation of stick vac after the V6, and there have been some significant changes.  In our detailed review we scored the V8 a very high 94/100 which placed it near the top of the stick vacuums on our website (see stick vacuum ratings).

You may wish to read our comprehensive Dyson V8 Review or simply get the quick facts in this article.

 

PROS

First let’s look at the many positives of this machine:

-	It comes with a host of tools including two cleaner heads.  There is one head for carpet and another for bare floors.
-	It is fairly lightweight at only about 5.75 lbs.
-	It is maneuverable.  It’s light weight and swivel head make it easy to move and to change direction while vacuuming.
-	It is compact.  The V8 has a very small footprint and is easy to store.
-	It has a fairly low profile nozzle.  While not as low as some other machines, it is still low enough to get under beds and some furniture.
-	It is cordless.  This really helps with respect to convenience.  You can just grab the V8 and get to work.  It is great for quick pickups.
-	The machine is versatile.  It is both a stick vac and a handheld vacuum, and tools fit on both the handheld unit as well as on the end of the wand.
-	It has a new hygienic dust canister emptying system that works well.  It helps to easily remove more debris from the dust canister.
-	It has both HEPA filtration and a sealed system.  The sealed system ensures that all the air entering the vacuum gets run through the HEPA filter before being exhausted.
-	The V8 is fairly quiet.  Dyson has made an effort to ensure it is not as loud as the V6 and they have succeeded.
-	It is effective at cleaning both carpet and bare floors (see video below for tests) and is also able to pull up pet hair.
-	Compared to the V6 it has several advantages: - larger dust canister - easier to empty dust canister - longer run times - slightly more power in MAX mode - quieter

The following video walks you through the positive aspects of the V8 and shows us emptying the vacuum, doing cleaning tests, and quite a bit more.

CONS

Now we consider some of the issues we had with the V8.

-	The marketing materials indicate that the vacuum has up to 40 minutes of run time, and while this is true for some combinations of power and tools, it is not the case for all.  As a matter of fact, on MAX mode the tools will only see about 7 minutes of run time before you need to recharge the battery.
-	The battery recharge time is up from the V6 and is now about 5 hours (the V8 does use a larger battery however).
-	The battery cannot be swapped out – it is not designed to be removed.  You cannot insert a spare charged battery to use while the other is charging.
-	The V8 is a little heavier than the V6 and one can feel it while using the machine.  This is more pronounced when using the handheld unit on its own.
-	While the V8 has several feature enhancements over the V6 we did not notice any significant difference in cleaning performance.
-	For a stick vacuum the Dyson V8 Absolute is quite expensive.

The following video describes and shows these features/issues in more detail.

Despite some of the issues highlighted above, we really like our V8.  It is presently the “go to” vacuum in our house whenever we are doing a quick area cleanup – and this is most of the time.  We do have several other full size uprights which are the more appropriate tools for much larger cleanup jobs, but for a quick set of stairs or a smaller area of carpet or smooth flooring, it is almost always the Dyson V8 (and sometimes the V6).

You may wish to see pricing and read more V8 owner comments on Amazon.