As an editor for TechRadar Homes, I get to test the latest vacuum cleaners on the market. These days, almost every vacuum cleaner that comes into my apartment has some nice features: many can detect the type of floor (and degree of dirt) and adjust suction accordingly, but others may have an unusual-looking floor nozzle to prevent hair from tangling, or the ability to detect when you’re at the edge of a room.
These features are so common that the new Dyson V8 Cyclone, with its three suction levels and no special features, seemed almost prehistoric when it arrived out the door. I was skeptical that this super simple model could compete with the other technical vacuums I had in my cleaning closet.
Dyson V8 Cyclone Review: A simple stick vacuum at an affordable price and outstanding cleaning performance – YouTube
In my recent group test to find the best cordless vacuum on the market, the V8 Cyclone more than held its own in cleaning tests. It also performed much better than the Dyson V16 Piston Animal and the Shark Detect Pro; two of the most modern and innovative vacuum cleaners ever designed.
The V8 Cyclone is an updated version of the Dyson V8 vacuum, which came out a long time ago but is still a Dyson bestseller. The Cyclone version is not yet available in the US, but the other entry-level vacuum in the comparison test, the Dyson V11, performed almost identically to the V8 Cyclone.
These vacuums came third and fourth in my tests: the clear winner in terms of cleaning was the cordless Shark PowerDetect, followed by the Dyson Gen5detect. The two vacuum cleaners Do to have Advanced features, but the performance difference compared to the V8 Cyclone and base V11 was minimal. Here are the results:
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stamp
Model
Average general cleanliness (/5)
To have
Wireless current detection
4.75
Dyson
Gen5 detection
4.29
Dyson
V11
3.9
Dyson
Cyclone V8
3.88
Dream
SEK 20
3.63
To have
Acknowledge professionally
2.96
roborock
H60 Ultra hub
2.88
Dyson
V16 piston beast
2.67
My main takeaway from this group test is that nice features like auto-tune are useful, but they’re not the end result of a good clean. The most important thing is a powerful suction and a well-designed floor nozzle.
The reason the V16 Piston Animal performed so poorly is because the floor nozzle was too large, to its detriment. For the All Floors Cones Sense brush head, Dyson has replaced a parallel roller with two cone-shaped rollers to prevent long hair from getting tangled in the floor nozzle. Sure, the hair doesn’t curl, but now there’s a space between the papillae where nothing is absorbed, and the front of the head is slightly pointed so it doesn’t sit flat against the wall.
Detect Pro now offers all kinds of advanced automation features, but lacks real power. Although it can detect dirt, carpets and room edges, even the greater power is not enough to ensure effective cleaning in the most difficult situations.
Both the V11 and V8 Cyclone have the old Dyson Motorbar floor brush head, which is much simpler than the latest offerings, but with a much better clean than the new conical brush head. And while they don’t have automatic suction control, they make up for it with absolute performance. I know what I would prefer to do if I were trying to deal with a carpet covered in animal hair or an old, dusty carpet.