Description
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Build Quality
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Performance
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Design
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Suction Power
Summary
With the new High Torque head and the improved motor, the Dyson V11 produces the best performance we’ve ever seen from a cordless vacuum cleaner. Already the V10 was an impressive unit but the V11 is a step forward and quite an improvement. It is more powerful, lasts longer per charge and is more versatile and convenient, making the Dyson V11 the best cordless vacuum in the market. That is, as long as you can stomach the price. If you want to take full advantage of all the V11’s new features and technology you need to buy the V11 with Torque Drive, which is an awful lot of money for a vacuum cleaner of any description. The Dyson V10 is still a great cordless vacuum, absolutely. but if you want the best of the best, though, the Dyson V11 is the vacuum cleaner to buy.
User Review
( votes)Dyson V11 Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner
Dyson decided to stop making corded vacuum models in 2018, putting all their faith and energy in developing cordless technology. The Dyson V11 Cordless Vacuum is the result of such move, boasting an increased 20% suction power over its predecessors and even a small LCD screen that tell you how much battery life you have left and even the performance of the unit in a clear and easy to understand way. Dyson products are not cheap, too all effects and purposes are considered high-end and the V11 model certainly doesn’t come cheap.
Dyson V11 – Price and availability
First things first as we feel this is important. Dyson has launched different models and prices in the US, Europe, and Australia.
United States
Two different models of the same cordless vacuum have been released. There are slightly different from each other but both come with the new High Torque cleaner head plus a whole range of extra cleaning accessories. The Dyson V11 Animal doesn’t have the LCD screen but gives you 7 additional accessories. On the opposite side of the spectrum, the Dyson V11 Torque Drive has the LCD display screen and eight extra accessories. Naturally, the V11 Torque Drive model is more expensive than the V11 Animal.
United Kingdom
Two different models of the same cordless vacuum have been released in the UK but this time, both models have LCD screen but as expected, only the more expensive option has the Torque Drive Head. Why do they do that instead of providing a single model is beyond us but I guess the marketing department at Dyson has arrived at the conclusion that this is how they can maximise their product line as some customers might not need or want the extra power the Torque Drive Head and pay the extra premium.
The cheapest model available in the UK is the Dyson V11 Animal, which comes with eight additional accessories but doesn’t have the Torque Drive cleaner head. If you want the Torque Drive cleaner head, you’ll have to get the Dyson V11 Absolute.
Australia
There are even more choices in Australia. Three different V11 models have been released, all of them with the Torque Drive Head and LCD screen. The only difference between them is the number of accessories included with the vacuum.
Dyson V11 Torque Drive comes with no extra accessories. It is the basic model.
Dyson V11 Absolute includes a soft roller head for cleaning delicate floors.
Dyson V11 Absolute Pro, the more expensive option, comes with all bells and whistles with a soft roller head, an extension hose, a mattress cleaning tool, and a flexible crevice tool for getting into all those nooks and crannies around your home.
Does it all feel a little too complicated? We thought so but go figure!
Dyson V11 – Design
You will struggle to spot the difference between the Dyson V11 and its predecessor the V10. They are almost identical with the sleek designed that has been copied by almost every other vacuum cleaning company that has released their products since.
If you’ own or have used a V10, then the Dyson V11 will look familiar. It keeps the now traditional Dyson basic design, with the large bin in line with the motor for air to be drawn into the cyclones in a straight line resulting in (significantly) better performance over the older models, such as the Dyson V8.
The bin itself has changed and it is 40% bigger than the one of the V10. This literally means that you will be able to go on for longer. It is big enough for getting around a standard house before emptying. One thing that is new in the V11 is the ability to clip accessories directly on the vacuum unit itself, saving you time and hassle when trying to reach out to difficult areas, as it is the changing of accessories and what annoys people the most. Easy to do now and we think it is a very good improvement.
As mentioned already, the biggest change to the design of the new V11 over any of its predecessors is the LCD display on the top of the barrel. Adding an LCD to a cordless vacuum may seem like madness at first, but once you start using the V11 it makes a lot of sense. The display itself is bright and colourful, quite nice to look at and really easy to understand. You get sharp images that display your selected vacuuming mode and the remaining runtime and although basic in the information it provides, it is all you really need.
The display also eliminates another problem: battery anxiety. While the old V10 had only a basic display on the battery to show a rough level of charge, the V11’s screen shows a countdown timer, quite accurate, so you know exactly how long is left. It is a common-sense feature that we are pleased to see finally implemented. Recharging the battery takes around 4.5 hours. Replaceable batteries for even longer run times would have been nice and it is something Dyson should definitely consider. Still, one hour is ample time to get the business done in a normal family home.
Dyson V11 – Features and performance
The Dyson V11 Cordless Vacuum has three battery modes auto mode, boost mode and eco mode. Eco will last you the longest, around an hour while Boost, as the word says, will boost the suction but the battery will last significantly less. The auto mode uses sensors that detect brush resistance up to 360 times per second and adjust the suction accordingly. We have to say though, the auto mode works really well and you can even hear the unit adjusting the suction power from one surface to another. What was surprising was how quickly the Dyson V11 switches between suction power, quite impressive. So much so that you literally forget that you might need different heads for different surfaces as the unit does such a good job.
The High Torque cleaner features a mixture of stiff nylon bristles which are designed to drive out ground-in dirt from carpets, as well as soft anti-static carbon fibre filaments, which work to collect dust from hard floors. That alone makes the High Torque cleaner an investment worth making. Fine, almost invisible dust will be grabbed without a problem.
All of this is thanks to the new V11 motor that gives you a 20% increase in suction compared to past models. The V11’s cyclone array (14 of them) generate forces of more than 79,000g to fling microscopic particles into the bin, including pollen and bacteria, spinning at 125,000 revolutions per minute. In addition to this and to keep it as quiet as possible, the motor has a built-in triple diffuser which does a really good job at reducing noise.
Measuring with the motorised brush in Eco mode, the vacuum comes in at 71dB. On standard mode it’s 74.6dB, and on Boost it is 84.6dB. If you use the lower power modes you can actually hear other people’s voices over the V11’s powerful motor. It really is surprisingly quiet for the amount of power it packs inside.
The filters capture 99.97% of particles as small as 0.3 microns. They do this while exhaling clean air but we couldn’t test this so we need to take Dyson word for it. Thankfully the LCD screen will let you know when the filters need changing or has not been connected properly. Even more impressive is that if some reason the airways get blocked, the unit will playback on the LCD screen a video recording to tell you how to unblock it. Nice touch!
Dyson V11 – How easy is it to use on stairs?
Remove the extension pole and the V11 turns into a very capable handheld unit. It’s a touch chunkier than some of its competitors, but definitely not to the point of being too heavy or unusable. The motorised brush makes light work of each step, it feels easy to operate and manoeuvre. Our preferred power mode for this is the standard mode but in case you need more suction you can use the main powerheads.
Elsewhere around the house, the long extension pole and range of accessories make cleaning of all sorts simple, whether that’s high-up cobwebs and dust, or simply cleaning up a spill on a counter.
Conclusion
On the outside, the Dyson V11 Cordless Vacuum Cleaner is almost a clone of the V10 in terms of design and you might be fooled by this but under the hood, the Dyson V11 is a very impressive cordless vacuum. The addition of a sharp LCD screen and the improved filtration system makes it even better.
It is slightly heavier than the V10 but that is compensated by all the extra features and design improvements, especially the auto suction mode. You still need to dock it in order to rest and we wish it has a “free-standing mode” for when taking a break but in the grand scheme of things, all you need to do is lean it against a wall and that is the end of it.
by Samuel Sotiega. Posted on 04/12/2019
