Today saw Dyson launch its latest hi-tech vacuum cleaner – the Big Ball.
What’s exciting about the Big Ball is that as well as not having a bag, it also doesn’t require filter cleaning/replacing, and purportedly ‘never loses suction.’
So how is all of this magic achieved? Let’s start with the filters. Dyson makes use of small cyclones – that’s to generate very high centrifugal forces, in order to capture the smallest dust particles it can.
Unfortunately, a tight cyclone means it’s liable to blockages. Dyson circumvents this with new flexible tips that vibrate around 350 times every single second.
This tip oscillation means that dust can’t clog up the aperture, which means the Big Ball can handle dust as teeny as 0.5 microns without suffering a blocked filter.
James Dyson, founder of the firm, said: “Removing the bag from a vacuum solved one hassle, but filter maintenance remained an annoying problem that needed fixing.”
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“The constant flexing of Cinetic tips ensures the cyclones to not block as microscopic dust is spun out of the air – not trapped in a cyclone or on a filter.”
What this also means is that because the filters aren’t blocked, suction is vastly improved because the airflow is uninhibited.
While many firms claim that there’s no loss of suction with their cleaners, oft times vacuum performance will drop with persistent use due to eventual clogging.
Dyson reportedly spent 9000 hours sucking up dust in real homes and in a lab to simulate vacuuming ‘the equivalent of 10 years’ worth of dust’.
The findings? “Dyson engineers have proved that Dyson Cinetic maintains constant suction throughout, without ever changing or washing a filter’.
Related: CES 2015: What’s happened at the Las Vegas tech expo so far?
Here’s a few testing titbits – Dyson spent £136,000 on ‘aggressive test dust’ and apparently ran dust stocks dry. It also slammed the Big Ball sideways into steel blocks 200 times to for impact testing.
Other perks of the Dyson Big Ball include an active self-adjusting cleaner head that remains in close contact with the floor at all times to seal in suction, as well as having a low centre of gravity for ease-of-pulling thanks to the ball-base.
Right, how can you get one? Well the Big Ball is available right now, comes with a 5-year guarantee, and costs a vacuum-tidy sum of £460.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
