Verdict

Great power and good cleaning, especially for smaller jobs, although edge cleaning could be better

Pros

• Class-leading suction power
• Outstanding on hard floors
• Handheld and upright versatility
• Easy to use clips, bin and tools
• Handy wall dock charger
• Great on pet hair
• Easy on stairs

Cons

• Single battery
• Edge cleaning not as good as corded machines
• Small bin

What is the Dyson V6 Fluffy?

Coming to market with arguably the best name to yet grace a cordless vacuum cleaner, Dyson’s V6 Fluffy is the latest evolution of the British company’s battery-powered design. Based on a new digital V6 motor that spins at an incredible 110,000 rpm, the company claims this is by far the most powerful cordless cleaner on the market.

The Fluffy head is a radical new soft roller cleaning head for hard floors. This removes large debris and fine dust particles simultaneously through the use of a soft fluffy roller material and rows of antistatic carbon fibre bristles. With plenty of other tools, an extension tube and wall-docking charger supplied, the V6 Fluffy is designed to replace your corded cleaner. It does a damn fine job, too

Dyson V6 Fluffy – Accessories

Handheld or floor-stick upright, the V6 Fluffy gives you plenty of choices thanks to its floor-length tube and raft of tools. These all fit together with a solid click, are just as easy to detach and feel very firmly attached when fitted. The bin removes and empties with a button press and, when required, completely dismantles for easy cleaning.

The plug-in charger comes with a 1m long fly-lead and a jack plug that inserts into the handle of the cleaner. You also get a wall-mounted dock that the charger jack fits neatly into, ensuring V6 goes ‘on charge’ as soon as it is docked with no fiddling around with cables.

The tools list is headed up by the innovative Fluffy head. Designed for hard floors, the motor-powered roller is covered in a soft cloth material and rows of carbon bristles. The fluffy cloth tends to wrap around larger particles to effectively pick them up and the fine carbon bristles have a static charge that attracts finer dust particles.

All the tools included in the box

The soft material also seals the head to the floor, which aims to assist pulling up dust from nooks, crannies and crevices in the floor. This head is much gentler on surfaces like soft-wood parquet than a traditional rotating brush-bar and the fluffy brush itself is easily removed for washing.

The V6 Fluffy model also comes with two motor-powered Turbobrushes, one large floorhead sized model and one compact version ideal for use directly mounted onto the cleaner. Like the Fluffy head, the larger model offers multi-directional movement on the connecting neck and floor wheels to avoid stick-down. Both have easy to remove brush bars for cleaning.

For detail cleaning you get a crevice tool with an innovative suction release vent near the nozzle and a combined upholstery tool and dusting brush. Both of these tools clip onto the charging dock to store.

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The long head and balanced design makes easy to reach up to cobwebbed corners

Dyson V6 Fluffy – Battery Life

The Fluffy has a single built-in Lithium battery pack, meaning you don’t have the option to buy additional batteries for longer cleaning sessions. Once you run flat, the cleaning session is over. Dyson claims 20 minutes on normal power, dropping to 17 minutes using one of the motor-powered Turbobrushes or Fluffy head.

There is a ‘Max’ button on the rear of the machine that spins up the motor to its maximum speed for greatest suction power. In this mode Dyson claims around 6 minutes of use. Those numbers are not a long time, but the trigger-style power switch does mean you tend to switch off when you are moving between cleaning areas rather than letting it run.

In our tests the V6 Fluffy went on considerably longer than Dyson’s claims, running well over 21 minutes on normal power with the Fluffy head attached and over 7 minutes on Max using just the dusting brush.

The Fluffy head is brilliant at picking up larger debris

Are those times long enough? Well, we are always surprised just how far you can get on 20 minutes of juice, particularly when you are switching off when you move furniture or walk between rooms. We managed three carpeted bedrooms and hallway with time to spare – but not enough to do the downstairs as well.

If you want to clean every room in your stately home in a single session, then those run times are not long enough. If you embrace the ‘new way of cleaning’ with a cordless model, namely vacuuming smaller areas or single rooms more frequently, then yes, that is ample run time.

Dyson V6 Fluffy – Cleaning

The V6 cleaner has the strongest suction power of any cordless cleaner we have used by a comfortable margin on normal power. On Max, we have tested mains powered cleaners that won’t give you as much suck. Combine that with some of the best-designed floorheads and tools on the market, and you can probably guess the sort of cleaning results we achieved. It is absolutely class-leading for a cordless model.

The Fluffy head is properly genius. In tests on laminate and parquet floor, it worked exactly as described, handling a mix of cornflakes and talcum powder with ease. Moreover, where even the highest power suction-only (no or stopped brush bar) cleaners always leave a fine layer of the powder residue, the Fluffy head polished this from the floor leaving the surface immaculate.

On the lower power setting it did a reasonable job of pulling dust from between the cracks in the parquet, turning to an outstanding job when you engage the Max power button. The V6 Fluffy cleans hard floors better than most traditional mains powered vacuum cleaners we have tried.

Both Turbobrush heads have motor-powered brush bars, meaning they rotate at a consistent speed and you don’t lose suction power as the air-flow struggles to turn the brush. This proved very effective on short and mid-pile carpets with excellent cleaning results in three passes.

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Edge results were good, and the best of any cordless cleaner we have tested, but not quite as good as the best corded models we have tried. It left a thin trace of dust out to 2mm from the skirting. With the crevice tool in hand, it didn’t take long to nip round and clean this up, though.

The upholstery brush and dusting brush are well designed and very light, so ideal for getting those high cobwebs using the tube extension accessory. The crevice tool has side-vents near the nozzle that makes it a whole lot easier to free obstructions without losing any suck while cleaning. Simple, yet very effective.

The smaller tools are ideal for the car and, without all the faffing with extension cables, it is very easy to nip out and clean up the smallest foot well debris in seconds. Our cars have never been so buffed on the inside.