Dyson has announced a new flagship vacuum: the V16 animal piston. It has a lot of exciting features, but which has particularly attracted my attention is the fact that this vacuum will be available in an underwater version.
It is the same vacuum cleaner, but with an additional underwater floor head, which transforms it into a mop. You would therefore use the ordinary floor head for the vacuum cleaner, then tie the underwater head to wet your hard floors.
It is not the only 2 in 1 machine in the Dyson range – its latest flagship product but can be purchased as the Dyson V15 submarine. My Australian colleague Techradar, Sharmishta Sarkar, tested this one, and although it was impressed by design, which avoids the need for a separate vacuum and mop, and found that it was great for small buffer cleaners, it had problems with the design of the underwater head-and unfortunately, it seems that they had not been resolved on the Piston V16.
More frustrating is the fact that this floor has has been improved by other means. I discussed with one of the engineers behind the V16, and she told me that on the basis of customer comments, Dyson refined the distribution of water to make it more uniform. It’s great (although during my practical time with the animal submarine Piston V16, it always seemed rather humid and dripping), but there are more things to solve.
Sharmishta’s main complaint was that the dirty water tank is not completely sealed, and it was far too easy to overthrow it on the ground on the way to empty it. This is exacerbated by the fact that there is no indicator to show when the dirty water tank reassures itself, and that it has returned to a place where you cannot see it.
This is not a problem with the brand’s dedicated wet cleaner, the Dyson Washg1, which was released after the V15 detects the submarine (you can see exactly how they compare itself in my Dyson Washg1 V15S submarine article). I had hoped that the improvements introduced were also there in machines later 2 in 1.
I have not yet had the opportunity to try the animal underwater version Piston Dyson V16 at home, so I will reserve the judgment until I put it properly to the test. Will this model be good enough to include in my overview of the best wet and dry vacuums? Let’s see.
The V16 animal piston submarine is available for purchase now in the United Kingdom and Australia, at a list of £ 899.99 / $ 1,649 in. The piston animal should be sold in the United States next year, but there is no word yet to know if the underwater version will also be available, or prices for one or the other.
