The Dyson V11 Absolute Pro is a highly effective cord-free vacuum cleaner that can bust through dust, dog hair, and other fine particles with ease. Is it worth Rs 52,900? Here’s our review.
Pros
- High suction power
- Versatile cleaning
- Battery life, blockage, mode indicator
- Dynamic Load Sensor system to adjust suction power automatically
Cons
- Bin Cleaning still not intuitive
- Vast suction difference between Boost and Eco modes
- Storing accessories could be tedious
When I first brought the Dyson V11 Absolute Pro home, I ended up upsetting my daily house cleaner. She would sweep from under sofas and tables, gather a chunk of dust and dog hair with a lot of bending and stretching, only for me to rush to the gathered pile of crap with the V11 and guzzle up the whole load in seconds at the push of a button. This was the first run of the cord-free stick vacuum cleaner at my house and to test its efficiency, I was following my house cleaner around with the handheld contraption, sucking up all the gathered dust and hair after each of her sweeping sessions. Ignoring the fact that I had successfully managed to irritate her with the V11’s super suction powers, I went ahead and cleaned an entire room using the vacuum cleaner, before my help could sweep it with a broom. When she reached the vacuumed room and started sweeping the floors, to her utter surprise and disdain, she couldn't muster up more than a few particles of dust in that room. She definitely felt threatened by the V11 that day, until she found out that I just have the unit in for review and am not replacing her with the vacuum cleaner just yet. But, that’s when I first realised that the Dyson V11 Absolute Pro was truly good at its job.
The V11 is definitely more powerful than its predecessor, the V10. Dyson has increased suction power on the new stick vacuum by 40 percent compared to the V10, and this performance upgrade can be attributed to its new digital motor which uses a Ceramic-based shaft to make it smaller, lighter and faster. Dyson says that the motor on the V11 spins up to 125,000rpm, same as the V10. Comparitively, the noise levels on V11 are lower, especially in Eco Mode, thanks to a triple diffuser system used in the motor. However, I managed to terrorise my dog in Boost Mode which makes a loud whirring sound. He did come around though, once he got used to it.
In the box, you get the main vacuum unit, 11 accessories including 7 cleaner heads, the blue/gold stick extension, wall mount unit, a charging adapter, and two instruction manuals. Assembling the vacuum cleaner is pretty simple and intuitive, with accessories that simply snap into the main unit or onto the stick extension. The contents come tightly wrapped in individual cardboard boxes within a large rectangular box. Once you end up unboxing all the accessories, you may have to find a dedicated box or cabinet to store them all since fitting them back into the cardboard boxes is quite tedious. The main unit itself can be easily wall mounted, which is the best way of storing the device. A small corner in your kitchen or store room would be enough to wall mount the V11.
In terms of cleaner heads, the Dyson V11 comes with a High Torque Cleaner, Soft Roller Cleaner, Quick-release Cervice Tool, Quick-release Combination tool, Quick-release Mini Motorised tool, Soft Dusting Brush, and a Mattress tool. If you’re not used to vacuum cleaners, you might have trouble figuring out which accessory to use for different cleaning tasks and areas. The cleaner heads are not labelled and the instruction manuals do not list them out either. However, you can always visit Dyson’s website to learn more about how to use them, which is what I did.
Snappable accessories
If you have used a Dyson vacuum cleaner before, the first thing you’ll notice off the bat is the new LCD screen. With the V8 and V10, one of my biggest qualms was that I never knew when the vacuum cleaner would die on me. With the help of the LCD screen, users can now switch modes more intuitively as the screen displays the remaining battery run time in each of the three modes – Eco, Auto, and Boost. The screen also indicates maintenance instructions in case of blockages or if the filters need cleaning. In my usage, I was able to clog the airways once while picking up some small pieces of paper from the floor. On-screen instructions alerted me about the blockage and instructed me how to clear out the same. However, the airways blocked indicator remained on-screen for a few minutes after I cleared the blockage.
Dyson advises that users first charge the main unit to 100 percent before using it for the first time. In our testing, we found that the V11 takes around 4-4.5 hours to go from 0 to 100% charge. Even though that's a long time to charge, especially if you have a 3-4 bedroom house which would require you to charge the vacuum atleast twice over to complete the job, the V11 can get up to 50% charge in 1.5 hours and is usable for atleast 30-35 minutes after that.
In Eco Mode, the V11 can last for up to 60 minutes, while Boost Mode lasts anywhere between 7 to 15 minutes. The problem here is that there is a vast difference in suction power between the Eco and Boost mode. The V11 is most effective in Boost mode, especially for really tricky cleaning tasks such as getting dog hair off of a fabric sofa seat. While the cleaning is really efficient and the vacuum cleaner managed to eliminate any signs of dog hair from my couch in our testing, doing the same using eco mode took much longer and even then, some amount of small hair remained on the couch.
Before cleaning stubborn dog hair with Dyson V11
After cleaning with the V11 on Boost Mode
Cleaning the floor is best done in auto mode. This way, the intelligent Dynamic Load sensors on the High Torque cleaner head talk to the microprocessors on the motor and battery to alter suction power between hard floor and carpets. It took me 15 minutes to give my bedroom a thorough vacuum, including a 5ft x 7ft jute carpet, side tables, TV cabinet, and my mattress. I obviously changed the cleaner heads to get to every dusty corner in the room. However, I was able to clean the floors and all other surfaces using a combination of the Soft Dusting Brush, the Mattress Tool and the High Torque cleaner. I didn’t need to go through all the seven cleaner heads at any point in time while cleaning my house. The only other accessory I found very useful was the Up Top adapter which allowed me to get to my ceiling fans.
What I noticed in my usage of the V11 was that there was dust in places I never expected or looked at until I got the vacuum cleaner. Indian homes are amongst the dustiest in the world and since I live in an area surrounded by on-going construction projects, I need to thoroughly dust things in my house on a daily basis. With the V11, I managed to clean my living room and two other bedrooms in a single charge. It took two complete charges to get to the whole house. While charging the V11 is a slow process, its cleaning efficiency is truly remarkable when compared to traditional manual dusting, sweeping, and wet mopping. For one, manual dusting and sweeping always results in the dust settling back onto the dusted surfaces after a while. This obviously does not happen with the V11 since it traps all the dust into its 0.54L bin.
Coming to how particles get trapped in the bin, Dyson’s says its Patented Cyclone technology applies 80,000 times the force of gravity on particles as small as 0.3 microns to seperate them from the airflow. This first stage of filtration is followed by Hepa filtration to further break down microscopic particles. The tightly sealed bin does not allow any of the trapped particles to escape, however, getting rid of the dust and other allergens trapped inside the bin is still not intuitive. Opening the bin up is pretty simple. A handle allows users to simply push the bin open and release the trapped dust into a larger bin, but the problem is that some dust particles remain stuck to the V11’s bin and one is needed to manually clean it with their hands or another dusting brush to fully clean the bin.
The bin on the Dyson V11 Absolute Pro
Conclusion
After two weeks of seeing the Dyson V11 Absolute Pro in action, my housekeeper was in complete awe of the product, while the cleaning lady was not too happy about the new addition. It took the housekeeper a few days of observing me use the V11, before she started using it herself. She is still not very familiar with how to use the different attachments, but recognising its value, she told me, “It’s for Rs 50,000 which is why it’s working so well. You cannot compare it to a Rs 20 dusting cloth or a broom worth Rs 100.” This, for me, was a big validation of my own observations.
At Rs 52,900, the Dyson V11 is totally worth the cost if you are a stickler for cleanliness and care about not living in a dusty environment. Yes, it costs much more than the V10, but the additional suction power and battery management features are much needed upgrades. That said, you can still go for the V10 if a Rs 50K+ price point pinches you too much. As far as its life cycle is concerned, a recent Consumer Reports survey found that nearly half of Dyson stick vacs develop problems within the first five years. We can’t really comment on the V11’s reliability over that long a period of time, but we can tell you that Dyson provides a warranty of two years and the company says that it tests the device for 5-7 years of abusive usage.
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Adamya Sharma
Managing editor, Digit.in - News Junkie, Movie Buff, Tech Whizz! View Full Profile
