Recently, we had a chance to review some of the innovation coming from Dyson in the form of their Pure Cool Fan. It was clear to us that any company releasing a fan that’s oblong, doesn’t have blades whirring behind a safety cage, and that actually works, is a force to be reckoned with. Making the transition from blowing air to sucking air, Dyson sent us their Cinetic bagless vacuum for review. We have been testing it on a variety of flooring types and are excited to report our findings on this uniquely-designed vacuum. If you’ve ever considered a Dyson vacuum, or you are just tired of dealing with messy bag replacements, you’ll want to check out this review.
Dyson Cinetic Assembly
Assembly of the Dyson Cinetic is a very straight-forward, quick and painless process – assuming you heed the warning label below. It’s just a matter of laying out a few pieces, lining them up and clicking them together. Whatever you do though, DO NOT drill into a wall full of small marbles and then attempt to light a floating fire with a mound of the marbles underneath it! That’s our understanding of the warning label anyway.
General Design, and THE Ball
Although Dyson does also make a canister style vacuum, the Cinetic we reviewed is an upright design with Dyson’s trademark ball functionality. Core components of this vacuum are housed in the ball, making the center of gravity on the Cinetic about as low as it can go without turning it into a Roomba. Rather than man-handling (or woman-handling) the direction of the vacuum by brute force as you might with most wheeled uprights, the Cinetic relies on a unique twist of the wrist to steer things left or right. I found this took some getting used to, however once you get a feel for it turns are fairly easy to navigate. With that said, if you’re used to an underpowered featherweight vacuum, you may be surprised at how substantial the Cinetic is.
Flooring Adjustments
Our home is a mix of hardwood floors and area rugs, and most vacuums either treat all floors alike, or they require you to power down and swap out the floor brush. Neither option is ideal. The Cinetic has a conspicuous button on the front of the vacuum which enables you to power off the motorized brush. This feature makes it easy to transition to hardwood flooring, or to tackle area rugs that might otherwise be devoured by a rotating brush. This simple switch makes the Cinetic a master at quickly navigating between different floor types.
Dyson Cinetic – Bagless Wonder
In a world where every company wants to turn you into a recurring revenue stream, I love the fact that the Dyson Cinetic requires no bags, and no bag changes. Seriously, there are zero filters to deal with on the Cinetic. With every other household vacuum I have used, filter changes have been an unavoidable hassle. Usually the filter bags spew enormous dust clouds during the the change. The bags / filters are almost always opaque, so by the time you realize they’re full, they likely have been operating with a fraction of the efficiency they once had. Of course, you have the buy the filters/bags too, which is a hassle and expense most of us would much rather avoid if possible.
With the Cinetic, an arsenal of mini cyclones effectively capture debris and move it to the main chamber that captures all the nastiness. That chamber is not only clear, but also has a clear line to indicate at what point it’s time to empty it. Best of all, the chamber pops off the vacuum with a simple button push, and then pops open the bottom seal to effortlessly empty itself into a trash receptacle of your choosing. There are no compartments to open, no clouds of dust as you wrestle filter bags, and no guesswork. It’s all remarkably quick and efficient.
Speaking of efficient, it’s worth noting that Dyson claims to be the only vacuum in existence that, “Never loses suction.” Despite many other vacuum manufacturers making the same claim, Dyson says that’s based on an industry test that involves vacuuming a paltry amount of dust. Since the Dyson doesn’t have a filter or bag to clog, it makes sense that it has an edge over those designs. In our very unscientific testing, we weren’t able to detect any loss of suction even as the debris chamber filled up. While evaluating every other vacuum design is outside the scope of this review, we’ll share Dyson’s description of why their design is superior. Here’s Sir Dyson delivering an eloguent smack-down to their competition:
https://youtu.be/8dPHif3ocjY
Bottom line, I love the fact that filters and bags are a thing of the past, and that emptying the vacuum no longer qualifies as a chore.
The Wand
When you return the Dyson Cinetic to its full, upright and locked position, the suction diverts from the floor to the detachable hose / wand that runs vertically on the backside of the vacuum. Dyson cleverly stows a rigid, straight portion of the wand inside the flexible and very expandable hose. This enables you to put several of Dyson’s fancy accessories to use for cleaning blinds, tough to reach ledges and upholstery. While I liked the ability to do all these things I found the hose to have a pretty strong desire to return to its coiled length, and the junction between hose and wand was tricky to keep from being kinked when vacuuming things below the vacuum’s level. As a result, I felt the wand performed at its best (and was easiest to work with) when cleaning overhead surfaces.
Cinetic Accessories
If you have ever tried to vacuum blinds with that single, round, brushed attachment that accompanies most vacuums, you know that it can be difficult to actually clean the surfaces very effectively. The Cinetic model we reviewed came with so many specialized attachments, they required a storage bag, which Dyson also thoughtfully included. Several of the attachments include fine, micro-fiber-esque surfaces to helps dislodge dust before whisking it away to its cyclonic demise. From mini blinds to cleaning Fido’s fur with the powered upholstery attachment, Dyson thought of just about everything you need. The only specialized attachment I wished it had was a longer U-shaped brush/attachment that can clean out dust and dead insects from overhead light fixtures.
Dyson Cinetic Summed Up
Even when cleaning areas that didn’t seem very dirty, the Dyson Cinetic still managed to corral a disturbing amount of debris. This is one powerful vacuum. With it’s high performance and thoughtful engineering, it’s hard to find fault with the Cinetic. We did find that the vacuum put out quite a bit of heat. Apparently with great power comes some surplus warmth. The Cinetic also isn’t a vacuum we’d recommend for someone looking for a lightweight solution (our home is two story, and carrying the Cinetic up and down the stairs is no easy task). We also think the wand could benefit from some re-designing to make working on lower surfaces less of a battle with the hose/wand. Most users will like the maneuverability of the Cinetic, however there may be some that prefer more traditional “steering.” Lastly, we’ve become a bit spoiled when it comes to avoiding cords here at Home Fixated. For those of you with similar cordless preferences, Dyson has a line of smaller, cordless vacuum options as well. Our minor negative critiques are far outweighed by the performance of the mighty Cinetic, coupled with it’s brilliant bagless design. With easy canister-emptying, the Cinetic definitely won us over with a design that requires no expendables or filter washing. Normally $699.99, the Cinetic is on sale for $549.99, but the deal expires March 5th.
The Cinetic big ball animal DOES have a filter and pending the environment you are using the vacuum in the Cinetic cyclone may not be all that efficient at capturing finer dust and dirt. This in-turn will clog the filter that is located after the motor. This part is not user replaceable so you will need to send it to Dyson to have it replaced. As the filter gets clogged there will be greater back pressure which will result in the motor running hot and loss of suction. To see how well your Cinetic cyclone is working take a look at the seal between the cyclone filter and where it goes into the motor housing, how much dirt do you see there?