Dyson V12 Detect Slim shines a light on grime
Dyson V12 Detect Slim.
The headline-grabbing feature of the V12 Detect Slim is the dirt detecting laser but there’s so much more to this ‘slim’ vacuum than dazzling lights. I’ve been using the V12 for the last month and have put it through some of the toughest tests to see if it’s worth your money.
The V12 Detect Slim has all the hallmarks of a Dyson vacuum cleaner with a mostly plastic fantastic construction. The V12 Detect Slim I received for this review is the Absolute model which comes with Laser Slim Fluffy Cleanerhead. The Animal version does not come with the latter but is €50 cheaper.
The V12 has a grey body stock, including a removable battery. The back filter is purple and the cyclone cover for the motor is a gold colour. One very distinctive feature is the rather large power button on the top of the body. The Omni glide also uses a power button that you press once to start and press again to stop. I prefer this over the trigger button which has to be held in while you vacuum.
The V12 makes emptying the smallish 0.35L bin so easy. Simply push the red lever under the bin forward and the lid opens and ejects the contents. During testing, I would do a quick vacuum around the house for 15 minutes a couple of times a day. In general, it would take at least four short sessions like this to fill the bin. Admittedly, 95% of my floors are hard floors and not carpet so your mileage may vary and a larger vacuum like the V15 Detect (review coming soon) might be a better choice for a large home with carpets.
Of course, the big advantage of the V12 Detect Slim is its diminutive size and weight (2.4kg) which makes cleaning ceilings and walls much less tiring. It floats on floors with ease and even makes light work of carpets.
On the back of the body is a small circular colour LCD screen that shows what’s been sucked up, displaying real-time scientific proof of a deep clean. This is a graphical representation of what the onboard piezo sensor ‘detects’. The display also provides information on how much time is left on the battery — depending on which power mode (eco, auto, boost) you’re on.
The cleaning head’s carbon fibre filaments gather up small particles, which are sized and calculated up to 15,000 times per second using the sensor. The dust enters the vacuum and collides with the acoustic piezo sensor in the bin intake, which converts the tiny vibrations into electrical impulses.
These numbers are a visual and numerical representation of the dust and dirt on your floor. While this is pretty cool I soon forget about it after a few days of testing. That said, I do hope Dyson continue to develop this feature in a future model that could connect to your smartphone with an app that gathers all of the data into a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly graph. Perhaps this could also show you how much time you spend vacuuming and the amount of dirt you’ve sucked up in a say a month or a year.
One of the benefits of using the piezo sensor is that it can quickly respond with more suction automatically when it detects large amounts of dirt. This only works in auto mode which is like medium power most of the time.
Auto mode is all you’ll need most of the time which makes using the vacuum all the more convenient. However, if you’re one of those people who likes to vacuum regularly, Eco mode will provide excellent cleaning with maximum battery life.
The 25cm-wide Fluffy cleaner head is light and glides around hard floors effortlessly. It also comes with the Laser Dust Detection feature that essentially, shines a visible (green) laser across the floor to ‘detect’ particles you cannot normally see. You can turn the laser on or off but it’s shocking just how much dust you can see on a floor you think is clean. The laser works amazingly well by shining the light on dust and dirt but those whose motto is “clean enough is good enough” might not appreciate this level of detection. This feature works best in low light but if you’re using it in a brightly lit room it’s far less effective. In everyday use, I found it works much better overall than a standard LED light.
The V12 is good for up to 60 minutes on a single charge in Eco mode as long as you’re not using any of the motorised heads. I found the Direct-drive cleaner head was the most powerful but also the most power-intensive of all the attachments.
In general, I was able to get anywhere from 30-40 minutes of use with a mixture of attachments and power modes. If you use the supplied docking station and have it on the charger, the battery life is less of an issue since it’s fully charged each time you go to use it. A full charge will take up to 3.5 hours if the battery is at 0%.
Despite its size, the V12 is a powerful vacuum that effortlessly rolls and sucks through dust and dirt. For regular cleaning in an average-sized home, the V12 offers a great balance between power, size and battery performance. I did use the Fluffy head on carpets to good effect but the direct-drive cleaning head is far more effective.
Being a pet owner, I have to clean often. The new hair screw tool is outstanding for those who love their furry friends but hate the hair and fur they leave behind them. This hair screw tool is an absolute beast and flies through the fabric on cushions and furniture to screw and suck up hairs long and short with no tangling. Pro tip — ensure you tidy away cables while using the hair screw tool.
The Dyson V12 Detect Slim Absolute comes with all the bells and whistles that modern technology has to offer. Yes, I would love a companion app and yes, I’d love it more if it wasn’t so expensive. However, although it isn’t cheap, it is good value for money when you factor in the quality of the product, after-sales service, features and performance. Those looking for a larger bin and more power for a larger home with lots of carpets may want to consider the bigger brother of the V12 the V15 detect. If you’re a pet owner like me, it’s almost worth it for the hair screw tool alone.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
