Dyson’s new vacuum cleaner is half dust-buster, half sports car
REVIEW
DYSON DC59 ANIMAL
£349.99; dyson.co.uk
Five Stars
It’s hard to write about Dyson without comparing it to Apple. Both companies take something functional and make it beautiful. In a way, Dyson’s achievement is even more impressive – Apple is associated with music and video; all Dyson has to work with is your own filth.
Last year I raved about the DC44 cordless vacuum cleaner, so I had high hopes for the DC59 Animal, the new, more powerful addition to the range.
This stuff matters to me, you see. My basement flat collects dust at an implausible rate. If I’m out of the house for more than an hour, when I return the floor is caked in so much powdery grime it’s like entering an office in the Chernobyl nuclear facility that’s lain undisturbed since 1986.
The DC44 was great for cutting a path to the kitchen but for a proper clean, the ever-reliable Henry had to come out of the cupboard, grinning like a lunatic at all the mess.
Now, for the first time, Dyson reckons it has made a cordless vacuum cleaner that can completely replace your regular one. And it’s right.
It looks like the exposed motor of a sports-car, with muscular tubes coiling into the clear-plastic muck-container, which invites you to ogle the remnants of human hair and skin collected within like a sordid, dusty peep show.
The promotional material is packed with words like “Cyclone” and “V6” and other things that sound more glamorous than housework has any right to. In practice, it’s around a third more powerful than the previous model. And it really does do away with the need for a corded vacuum cleaner – it even cleared the cobwebs from behind my radiator, which have been collecting since the tenement was built in 1890.
It has a battery life of 20 minutes, although it’s tempting to kick it into “boost” mode (kind of like using a nitro in a racing game), which will shorten the time between charges to six minutes.
Other improvements include a slightly more ergonomic handle and an easier way to empty the chamber, which was the biggest flaw in the last one.
If you don’t have much storage space, the DC59 is a no brainer. It’s light, powerful and it looks like a car. Sure, it’s £350, but it makes cleaning seem almost fun, and you can’t put a price on that.