With the global Covid-19 outbreak early this year, hygiene has gained paramount importance around the world. People are advised to maintain a social distance of at least six feet between each other and hands have to be kept clean at all times using sanitisers.
India witnessed low cases of coronavirus infections during the lockdown period (March 25-June 7), but when the lowering of restrictions began on June 8, the cases have steadily increased. On July 25, India registered a record of 48,900 plus cases a day and Covid-19 tally soared to 13,36,861
People have been asked to venture out only for medical purposes, or get takeaway food at hotels or to get groceries to prepare food at home. And most of the Information Technology sector employees have been asked to work from home till the end of the year. While other companies and government offices have half of the staff on work.
Myself too have been working from home since mid-March and since I didn't travel to the office, I was asked to help around the house in terms of cleaning in my free time.
There were also several days when our housekeeper went on long leave due to unforeseen events. And, I had to chip in with my family members to clean the house. Thankfully, early this year in January, I received the Dyson V11 Absolute Pro (Gold) review unit. Here are my thoughts on the cordless vacuum.
Design and build quality:
Dyson V11 Absolute Pro sports an in-line design language. All the main components-- the motor, cyclone tubes and bin are all aligned in a straight line. With no deviations, it achieves maximum suction capability.
Also, the company has done a marvelous job with the acoustic engineering. It produces the least sound while in action compared to any cordless or connected vacuum cleaner in the market. The company says V11 Absolute Pro is created with a special triple diffuser system in the motor and components that absorb vibrations and dampen noise, to keep sound levels down. But, if you are on Boost mode, the sound goes a notch up or two maybe, but not to an annoying level.
The notable aspect of the Dyson vacuum cleaner's retail package (gold version), is that it comes with a Floor Docking station. It can be kept in any corner of the house and even in the living room. It is sure to get the attention of the houseguests with a simplistic and futuristic design.
As far as the build quality is concerned, Dyson says it uses airplane grade tough composite materials (used in passenger aircraft windows) for V11 Absolute Pro body and the accessories. Though I did not dare to drop the vacuum cleaner to test its durability but have to say, it is light and exudes a premium feel when held in hand. I was able to easily carry the V11 Absolute Pro around for an hour without any sweat.
However, I did drop some of the accessories a few times accidentally and they didn't show signs of any crack or any form of physical damage as such.
User-interface and performance:
Like the previous versions and other Dyson products, V11 Absolute Pro comes with a simple and easy-to-understand interface. Thanks to colour codes, it is easy to fit the accessories to the main motor, and with just a tap on the crimson-hued button at each connector joint, you can remove them without any hassles.
There is a LCD display on top. It has a single button and the user can just choose between three modes-- Eco, Medium, and Boost. With the Eco mode, you can just use to clean the floor with the gold torque drive or use the quick-release mini soft dusting brush on fragile things such as a TV screen or a desktop. In this mode, you can do the cleaning for a full hour in a single charge.
In Medium mode, the sensors can detect the type of surface and automatically take the notch up or down in terms of suction power. Users can attach a high torque cleaner head and activate medium mode which automatically adapts power between carpets and hard floors.
And in the boost mode, it will run the machine in full power and suck even tiniest dirt such as dead skin flakes, dust mites glued to the pillows, bed, cushions in the living room, or in the space between tiles on the floor. Though this mode will drain the battery dry in just 15 minutes, it will do a superb cleaning job.
Dyson V11 Absolute Pro houses the seven-cell nickel-cobalt-aluminum battery and needs close to four and a half hours to fully charge it. If you happen to do an extensive cleaning of the entire house, it is unlikely to last long. But, in a day-to-day use-case, it never dies in the middle of the cleaning process.
For instance, in a day, I take Dyson V11 Absolute Pro to clean just my bedroom and the opposite living room with the medium mode on; it barely takes 30 minutes if not less and, I keep the device back on the dock connected to the power outlet. Then a few hours later, my brother takes it to do the same in his room. This way, we never faced any battery life issue since we started using it in January.
Also, while using any of the three modes mentioned above, the user can view the real-time information of the battery life so that you can time the cleaning process or leave the device to get fully recharged.
Once done with the cleaning the room, it is easy to empty the bin. The user just has to point and shoot and pull down the sturdy red flap. If any thread or long hairs get stuck around the cylinder, we can easily remove the entire bin cover.
Here's how to empty Dyson vacuum cleaner's bin:
And on top, there is a fabric-based filter, which also needs cleaning once in a while. Its main purpose is to capture the tiniest particles from escaping through super-fast air gushing out of the suction motor.
Unlike the bin, the user does not have to clean the filter after every session. The vacuum sensor can intuitively detect the excess dirt on the filter and will notify on the LCD screen; only then, we have to clean it.
Here's how to hand-wash Dyson vacuum cleaner's fabric-based filter:
The fabric-based filter can be taken out and washed with freshwater by hand. It has to be kept for drying for at least 24 hours before putting it back on top of the motor.
The Dyson Floor Docking station can accommodate four accessories, two attached to the pole with a wand storage clip, one in the inbuilt hanger of the dock and one can be left connected to vacuum cleaner like in the image below.
The retail package comes with more than 11 accessories and tools including a couple of gold-hued stick extensions, gold torque drive, soft roller cleaner head, docking station, charger, quick-release crevice tool, quick-release combination tool, quick-release mini motorised tool, quick-release mini soft dusting brush, wand storage, quick-release mattress tool, quick-release up-top adapter, quick-release extension hose, and floor dock. But four is more than sufficient to clean most of the things inside the house including carpet, furniture, electronics such as TVs, music systems and other stuff.
If you have to do an extensive house cleaning, you can just pull the quick-release extension hose, up-top adapter, and others from the closet. For day-to-day use, four is enough.
At the heart of the V11 Absolute Pro lies the Dyson digital motor V11, which is capable of clocking a 125,000rpm (rotations per minute). And, with 14 cyclone tubes attached below, it can top 185AW (Air Watt) suction power. Apparently, it can generate forces of more than 79,000g to suck minute particles including dead skin flakes, pollen, dust mites, and bacteria and flung them into the bin.
Note: Air Watt refers to the amount of Watts used by the machine to carry a unit of air through an opening and this case nozzle that sucks the dirt.
If the company is to be believed, the V11 Absolute Pro's fully-sealed advanced six-stage filtration system can trap close to 99.97% of particles as small as 0.3 microns and expel only the clean air.
It should be noted that household dust is made up of a complex mix of microscopic particles. The size of dust mite allergens, mould spores and other insect allergens is often between 0.5 to 5 microns. Note: One micron is 1-percent of the diameter of a single human hair.
A research study done on Indian household say that by wearing shoes indoors, a person can take dust containing animal faeces, pollen, fertilizers, motor oil, construction materials, toxic compounds and miscellaneous organisms to every room of the house.
This may result in high health risks particularly to babies from pollutants in household dust may be 100 times greater than for adults. There are on average more than 2,000 distinct types of microbes in the dust, states the Indian Household Hidden Dust Study.
During the six months of the testing, the powerful Dyson digital motor V11 proved its mettle to cleaning all kinds of dust and trash inside the house.
Final thoughts
I have to confess that when I pressed the trigger for the first time to power-on the Dyson V11 Absolute Pro, the motor's sound was discernibly low compared to other vacuum cleaners, I used before.
I instantly felt little apprehensive about the Dyson vacuum cleaner's legendary dirt suction power. But having used for more than six months, I am happy to note that V11 Absolute Pro aced the review with flying colours.
I am mighty impressed with the suction power of the Dyson digital motor V11. Without cords, it was easy for me to comfortably move around the house. And, also the comfort of using light-weight Dyson V11 Absolute Pro in a single hand is a big advantage.
It is really light to carry around for an hour and the accessories come handy to go deeper under the bed, also reach crevices between furniture and soft bristles to suck the dust of the TV display.
Over-all, Dyson V11 Absolute Pro (Gold) is a well-rounded cord-free vacuum cleaner and worth the asking price.
Pros
- Light and easy to use in a single hand
- The minimalistic design and excellent build quality
- Simple user-interface
- Powerful Dyson digital motor V11
- Less noise
- Accessories meet all the demands of the house cleaning process
Cons
- Expensive, but Dyson V11 Absolute Pro (Gold) is worth the asking price, as it does a fine job of cleaning the house and there are fewer things to complain about.
Dyson V11 Absolute Pro (Gold) costs Rs 59,900 in India. Also, there are similar V11 series variants in blue (nickel) for Rs 52,900. There are also older models including Cyclone V10 Absolute Pro (Rs 45,900) and V8 Absolute+ (Rs 39,900).
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