Dyson has re-entered the competitive robot vacuum market with a splash by unveiling what it claims is “the most powerful and intelligent” robot vac currently available.
The cult-classic cleaning brand, known for its powerful and pricey stick vacuum range, has just released the 360 Vis Nav to the Australian market.
Featuring a Dyson Hyperdymium motor that can spin up to 110,000rpm, Dyson reckons the 360 Vis Nav has six times the suction power of any other robot vacuum currently on the market, as well as a host of automated cleaning features.
It’s not Dyson’s first robot vac rodeo. The brand created the DC06 way back in 2001 but didn’t release it to market, not least because the DC06 was heavy and slow and cost more than $3,000. Its next go – the Dyson 360 Eye in 2014 – did make it to the stores but not in Australia. Nor did the Dyson 360 Heurist in 2019.
But the 360 Vis Nav is available to Aussie buyers – for a cool $2,399, according to the Dyson website, with free express shipping available for a limited time.
Jake Dyson, Dyson’s chief engineer, says the 360 Vis Nav is designed to overcome the frustrations that come with some other current robot vacs.
“Some have low suction power or inefficient navigation systems which [mean] that they often get stuck and don’t do a proper job of vacuuming,” he says. “Dyson engineers have taken everything we’ve learnt from developing our vacuum cleaners [and] combined it with intelligent software to develop the Dyson 360 Vis Nav.”
Dyson 360 Vis Nav Features
The Dyson 360 Vis Nav uses Dyson’s Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) technology, along with a 360-degree vision system and 26 sensors, to navigate the home, identify its surroundings, keep track of where it’s been and which areas still need to be cleaned.
Its ‘D-shaped’ body and full-width,front-mounted brush bar, meanwhile, are designed to get into corners and as close to walls as possible, with sensors detecting the edges of the room to redirect suction
Other features of the Dyson 360 Vis Nav include:
- Dual-link suspension system, which can give the 360 Vis Nav an extra 21mm of height.
- A Piezo sensor, which detects and reacts to changes in dust levels, allowing the vac to automatically increase suction power where needed.
- A triple-action brush bar, with a large ‘Fluffy’ nylon brush for large debris, anti-static carbon-fibre filaments for fine dust particles and stiff, nylon bristles for carpets.
- A HEPA filtration system to trap dust
- Four cleaning mode: Auto Mode, Quick Mode, Quiet Mode and Boost Mode
- A One-touch ejection mechanism to empty the dirt and dust into the bin
- A 50-minute run-time before it automatically returns to the charging station
- MyDyson app connectivity, allowing users to create and customise cleaning zones and routines
The Dyson 360 Vis Nav comes with a charging cable and wall dock for automatic charging.
Popular Robot Vacuum Brands
Not tempted by the Dyson version? Other popular robot vacuum brands include ECOVACs, Roborock, iRobot, Eufy and Dreame, with ECOVACs coming out top in Canstar Blue’s most recent Customer Satisfaction ratings of robot vacuum cleaner brands.
Average spend on robot vacuum cleaners
Canstar Blue also found that Aussies buying robot vacuum cleaners were spending, on average, $647 on their purchase, well below what the Dyson 360 Vis Nav is priced at. But considering the explosion in brands and models coming to the market, the price range for robot vacuum cleaners can extend from $200 to close to $3,000, with the more expensive models generally coming with additional power and features.
Robot vacuum cleaner features to look out for
If you’re over doing the vacuuming and looking to get a robotic friend to do the heavy lifting for you, what should you be considering when it comes to taking one to the checkout? Here are a few main areas to consider:
- Floor mapping & boundary setting: Most robot vacuums will track their course to know where they’re going, but you can also tell them where to go, where to avoid, and which areas of your house need that bit of extra elbow grease. Setting a few boundaries and letting them run free can certainly help cut down on your workload, or save you from herding it away from an area you didn’t want it to go to in the first place.
- Scheduling: Want to come home to a clean home? Look for a scheduling feature on your robot vacuum cleaner so that you can tell it when to power up instead of manual pressing the ‘go’ button.
- Run-time: As with any wireless product, you’ll want it to go the distance, so look at the run-time for each model, as well as how long it takes to reach full-charge. Most robot vacuum cleaners can run between 30-60 minutes, but if you have a bigger area to cover, you might want to go for the model with the longest run-time.
- Dust-collection & suction power: It’s all well and good when someone else does the job for you, but if they don’t do it right, what’s the point? Investigating how strong the suction power of the robot vacuum cleaner will help you suss out if it can handle the amount of dirt that might be lurking in your home, with the amount of bristles and storage capacity also crucial, as certain types of bristles are better for certain flooring, and you also don’t want to be emptying your vacuum cleaner every few minutes because it doesn’t have the on-board storage capacity.
- Smart-home capability: All these fancy features are nothing without the ability to control them. As with most new technology nowadays, having the ability to control devices from your smartphone can take a lot of the manual effort out of the process, so if your robot vacuum cleaner can be controlled by an app, then you can set it to do a quick clean while you’re out and about.
- Price: As with any purchase, the price tag attached can be the deciding factor between taking it home and leaving it on the shelf. There are cheap robot vacuum cleaners available to purchase, but they may not come with the features that the more expensive models come with, and may not have the cleaning strength either. And considering you’re paying for the convenience of someone else doing the cleaning for you, forking over a bit more for a job well done could be a small price to pay for a bit of time back in your day.
Image Credit: Dyson
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