Dyson’s ultra-premium Gen5 Detect vac gets a wider launch

Last October Dyson revealed its Gen5 Detect vacuum but it had limited availability in select countries such as Australia and South Korea. Finally, it is coming to other shores. It’s now available in the UK for a not-insignificant £850. However, it’s not yet available in the US and Canada.

The price represents quite a premium over the excellent $799/£599 Dyson V15 Detect, let alone Dyson’s cheaper cleaners. The new cleaner is available in Absolute guise (Purple/Iron in colour) or the Complete model (Prussian blue/Copper).

This time around, the focus is on the suction power of the vac, with a new Hyperdymium motor (Gen5, you see…) spinning at 135,000rpm and generating 262 Air Watts of suction power. The sealed HEPA filter system is also larger than the V15’s while the Detect head has been re-engineered to show up twice the dust of the previous head. Originally introduced with the V15 Detect in 2021, the original head used a laser to show hidden dust on the floor surface.

Now, instead of using a laser, the Fluffy Optic head uses a new light source to project the blade of light around twice as far as before. Dyson says this was a huge design challenge – to fit the optic, printed circuit board and othe tech into a tiny space without compromising pick-up.

The Gen5 Detect has a longer runtime – around 10 minutes more than the V15 at around 70 minutes.

Rather cleverly, the tube bit (that Dyson calls a wand) also now has a built-in dusting and crevice tool so you don’t need to go back to the cupboard to change attachments should you want to vac the top of the skirting board.

As with the V12 Detect, Dyson has removed the classic trigger meaning you no longer have to keep your finger held down while you clean, though you do have to have your second hand free to switch it on and off.

As before, the vac features a piezo sensor to measure dust particles, but the user interface has been slightly altered. Now the bars showing the different particle sizes change so you know when the area is clean.

At a recent event in Dyson’s Singapore HQ, Dyson’s head of floorcare Charlie Park told us how the new Fluffy Optic head came about.

“We believed [originally] we needed lasers in order to get the light penetration. But with the Fluffy Optic we managed to use LEDs and design the lens to give us the same effect that we were getting from a laser but they’re brighter. So it allows you to get the same effect but to get the distance further.

“That was the challenge [for] the LED designers. We know they give off more light. But how can you get that same effect to spread the light evenly on a very thin film very close to the ground. And that’s what the team came up with.”

We’ve got a Gen5 Detect in the house and we’ll be bringing you our full review as soon as we can.

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