It’s not the vacuum that’s the problem. Having owned a Dyson before, I know it will be a good quality product. I’m worried about what I’ll find out about the state of my floors. The V15 shoots a laser in front of it that makes grime more visible to the human eye.
Know Thy Dirt
The $700 V15 makes the case that ignorance isn’t bliss. The company says the V15 counts the dirt it captures in real-time by using a sensor to log the particles’ amount and size, then sucks it up. There’s an LCD on the back of the unit, which shows a breakdown by particle size, breaking them out into categories of greater than 10 microns, greater than 60 microns, greater than 180 microns, and greater than 500 microns. The V15 uses a unique motor that generates up to 230 air watts of suction, and 5-stage filtration captures 99.99% of dust particles down to 0.3 microns. “As engineers, our job is to solve daily problems, and the past 12 months has created plenty of new ones with more time spent indoors,” explains James Dyson, Dyson’s chief engineer and founder, in a news release. “We are all cleaning more frequently, trying to remove the additional house dust but desperate for peace of mind that our homes are truly clean.” The idea for the V15 came about when a Dyson engineer noticed that airborne particles in their home glistened in the sun, the company claims in the news release. “They began to research how they could take this notion and apply it to the fine dust we cannot see in our home,” the company wrote. “The team experimented with laser lights in the lab to test how this could be achieved, and a new solution was born.” Dyson engineers integrated a green laser diode—chosen for its ability to provide the best contrast—into the cleaner head, positioning it at a 1.5-degree angle, 7.3mm off the ground. The company says the laser reveals hidden dust on the floor. Once you see it, there’s no pretending that dirt isn’t there. Dyson integrated a unique sensor into the vacuum to count every last bit of grime. Carbon fiber filaments in the cleaner head pick up microscopic particles, which are sized and counted up to 15,000 times a second, the company says. The dust enters the vacuum and hits the acoustic piezo sensor, and then the tiny vibrations are converted to electrical signals. The dust size and quantity are shown on the in-built LCD screen.
Consider the Robot
All these metrics made me wonder if there’s such a thing as knowing too much about your dirt. If you just want your floors cleaned, the V15 is far from the only innovative vacuum cleaner on the market. Those looking to clean their floors with fanatic precision often turn to a new generation of cleaning robots. Neat freaks who are also lazy might want to consider the iRobot Roomba s9+, which boasts a base station that stores dirt, allowing the s9+ to empty itself for up to 60 days. The s9+ learns the layout of your home and builds personal maps, enabling it to navigate by itself. And if it’s running low on battery, it charges itself and picks up where it left off. Of course, all this tech doesn’t come cheap at $1,099. If you’re on a budget, the iLife A9 Robot Vacuum Cleaner at $219.99 offers a voice assistant. It’s designed to clean hard floors and low pile carpets. Let the spring cleaning begin.
