Best Dyson vacuum cleaners to buy in 2024

Tested by MNHQ: Read our in-depth Dyson V11 Absolute review

The Dyson V11 Absolute scores consistently highly with reviewers and Mumsnetters alike. It also outperformed all other cordless vacuum cleaners we tested. Moving easily between floor types including hardwood, tiles and carpet, the Absolute is ideal for daily use. When in auto/medium mode, the suction power adjusts automatically to maximise battery life and perform as efficiently as possible. Just press a button and go. You won’t get any nasty surprises mid-clean because battery length is displayed on the LCD screen. And it’s easy to switch modes too. For maximum runtime, choose Eco mode and for ingrained dirt, Boost mode should do the trick.

Lightweight and easily manoeuvrable, this stick vacuum cleaner in blue has no difficulty reaching awkward spots. The various tools and heads click on and off with ease and it has a 40% bigger bin than previous models meaning you won’t have to empty it as often. On the downside, the V11 Absolute requires a lengthy four-and-a-half-hour charging time in order to run for 60 minutes. However, the wall-mounted dock indicates when it’s fully charged so you can avoid wasting any unnecessary electricity.

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While not as effective or high-tech as the Dyson V11 Absolute, the Dyson V8 Animal will still give you great results. It’s much lighter than most upright vacuums and this cordless stick cleaner’s 425-watt digital motor offers 115 air watts of suction power. This means that the V8 Animal’s direct-drive head gets deep into your carpet pile, plucking out ingrained dirt before whizzing it into the 0.54-litre bin. The Max Power mode switch enables even higher suction but drains the battery very quickly. The articulating ball-joint allows you to manoeuvre around chair legs, under cupboards and across stairs quickly and easily.

A wise choice for pet parents, the V8 Animal is super effective at picking up animal hair. It’s so powerful in fact that the roller can get a bit caught up with long hairs. However, the roller is easy to pop out for cleaning. Critics do say that some parts of the V8 Animal feel a tad flimsy, not least the mechanism for opening the bin, although it still works perfectly fine. In Iron and Titanium with flashes of purple and red, this vacuum is certainly tres chic.

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Tested by MNHQ: Read our in-depth Dyson V15 Detect review

Pet owners will love this state-of-the-art stick vacuum, which is super intelligent and especially useful if you ever fret about the need to clean dirt that’s not visible to the naked eye. At 230AW, it’s Dyson’s most powerful vacuum yet. Additionally, an amazingly ingenious laser function highlights tiny specks of dust on hard floors that you could never see with your own run-of-the-mill eyeballs. And how’s this for multi-tasking? It will even count the dust particles it’s swallowing up, displaying this information on-screen as you vacuum.

The V15 Detect Absolute has three power levels to effectively tackle different floor types. However, just like the V11 range, the V15 Detect Absolute can automatically adjust its power to suit the type of floor it’s cleaning. It will also whip up stray hairs from your dog, cat and kids - no bother. There are eight attachment tools which you can use for various cleaning jobs including converting this cordless vacuum into a handheld model.

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Dyson’s smallest cordless stick vacuum cleaner, this compact, streamlined model is designed for use on hard floors. Although it can handle carpet, it has far less power than other Dyson vacuums. For this reason, laminate, wood and tiles are where the Omni-Glide is happiest and most efficient thanks to the omni-directional head with two fluffy rollers. The casters on this attachment mean that the wand can easily be moved under and around your furniture, swivelling in every direction so not a speck of dirt or dust is missed.

There’s good news if you don’t like the trigger system usually in place on Dyson cordless vacuum cleaners. Unlike the V11 Absolute, which has a button you need to push down on when vacuuming, the Omni-Glide has two buttons - one to fire up the power and the other to engage max suction. All you have to do is press these buttons once to operate. The knock-on effect of this more traditional operating system is that the battery life is far inferior to other Dyson models, lasting only around 20 minutes before it will need charging. However, if you’re happy to do short sessions of vacuuming, this shouldn’t be a problem, especially if you have a spare, charged battery ready to go.

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For busy homes with lots of carpets and mess to tidy up, you may want to bring out the big guns - in this instance, the Dyson V11 Outsize. It will handle carpets beautifully, with a cleaning head that’s 25% wider and a collection bin that’s 150% bigger than other models in the V11 range. It’s more powerful too - the vacuum engine has 18 of Dyson’s cyclones compared to 14 in the regular Dyson V11 Absolute. The larger Torque head will get your cleaning done super fast. The downside to all this bulk and power is that it’s much heavier in comparison to other Dysons in our round-up. With the large High Torque XL cleaning head and the battery attached, it weighs 3.5kg, which you may find too much to be hauling around, especially if you have a lot of ground to cover.

While the V11 Outsize is undeniably expensive, you get lots of accessories: a smaller soft head for hard floors, mini-motorised tool for cleaning stairs, crevice attachment, combination brush and straight suction tool, brushes, bendy extension tube, and adaptor for accessing high areas such as shelves wardrobe tops. There’s also a single, detachable battery, wall-mountable docking station and clip to connect two attachments to the main pole so they aren’t mislaid.

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An excellent handheld vacuum cleaner, the Dyson V7 is incredibly powerful with strong suction on all surfaces including carpets and hard flooring. Although it's probably too small to use as your main vacuum cleaner, it’s ideal for spot cleaning and the best vacuum cleaner for cars that we’ve found. Easy to handle and manoeuvre for fiddly cleaning jobs, it’s a great gadget to have on standby.

It’s very lightweight - at 1.71kg, it’s significantly lighter than the V7 Absolute, which is already very light at 2.32kg. Yet the power is incredible, especially on the highest Turbo MAX setting which achieves 100AW. However, there is a downside to all this suction. The battery life in this mode is very short - a disappointing six minutes. That said, the battery lasts for 32 minutes on the standard power setting, which is actually pretty lengthy for a handheld vacuum cleaner. The V7 also has Dyson’s ‘hygienic dust ejector’ - a silicone collar which wipes down the inside of the dust container and pushes out dirt and fluff so you don't have to pull it out yourself.

Highly rated by reviewers, this luxury robot vac is far from cheap. However, it cleans brilliantly with impressive customisation and navigation options. This robot vacuum's sensors help it spot objects, walls and drops at an impressive range of two metres. It also boasts 10GB of memory to ‘remember’ objects and layouts every time it cleans. It can even clean in dark areas thanks to the LED light ring around its fisheye camera. Clever!

You can activate the three power settings (Max, Quiet and High) using the Dyson app and it’s even Alexa-compatible so you can give it instructions from the comfort of your sofa, which really does sound like the very best way to do the vacuuming if you ask us.