Dyson V16 Piston Animal review: powerful vacuum let down by a poorly designed floorhead

TechRadar

The Dyson V16 Piston Animal is a powerful and advanced vacuum that’s let down by a couple of missteps. It feels ultra-premium and has a couple of useful additions; the onboard dust compaction makes emptying a dream, and the quick-release tool mechanism makes for less bending down. Unfortunately, the redesigned floor head isn't straight along the front, and that’s a major annoyance when cleaning the edges of rooms.

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00:00Dyson's new flagship stick vacuum, the V16 Piston Animal, has some genuinely useful,

00:10innovative features, but it's not quite a slam dunk. My favourite feature is the onboard dust

00:15compaction, which maximises bin space and makes emptying a dream. Other upgrades include a quick

00:20release tool mechanism that saves you from bending down, and an upgraded auto mode that's now clever

00:25enough to adjust brush roll speed as well as suction power to suit any situation. Unfortunately,

00:30everything is let down a bit by the new floor head. It's not straight along the front, which is a major

00:35annoyance when cleaning the edges of rooms. Plus, despite technical improvements, the V16 actually

00:40performed worse than both of its predecessors in my suction tests, making it hard to recommend over

00:46those older models. The V16 Piston Animal was unveiled amid a flurry of Dyson launches in September

00:542025. It's predictably expensive, clocking in at £749.99. It's not available in the US right now,

01:02but it should be arriving sometime in 2026. Interestingly, that list price is actually

01:06a little bit cheaper than the Gen 5 Detect, which was the previous Dyson flagship, although you are

01:11more likely to snag a discount on the older model. Dyson goes some way to justifying the V16's sky-high

01:16price. It looks and feels premium and has been meticulously designed and is packed with features,

01:22including some you can't find anywhere else on the market. That said, for many people it won't be

01:26worth that kind of investment, and for me there are other Dyson vacuums that deliver stronger value for

01:31money. Design-wise, the V16 Piston Animal boasts a number of useful features, many of which are new

01:39within the Dyson lineup. Key amongst the new additions, and the reason for the piston in the name, is the

01:44compression lever on the dust cup. You push this down to squish the contents of the bin, significantly

01:49boosting dustbin capacity. The same lever also makes emptying the bin ultra smooth. You just

01:54open the hatch and use the lever to eject everything inside without having to go in with your fingers.

01:59A second addition is the red cuff at the top of the vacuums wand. This can be pushed down to release the

02:04floor head without you having to bend down. The docking section of the main cleaner heads are angled,

02:09so you can also snap them onto the wand from a standing position. This quick release works well,

02:13but the joints feel a little stiff, and because it's a new mechanism, it means the V16 isn't

02:18compatible with older Dyson tools. There's also the new All Floors Cones Sense floor head. It looks

02:24very different to anything I've seen before. Rather than being tube shaped, the rollers here are

02:28conical. The idea is that if you suck up long strands of hair, they'll make their way down to

02:33the small end of the roller, rather than getting tangled around it. This floor head is kitted out

02:38with a laser that lights up the floor and illuminates dirt that might otherwise be missed.

02:42The V16 switches on and off using a button rather than a trigger. That means you don't have to deal with the

02:47annoyance of keeping the trigger compressed during longer cleaning sessions, but for quick cleanups,

02:51it does require you to keep both hands free, one to switch the vacuum on and off, and one to hold it.

02:56Next to the power button, you'll find a small screen which is used to deliver information,

03:00including which mode you're in and how long you have left on the battery. More impressively,

03:04it'll also provide you with real-time reports on the size and number of particles you're sucking up

03:09as you clean. This works with the V16's auto mode, where the vacuum will automatically adjust

03:13suction and, newly, brush roll speed, based on the kind of floor it's on and how dirty that floor is.

03:19The V16 is apparently the first Dyson vacuum to be properly connected to a companion app,

03:24which should provide cleaning summaries and offer advanced setting options. During my test period,

03:29there wasn't a whole lot to explore available though.

03:35So what's the V16 like to actually use? A bit of a mixed bag. In general use, it felt like this vacuum

03:41packed plenty of oomph. I tested it out in a large house with hard floor, plenty of carpets, and a

03:46black spaniel, and it had no trouble sucking up impressive volumes of dust, hair, and dirt. The

03:51dust compression also meant I didn't have to make so many trips to the bin. I found the real-time dust

03:55reports as mesmerising as ever, and in auto mode I could hear the power ramping it up and down as I

04:01moved around and onto different floor types. The idea behind this mode is that you can get a really thorough

04:06clean without wasting any battery, and it seems to work really well. Incidentally, battery life is

04:11excellent here. Dyson promises up to an hour and 10 minutes in eco mode. I also managed just under

04:1617 minutes of hard core cleaning in boost mode, which is impressive. Officially, the V16 has the

04:21most suction of any Dyson stick vacuum. However, when I did some side-by-side cleaning tests comparing

04:27the V16 to the two models that came before it, the new edition actually performed the worst.

04:31From left to right on screen here are the V15 Detect, the Gen 5 Detect, and the V16 Piston Animal. On the

04:37floor I have oats to represent large particles and dry tea to represent fine gritty particles.

04:42The V16 initially scattered the oats, then picked up most but not all on the return stroke. It also

04:48left a patch of tea on the carpet. That happened in both auto mode and boost mode. In contrast,

04:53both of the older machines cleared everything on the first pass on all sections of the test. On a hard

04:59tiled floor, the oats pooled up in front of the V16's floor head and then scattered everywhere if I tried to

05:04lift the vacuum up on top of the spillage. I think this weaker cleaning performance is down to the

05:08floor head design rather than a lack of power. There's a barrier between the two conical rollers

05:12here which creates an area where nothing's getting sucked up. This border section is also wider than

05:17usual and grippy, which is what's causing the large particles to get pushed around rather than

05:22passing underneath it into the suction area. Unfortunately, that's not where my problems with this

05:26floor head end. The front side here comes to a slight point which makes it tricky to clean up to the edges of

05:32rooms. You have to go in from the side and in spots where you can't do that, a thorough edge clean is

05:37almost impossible. The idea behind this floor head is that it's specifically designed to be great at

05:42dealing with very long hair, up to 25 inches long in fact. I tested it out on my own hair which is a

05:48little shorter than that but still long and I didn't end up with any strands tangled around the

05:52conical rollers. But here's the thing, I never had issues with hair tangling around the rollers on

05:56Dyson's old style floor heads either. Perhaps if you have Rapunzel-like locks you'll see the benefit from the

06:01supercharged detangling on offer here.

06:06So should you buy the V16 piston animal? It's not the Dyson vacuum that I would choose. I love

06:12the onboard dust compaction, advanced automation features and premium feel but for me the design

06:17of the floor head is a deal breaker. It's also difficult to recommend over the older V15 detect

06:21and Gen 5 detects given that both of these vacuums provide better cleaning and are probably going to

06:26cost you less. You can read my full Dyson V16 piston animal review at techradar.com using the link in

06:32the description below where you'll also find my latest home appliance news and opinions. If you have

06:37any thoughts or questions on the V16 I'd love to hear them so drop them in the comments section below.

06:43So

06:48you

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