On trial: Dyson Gen5detect Absolute Cordless Vacuum Cleaner

With an unwavering commitment to upgrading everyday electricals, you can be sure a new vacuum release from Dyson is going to next-level your cleaning experience. So what better way to put it through its paces than to unleash it on my farmhouse during the wettest spring on record? Let the clean-up begin.

With its powerful suction and epic 70 minutes’ running time on a single charge – Dyson’s longest ever runtime in a cordless vacuum cleaner – there’s no doubt that Dyson expects the Gen5detect to become the only vacuum you need. A beefed up motor, illuminated hard floor tool and built-in dusting and crevice nozzle means you’ll want to mothball your upright the minute you get your hands on it. Let’s get into the detail…

The motor runs at 135,000rpm which delivers 280 air watts of Dyson’s Cyclone technology. Too sciencey? In short, it’s an upgraded version of Dyson’s famous suction system which can blast through dust and dirt like never before. It also features Dyson’s HEPA filtration system which captures 99.9% of particles and can even suck up viruses in your home, plus there’s a LCD digital display on the back of the main body to prove how hygienically clean your floors are becoming. It also automatically detects dust (using something called a Piezo sensor) so you can hear it speeding up and slowing down according to your personal what I’m calling ‘filth factor’. In my house with kids, dogs and cats dragging in mud all day, it made shockingly light work of blasting through the mess, even huge clumps of mud and straw fallen off casually discarded wellies, although in my case, the 0.77l bin does need regular emptying. One of my favourite new features is the Fluffy Optic cleaner head, which not only has a light to show you how filthy your floors are (trust me, you will be appalled), but also seems to polish as it goes. The main Digital Motorbar cleaner head has hair removal veins, which anyone who’s had to cut tightly wound hairs off a less technical head will appreciate, and there’s a smaller Hair Screw Tool that sucks hair into the bin as it goes – a dream add-on for me when our collie had shed all over the brand new (cream!) sofa.

I’m a huge fan of the simple on-off button at the back, which reduces the wrist ache I got with my previous Dyson V8 (which has a trigger button which has to be continually pressed down to be on). Plus it has a smart swivel function on the cleaner heads which means it’s effortless to change angles by 90 degrees to get up close to skirting boards and around furniture legs. You can also detach the bottom half of the wand to reveal the dusting and crevice cleaner, an innovation that’s so simple, but oh so welcome, especially if you live in a three-storey house as I do and don’t want to be lugging extra accessories up and down stairs. At 3.5kg, the Gen5detect it isn’t feather-light, especially not if you’re doing long cleaning sessions in one go, but the joy of not having to find a plug socket in each room more than compensates, especially when you’re vacuuming stairs (which everyone hates, amiright?).

Look, £849.99 is a big investment, but having a Gen5detect mounted in its wall dock charged and ready for easy, rapid clean-ups has brought me unparalleled joy. In fact, it delivers such powerful JOCU (Joy of Cleaning Up), I’ve made a whip round with the vacuum part of my daily routine and my often (always) filthy farmhouse is significantly cleaner now I have it in my arsenal.