The future of clean: Dyson’s new slate of products from granular cleaning, virus filtration, and stick vacuums after the pandemic
We’re here to learn about the “future of clean” and the company’s new slate of products. Although many Dyson products already have HEPA filters, the company has, understandably in the wake of the pandemic, leaned even harder into virus filtration and granular cleaning features for the place many of us were confined during the first year of covid and continue to spend most of our time.
It’s a sweltering Tuesday morning as I walk into the vast, cool interior of Dyson’s global headquarters in Singapore — an Edwardian-style brick behemoth that was once the St James Power Station, Singapore’s first power plant. After a stint as a warehouse, in 2006, the location became a sprawl of cheesy harborside nightclubs with flashy cars and obnoxious drunks. The building is made of steel and has original concrete, glass and open-plan office spaces. The ground floor has a small copse of trees, which I was told have some unhappy snakes when they first arrived.
“[Sustainability] is a very thoughtful space, which is why we don’t communicate it a lot, because it’s very complicated,” Churchill says. “We’ve got loads of examples of little things we’re doing. The Dyson brand is going to have a more comprehensive position on sustainable living, that people can understand, if we can bring that all together. Dyson is well known by a design-minded demographic and no one seems to care if the company can communicate it well enough. Dyson seems to be more of an ambient reassuring vibe than it is an eco-friendly one.
There’s also some new tech for stick vacuums. Dyson showed us the Submarine, a wet roller head attachment that is only available on its new vacuum models and is very effective at sucking up a stream of ketchup from a swatch of rug liner. And finally, there’s a new crop of Gen5detect stick vacuums, which supposedly mark the first time Dyson can make a virus filtration claim on its products thanks to a “whole-machine HEPA” filtration system that captures germs and dirt and prevents them from escaping back into the home. Pricing and availability is TBD on most of these new products, but the new Gen5detect models will start at $949. The company’s demo of the new vacuums becomes a source of deep personal horror for me: we’re shown how it sucks up a grainy pile of dust (an analog for dust mite feces) through six layers of fabric. Dyson is interested in engineering perfect in the world of home care.
On the following day, we visit Singapore Advanced Manufacturing, Dyson’s fully automated, minimally staffed motor manufacturing facility where production runs 24/7. As we inch between rows of glass-cased machine lines, the engineers’ basic explanations are drowned out by the relentless drone of balancing stations, magnetizers, and conveyor belts. Next, we go to a second Dyson facility that has a semi-anechoic chamber for sound testing, a glimpse of how Dyson tests human hair for its Supersonic and Airwrap products, and a disappointing look at a laser. When a journalist asks if it is true that people will lose equilibrium and fall over, we are told yes, but nobody will take my request to try this seriously.
The Dyson 360 Eye, Vis Nav, and the Dyson Submarine: New Wet Vacuums and Machines for the Home
As a Dyson product, we can expect the Vis Nav to be expensive. The Dyson 360 Eye launched in 2016 for $999. We would also expect it to be innovative. But from the details Dyson has provided, which aren’t a lot, it looks like the company is going for power and precision over whiz-bang new features.
It doesn’t have an option of mopping or self-emptying, and it doesn’t appear to have an obstacle avoidance feature. The Vis Nav has two things that other robot vacuums lack: a high level processor that listens to the data it gathers from 26 sensors, and twice the suction power of any other robot vacuum. There is a side-actuator brush that can be used for edge cleaning. Along with its square head that can get closer to edges and corners, this should mean it can reach those tricky spots other, rounder robo vacs may miss.
The other big change is the smaller size. Dyson didn’t provide any specifications but says the Vis Nav can get under furniture as low as 3.9 inches. The original Eye was too tall to fit under most beds or sofas. Unfortunately, it’s still blue, which is a bold and, dare we say, bad choice for a product that sits out in people’s homes.
Dyson uses its own version of simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technology for figuring out how to get around your home, powered by a small camera on the top of the robot surrounded by LEDs to help it see in the dark.
Vis Nav will work with the MyDyson app, has a 50-minute run time, and will automatically return to its charging dock. The company didn’t offer any more info on bin size, battery size, or software features such as mapping or keep out zones. You can sign up for updates on the new products at Dyson’s website.
The Dyson Submarine is the company’s first wet vacuum cleaner. It has a wet roller head which can be used to clean up spills, as well as clean hard floors. An attachment to the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine and Dyson V12s Detect Slim Submarine vacuums, the roller head contains a small, 300ml clean water tank and a separate waste water tank with a motorized microfiber roller for scrubbing. Both models will also ship with standard vacuum cleaner heads, however, Dyson says the submarine attachment won’t work on existing vacuums.
The Dyson Purifier Big+Quiet Formaldehyde is a smart air purifier designed for large open-plan spaces in your home that claims to trap and destroy formaldehyde as well as 99 percent of other pollutants. The Big+Quiet uses new “cone aerodynamics” to make it look like it has more power than it does. The Dyson Purifier Big+Quiet Formaldehyde would be quite the conversation piece in the office, and is designed for shared, commercial spaces.