Dyson is one of the biggest players in the cordless vacuum and air purifier space (and, more recently, the hair dryer), but it’s kept a relatively low profile. robotic vacuum market. Today, the company is bringing its latest robotic vacuum to the US and Canada. Once available in other regions Dyson 360 Vis Nav Available to order now in the US from Dyson Direct and other retailers for $1,199. Amazon.
While we haven’t had a chance to test the 360 Vis Nav yet, we were able to get some details on how the new robot vacuum works from Dyson. A few things stand out from traditional robot vacuums, the first being a 360-degree vision system that maps your home as it cleans using a camera located in the top center of the robot. Home mapping isn’t new in this space, but Dyson claims the images captured by this vision system will help the machine better understand the layout of your home, marking corners and edges and recognizing it, including where obstacles like furniture live. where he cleaned up and where he still had to go to finish a job. The camera is surrounded by eight LEDs that balance the exposure and help the robot move better even in low light conditions.
Second, while most robot vacuum cleaners use small brooms to pick up dust bunnies hiding in the corners of the room and on the edges of furniture, the Dyson machine has a side edge actuator that automatically opens when cleaning such areas. It then uses suction to pick up debris, which Dyson claims provides an even more thorough clean. I’m eager to see how this works in practice, as cleaning the corners of rooms is one of the toughest jobs for a robot vacuum, even one that has the advantage of a D-shaped design like the 360 Vis Nav.
Finally, Dyson’s robot vacuum uses a Piezo sensor, similar to those found in the company’s stick vacuums, to detect dirt and then help the machine do a few things: boost its suction power up to a maximum of 65 air watts and create. A heat map of the dirtiest parts of your home in the My Dyson app. This sounds like a more useful application for the piezo sensor than for Dyson’s cordless vacuums; In my testing, I found that it can be fun to see how many dirt particles you’ve picked up with a manual vacuum, watching the change on the digital display while you’re cleaning, but it’s not as effective after vacuuming. But in this app, especially with the heat map, that information can show you areas of your home that you might want to clean more often, and you can program the 360 Vis Nav to clean just those spots within the app.
The Dyson 360 Vis Nav has a similar design to some high-end robot vacuums currently on the market, with two square edges that help it get into room corners more easily. Under the hood is a Hyperdimium motor and removable filter, plus a triple-action brush bar that spans the entire width of the machine, something you don’t often see on competing robot vacuums. Of course, the cleaning surfaces take a lot from what’s on the company’s stick vacuums: there’s carbon fiber bristles and stiff nylon bristles for deep-cleaning carpets, and a softer nylon surface that’s better on hard floors with a “bristle.” The entire machine is HEPA compliant, meaning that inhaled air cannot pass through other parts of the machine, allowing for better capture of microscopic particles such as allergens and dust mites.
Dyson may have waited a little longer to enter the US robot vacuum market, but it seems it wanted to find the right ways to integrate the technology from its cordless vacuum cleaners into the space before doing so. On paper, this technology might set the 360 Vis Nav apart from other robot vacuums. When we can get some test time with the device, I’ll be interested in trying out its four cleaning modes (Auto, Booster, Quick, and Quiet) to see if the advertised 65-minute run time (on Auto) really holds up. Decide how robust and easy to use the My Dyson app is.
But what sets the 360 Vis Nav apart from the competition is that it’s sky high. $1,199 price tag. That’s a price we’ve only seen on robot vacuums with self-draining bases, and the 360 Vis Nav doesn’t have one of those (its dock is rechargeable only). But if you’re familiar with other Dyson products that often sell for a premium, this won’t come as a surprise.
