Welcome to our Dyson V8 review. The V8’s airflow was measured at 40 CFM, and its suction was measured at 70 inches of water lift. The V8’s airflow is slightly above average, while its suction is slightly below average.
Overall, it has right around average power for a cordless vacuum. More importantly, though, it’s able to maintain this airflow and suction over time because its pre-motor filter doesn’t clog easily with fine debris.
All Dyson V8 tests
Flour clog test
In our flour clog test, we use the vacuum to pick up one cup of flour. After the test, we inspect its pre-motor filter to see if any of the flour has deposited on it. Very little, if any, debris deposited on the V8’s filter because it uses an array of cyclones to filter out fine debris and drop it back into its bin before it can reach its pre-filter.
Compare this result to that of the Tineco A10, for example. A large amount of flour deposited on the Tineco’s filter because it doesn’t have multiple cyclones to filter out this fine debris.
The results of this test indicate that the Dyson will be much better able to maintain the suction it has and require much less filter maintenance than the Tineco.
Carpet cleaning
In our carpet stress test, the V8 only slightly pushes forward some large debris; otherwise, it has very good pickup in this test.
Hard floor cleaning
In our hard floor stress test, the Dyson V8 pushes forward a lot of large debris. The debris gets stuck to the front of its cleaner head on the push forward and stays stuck as the cleaner head is pulled backward.
To remedy this issue, you can buy a soft roller cleaner head separately for the V8. This cleaner head has no trouble with large debris on hard floors, but it is expensive.
Carpet deep cleaning
In our carpet deep clean test, the Dyson V8 picked up 73% of debris after being pushed back and forth three times over an area of carpet embedded with fine debris. This is an above-average result for this Dyson V8 test. It’s only 7% less pickup than that of the best performers in this test.
Dyson V8 revice test
The V8 was also an above-average performer in our Dyson V8 hard floor crevice test. It had little to no trouble pulling the flour out of the crevice used for this test.
Dyson V8’s battery life
Battery life relative to performance is another problem area for the V8. This vacuum was tested to run for 8 and 1/2 minutes on high and 38 1/2 minutes on low. The problem is that performance drops significantly switching from high to low suction. The vacuum works very well on high, but it struggles a bit on low.
For example, in our carpet deep clean test, the vacuum picked up 73% of debris on high but only 50% of debris on low. On hard floors, it works very well on high and it does work on low, but it lacks that extra punch to really pick up debris as efficiently as possible.
The bottom line is that most users will want to use this vacuum on high most of the time, and on high, the V8 doesn’t have very good battery life. This vacuum also doesn’t have an easily swappable battery, so you can’t buy an extra battery to increase runtime on high.
Fog test
Debris containment is another point of strength for the Dyson V8. This vacuum seals in fine debris just about as well as any other Dyson we’ve tested. We didn’t observe any fog leaking or exhausting out of the vacuum during this test.
Hair tangling
Hair tangling is a bit of a mixed bag for the V8. In our long hair pickup test, its brush roll tangled with only a few strands of 8-inch long hair, but it did tangle with 50 to 60% of 14-inch long hair. The V8’s 8-inch result is better than average, but its 14-inch result is right around average.
Only taking into account the percentage of hair that tangled in this test, it’s below average when you take into account how and where the hair tangled. Most of the hair tangled around its brush roll, and this hair is easy to remove. The problem is that some of the hair tangled around this area of the cleaner head, and this hair is much more difficult to remove.
So overall, the Dyson V8 does well with hair up to about 8 inches long, but it doesn’t do so well with hair up to 14 inches long.
Weight and handling
Moving on to ease of use, the Dyson V8 overall is light and compact, which gives it excellent handling and makes it comfortable to hold when used as a handheld as well.
Power trigger
Like other older Dyson models, including the V10, V11, and V15, the V8 does require you to keep its trigger pulled to keep the vacuum powered on. This may be a bit uncomfortable for some users, though we didn’t really have a problem with it during testing.
Dust bin size
What is a bit of a problem is the vacuum’s dust bin. It’s very small, with a maximum measured capacity of only 300 ml. Average cordless vacuum dustbin size is about 500 ml.
Pros and cons for Dyson V8
Positive
Summarizing all of the pros and cons for this vacuum, the biggest positive for the V8 is the fact that it passed both of our two most important tests. It passed our flour clog test and our debris containment test. The V8 passing our flour clog test indicates that it should have good sustained suction over time and require less filter maintenance than many of its competitors.
The V8 passing our debris containment test shows that it won’t exhaust fine particles into the air like many of its competitors. The V8 also picks up surface level debris on carpet and deep cleans carpet very well. It picks up smaller size surface level debris well on hard floors with its standard cleaner head and can pick up small and large debris very well with a Dyson soft roller cleaner head.
Negative
On the negative side of things, the biggest negative for this vacuum is its battery life relative to its performance. It has poor battery life on high, and its performance drops significantly on low. Another major negative for this vacuum is this part of its cleaner head that tangles with especially long hair and is especially difficult to detangle from long hair. The V8 also requires you to keep its trigger pulled to keep it powered on, and it has a relatively small dust bin.
Our recommendations
Moving on to general recommendations, the V8 is the cheapest Dyson cordless vacuum we’ve tested. Compared to more expensive Dyson models, its cyclones filter out fine debris just about as well, it’s able to seal in fine debris just about as well, and it picks up most types of debris just about as well.
What you give up with the V8 are the negatives we outlined earlier. Compared to higher-priced Dyson models, the V8 lacks a medium power setting and so it can only be set to high with poor battery life or low with very middling performance.
Dyson V8 also has this area of its cleaner head that’s hard to detangle. This area is covered with a cap to prevent tangling on more expensive Dyson models. The V8 also has a relatively small dust bin. More expensive Dyson models have average to above-average size dust bins. These disadvantages for the V8 compared to more expensive Dyson models keep the V8 from the very top of our rankings, but it’s still a very good cordless vacuum and a great option at its price point.
