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Powerful, but short lived

SINGAPORE — Cordless vacuum cleaners, while perfect for quick cleans, have never been extremely powerful. Still, with houses shrinking in size a bulky corded vacuum cleaner isn’t always ideal, and the Dyson Digital Slim DC62 is hoping to change that.

SINGAPORE — Cordless vacuum cleaners, while perfect for quick cleans, have never been extremely powerful. Still, with houses shrinking in size a bulky corded vacuum cleaner isn’t always ideal, and the Dyson Digital Slim DC62 is hoping to change that.

Dyson’s DC-62 aims to bring the kind of power you find in corded vacuum cleaners, and with the new V6 motor, there’s definitely power in spades. Using it around the house, everything — from fine dust to balls of cat hair — disappeared quickly into its bin.

The Dyson does have some problems with picking up larger items, like the crystals in my cats’ kitty litter. It’s not a big issue, however, as maintaining suction over the offending piece of dirt a little longer usually does the trick, and there’s a boost mode that’s really powerful just a button press away.

The DC62 comes with a lengthy and lightweight aluminium wand that allows you to use the DC62 like a regular vacuum cleaner. The wand is fitted with motorised rotating brushes, which actually help bring in the dirt instead of pushing it around, so most of the time a single sweep will do the job. It also really loosened some surface dirt that would usually require a hard wipe to remove — some hard to reach areas became clean once again quite easily. The wand, purple in colour, complements the look of the DC62, but be careful if you slam it too hard against edges as the purple paint can chip off.

While the DC62 is very compact for the power you get, you still will be holding a 2kg device while vacuuming. The DC62 puts everything into its body, from the motor to the bin to the battery, which means using it for long can get tiring. But once you get used to it, you’ll find that it’s quite easy to manoeuvre the DC62 into tight spaces for use.

Still, what really cripples the DC-62 is the battery life. Rated at a maximum of 20 min with the short adapter, and 17 min for the wand, that’s maybe enough if you have a shoebox apartment. With non-stop use I got about 13 min with the wand — possibly due to the heat the battery generates affecting the battery life. Still, the heat wasn’t uncomfortable, and that 13 min was just enough to get me through my dining and living room and kitchen. As for boost mode: That’s rated at just 6 min of use.

The battery life wouldn’t be such an issue if it weren’t for the length it takes to charge it: It takes about 3.5 hours for a full charge. This really makes the DC62 more suitable for quick cleans and small rooms — any more than that and you’ll have to break up your cleaning sessions into smaller blocks of time.

There’s also the issue of noise: The motors produce a loud noise, especially since the handheld DC62 is much closer to you. It’s not uncomfortable, but it did have my cats frantically running for their lives each time I used the machine. Good thing then that the vacuum cleaner had no problems with picking up the fur they left behind in their panic.

The Dyson DC-62 is very powerful, especially for a handheld vacuum cleaner, and has enough suction to do all the cleaning you need. However, the battery life and price — it’s S$799 — means that it’s really only ideal for those who need it: Those with tiny homes where every bit of space savings count, or used alongside a full-sized vacuum cleaner.

The Dyson Digital Slim DC62 is now available at all major electrical chain and departmental stores at S$799.

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