Dyson Cinetic Big Ball review

The Dyson Cinetic Big Ball is the first bagless vacuum cleaner to not require the use of performance-draining filters. Bagless vacuum cleaners have been around for decades now, but most (all) of them have insufficiently powerful cyclones to trap all of the dust particles that get sucked out of your carpets, and thus they use filters to complete the job.

But using filters requires maintenance, and as they become clogged, performance of the vacuum cleaner drops off dramatically. That's why even some Dyson vacuums often don't seem to be as good as they once were - many people don't even realise there are filters that need to be cleaned.

To eliminate these issues in its new model, Dyson is calling the Cinetic Big Ball "the first upright vacuum cleaner that truly never loses suction", so how does it work and do those claims stack up? 

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Well it works by completely eliminating the need for filters. The smallest-ever cyclones generated in the Cinetic Big Ball create higher centrifugal forces and are thus able to capture even the smallest dust particles. Simples, right?

Not quite, because the tighter the cyclone, the more likely it is to block. So what Dyson has done is use flexible tips which vibrate 350 times a second in order to shake every particle through the tips and on into the bin. Boom.

Should you buy it?

The first thing you'll notice about the Big Ball is how enormous it is. It's heavy too, weighing in at 8.7Kg. It's not ideal for carrying up and down stairs for that reason. But what it is ideal for is sucking every particle of dust out of your carpets.

Going over even a perceptibly 'clean' carpet will yield a frightening amount of dust into the Dyson's bin. Carpets have never looked so clean - we've used Dysons many times in the past and the suction this thing generates is simply staggering.

However, performance is not the only consideration when buying a vacuum cleaner. You also need to think about storage, portability, versatility and of course... price.

The Dyson Cinetic Big Ball is unashamedly a premium product, and costing £460 in the UK it's probably the most expensive vacuum cleaner of all time. If you trade in your old vacuum, you'll be able to get it for £350 but that's still no small sum.

The top of the line model that we tested comes with a range of tools to use with it, including a turbine tool that does a truly excellent job of getting rid of hair from carpets and upholstery. There's also an instant-release 'wand' for attacking those pesky spiderwebs up in the corner of your son's bedroom.

Functionally, then, the Dyson works exactly how you would expect it to - even if you've never even seen one before. It's an excellent piece of engineering, and while that may not wholly justify the expense, you can't deny that it's far more useable than the copycat brands. The only area where perhaps it could do more is in cable management - the power lead still needs to be manually tidied rather than wound in which is a bit of a bugbear.

But where this thing really excels is in open spaces. It doesn't have to be carpets as the Cinetic has an active plate that self-adjusts across every floor type. It maintains close contact with the floor at all times, automatically raising and lowering - pretty cool.

It's less ideal for weaving in between chair legs, tables and other bits of furniture, though, so according to what you need from your new cleaner, you could well find that one of Dyson's smaller options is more suitable for your needs.

But for anyone with a lot of carpet to buzz who wants the best of the best - the Cinetic Big Ball is a true performer.

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