Life is full of contradictions. We live in a world with more technology than ever, yet we somehow feel just as pressed for time. Practically speaking, it doesn’t do you any good to have the most powerful vacuum in the world if you can’t find five minutes a day to use it. And if you’re like most of us, it doesn’t take much to keep you from cleaning; simply having a vacuum buried in a closet can be enough to put off cleaning the carpets until tomorrow. Sometimes it’s as simple as not wanting to unwind the power cable, plug it in, and wind it up when you’re done. Whatever the reason, the solution tends to be the same: to increase your odds of vacuuming, you want a vacuum that makes vacuuming as easy as possible.
Dyson has become a leader in the US and Canadian vacuuming markets in the last decade because they do a better job of making vacuuming tolerable–perhaps even enjoyable–than nearly any other company they compete with. Want a full-sized upright with power to spare? Buy the Ball Animal 2. Want a budget-friendly handheld vacuum? You want the V7 Car+Boat. And if you want a high-end stick or cordless vacuum that can switch from handheld to full-sized modes while running for up to an hour between charges, the best on the market is the Cyclone V10 Absolute, followed by the Cyclone V10 Animal. But if you want V10 technology without V10 prices, you’ll want to check out the Dyson Cyclone V10 Motorhead Lightweight Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner. Our thoughts in ten seconds? Buy the Animal if you want most of the accessories in the Absolute without paying full price, and buy the Motorhead if you don’t need the fancy accessories and just want the power and battery life. Our full review is below, and you can buy the Cyclone V10 Motorhead here. If you’re in Canada, you can buy the Cyclone V10 Motorhead here.
Where does the Dyson Cyclone V10 Motorhead Cordless Vacuum rank compared to other Dysons?
The Dyson Cyclone V10 Motorhead is, frankly, the third best cordless Dyson you can buy today. When ranking it against other Dysons, you’ll want some brand-specific terminology. Dyson calls their luxury portable vacuums “cordless” or “cord free” and their economy line “handheld.” The truth is that both work in handheld modes, but the cordless models also give you an extension hose that lets you turn them into full-sized, ultralight stick vacuums. The cordless models also use motor-driven heads to give you additional power when cleaning carpets in upright mode. Beyond that, they use stronger motors and larger, longer-lasting motors.
What this means for you is that Dyson has two battery-powered flagships: the V7 Car+Boat among the low-power handhelds and the Cyclone V10 Absolute among their high-powered sticks. If you don’t need all the accessories of the Absolute, you can save money while retaining power and battery life with the Cyclone V10 Animal or the Cyclone V10 Motoerhead we’re reviewing today. If you don’t need as much power or battery life, you can often save additional dollars by visiting previous generations. In the V8 generation, you’ll find bargains with the V8 Absolute and V8 Animal, the V7 Motorhead in the V7 generation, and the V6 Absolute, V6 Animal, V6 Fluffy Pro, V6 Fluffy, V6 Motorhead, and V6 Cord-Free in the V6 generation.
Pros, cons, and key features of the Dyson Cyclone V10 Motorhead cordless vacuum
The Cyclone V10 Motorhead’s key features involve its upgrades in battery runtime and power. Instead of 40 minutes of battery life with 25 minutes when using the motorized cleaning head in the V8 generation, the V10 Motorhead features up to 60 minutes of battery life and up to 35 minutes with the included direct drive cleaning head. Thanks to the more powerful motor included in the V10 Motorhead, you’ll also see up to a 25% boost in suction, increasing your available airwatts from 115 in the V8 generation to 144 in the V10. You also get .3 micron-level whole machine filtration, a few accessories we’ll discuss momentarily, and Dyson’s standard 2 year parts and labor warranty.
On our scale, the V10 Motorhead weighs 5.5 pounds and stands 9.5 inches tall, is 48.9 inches long, and has a 10.1 inch wide cleaning path when used in stick mode. Its dirt bin remains unchanged from that of the previous generation at .14 gallons, as do the charging requirements; you’ll need 3.5 hours to fully charge the non-removable, fade-free Lithium-ion battery. Unboxing the Cylone, you’ll find the V10 Motorhead itself and a few tools and accessories, including a direct drive cleaner head, a combination tool, and a crevice tool, along with a docking station and charger to allow you to store it out of the way and charge it in between cleaning sessions.
What’s the difference between the Dyson V10 Animal and the V10 Motorhead?
There are only a few key differences that set the V10 Animal apart from the V10 Motorhead, and they’re almost all tied to accessories. For starters, while you’ll get a motorized cleaning head with both, the head that ships with the Motorhead is the basic direct drive motor head while that included with the V10 Animal is Dyson’s new torque drive motor head, which, per Dyson, is 25% stronger than the direct drive head. Practically speaking, while we can’t quantify the difference between the heads as precisely as Dyson did, we do agree that it seems more powerful as measured by how much less time it took to suck a flowerpot-full of dirt out of carpeting compared to the direct drive head.
Aside from this, you get two more tools with the Animal than with the Motorhead: the mini soft dusting brush and the mini motorized tool; neither is particularly essential, although both are nice to have. Finally, it’s worth noting that the Motorhead at 5.5 pounds weighs roughly half a pound less than the 5.9 pound Animal, but you’re unlikely to notice this difference when using either. You’re perhaps more likely to notice the smaller dust bin at .14 gallons vs the .2 gallon tank in the Animal, but if you aren’t using both vacuums to maximum capacity on a frequent basis, you’ll be hard pressed to feel like you’re missing out, especially since you’re unlikely to fill it up in one cleaning session.
Is the Dyson V10 Motorhead stick vacuum worth the price?
In our books, the V10 Motorhead is a dark horse in the new V10 line. It’s the cheapest of the three V10 models, but it’ll still tackle most residential low-pile carpet styles with ease–berbers, Saxonies, and cut and loops–as well as every hard floor out there, including hardwood, engineered wood, vinyl, laminate, ceramic tiles, marble, bamboo, concrete, brick, and similar surfaces. The main drawbacks to it compared to its more pricey siblings are the lack of additional accessories and the smaller dirt cup. However, as we noted at the start of the review, if you can live with fewer accessories, the Motorhead is the cheapest way to get the best battery life and power in a cordless Dyson today, and for that, we love it dearly.
You can buy the Dyson Cyclone V10 Animal here on Amazon. If you don’t need all the accessories or the more powerful torque cleaner head, save some money and buy the Cyclone V10 Motorhead instead.
Canadians can buy the Dyson Cyclone V10 Animal here on Amazon. If you’d rather keep more money in your pocket at the expense of more accessories, buy the Cyclone V10 Motorhead here instead.
If you find our research on PMC helpful, you can follow our efforts to keep maniacally reviewing home cleaning tools by shopping through our links above. We promise to keep fighting the good fight against every horror children, animals, and grown, yet messy humans can inflict upon a clean home.