While full-sized vacuums are always going to be the machines we turn to for heavy duty cleaning jobs, the truth is that cordless and robotic vacuums are rapidly gaining ground among most homeowners. Why? Because sometimes, convenience is more important than power.
Dyson has understood this for years, and this is why they’re one of the leading forces in the cleaning market. More than most, they realize that even though most homeowners will prefer an upright like the Ball Animal 2 for the majority of their home upkeep, they’re still going to consider ultralights and handheld vacuums for jobs that call for portability.
We’ve reviewed several of their cordless vacuums lately, including the Dyson V7 Car+Boat, our favorite so far. Today we’re going to compare it to one of the best-selling portables of all time, the Dyson V6 Top Dog Handheld Vacuum, to see which is a better purchase for most homeowners with pets. To summarize our thoughts in ten seconds, you want the V7 for more battery life and accessories and you want the V6 if you prioritize time-tested designs. Our full review is below, and if you’re ready, you can buy the Top Dog here.
Pros, Cons, and Key Features of the Dyson V6 Top Dog Handheld Vacuum
The Dyson V6 Top Dog is one of a growing number of handheld vacuums released by Dyson in the last few years. While we love the performance of each model, we’re not entirely sure there’s enough of a difference between them to warrant so many of them. In the V6 generation alone, there’s the Car+Boat, Trigger, Baby+Child, Top Dog, and Mattress, while the V7 generation has already reproduced the Car+Boat and Trigger. According to Dyson, they have plans for even more models in the future. However, we don’t make billions of dollars selling vacuums, so in the end, we can’t really argue with their results.
At any rate, the V6 Top Dog is targeted toward pet owners, although, like the rest of the V6s and V7s, it can be used for all sorts of jobs around the house. Key features for the Top Dog include a 20 minute battery runtime with constant suction (where the battery keeps peak power levels until it’s about to expire), four accessories, a hygienic dirt ejector, and a 2 year parts and labor warranty from Dyson. The V6 Top Dog weighs 3.4 pounds on our scale and is capable of generating 100 airwatts of suction. Its dust bin holds .11 gallons and you’ll need 3.5 hours to recharge the Lithium-ion battery.
In the box, you’ll find the V6 itself and several tools–a mini motorized tool, which is what you’ll probably use the most, a combination tool, a crevice tool, and a stiff bristle brush. You also get an AC charger, a manual, and warranty information.
What’s the difference between the Dyson V6 Top Dog and the V7 Car+Boat?
The V6 Top Dog currently doesn’t have a V7 Top Dog equivalent, but as the V6 Car+Boat included everything the Top Dog did and more, we feel the V7 Car+Boat is easily a worthy successor. While both machines have plenty of similarities, there are enough differences between them to make the upgrade from the V6 Top Dog to the V7 Car+Boat a worthy one. Alternatively, if you don’t have the Top Dog, you might want to skip it and move straight to the V7 Car+Boat. The primary differences involve battery life and accessories.
In terms of battery life, the V7 wins, and handily. While you get a respectable 20 minutes with the V6, you get a 50% boost to 30 minutes in the V7. The difference is noticeable in cleaning, as we were able to get into a flow while using the V7 and often finish an entire task (e.g., cleaning out golden retriever fur from the minivan). In contrast, we’d often find power dropping to zero in the V6 with little warning right when we were getting into the thick of things. You also get a car charger in the V7 (which will work in any vehicle with a 12 volt outlet) that lets you charge the batteries a bit while you clean by hand before returning to the V7 for a few more minutes of cleaning.
Beyond the battery and charger boosts in the V7, it also comes with a few more accessories in the box. While you get a considerable number of tools with the Top Dog, you get all of those in the V7 as well as an extension hose and a mini soft dusting brush. While the mini soft dusting brush is more of a niche tool, we found ourselves using the extension hose over and over again when flushing out dog and cat hair from all kinds of nooks and crannies in our home. The accessories in the V7 all have quick release connectors as well, which made switching from one to the other just a little faster while we were in the middle of a cleaning frenzy before the in-laws arrived.
Aside from the battery and accessory upgrades in the V7, it also includes a larger dust bin at .15 gallons vs the V6’s .11 gallon tank. The difference, which amounted to 2.4 cups of pet hair in the V7 vs 1.8 in the V6, meant we were able to spend significantly more time cleaning fur balls, dander, and all kinds of messes with the V7 before we needed to give up and find a trash can. We do need to note that as a result of its larger battery and trash capacity, the V7 weighs 3.8 pounds compared to the 3.4 pounds of the V6. Practically, the difference isn’t noticeable when carrying either; we just wanted you to know.
Power-wise, both vacuums seemed identical when paired with the same tools. It makes sense since both come with the same maximum airwatt rating at 100; despite Dyson’s marketing the V7 as their strongest handheld yet, if you buy the V6, rest assured that it’ll be just as powerful in real-world use.
How useful is the Dyson V6 Top Dog for cleaning pet hair from cars, furniture, and around the house?
When buying a handheld vacuum, you need to keep your expectations realistic. It’s not going to clean like a Miele Complete C3 Cat & Dog, a Dyson Ball Animal 2 or any other full-sized canister or upright. If it’s made well, though, it should be lightweight, portable, and sufficiently powerful to clean pet hair, dust, crumbs, dirt, and other strange things that hide away in car seats, behind sofas, between cushions, beneath beds, and everywhere else filth gathers in your home when you’re not looking. This is what we hoped for with the V6 Top Dog, and it’s generally what we found.
While it wasn’t perfect, we were able to make swift work of pet hair cleanup in several rooms, and with a healthy number of attachments, we rarely felt we didn’t have one that couldn’t be put to work appropriately. The main things we missed in comparison to the V7 were the extra 10 minutes of battery life and the extension hose for reaching behind dressers and drawers. We’d also like to see the recharge time reduced from 3.5 hours to 3 or even 2, the way even cheap and reliable robotic vacuums like the Shark Robot 750 or Roomba 690 manage these days. But that aside, we were easily able to clean an SUV from top to bottom before the battery ran down. Cat hair tumbleweeds surrendered to the V6’s suction. Hairy blankets became dehaired; bedspreads looked like new, and quick tidy-up jobs in bedrooms, bathrooms, living rooms, and elsewhere were easily achievable. It’s a solid vacuum, and while it won’t replace a Cat&Dog when it comes to thoroughly tackling allergens, but it’s also a lot cheaper than one.
Why buy the Dyson V6 Top Dog?
Overall, we find it hard to complain about the V6 Top Dog. It’s powerful, light weight, ergonomic, and comes with a good amount of accessories and a 2 year warranty. It only pales in comparison to the V7 Car+Boat, which does include more accessories (the extension hose in particular being our favorite upgrade) as well as a 30 minute battery over a 20 minute one. If you want the potentially greater reliability of an older model, the V6 Top Dog will serve you well for many years. However, to take advantage of advances in technology and to get the most for your money, we’d recommend upgrading to the V7 Car+Boat.
You can buy the Dyson V6 Top Dog here on Amazon. If you want more battery life and accessories, buy the Dyson V7 Car+Boat vacuum here instead.
Canadians can buy the Dyson V6 Top Dog here on Amazon. If you want the upgraded features, buy the V7 Car+Boat vacuum 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.