Study after study has shown that we’re busier today than at any time before, despite living in the most technologically advanced age of humanity. Practically speaking, this means finding the time to clean your home can be a struggle to say the least. Even worse, for most of us it means any excuse (for example, a vacuum tucked away in a closet or the fact that you need to plug it in and wind up the cord when you’re done) can be enough to lead to another day of procrastination while the house goes unkempt. To put it simply, to increase your odds of vacuuming, it helps to have a vacuum that makes the job as easy as possible.

For more than a decade now, Dyson has dominated the US and Canadian vacuuming markets because they understand the importance of making hard things easy better than nearly any other company in their field. If you want a full-sized upright that gives you power and reliability, the best on the market is the Ball Animal 2. If you want an affordable handheld vacuum with a decent amount of power, you can buy the V7 Car+Boat. And if you want a high-end stick or cordless vacuum that you can use in both handheld and full-sized modes without ever plugging it in, there’s nothing better today than the Cyclone V10 Absolute. But presuming you don’t want to spend quite as much, you can still get most of the features from the Dyson Cyclone V10 Animal Cord Free Vacuum, which is what we’re going to review today. To summarize our review in one sentence, buy the Animal if you want the power and longevity of the Absolute but can live without the additional roller cleaner head; buy the Absolute if, as the name suggests, you want to have it all. Our full review is below, and you can buy the Cyclone V10 Animal here. If you’re in Canada, you can buy the Cyclone V10 Animal here.

Where does the Dyson Cyclone V10 Animal Cordless Vacuum rank compared to other Dysons?

The Dyson Cyclone V10 Animal is, to put it bluntly, the second best cordless Dyson on the market today. To classify it among other Dysons, it helps to know some terminology used by the British company. They call their high-end portables “cord free” or “cordless” and refer to their lower-end line as “handheld.” While you can use both lines as handheld vacuums, when you buy a cordless Dyson, you also get an extension hose that lets you use it as a full-sized ultralight stick vacuum. You also get motor-driven heads to let you clean carpets with additional strength in upright mode. And if that weren’t enough, you also get larger, longer-lasting batteries and stronger motors for more cleaning power. However, the extra features come at a price–literally: you’ll pay more for a cordless Dyson than you will for a handheld model, which will be cheaper and lighter, although also weaker with poorer battery life.

As a result, there are two levels of flagships among Dyson’s cordless vacuums. Among handhelds, it’s the V7 Car+Boat. However, among cordless models, which we recommend due to the dual cleaning modes, greater power, and longer battery life, there’s nothing better than the Cyclone V10 Absolute, which the V10 Animal we’re reviewing today and the V10 Motorhead rounding out the top three models in terms of power and battery life. If you don’t want to spend V10 money, you can often find bargains in the V8 generation with the V8 Absolute and V8 Animal, in the V7 generation with the V7 Motorhead, and in the V6 generation with the V6 Absolute, V6 Animal, V6 Fluffy Pro, V6 Fluffy, V6 Motorhead, and V6 Cord-Free.

Pros, cons, and key features of the Dyson Cyclone V10 Animal cordless vacuum

The Cyclone V10 Animal’s primary features are centered in battery runtime and power upgrades. You now get up to 60 minutes of battery life, although this reduces to 35 minutes when using the torque drive cleaning head and 11 minutes when using max power mode. For comparison, the V8 Animal lasted for 40, 25, and 7 minutes respectively. The V10 Animal also sees a 25% suction boost thanks to a more powerful motor; you now have up to 144 airwatts on tap vs 115 in the V8 predecessor. The accessories remain largely unchanged–we’ll describe those in a minute–as well as the fully sealed, .3 micron-level whole machine filtration. You get 2 years of parts and labor warranty coverage, just as before. The V10 Animal weighs 5.9 pounds on our scale and is 9.5 inches tall, 49.2 inches long, and has a 10.1 inch wide cleaning path in stick mode. Its dirt bin holds .2 gallons instead of the .14 in the previous generation and the charging requirements remain the same: you’ll need 3.5 hours to bring the non-removable, fade-free Lithium-ion battery to full capacity.

Inside the box, you’ll find the V10 Animal and a number of accessories, including a charger and docking station to allow you to easily charge, detach, use, and store the Animal in between cleaning sessions. The main cleaning tool is the torque drive cleaner head that’s reportedly 25% stronger than the direct drive head shipped with the V8 Animal. You’ll also get four quick release tools unchanged from the predecessor: a mini soft dusting brush, a mini motorized tool, a crevice tool, and a combination tool.

What’s the difference between the Dyson V10 Absolute and the V10 Animal?

The relationship between the 2nd-place Animal and 1st-place Absolute remains unchanged from the V8, V7, and V6 generations: the only differences have to do with the accessories. Specifically, the soft roller cleaner head that ships with the Absolute is missing in the Animal. Aside from that, the vacuums are identical, right down to suction power, battery runtime, and weight. The only additional differences have to do with price (you’ll pay a few hundred more for the Absolute) and color (the Absolute’s extension hose is yellow while the Animal’s is purple).

How well does the Dyson V10 Animal clean SUVs, cars, and minivans, as well as carpets, stairs, hard floors, and upholstery?

The V10 Animal does a stellar job on most surfaces as long as you keep your expectations realistic. It’s not a full-sized corded upright, and it’s not going to give you the power of a Ball Animal 2 (which can generate up to 275 airwatts). It’s also not going to clean high-pile carpets in any way, shape, or form; for that, you’ll need a Miele C1 Cat & Dog or Miele Compact C2 Electro+. While it’s a Dyson, it’s not a magic wand. That said, it’ll tackle every residential low-pile carpet style 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. It’ll also clear out dust, pet hair, food, and other grimy things from carpets, bare floors, stairs, SUV, minivan, and car interiors, and upholstery, including car seats, beds, and sofas. We love the boosted battery life, even though you’re probably not going to see 60 minutes unless you never switch out of low power mode.

Is the Dyson V10 Animal stick vacuum worth the price?

To finish this review, while it isn’t perfect, the Cyclone V10 Animal is easily one of the best cordless vacuums on the market today. While not everyone will be able to use it as a full-time replacement for a full-sized corded vacuum, a lot of families will, and it will let the vast majority of families to store their corded vacuums in closets and use the Animal 95% of the time. Our main recommendation would be to consider upgrading to the Absolute to make the most of the battery life in the V10 series; because the soft roller head is air-powered instead of motor driven, it allows you to truly spend up to 60 minutes cleaning in stick mode as long as you’re dealing with bare floors instead of carpets. The motor can’t be turned off in the torque head that ships with the Animal, which limits you to 35 minutes tops in full-sized mode with that head. If you can live without the additional battery life and would rather have money in your pocket, skip the Absolute for the Animal and enjoy the 2nd-best cordless option you can buy today.

You can buy the Dyson Cyclone V10 Absolute vacuum here on Amazon. If you don’t need the soft roller head, you can buy the Cyclone V10 Animal here instead.

Canadians can buy the Dyson Cyclone V10 Absolute vacuum here on Amazon or save some money with the Cyclone V10 Animal 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.