Dyson’s PencilVac Is a Limited Vacuum, But a Revolutionary Broom
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If you’re looking for a singlecordless vacuumto handle all your cleaning, the Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones isn’t for you. This highly maneuverable, four-pound vacuum may excel at cleaning hard floors of all kinds and is handy for getting at hard-to-reach light fixtures and trim, but it’s useless on rugs and carpets. That said, it is so easy and satisfying to use that it could very well become your most-used vacuum, even if it can’t be your only vacuum.
The PencilVac’s wireless charging dock and omnidirectional cleaning head make it easier to grab and go than any other cordless vacuum I’ve tested, and it’s quickly become my weapon of choice in my ceaseless battle against the clay granules coating the floor of the room where my cats’ litter boxes reside. It’s also ideal for sucking up the errant allium skins that inevitably end up on the floor while cooking. Its roughly 20-minute run time is plenty, considering how quickly its tiny 80-milliliter dustbin fills up. In that sense, it’s kind of like ahandheld vacuumfor hard floors — meant for quickly cleaning up messes as they happen rather than covering a whole home in one go.
The PencilVac may be new to the U.S., but it was originally designed for urbanites in Japan and South Korea, where it was first released almost a year ago. Outdoor shoes are strictly forbidden in the compact, hard-floored apartments there, so a PencilVac is more than enough — since it’s basically just a fancy, convenient broom replacement. Six hundred dollars is a lot to ask for an accessory cleaner, yet owning one will almost certainly make your life easier.
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The PencilVac is uniquely lightweight and maneuverable
As Sir James Dyson explainedin a recent interview, the eureka moment for the cordless stick vacuum was realizing that you could move a vacuum’s suction motor and battery from the floor-cleaning head into the user’s hand by connecting the parts with a rigid tube. The newly lightened and slimmed-down head could then move more easily around obstacles and under low-clearance furniture. The PencilVac takes this line of thinking a step further by cramming the motor and battery into the tube itself. The result is an astonishingly powerful cleaning device that looks, feels, and handles more like a dust mop than a vacuum cleaner. And since the sides of the floor-cleaning head aren’t covered by hard plastic, you can run it right up against the edge of the trim without worrying about scratching the paint.
The tangleproof Fluffycones work on hard floors, but not on rugs
Since 2021, Dyson has been using a conical “hair screw” brushroll in its motorized upholstery-cleaning attachments. This design uses centrifugal force to fling long strands of hair, fur, and thread toward the narrow ends of the screw, where it gets balled up and sucked into the tube rather than tangling around the roller. It’s a remarkably effective design that’s now been translated into these soft-bristled rollers for hard-floor cleaning.
Two parallel pairs of fluffy, conical rollers — joined at the wide ends to form a diamond shape — sit on either side of the suction tube opening. They spin inward, in opposite directions, so that debris is constantly swept toward the suction hole from both sides, regardless of the vacuum head’s direction of motion. This means it’s just as effective for cleaning forward as it is backward, and it can even clean as you move it side to side. And it really is quite good at cleaning. I was able to effortlessly pick up everything from spilled flour to shelled Virginia peanuts (which are quite big!) without resorting to the battery-draining Boost setting. It only struggled with larger things, like popcorn, because the rollers were too close to the ground.
The attachment’s exterior has a bright green LED on either side that highlights any dust or debris in its path. These lights function similarly to the laser-based dust illuminator on Dyson’s bigger Detect series cordless vacuums but aren’t as precise — much more of the floor gets illuminated along with the dirt, whereas the laser only illuminates the particles.
Using the PencilVac on rugs and carpets is kind of like trying to eat a porterhouse with a butter knife. It’s not impossible, but you won’t get your desired result, and it may get stuck along the way. The soft and fluffy bristles simply aren’t up to the task of agitating the pile.
The swiveling Combi Crevice brush works well for above-floor cleaning
Both PencilVac configurations come with a swivelling brush-crevice tool that stows on the backside of the charging dock. Swapping it in for the floor-cleaning head is just a matter of pressing the release lever, pulling the handle to release it — just as you would to empty the dustbin — and plugging the new tool into the handle’s opening. The unique swiveling brush makes it easier to find an effective angle to clean high-up shelves, trim, and light fixtures without relying on a stepladder. Or you can retract it to reveal the crevice tool for getting into tight spots.
Its battery run time is decent for its size
The PencilVac defaults to Eco mode, with which it can last up to 30 minutes on a full charge. This amount of suction may be fine for some environments, but not for my two-cat, one long-haired-person household. Pressing the smaller mode button right above the red power button will cycle you through medium, which lasts about 20 minutes on a full charge and is enough for most of my home, and Boost mode, which lasts about nine minutes. Medium was sufficient for hard-floor cleaning, but it was nice to have Boost available for dusting shelves and trim using the swivel-brush attachment.
In my real-world testing, mostly switching between Eco and Medium modes, I got about 19 minutes of cleaning from a full charge. This was enough to cover all the rugless areas of the 1,200-square-foot ground floor of my two-story house and some of the dustier trim and shelves in the mudroom. Which is to say that it is more than good enough for dealing with the occasional mess. Dyson says it takes 3.5 hours to recharge fully from empty, which aligns with my experience.
If the battery starts to fade faster than expected, it can be swapped for anew oneat the push of a button.
The syringe-emptying mechanism is actually cleaner
Similar to the “point-and-shoot” bin-emptying mechanism found on the larger Dyson V15 Detect and similar vacuums, the PencilVac’s “syringe” emptying system uses a sliding mechanism to compact the dustbin’s contents into a clump before forcing it out of the opening at the bottom — the motion is similar to cocking a shotgun. I know this is more hygienic than other designs because, before the PencilVac, every time I emptied my old Dyson V6, it would trigger the nearby air purifier’s particle sensor. But this has yet to happen with the PencilVac.
The lack of a handheld mode feels like a missed opportunity
As much as I enjoy using this vacuum on my floors and sills, part of me wishes I could use it on my counters too. It’s so light and maneuverable that it just feels like something I should be able to do, and yet I can’t. The long, narrow dustbin simply won’t allow for it. My hope is that a future version would include a split-bin mechanism that would enable a shorter, handheld configuration. (No, I don’t have any idea how that might be implemented, and if I did, I’d be making these things instead of reviewing them.)
What about the PencilVac Fluffy?
If you’re considering the unidirectionalFluffy vacuum, I’d recommend upgrading to the Fluffycones. The single, cylindrical brushroller lacks the tangleproof cone shape and dust-detecting illumination of the higher-end version. It’s not that $150 isn’t a significant amount of money to save, but the features you end up losing are part of what makes this vacuum worth considering in the first place. If savings are what you’re after, a broom and dustpan will be almost as effective for a lot less than $450.
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