Dyson Gen5 Outsize Review

When I was asked to review a vacuum, two things popped into my mind. How the hell would I review a vacuum for the first time and my wife is going to be stoked to watch me thoroughly test a vacuum around the house. For question one, read on, for question two, she was.

First things first, I want to make it clear I do vacuum regularly. It’s not a gender role thing, it’s a do it as little as I have to because it sucks… thing. So vacuuming more than twice a day was certainly a big upgrade from every other day. 

Now on with the review.

What is this vacuum?

The Dyson Gen5 Outsize is a cordless stick vacuum. Having used one in the past I was skeptical but this is another kind of beast. It has a beasty unit at the top which includes a nice large dust bin, and a damn powerful motor.

Quickly you realise this being stickless doesn’t make it any less awesome than a cabled standard vacuum.

Dyson Gen5 Outsize vs Dyson Gen5 Detect 

The Dyson Gen5 Outsize vs Dyson Gen5 Detect are the same vacuum under the hood. The Outsize has a wider vacuum head, and a much larger dust bin. The Detect is smaller, but also comes with a few more tools. Honestly, my Hoover also came with a bunch of end pieces, and I have used two. In my testing with the Outsize, I found the pieces I had were plenty.

How good does it vacuum?

The ultimate question is how does the Dyson Gen5 Outsize vacuum? It would be an easy “Hell Nah” if it vacuumed badly. Turns out this vacuum vacuums awesomely. Not sure that’s a sentence, but moving on.

The standard head has a spinning brush which is designed to avoid tangling. It does this exceptionally well as I never had to unwind any hairs from it…the suction is pretty incredible and it has a HEPA filter at the top so all of the tiny dust particles are captured incredibly well. I wasn’t sure how big of a difference this would make but you can see the super fine particles building up in the bin.

The other major head it comes with is one that is designed for hard floors, which does a good job too. This one is softer and picks up insane amounts of dust. Not having many hard surfaces, I took it for a spin at the local Cub Den. Even though the floor wasn’t that dirty, you could clearly see where I had vacuumed, as it was picking up the tiniest little bits. One cool thing is that it shoots out a green light, which shows all the little bits on the floor in front of you. This works better the darker it is, and it makes vacuuming the hard floor so much more satisfying.

Battery life, etc.

Being a cordless vacuum can come with some drawbacks, not the Dyson Gen5 Outsize though. It comes with a removable battery so you can have a spare to swap it out if needed. My medium sized house I was comfortably able to vacuum on one charge. 

It has an Eco mode, an Auto mode and a Boost mode. On Boost I almost got around the house (25ish minutes) on Auto which switches the power and speed it easily gets around the house (40ish minutes) and Eco you can get even longer. The screen on the top tells you roughly how long it has to go, but this is at best a guideline because it was chopping as the vacuum changed its speed.

The screen also shows an analysis of how much of each size particle it is picking up. This is pretty cool, but after a few seconds I was focussing on where I was vacuuming and never checked it again. If you are that way inclined the info is there, but for me it was at best an interesting novelty.

It comes with a stand, which no matter how many times I used it, I felt was going to break as it swung back and forth under the weight of the Dyson Gen5 Outsize. It didn’t break, but I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t be nervous long-term. The good news is that if it does break, the cable can be removed easily, so you can charge without the stand.

Should you get one?

There is a big IF here. If $1,799.00 isn’t an issue, then Hell Yeah you should. It’s an incredible vacuum that is easy to use, has a shockingly good battery life, and does an amazing job. I can’t afford to buy one, but if price wasn’t an object then you bet this would be my new vacuum. 

Ignorance was bliss. 

I knew my kids made a mess but now I know how filthy they made the house, I am going to struggle going back to my old vacuum.