By Claire Reilly
James Dyson has pledged to end the “rigmarole” of cleaning hard floors with mops, steam cleaners and regular vacuums with the launch of a new double-action hard floor vacuum in the United States overnight.
Known as the Dyson Hard, the floorcare appliance combines the proprietary technology found in other Dyson products — including a Dyson digital motor, Radix Cyclone technology and a “fade-free battery” — with a wet wipe head that removes dust from hard floors.
Speaking about the new product, James Dyson said it was designed to do an effective job where other hard floor cleaning solutions fail.
“Cleaning hard floors is frustrating and ineffective,” said Dyson. “You vacuum, then mop – rigmarole. Propelled by the power dense Dyson digital motor, our engineers have designed a machine that vacuums and mops simultaneously. One machine, two jobs — one action.”
The cordless device features a double-edged cleaner head that “sucks up dirt and debris — before and after the wet wipe — with each stroke, leaving the wipe to remove stains and grime”. Inside, the vacuum is powered by Dyson’s new digital motor which spins at 104,000 rpm yet is one third of the size of a regular motor. In Australia earlier this year to spruik the new motor technology, Dyson himself billed it as a “revolution” in design.
The Dyson Hard took a team of 25 engineers two years to develop, and the brand claims tens of thousands of durability tests for the device, including slamming it into obstacles 39,154 times as well as 5,896 slap, drop and knock-over tests.
At this stage, the product is only available in the United States and there are no immediate plans for an Australian launch. However, the product does mark a new direction for the brand into a more comprehensive hard-floor floorcare offering.
Just launched in the US, the Dyson Hard combines a cordless vacuum with a wet wipe head to clean hard floors.