Dyson has just announced the PencilWash, a motorized wet floor cleaner that’s about the same size as a regular manual mop. It’s not the first time Dyson has shrunk a traditionally bulky appliance: the PencilWash is a sister product to the Dyson PencilVac FluffyCones, an almost impossibly compact cordless vacuum cleaner.
The downsizing trend began life in a less conspicuous way in Dyson’s hair care department. The brand had already shaken up the hair care market with its original Supersonic hair dryer, but for its professional Supersonic r, it redesigned its inner workings to be far more streamlined and ‘power dense’.
Dyson then decided that if it could make a hair dryer that was 1.5 inches / 3.8 cm in diameter, surely it could also make a vacuum that was 1.5 inches / 3.8 cm in diameter. Amazingly, it succeeded: all the internal functions of the PencilVac have been squeezed into a handle that is the same width as the Supersonic r. To make it happen, the brand had to engineer a Hyperdymium 140k motor that is a minimal 1.1 inches / 2.8 cm wide.
The same technology powers PencilWash. And who knows where it will come in next – Dyson is clearly on a shrinking journey and it would be foolish to stop there.
“We’re keen to make machines smaller and lighter while dramatically improving performance,” says Dyson CTO John Churchill. “PencilWash…brings the simplicity of a broom together with the precision and power of Dyson’s technology.”
Small size; big gain
The benefits of reducing a floor care appliance are obvious. This makes it more manoeuvrable, more comfortable to use for longer periods and able to get into tight spaces. However, some may quibble with the “improved performance” claim because there are knock-on effects that cannot be completely ruled out.
One is battery life. PencilVac can only handle 30 minutes of cleaning per charge, whereas the best flagship Dyson vacuums can run for over an hour before needing to juice up.
Another is direct power. Here there is an even bigger gap between the PencilVac and the rest of the range: even the decade-old V8 has twice the suction power of the PencilVac (115AW versus 55AW).
Finally, there is the inevitable lack of space. The PencilVac should have a small dust cup that needs to be emptied regularly, and the PencilWash should have small clean and dirty water tanks.
To me, though, focusing on these things is missing the point. PencilVac and PencilWash aren’t meant to be the perfect choice for everyone, but they will be the perfect choice for some people. In addition, they offer something that you currently can’t really find anywhere else.
For example, the cordless vacuum cleaner market is flooded with vacuum cleaners that offer huge amounts of power and ever-longer run times, but are heavy and bulky as a result. If you mostly have hard floors, a small home, and awkward corners to get into, super suction and an infinite battery won’t do you any favors. What you need is a small, nimble, compact vacuum with just enough power to whip the dust off your floor. PencilVac provides just that.
Likewise, the PencilWash won’t pick up massive spills like a suction-based wet and dry vacuum, but there are many homeowners who rarely have to deal with that kind of mess and just want something that gets their hard floors cleaned in an efficient and hygienic way.
What Dyson is doing is expanding the market to accommodate a wider range of customers – and I’m excited to see what will get the shrinking treatment next.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews and opinions in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can also follow TechRadar on YouTube and TikTok for news, reviews, video unboxings, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
