At a time when competition is increasing its inventiveness in the field of battery-powered household appliances, Dyson must innovate. The British company, still led by visionary engineer James Dyson, launched the Submarine. This is an accessory for the V15s Detect model. The latter no longer just vacuums but also promises wet cleaning of hard floors, without resorting to the traditional cloth or mop. How does this technology work, and is it really able to transform the way we clean our interiors?
The inventor of the vacuum cleaner, copied for around ten years but rarely equaled in terms of performance and ergonomics (and price…), must show increasingly inventive competition that he continues to ‘innovate. It’s been a few years now that Dyson has been subtly improving its vacuum cleaners, like the V15 Detect, integrating a small laser to reveal dirt on a floor even in broad daylight.
It was therefore time for the company, still led by engineer James Dyson, to take a step forward: that of cleaning, and no longer just vacuuming. Its first option for 2024 (a second is coming soon, but I can’t tell you about it right now) is called Submarine. This is not a new vacuum cleaner, but a new accessory working with a slightly revised kit from the latest model: the V15s submarine detect (949€). A very high price, as is often the case with Dyson, but you really have 2 devices in 1, for once: the excellent V15 Detect which I have already told you about, and the Submarine accessory, an additional brush whose purpose, you you understand, is to wash the floors with water.
How it works ?
The Submarine accessory is, once again, one of those engineering treasures of which Dyson has the secret. This brush is more bulky than others because it is equipped with a clear water tank, a rotating soft brush and a receptacle for dirty water. Clean water (no soap needed) continuously feeds the soft brush from above, while dirty water is sprayed into the receptacle from below. The idea is simple, but to transform it into an easily usable accessory brush, it took a few months of reflection and development.
In the documentation, Dyson recommends using a ‘normal’ vacuum cleaner first, which is why the Submarine accessory is supplied as a kit with the V15s detect, which therefore includes the brush incorporating the green laser. An ever-so-practical way to spot and then remove the dirt and dust that litters your floor. Then you remove that yellow brush and clip on the Submarine instead. The vacuum cleaner detects the change of accessory: it will stop vacuuming but will rotate the soft blue brush, humidifying it continuously and displaying a drop of water and the remaining battery percentage on the small control screen.
Washing your hard floor (this won’t work on carpet) requires first filling the small tank with clean water (no soap needed, according to Dyson). You must therefore open the Submarine to separate it in two, in order to unscrew the tank cap to fill it. An operation that is not complex, but we are used to smoother and faster procedures with Dyson. The tank is not very large (300 ml), allowing you to wash the floors for around fifteen minutes: I therefore had to fill my tank in the middle to wash my entire ground floor (around 80 square meters) .
The floor is clean, but the accessory is not
The Submarine brush works as well as expected: if you avoid going over the same spot twice, the floor will never be too wet, it will dry quickly and will have a nice clean and shiny appearance. The result is more uniform than with a mop, because the quantity of water is stable, and above all because the soft brush which turns quickly has plenty of time to clean and scrub (always with clean water, unlike the bucket of the tea towel…).
I noticed two things: the Submarine tends, much more than a standard suction brush, to to pull you forward, due to the resistance increased by water. You will therefore have to, with your little arm, resist in your turn. Given that the vacuum cleaner weighs 2.9 kg including 815 grams for the water washing accessory, less muscular people could tire quickly. Another observation: with its hinge at the top, the Submarine is more bulky and will have difficulty passing under a cupboard, under an armchair or under a bed.
THE only flaw of this washing accessory is its maintenance. After a normal 10 minute cleaning, even if you have previously vacuumed your hard floor, the Submarine is clogged. The dirty water ends up in the tray located under the brush, but a pile of dirt can remain on the brush, or on the walls. Result: you will have to run everything under clean water for a few seconds in the sink, and rub the blue brush with your hand to properly clean the Submarine. You will tell me: you have to rinse and twist a mop, it’s true. But Dyson has got us so accustomed, with its vacuum cleaners, to emptying the tank and cleaning the filter almost without dropping any dust or getting our hands dirty, that we are surprised the first time. In use, however, it only takes 10 seconds and you can put the Submarine back in its tray to avoid traces of water on the ground. Note that this accessory will probably have to remain on the ground, at the base of the vacuum cleaner which you can hang on the wall with the kit provided (here, I placed the equipment on an old Dyson stand, still compatible because the form factor hasn’t changed in a few years, which is a very good thing):
Conclusion
Do you hate mopping the floor or using a tea towel? Do you like your hard floors to be clean and shiny? So, if your wallet allows it (949€), the new V15s Detect Submarine kit is the combination that will cover your daily needs for “a little vacuuming after dinner”, and your regular needs for cleaning hard floors with clear water, without having to go get the bucket, soap and mop. The efficiency is there (this is generally the case with Dyson), and the only fault that I found with it is the maintenance of the Submarine accessory: even if you vacuum beforehand, there will remain some dirt which will be found scattered in the accessory and on the brush, and not only in the dirty water tank.
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