Dyson is one of the best-known cordless vacuum manufacturers, and its V-series vacuums are flagship models that usually earn top marks in our testing. With strong suction and innovations including dust detection, the best Dyson vacuums can usually be counted on to bring something new to the table.
I got to go hands-on with the Dyson V16 Piston Animal (there’s also a Submarine variant), the company’s newest cordless vacuum that’s expected to launch in the US in 2026. It offers the top-of-class cleaning capabilities we’ve come to expect from Dyson, but I walked away impressed most by its unique new dustbin compression and ejection system.
What’s new with the V16 Piston Animal
The V16 Piston is a stylish looking cordless vacuum with blue and yellow accents that give it some flair.
Unlike the light and portable PencilVac, which I also tested, the V16 is intended to be the company’s most powerful cordless vacuum to date. It has a 900-watt Hyperdymium motor with 315 air watts of suction power and a unique dust-compressing dustbin Dyson calls the CleanCompaktor.
Similar to the compacting dustbin on the Dyson PencilVac, the V16 Animal compresses debris in the dustbin as you vacuum, keeping suction strength and cleaning performance strong. It does this by giving you a little red lever that you can push down periodically to compact the dust. It’s a more manual process than the PencilVac, which uses a liner separation system, but it worked just as well when I used the V16 Animal to suck up dirt and debris at Dyson’s Soho store.
The dustbin compacting starts to work when you push down the red handle.
“As vacuums fill, the fine dust filter and the HEPA filter begin to accumulate dust,” Tim Hare, design engineer at Dyson, told me. “This restricts airflow and reduces suction. A good vacuum cleaner extends the time before this occurs and will fully recover suction when the filters are cleaned. Dyson recommends emptying the bin regularly, before dust levels reach the max line, to maintain optimal suction and cleaning performance.”
This is something that’s true for every vacuum, but the compressing dustbins on the V16 Piston Animal and PencilVac are the first I’ve heard of that incorporate a dustbin compacting feature on a cordless vacuum. A similar technology exists on robot vacuums, where iRobot’s Roomba DustCompactor 205 (which earned a spot on our best robot vacuum list for its reasonable price and strong performance) uses a mechanical paddle to compress the dust in its dustbin.
The new dustbin ejection system is a game-changer
The V16 automatically adjusts suction and brush speed based on flooring type.
This technology also allows the V16 Piston Animal to hold up to 30 days of dust, and the bin gets wiped clean when the emptying mechanism is used, so no dust, hair or other debris should be left behind clinging to the bin’s walls.
This is one of my biggest gripes with most cordless vacuums. The way the dustbin is designed, there’s often rouge dustbunnies or debris clinging in a nook or cranny, forcing you to reach in with your hands or a brush to pull things out. It’s gross, gets dust everywhere and is generally the worst part of vacuuming. Dyson appears to have finally solved this problem. It was the single easiest dustbin emptying session I’ve ever had, coming close to matching auto-empty docks in ease of use.
There are also a few other “quality of life” changes that Dyson pointed out to me that may address some of the key issues I’ve had when using older Dyson models. For one, the trigger that you were required to keep pressed to vacuum is gone. Now it’s a simple button push, which is a boon for those of us who had to do 30-minute or longer cleaning sessions. There’s also a soft pad where your hand grips it, which Dyson said should reduce muscle fatigue.
Dyson’s cleaner heads are all detachable without having to bend down.
All the cleaner heads are also easy to detach by just putting your foot on the head and pulling up, letting you detach and attach without having to bend down. Interestingly, a number of attachments are also built into the vacuum, including a crevice cleaning tool, so you can clean without needing to carry additional attachments around, though you still get several included.
Using the Dyson V16 Piston Animal to clean
Circling back to the specs, the Piston Animal comes with 315AW, giving it 50% more cleaning power according to Dyson. For reference, the V15 Detect, which is one of our top picks, has 240AW, so that should be a pretty significant leg up. I used the vacuum in Dyson’s Soho store, testing it on a mix of hardwood floors and low-pile carpet and found that it worked great at picking up everything that was thrown at it.
The V16 Piston has the same green LED illumination to help find dust as the Detect.
Like previous Detect models, the V16 Piston Animal has a green LED dust-illuminating feature that makes it easier to spot dirt and debris, so I didn’t have any problems with missing spots. You also get a five-stage HEPA filter, 70 minutes of battery life with swappable battery packs and compatibility with the myDyson app that lets you monitor the filter and other settings.
The cleaner head, which consists of two conical brush bars (similar to the PencilVac, which incorporates four), has improved anti-tangling capability. The design automatically prevents hair from wrapping by having the hair migrate from the thicker end of the cone in the middle to reach the thinner outer end of the cone, where it gets sucked up into the dustbin. I wasn’t able to test this feature in the store, but I’m hoping to try it at home with my three cats and curly-haired wife.
The V16 Piston Animal also works with the new Submarine head that offers wet and dry mopping.
Notably, the vacuum also comes with smart features, with the new All Floor Cones Sense brush head automatically detecting and adapting to the floor type. It adjusts not just suction but also rotation speed, slowing down on hard floors and speeding up on carpet for better cleaning. I watched this work almost immediately when I moved from the hardwood panels to the carpet. It was noticeable watching the speed and strength increase as additional cyclones were activated.
Dyson describes the new cleaner head as a combination of the Digital Motorbar’s higher cleaning capabilities and the Fluffy Optic cleaner heads’ dust-spotting ability. There’s also a new Submarine head that adds wet and dry mopping capabilities to the Dyson. I wasn’t able to use this, but it comes with a 300-milliliter water tank that Dyson says should be able to clean 1,180 square feet.
Price and availability
The display shows how much time is left on your battery life and your suction.
The price for the V16 Piston Animal and V16 Piston Animal Submarine isn’t known yet, but both will be available in the US starting in 2026. The PencilVac is also expected to be released around the same time.
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