Dyson V15s Detect Submarine Review
All-in-one vacuuming and mopping
Verdict
A versatile tool, the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine is a powerful whole-home cordless vacuum cleaner for surfaces. With its excellent range of tools and automatic power control, this is a brilliant vacuum cleaner. Adding the Submarine head, the cleaner can also mop hard floors. A small water tank and non-sealed dirty reservoir do slightly limit the scope of mopping, but if you’ve got a smaller area to clean or lightly soiled hard floors, this is a great all-in-one tool.
Pros
- Powerful vacuuming with automatic power mode
- Fluffy Optic highlights dirt
- Mops hard floors
- Great battery life
Cons
- Small water tank
- Unsealed dirty water tank
Key Features
- TypeThis is a cordless stick vacuum cleaner, which has a mop attachment for wet cleaning hard floors.
- Battery lifeUp an hour on Eco mode, but you can expect somewhere around the 40-minute mark on automatic mode.
Introduction
Given that Dyson is known as the floorcare company, it’s a little surprising that it’s taken so long to get into the hard floor cleaning business with a wet and dry vacuum cleaner.
For its first product, we’re not getting a completely new product. Instead, the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine takes the existing V15 cordless vacuum cleaner and adds a new wet floor cleaning head into the mix.
Vacuuming performance remains exceptional, and hard floor cleaning is impressive, although there are a few little niggles that may mean those with large amounts of hard floor space may be better with an alternative option.
Design and features
- A tweaked version of the Dyson V15 cordless vacuum cleaner
- Smart display and automatic power modes
- Excellent range of accessories
Rather than a completely new product, the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine is a tweaked version of the existing Dyson V15 Detect. The difference isn’t just down to the new floor cleaning head, but in the device’s software itself.
You see, for wet hard floor cleaning the new head is blocked off to prevent liquid from entering the vacuum cleaner. To prevent the vacuum’s safety system from powering down the vacuum cleaner, the V15s has new software that detects the floor cleaning head and turns off suction.
From a purely technical point of view, the V15 vacuum cleaner could theoretically be software updated to perform the same trick; however, managing that would be extremely complicated. So, for that reason, if you want the new floor cleaning head, you need to buy the V15s, and you can’t upgrade an existing V15 vacuum cleaner.
Otherwise, what was brilliant about the V15 remains brilliant on the 15s. That includes the same piezo sensor, which monitors dust particles as they’re sucked up. This allows the vacuum cleaner to adjust its power on the fly, based on how much dirt it has detected, when one of the two regular floor heads are used.
A little display on the back shows a graph of particle sizes, so I could see how dirty my floor was in real-time.
This system is brilliant, as it takes the guesswork out of which power to mode: stick the V15s into the middle Auto mode (Medium with a hand tool attached), and let it work out how much suction it needs.
There are two additional power modes available: Eco for gentle cleaning and Boost for when you need the maximum cleaning power, both selectable via the button on the back.
The display also shows the live battery time in minutes, which updates as the V15s adjusts its power. Should there be any issues, such as the vacuum cutting out because it’s blocked, the screen plays a little troubleshooting video.
This vacuum cleaner has a trigger, which has to be held in, to operate the vacuum cleaner. On the one hand, this control method means you only use the battery while cleaning and cycle power quickly; however, if you struggle with your grip, a vacuum cleaner with a dedicated on/off button may be easier to use, such as the Dyson Gen5detect.
Dyson provides a good range of accessories in the box. For vacuuming, there are two floor heads: the Digital Motorbar head is for carpet, and has de-tanling tech to prevent hair getting wrapped around it, and there’s the Fluffy Optic cleaner, which is designed for hard floors.
The Fluffy head is the one with a green laser in it, which highlights dirt on the floor. It’s both horrifying and brilliant: I found that it highlights dirt on floors that look clean, which is shocking at first; but the tech does mean it’s easier to actually clean.
Then, there are the handheld tools, which include a crevice tool, a combination tool, and the hair screw mini motorised brush (also with de-tangle tech), which is great for sofas, stairs and pet beds.
It’s a shame that the wand clip is no longer provided, which lets me carry around two tools. Instead, the only tool storage is provided on the wall-mountable docking/charging station.
As with Dyson’s recent products, the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine has a removable battery, so you can buy a spare or just swap out a battery for a new one when it stops holding a charge so well.
I found this vacuum cleaner very easy to move around. It weighs 3.08kg, and the weight is well balanced, making it quick to nip around chair legs for floor cleaning, or easy to lift up to clean around the tops of walls and cupboards.
All dirt is vacuumed up into the 0.75-litre bin, which is plenty big enough to hold a house-worth of dirt. There’s a smart ejection method, too: slide the bin forwards and it pushes dirt out and straight into the bin; the entire surround can be removed for deep cleaning.
There’s then a single filter at the back, which should be cleaned regularly under running water, too. It often makes sense with Dyson products to buy a spare filter, so you can keep cleaning while one is drying.
New to the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine is the Submarine Wet Roller Head. This has a soft microfibre roller and a water reservoir. Once connected to the vacuum cleaner, water is automatically dispensed onto the roller, which moves along picking up dirt from the floor.
There’s just a 300ml water tank on this floor head, which provides enough cleaning for 16-minutes. That’s for smaller areas, and tackling larger areas will need multiple refills of the tank; if you’ve got mostly hard floors, a dedicated hard floor cleaner will probably make more sense.
As there’s no suction, dirt is picked up on the roller and dispensed, alongside dirty water, into a reservoir. This provides some level of dirt pick-up, but this isn’t a tool for vacuuming and cleaning at the same time.
Before starting a clean, it’s worth doing a standard vacuum around to pick up any dry mess. Then, you can switch and do the wet mopping. I think that this makes a lot of sense, and is the process I take with regular hard floor cleaner. By dry vacuuming first, you cut down on the wet mess, such as pet hair, that you have to deal with.
Also, as the Submarine only holds 300ml of dirty water/mess, and the dirty compartment isn’t sealed, you don’t want much muck left on the floor before you start to mop. The unsealed dirty compartment is a bit of a pain and it’s easy to spill mess if you’re not careful; when cleaning, keep a careful eye on how much water you’ve used, and empty the system if you notice dirt coming back out onto the floor.
While the floor head does come apart for cleaning, it is a little fiddly to clean it out, and the roller needs washing under a tap as the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine doesn’t have a self-clean mode like most hard floor cleaners, such as the Eufy Mach V1 Ultra.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
The rollers should be left to dry once washed, and Dyson also provides a drip tray that the Submarine head clips into, preventing water from damaging the floor you store it on.
Performance
- Deep cleaning
- Excellent battery life
- Good mopping for lighter spills
I started my Dyson V15s Detect Submarine tests by testing the raw power in Air Watts (AW), measured at the main unit. I found that it delivered power of 54AW in low mode, 100AW in medium mode and a massive 281AW on Boost.
Only the Gen5detect is more powerful than this vacuum cleaner, but some of the results are worth explaining. As you can see from the graph below, the Gen5detect is slightly less powerful on its middle power mode; however, in most circumstances, both the V15s and Gen5detect will be in auto mode on this setting, so the power will vary on the fly.
To see what the high suction power really means, I test suction power by measuring how far away from the crevice tool rice granules can be picked up. In this case, it was 3.5cm, which is a lot.
This shows that using handheld tools is fast and you don’t have to get the crevice tool right onto the mess to start collecting, which is perfect for cleaning out cupboards and hard to reach areas in cars, and so on.
Next, I moved on to my real-world test, starting by sprinkling 20g of flour onto carpet. Running the vacuum cleaner through the middle of the mess on auto mode, you can see that the V15s can pick up most of the mess in a single sweep, although dust collection to the sides of the floor head wasn’t quite as good as on the sides.
Completing the clean with another few swipes, until the carpet looked clean, I measured that the V15s had collected 94.9% of dust, which is excellent: some of the remaining mess would be either on the floor head, in the wand or deep in the carpet fibres.
Next, I sprinkled 10g of flour on carpet tiles, right up to the skirting board. Here, I found that the vacuum cleaner picked up most of the mess, with just a trace of dust left right at the edge, which would be collected with the crevice tool. I found that a high 85.9% of dust was collected.
I sprinkled 20g of rice onto the hard floor and used the Fluffy head. Here, 100% of the mess was collected and no grains of rice dropped back out onto the ground.
I put human hair onto the floor and then used the Motorbar head to pick it up. Everything was gone and the head didn’t get wrapped with hair strands.
Next, I moved onto my mopping tests. Starting with mud on the floor, I found that the Submarine head made short work of this kind of mess. For this level of dirt, some muddy trails are made, but run the area over a few times, and everything is collected, leaving a clean floor.
Tougher, ground-in stains can be removed, too, although the job is tougher. I found that I had to make multiple passes on stains left by shifting large appliances around in the Trusted Reviews home technology test lab; at home, cat food that had dried to the floor needed many sweeps.
Overall, I found that for regular stains, the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine was very good, but it took more effort to clean deeper stains than with a more powerful hard floor cleaner. Combined with the relatively small water tank and dirty tank, I’d definitely say that this floor cleaner is better suited for homes with smaller amounts of hard floors and/or those homes where the floors don’t get too dirty.
Battery life is quoted at a maximum of 60 minutes without a motorised tool. I found that I could get 1h 16m with the floor tool on Eco mode, around 42m 51s on auto mode (taken by vacuuming a real home), and 10m 22s with Boost.
Battery life is important, but the quality of the clean, just as so. As the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine doesn’t need many swipes to clean each area, its battery life means that I could clean my three-bedroom house on a single charge.
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Should you buy it?
You want a single device for all your cleaning needs
Excellent vacuum cleaner power, plus decent mopping for smaller areas makes this a great all-in-one device.
You need more wet cleaning power
With its small, unsealed reservoir and lighter cleaning action, those with lots of hard floors or tough stains may find a dedicated hard floor cleaner better.
Final Thoughts
It costs £100 more to buy the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine over the standard V15 Detect. Whether that’s money well spent, depends on your needs. If you have lighter mopping requirements or not much hard floor space, then this vacuum cleaner is very good value: you get quality regular vacuuming, plus decent mopping all in one appliance that works out to be cheaper than buying a V15 and a separate hard floor cleaner.
However, if you’ve got a lot of hard floors or floors that get very dirty, say because you have pets, such as my cats that make a real mess, then this combination may not be for you. I find that I need more powerful mopping and a larger tank of water, so I use a combination of regular cordless vacuum cleaner and dedicated hard floor cleaner.
How we test
We test every vacuum cleaner we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as our main vacuum cleaner for the review period
Tested for at least a week
Tested using tools to measure actual suction performance
Tested with real-world dirt in real-world situations for fair comparisons with other vacuum cleaners
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FAQs
No, the V15 doesn’t have the right software, so it would still use the vacuum when mopping, causing the machine to cut out.
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Full specs
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
