Dyson just announced PencilWash, a motorized wet floor cleaner that's about the same size as a regular hand mop. This isn't the first time Dyson has slimmed down 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 in a less conspicuous way, in Dyson's hair care department. The brand had already revolutionized the hair care market with its original Supersonic hair dryer, but for its professional-only Supersonic r it redesigned its internal workings to be much more streamlined and “dense in power.”
Dyson then decided that if it could make a 3.8cm/1.5in diameter hair dryer, surely it could also make a 1.5in/3.8cm diameter vacuum cleaner. Incredibly, it was a success: all of the PencilVac's internal mechanisms have been compressed into a handle the same width as the Supersonic r. To make this happen, the brand had to design a Hyperdymium 140k motor that has a minuscule width of 1.1 inches/2.8 cm.
The same technology powers the PencilWash. And who knows where it will come next – Dyson is clearly on a downsizing spree, and it would be foolish to stop there.
“We're interested in making smaller, lighter machines while dramatically improving performance,” says Dyson chief technology officer John Churchill. “The PencilWash… brings together the simplicity of a broom with the precision and power of Dyson engineering.”
Small size; great victory
The benefits of downsizing a floor care appliance are obvious. It makes it more maneuverable, more comfortable to use for longer periods and able to get into tighter spaces. However, some may object to the “improved performance” claim, because there are knock-on effects that cannot be completely ignored.
One is battery life. The PencilVac can only do 30 minutes of cleaning per charge, while Dyson's top flagship line vacuums can run for over an hour before needing to be recharged.
Another is absolute power. Here, there's an even bigger gulf between the PencilVac and the rest of the line: even the V8 from a decade ago has twice the suction power of the PencilVac (115AW vs. 55AW).
Finally, there is the inevitable lack of space. The PencilVac should have a small dust container that should be emptied periodically, and the PencilWash should have small tanks for clean and dirty water.
For me, however, to focus on these things is to miss the point. PencilVac and PencilWash aren't meant to be the perfect choice for everyone, but they will be for some people. Plus, they offer something you currently can't find anywhere else.
For example, the cordless vacuum cleaner market is flooded with vacuum cleaners that offer enormous amounts of power and increasingly long run times, but are heavy and bulky as a result. If you have mostly hard floors, a small house, and awkward corners to get into, super suction and an endless battery won't do you any good. What you need is a small, agile and compact vacuum cleaner with enough power to remove dust from the floor. The PencilVac offers just that.
Similarly, the PencilWash doesn't absorb massive spills like a suction-based wet-dry vacuum, but there are many homeowners who rarely have to deal with that kind of mess and just want something that can clean their hard floors in an efficient and hygienic way.
What Dyson is doing is expanding the market to serve a wider range of customers, and I'm excited to see what the shrink treatment gets next.
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