Once you see it, you wouldn’t be able to unsee it. Living with a cat means claw marks on the upholstery and hair all over the place, to the point that every part of the house needs to be cleaned often.

Then something out of a sci-fi book took place — Dyson V12 Detect Slim Total Clean was turned on to illuminate the floor with laser beams, highlighting all the cat hair and dust that has been gathering around the house. It left me doubting the level of cleaning that I had been doing all these years. The last couple of weeks I have been using the new vacuum cleaner everyday while listening to Pink Floyd, the only difference being the laser show that accompanies the group’s live gigs is playing out on my floor by the latest stick vacuum.

The cordless machine is an example of how technology can help, especially at a time when most of the hours are being spent at home. If you are planning to buy a vacuum cleaner, here are a few reasons why you can give this one a dekko.

A laser show like no other

Getting started is very simple. Charge the battery, attach a cleaning head on the stick and then simply press a button. Though there are a number of attachments in the box — covering every scenario possible — the roller attachment for hardwood is the one with the laser.

As soon as you press the power button, the laser attached to the attachment lights up to reveal what’s on the floor. The darker the room, the more visible the laser. A lot of thought has gone into designing the roller attachment. First, the laser unit is extremely small, meaning there is no extra bulk to the attachment. It is precisely positioned at a degree and appears to be 7.3mm off the ground to create the best contrast between the dust layer and the floor. This helps you see all the dust on a surface which otherwise would be invisible to the naked eye.

Dyson didn’t stop there. They decided to implement a technology to measure the size and count of the particles that are being sucked up. The results are shown real-time on the screen attached to the back of the vacuum cleaner. It serves as proof of the deep cleaning that is being done.

As dust enters the vacuum cleaner, it hits a piezo sensor, which continuously sizes and counts dust particles. When hitting the sensor, tiny vibrations are created which are converted to electrical signals and all the information is displayed on the screen. There’s more to it. As and when the sensor detects a high concentration of dust, suction power is increased as and when needed. Once dust level normalises, the suction power reduces to the previous level.

The motor unit of the stick cleaner is compact and light.

Anti-tangle tech

The Hair Screw Tool or attachment is particularly useful when it comes to cleaning beds and bedclothes. It’s most annoying to take every strand of hair that’s on the bed or hair from a pet bed. This is just the attachment for you. There is an anti-tangle brush bar which has been tweaked slightly to offer excellent results. There is almost zero wrapping of human or pet hair around the brush bar, which means you don’t have to clean the head as much as before because of hair getting stuck to it.

Motor and filtration

The motor unit on the new machine is slightly smaller or more compact than the one from the previous generation but that doesn’t mean it’s less powerful. The powerful motor on the lightweight stick cleaner spins up to 125,000rpm to suck up microscopic dust and large debris. There are three power modes to get things done — auto mode intelligently adapts, with the optimum balance of power and run time, Eco mode offers longer run time for bigger clean, while Boost mode is engineered for short, intensive cleaning. For most folks, keeping it to Auto will give you about 40-45 minutes of cleaning time, 70-odd minutes on Eco, and about 10 minutes on Boost. Keeping it on Auto helps. I could manage to clean a 1,500sqft room with enough juice left in the tank.

The other important feature is that all the dust that gets captured remains inside the machine. The fully-sealed filtration traps 99.99 per cent of microscopic particles and allergens as small as 0.3 microns — and expels cleaner air.

To test the machine, we dropped some flour and green gram on a hard floor, all of which disappeared with a single sweep. Next, we dropped long leaves, most of which disappeared in a single sweep and everything on the second sweep. Dropping green gram on a carpet needed us to sweep the area twice.

Laser beams highlight dust and debris

Change in design

Unlike before, you don’t have to press a trigger to make the machine work. It was helpful to have a trigger but when it came to cleaning the ceiling, it wasn’t easy to hold the machine up and use the trigger at the same time. Now there’s a button on top of the machine. Press and play.

Should you buy it?

Given the choice between robot vacuums and cleaners, a stick vacuum is most useful because it makes cleaning easier, allows you to reach every corner of the house and encourages you to vacuum often. A big bonus with the new Dyson dust buster is the laser technology, which opens your eyes to what’s hiding in different corners of the house. First, Dyson with its cordless vac ensured that we wouldn’t go back to a wired option. The laser-powered roller attachment changes the cleaning game once again. Dyson V12 Detect Slim Total Clean will leave you gobsmacked.

At a glance

The screen offers a reading of the number of particles (and its size) that get collected

Device: Dyson V12 Detect Slim Total Clean

Price: Rs 58,900 at Dyson.in and Dyson Demo stores

High notes

• Laser beams help detect dust

• Excellent suction power

• Effective anti-tangle tech

• Good battery life

• Sufficient number of attachments

Muffled notes

• Can come across slightly costly