November 21, 2014 5:04 am DownloadDyson to plough £1bn into R&DCordless vacuums have already come of age in terms of their cleaning ability but – just like phones and laptops – their battery power has been limited. Not so with the V8…Aside from the motor, the major advance with the new Dyson V8 Absolute is the doubling of usable battery life – now 40 minutes instead of 20.That’s enough to vacuum all but the largest homes, whereas you’d have to pace it around to clean decent-sized homes previously for fear of having to come back to the job later after a recharge.A battery runtime indicator gives you a visual indication of cleaning time remaining.Dyson has long extolled the virtues of its motors versus those of its competitors and having tested many of them, it’s clear that performance varies wildly. “Some cordless vacuum cleaners use small motors that can be weak, while others rely on heavy motors that can compromise versatility,” it says.The V8 motor runs at 425W, compared to the previous generation V6 which ran at 350W.

It spins up to 110,000rpm for powerful fade-free suction. It’s what Dyson has invested most money in developing over the last decade. The V8 is “the result of 18 months research and development and 500,000 hours of testing,” says James Dyson himself.In 2016, Dyson says it will produce 8.8m digital motors – that’s approximately one every 3.5 seconds. 376 robots are used to assemble Dyson digital motors, as even the most dextrous human hand isn't precise enough: the smallest manufacturing tolerance is +/- 3 microns, which is approximately a quarter of the thickness of a human hair.The max mode offers higher suction for more difficult tasks, and is activated with a redesigned switch in the V8. It also now provides 115AW of suction, compared to a max of 100AW on previous generation machines.The new V8 Absolute has a new bin emptying mechanism, called a hygienic dirt ejector. Put simply, this means you never have to touch the dirt as you bin it. As the bin is emptied, a rubber collar slides down the shroud (which itself was redesigned and now constructed from chemically-etched stainless steel, which has a smooth surface punctuated by approximately 15,000 holes measuring 0.4mm each), scraping dirt off.

This drives out trapped dust and debris in a single action, with no need to touch the dirt, which you often do with other cleaners. The bin also has a larger capacity than the previous generation.Ley components like the motor and battery are positioned near the hand to shift the centre of gravity and making the cleaning end of the vacuum much lighter. royal vacuum cleaner hoseThe overall weight isn’t different to the V6, so it’s just as manageable despite the new motor and other components like the larger bin.singer vacuum cleaners bagsInteresting fact: the polycarbonate clear bin is made from the same durable material as riot shields.hoover vacuum cleaners beltsA direct-drive cleaner head removes ground-in dirt and pet hair from carpeted floors and is 150 percent more powerful than the equivalent V6 accessory, while a soft roller cleaner head can remove large debris and fine dust from hard floors.

All tools feature a new quick release catch enabling you to change smoothly between tasks.As standard, the Dyson V8 Absolute vacuum includes the direct-drive cleaner head and the soft roller cleaner head, in addition to the mini motorised tool, the combination tool and the crevice tool.Many rival products have a charger you have to unravel and plug in, but the V8 has a charging station instead.Up to 50 percent quieter, in fact. The air flow paths through the machine have been reworked, to reduce the noise associated with air moving fast through tight spaces. The post-motor filter has been redesigned, so it helps to muffle sound. And acoustic felt and closed cell foam inside the machine absorbs vibrations, also reducing noise.Then check out our guide to the best vacuum cleanerSir James Dyson, the British billionaire industrial designer who invented the dual cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, has derided today's competing robot vacuums as "pathetic" with poor suction and no navigating skills.

In Sydney on Tuesday to launch his latest product, a tap that can also dry your hands in 12 seconds, Dyson, whose eponymous company has grown to nearly 4000 staff and $1.5 billion in annual sales, said he would only launch a robot vacuum when he got it right. "When we do one we want it to clean properly," he told Fairfax Media. "The present ones are pathetic with no suction at all – they just sweep with a rather feeble brush and they also don't navigate they just bounce around."Robot models launched in Australia recently include the $399 Robomaid, LG's Roboking range ($549-$1149) and Samsung's $999 Navibot. Dyson didn't name names but he was dismissive of the current lot, criticising their navigation and efficiency which meant they offered poor battery performance and cleaning ability. "They've got whiskers sticking out of them – whiskers don't clean anything they just disturb the birds," he said."It's a difficult job and I'm not rushing out a gimmick robot to pretend to people we're cleaning the floor, we're not doing that we're doing it properly."

Dyson, 65, said the most exciting trend in technology is the development of advanced new materials. He had a swipe at companies such as Google or Facebook who he believes aren't really making things."Google ... helps us but for me it isn't a substantive exporting thing," he said. Despite coming up with his vacuum cleaner breakthrough in the late 1970s, it only reached the British market 10 years later, and Dyson is now a global market leader. A third of British homes now have a Dyson.The company has also launched other innovations such as bladeless fans and an "Airblade" hand dryer that uses jets of air to scrape the water off the hands. The same sort of technology but with a far more advanced motor ("three times faster than any electric motor has gone before") powers the new hybrid dryer-taps.Dyson has fought for years to prevent companies copying his designs, winning a $5 million damages award from Hoover in 2000. Now, the problem is coming out of Asia and Dyson believes intellectual property protection is weaker because people are getting away with copying."

Koreans and the Chinese are copying things and I think it's very bad," he said. "It's said by certain people that that increases competition, actually it decreases competition because all they're doing is copying the market leader."He said the copycat companies could produce cheaper products because they haven't incurred all the development costs and associated risks."It's morally wrong, I think it's legally wrong and I think it hurts the consumers because the consumer doesn't get a choice," he said. "Intellectual property should be supported better; the law should be made stronger."In October last year Dyson filed a lawsuit alleging a "spy" employee stole the blueprints to a £100 million ($149.7 million) technology and passed them to rival Bosch.Dyson said western countries such as Australia and Britain need to focus on educating more scientists and engineers, as they are increasingly being overtaken by countries in Asia."40 per cent of all graduates from Singapore are engineers," he said.