Dyson Car+Boat vacuum: Is this the best boating vacuum ever?

I've been testing the Dyson Car+Boat Vacuum onboard my boat for a long time and it's the perfect option to make light work of tidying up onboard

I’ll admit it straight away, I do tend to use a vacuum cleaner when I want to procrastinate over another job I prefer to do less than vacuuming, such as my accounts or tax return. I was worried the Dyson Car+Boat wasn’t going to give me that vacuuming fix, since the battery life was so short, on paper at least. Anyway, that fear was short lived, this thing is bloody brilliant!

 

After just a day of it arriving, I was hooked. It’s like a mini dopamine hit each time I wizz around the little floor space in my van or boat, or my office come to think of it.

Fast forward a few weeks of living aboard the boat and knocking around the van with the Dyson Car+Boat handheld, I’m prepared to say it: this is hands-down the best handheld vacuum I’ve ever used.

And I’ve tried a few. I’ve got a Black and Decker 12v cleaner on my other boat and whilst it’s ok I guess, it doesn’t fill me with the slightest joy and it’s loud! This one, on it’s less powerful setting is quiet enough for me to carry on in a conversation. Turn up the power and it’ll have your crevices spotless in seconds.

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Power in a Pint-Sized Package

This thing absolutely sucks! In the best possible way. From the first go, it tackled dried mud, crumbs, pet fluff, and the inevitable trail of sand that creeps into my office, van and boat after a bit of coastal rowing. The power boost mode is like strapping a teeny tiny jet engine to your cleaning. I saved it for the real crud: the grit in the companionway steps, the fur in the corners, and whatever mystery flakes of I don’t care to think what they are, in the hard to reach nooks.

It’s genuinely impressive how much muck this thing can lift.

Attachments You’ll Actually Use

What really makes the Dyson Car+Boat stand out are the attachments.

The motorised mini brush annihilates pet hair from upholstery. The black fury, known as my chihuahua leaves little whisps about the place that look like spiders. Well, they’re gone. And the Dyson is quiet enough not to bother her from her bed, terrified as she is of vacuums, this one, she doesn’t mind at all.

The crevice tool got down the sides of seats, around cushions, in various galley crevices and even my computer keyboard.

The other one, not sure what they call it,  with the brush on it is good for getting rid of dust on various surfaces. A lampshade got brush vacuumed, then so too did my computer monitor, then the office blinds…

Everything snaps together with a satisfying click.

Battery Life & Charging

Battery life’s a solid 20-30 minutes on standard, and about 8 minutes on full turbo, which is fine, because if you’re vacuuming for longer than that in a camper or on a boat, you’ve probably got bigger problems.

Charging is via a dedicated Dyson adapter, which I have annoyingly lost and found a couple of times now, because, although that run time seems short, you’ll be surprised how little you have to charge it, since, if you do a little each day, just a few seconds of sucking away the dog hair or crumbs etc, then it will last a couple of weeks easily between charges.

Emptying & Maintenance

Dust bin emptying is satisfyingly straightforward, no cloud of sneeze-dust, no fiddling with bags. Just pill up the catch, and out drops the grime (and possibly a lost screw or other thing accidentally sucked up in the frenzy of cleaning).

I’ll be honest, I wanted to dislike it as I’m not a fan of Dyson generally, a bit like the over hyped lifestyle products we find from other manufacturers, they seem all form over function for  my liking. The garish purple stuff, isn’t to my taste either. But the Dyson Car and Camper handheld vacuum is the real deal. It gets the job done and in the easiest, quietest way possible.
Would I recommend it? Unreservedly.