It’s always nice to see a new outside-the-box product from Dyson. The constant re-imagining of everyday household objects speaks of a company that has innovation as its very DNA. That’s why I was fairly excited to see a new take on the handheld vacuum cleaner from the company. I’ve used several of the V series products and have relied on an older vacuum cleaner, the V8, as my best friend all these days, locked up at home.

And now we have a new concept to check out. The Omni Glide is clearly related to the other Dyson vacuum cleaners in its choice of materials and even the basic tech. But it’s a smaller, lighter and slimmer stick vacuum cleaner that seems to be specifically good for hard floors.

Unlike the other cleaners, you don’t get an army of tools this time, just four. The main one is two soft-rollers that are motorised and spin in opposite directions. When mounted on its wand, these allow the entire tool to glide in all directions smoothly. So, pushing the device around isn’t that strenuous. In fact, it apparently needs less power because of this directionality and so it doesn’t have as much power as the others do. The battery is also consequently much smaller — it does, in any case, need to fit into the slim stick of the cleaner. One can buy an extra battery and allow that to be on charge on the dock, while the first is depleted — that takes about 20 minutes, so you’ll have to keep an eye on how long you vacuum in a session. I was able to complete my house cleaning before the battery ran out. On Turbo, you can just get four minutes of play, which is really not enough to do anything.

The omni-directional tool is great for getting around objects because its ‘neck’ articulates so well. The tool has a button that lets you eject the rollers for cleaning, which is really a much easier way to do it than on some of the heavyweight cleaners from Dyson. The button is rather responsive though, so keep a watch on it because I once vacuumed a room and then looked down to notice the rollers weren’t there. They had slipped out and were sitting elsewhere, patiently awaiting rescue.

The other tools include the well-known ones: a crevice tool with retractable brush, mini motorised tool, combination tool and worktop tool. The main omni tool does not work on carpets, even thin ones. The rollers just come to a stop. You could possibly use the motorised tool for that, but I think it’s too lightweight to handle the heavyweight cleaning of a carpet. It’s rather nice cleaning high places with the smaller tools, provided you can figure out using a step ladder or something.

While the Omni Glide was easy to use across floors and really does glide along beautifully, I found quite a few problems with it. One is that the bin is narrow and long and very small. Once dust bunnies and hair get in and settle deep inside, it’s a real job to clean it out. Hair is a threat as it wraps around the thin barrel and I gave up on trying to get it out as you have to reach in and yank it out — not a pleasant task. You will also have to empty out the bin often and clean it more often than with the bigger bucket style bins of the other cleaners.

The Omni Glide isn’t compatible with the older tools for Dyson’s cleaners. That may not be such a problem, but what is a problem is that the tools don’t click on as easily as they do on the other cleaners. There are grooves and pins that have to be exactly aligned for the tool to click into place, and that’s quite a nuisance. Once positioned, of course, they slide and click smoothly, but it takes a while to get it all lined up.

Considering these issues and limitations, the Omni Glide is too expensive for what it does. Unless the battery (they should give a spare free), and the bin cleaning (for which they could provide a tool of some sort) are improved, I find it a difficult gadget to recommend.

Price: Rs 34,990

Pros: Lightweight, easy manoeuvrability, improved cleaning for rollers

Cons: Battery finishes easily, bin gets full as it’s small and difficult to clean, fewer tools, limited use, expensive

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