Dyson is one of the best-known cordless vacuum manufacturers, and its V-series vacuums are flagship models that usually earn top marks in our testing. With strong suction and innovations including dust detection, the best Dyson vacuums can usually be counted on to bring something new to the table.
I got to go hands-on with the Dyson V16 Piston Animal (there’s also a Submarine variant), the company’s newest cordless vacuum that’s expected to launch in the US in 2026. It offers the top-of-class cleaning capabilities we've come to expect from Dyson, but I walked away impressed most by its unique new dustbin compression and ejection system.
What’s new with the V16 Piston Animal
The V16 Piston is a stylish looking cordless vacuum with blue and yellow accents that give it some flair. Cole Kan/Ajay Kumar/CNET
Unlike the light and portable PencilVac, which I also tested, the V16 is intended to be the company’s most powerful cordless vacuum to date. It has a 900-watt Hyperdymium motor with 315 air watts of suction power and a unique dust-compressing dustbin Dyson calls the CleanCompaktor.
Similar to the compacting dustbin on the Dyson PencilVac, the V16 Animal compresses debris in the dustbin as you vacuum, keeping suction strength and cleaning performance strong. It does this by giving you a little red lever that you can push down periodically to compact the dust. It’s a more manual process than the PencilVac, which uses a liner separation system, but it worked just as well when I used the V16 Animal to suck up dirt and debris at Dyson’s Soho store.
The dustbin compacting starts to work when you push down the red handle. Cole Kan/Ajay Kumar/CNET
“As vacuums fill, the fine dust filter and the HEPA filter begin to accumulate dust,” Tim Hare, design engineer at Dyson, told me. “This restricts airflow and reduces suction. A good vacuum cleaner extends the time before this occurs and will fully recover suction when the filters are cleaned. Dyson recommends emptying the bin regularly, before dust levels reach the max line, to maintain optimal suction and cleaning performance.”
This is something that’s true for every vacuum, but the compressing dustbins on the V16 Piston Animal and PencilVac are the first I’ve heard of that incorporate a dustbin compacting feature on a cordless vacuum. A similar technology exists on robot vacuums, where iRobot’s Roomba DustCompactor 205 (which earned a spot on our best robot vacuum list for its reasonable price and strong performance) uses a mechanical paddle to compress the dust in its dustbin.
The new dustbin ejection system is a game-changer
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