What's The Difference Between Dyson V7 and V8?

Dyson have made some great leaps forward when it comes to cordless vacuum cleaners in recent times and this is perfectly illustrated in the Dyson V7 and V8 models. But if you’re on the hunt for a new cordless vacuum you may need to understand, what’s the difference between Dyson V7 and V8?

It should be noted that there a several different types of Dyson V7 and V8 models. For the purposes of this article, when we refer to the Dyson V7 we specifically mean the Dyson V7 Animal.

Whilst when we refer to the Dyson V8 we specifically mean the Dyson V8 Absolute model.

Below we are going to take a look at what’s the difference between Dyson V7 and V8 in terms of:

Performance
Battery Life

Capacity
Bin Emptying
Weight

Price

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Table of Contents

What’s The Difference Between Dyson V7 and V8?

So, what’s the difference between Dyson V7 and V8? Let’s take a specific look at some of the key differences between the Dyson V7 Animal and Dyson V8 Absolute to find out.

Feature	Dyson V7 Animal	Dyson V8 Absolute
Battery Life (Non-Motorised)	30 Minutes	40 Minutes
Battery Life (Motorised)	20 Minutes	25 Minutes
Battery Charging Time	3.5 Hours	5 Hours
Capacity	0.54 Litre	0.54 Litre
Weight	2.32kg	2.61kg
Dimensions	210mm (H) x 1,243mm (L) x 250mm (W)	250mm (H) x 1,244mm (L) x 224mm (W)
Suction Power (Powerful Mode)	21AW	28AW
Suction Power (Max Mode)	100AW	115AW

What’s the difference between Dyson V7 and V8?

Performance

When you’re paying so much for a vacuum cleaner regardless of the type you expect it to perform excellently and consistently across pretty much all surfaces.

The Dyson V7 Animal is designed specifically for homes with pets and to work across both hard floors and carpets. In what is a glowing range of user reviews, buyers appear very happy with its overall performance.

The Dyson V8 Absolute is intended to be your go-to solution for all your vacuum cleaning needs in the home, not just the small jobs. It’s also designed to work across multiple floor types including carpets and hard floors. Once again the user reviews indicate that buyers are very happy with the overall performance of the V8 Absolute across various floor types.

Winner: In terms of picking a winner when it comes to performance it is a tough call. Both the V7 and V8 generally are very highly rated by users. At a push perhaps the V8 Absolute takes this category.

Suction Power

For many when it comes to picking any vacuum cleaner, suction power is the most critical element whether cordless or not. Suction power is represented for the Dyson V7 and V8 is most commonly represented in air watts (AW). Air Watts is a measure of how many watts is used by the machine to carry a unit of air through its system. This is a useful measurement as it gives you an idea of how much air is sucked in by the machine.

When it comes to suction power the Dyson V7 Animal is rated at 21AW on the standard “Poweful suction” mode which goes up to 100AW for the “Max mode”.

The Dyson V8 Absolute on the other hand comes in at 28AW for the “Powerful suction” mode and 115AW for the “Max mode”.

Winner: When it comes to suction power the clear winner is the Dyson V8 Absolute which has 25% more suction power on the standard setting which is likely to be the setting you use the most as it lasts longest. When you look at the “Max mode” suction power the Dyson V8 has 15% more suction capability.

Battery Life

There are many important aspects to cordless vacuum cleaners but one of the most critical is the battery life of the unit. This has always been an area where consumers have cited complaints. Both the Dyson V7 Animal and V8 Absolute have a pretty good battery life as far as cordless vacuums go and users report being fairly happy with getting through their cleaning jobs with both.

The Dyson V7 Animal can run for up to 30 minutes with the non-motorised attachments (e.g. crevice tool or combination tool). This drops down to 20 minutes for the direct drive cleaner head on the lower of the two suction modes (“Powerful Suction”). When opting for the most powerful suction mode this goes down to 6 minutes and is typically used for really in-grained dust and dirt.

The Dyson V8 on the other hand can provide up to 40 minutes of run time with the non-direct driven attachments which goes down to 25 minutes with the motorised brush head. Thus you get more time on a single charge on the V8 than the V7 which given their respective price points, with the V8 being more expensive, you would expect.

Winner: In terms of battery life the clear winner is the Dyson V8 Absolute.

Capacity

Dust bin capacity is another very important consideration when it comes to cordless vacuum cleaners. They typically tend to be quite small (comfortably under 1 litre) and so how you empty them becomes just as important as how much space they have.

The Dyson V7 has a 0.54 litre capacity which will mean you probably need to empty it out fairly regularly to keep performance at its best. This is not too much of an issue though as many users report because opening the dust bin for cleaning is quite straightforward and if done low enough into a wheelie bin should mean you avoid the worst of the dust.

The Dyson V8 also has a 0.54 litre capacity and likewise is very easy to empty out according to user reviews.

Winner: In this instance as both the Dyson V7 Animal and Dyson V8 have the exact same bin capacity and emptying mechanism, it is a tie in terms of capacity.

Weight

The weight of cordless vacuum cleaners is one of the biggest attractions for many users as it can potentially mean the whole process is made a lot quicker and easier. This is especially the case for tricker and more intricate jobs such as the stairs and curtains etc.

The challenge for manufacturers is to fit everything a vacuum cleaner needs to operate well in addition to decent dust bin capacity and yet still make their designs feel light weight.

Perhaps no manufacturer does this quite as well as Dyson and this is on full display with the V7 and V8 models.

The Dyson V7 comes in at 2.32kg which is one of the lightest cordless stick vacuum cleaners around. At this kind of weight it should make most jobs easier when compared to other similar models and certainly any upright or cylinder vacuum cleaner.

The Dyson V8 although is slightly “heavier” at 2.61kg, is still quite relatively light in comparison to most vacuum cleaners.

Winner: When it comes to weight although both V7 Animal and V8 Absolute are relatively light, the V7 takes the crown as its around 300g lighter than the V8.

Price

A major factor in deciding what model of cordless vacuum cleaner to go for is the price. As cordless vacuum cleaners offer newer technology and tend to be updated regularly particularly Dyson models, they also tend to be the most expensive on offer. Although they tend to be more expensive than their corded counterparts, they also offer a lot more convenience and ease of use.

When it comes to price the Dyson V7 Animal represents one of the less expensive models within the Dyson cordless vacuum range.

The Dyson V8 Absolute on the other hand is generally a more expensive model due to its specification and features.

Winner: When looking at the price and doing a straight comparison the Dyson V7 Animal is the less expensive of the two. However, it is hard to look at the price in isolation as they offer different features. For what they offer they both and how well they’re rated by users, they both represent good value for money.

Thus although the Dyson V7 Animal is cheaper, the price difference to the Dyson V8 is not so significant to make that a deal breaker in its own right.

For this reason we believe its a tie when it comes to value for money even though the Dyson V7 wins on a straight like-for-like comparison on price.

Conclusion: What’s The Difference Between Dyson V7 and V8?

So, what’s the difference between Dyson V7 and V8? We’ve seen there are many differences between Dyson V7 Animal and V8 Absolute in terms of battery life, suction power, price and weight. Deciding on what works best for you will depend on your own needs as well as your budget but they both offer some great features.