Dyson, known for sleekly designed, high-performance cordless vacuums and home appliances, is expanding its handheld lineup with the launch of a new Car+Boat Handheld Vacuum. Priced at $279.99, this compact yet powerful vacuum once again brings Dyson’s signature engineering to a portable form, offering strong suction, advanced filtration, and an extended 50-minute battery life – the longest runtime I've seen in my many years of covering these cordless vacs. While it costs significantly more than most handheld competitors, its premium features and iconic styling make it a top choice for those seeking a high-end cleaning solution.
The Car+Boat is essentially a Dyson V8 stick vac (a 2016 model), as TechRadar pointed out, with its sleek design and signature colors, just without the stick. It weighs 4.5 pounds, with a 0.54-liter dustbin. Despite being a handheld, it packs the same suction power as the V8, a fully sealed filtration system, and a set of versatile attachments.
Compared to its predecessors, the Dyson V7 Car+Boat (which is unavailable) and Humdinger (which is being phased out), this new Car+Boat delivers a boost in cleaning performance. With 115 air watts (AW) of suction, the latest Car+Boat picks up dirt and debris more efficiently than the older V7 version with 100 AW of suction or the 50 AW of the Humdinger.
The filtration system is also upgraded. The V7 Car+Boat used a two-tier radial cyclone system that could filter particles down to 0.5 microns, but it wasn’t fully sealed, meaning some fine dust and allergens could escape. The new model features Dyson’s latest fully sealed filtration system (as does the Humdinger), which captures 99.99% of particles as small as 0.3 microns, improving allergen control.
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To put the Car+Boat into perspective versus a popular handheld vac, I use the iconic Black+Decker Dustbuster ($44.99), which weighs just 2.4 pounds and delivers only 16 AW of suction power – a fraction of what the Dyson Car+Boat provides but at a fraction of the price.
I find the most remarkable feature of the new Car+Boat to be its battery life. While my Black+Decker Dustbuster struggles to last more than 10–15 minutes, this model delivers up to 50 minutes of runtime – longer than the Dyson V8 stick vacuum (40 minutes), V7 Car+Boat (30 minutes), and Humdinger (25 minutes) before needing a recharge.
While Dyson’s cordless stick vacuums can convert into handheld mode, I find them bulky and heavy for precision cleaning. The Car+Boat offers a more lightweight, grab-and-go solution for tackling hard-to-reach areas. It comes equipped with a Mini Motorized Tool for stubborn dirt and pet hair, a Combination Tool that merges a dusting brush and wide nozzle, and a Crevice Tool for cleaning narrow gaps and edges – similar to the Humdinger’s and V7 Car+Boat’s attachments.
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The biggest drawback of the new Car+Boat is the price, which I’ve always found to be the case with Dyson’s cordless vacuums. At $279.99, it’s cheaper than Dyson’s stick vacuums but significantly more expensive than most other handheld vacuums. If you think of it as a mini version of Dyson’s V8 ($469.99) minus the stick – but with the same suction and advanced filtration, it’s a strong contender in the handheld market right now.
The Dyson Car+Boat Handheld Vacuum is available starting today, February 4, for $279 on Dyson.com.
[Image credit: Dyson]
