The new Dyson Omni-glide cordless vacuum has just arrived in Malaysia. In an online interview with Will Kerr Head of Product Development for Floorcare at Dyson, we find out more about what makes this ultra light, ultra maneuverable vacuum fantastic for cleaning homes in Malaysia.

When it comes to floorcare, Dyson has pushed the envelope of what a vacuum cleaner is capable of accomplishing with every successive model. They started by making it cordless, then they increased performance several fold along with making it lighter than ever before like their recent Dyson V8 and Digital Slim vacuums.

Now, they’re taking the next step by creating a vacuum that is ideally suited for cleaning scenarios for homes in Malaysia. Meet the new Dyson Omni-glide cordless vacuum.

What is the Dyson Omni-glide?

Designed to cater to the cleaning styles of Malaysians who typically live in homes (and small spaces) with hard flooring like marble, parquet and tile, the Dyson Omni-glide is the lightest and most nimble cordless vacuum in Dyson’s line-up at just 1.9kg.

Unlike Dyson’s other offerings that resemble art deco ray guns with a trigger assembly and grip, the Dyson Omni-glide resembles a high-powered broom with an elegantly slim in-line design that still retains all the high-powered tech that indelibly identifies it as Dyson issued gear. 

Will Kerr, Head of Product Development for Floorcare at Dyson who fielded questions from the press demonstrated how the Dyson Omni-glide breaks down and how exactly it worked in a confident fashion akin to a Royal Marine handling an L85A2 rifle and the simple yet sophisticated elegance of the Omni-glide was apparent. The design itself is so simple that you can dismantle and reassemble it by touch alone and light enough that you can hold it one handed.

The simple elegance of the design belies its sophistication. You get an ergonomic one-handed handle with two activation thumb studs for turning it on and two power modes followed by their vaunted Hyperdymium motor, a 0.2l sized dust collection bin, filter and a dust separation system all arrayed in a row. What makes this a triumph of engineering is that this is also the slimmest vacuum they’ve ever made. 

In fact, it somewhat resembles, in an abstract fashion, like a high-powered broom. If Harry Potter wanted to get a ride to both impress Ginny and clean the house without prestidigitation, the Omni-glide will likely be it.

For the Malaysia market, you get only one variant and one colourway, which is primarily done up in a posh gold and nickel finish, dubbed the Dyson Omni-glide+. 

By default, the Dyson Omni-glide+ ships with five different attachments. You get the primary Fluffy omnidirectional soft roller cleaner head, a combination tool for easier switching between tasks, a mini motorised tool to effectively clean mattresses, a worktop tool for cleaning kitchen worktops, tables, and hard surfaces, along with a light pipe crevice tool which has an end-mounted LED light for use in tight, dark, narrow spaces.

The business end of the Omni-glide features their typical extension wand that extends the length to let you clean comfortably when held at waist height but you can have it removed and plug the cleaner head directly into the Dyson Omni-glide to work in much tighter spaces as a handheld model.

Dyson Omni-Glide – Design

The in-line broomstick design of the Dyson Omni-glide was the result of a sketch by Sir James Dyson sometime in December 2018 of a stick broom and the dream of how he could bring it to life as a superior cleaning device.

From that modest sketch, it took a crack team of engineers spread across the globe in the Philippines, the U.K and Shanghai to bring the concept to life as well as 470 trials across 6 countries and 277 users to finalise the design of Omni-glide. Throughout its creation, one tenet underlie everything –  form follows function which is the cornerstone of how Dyson creates their myriad designs across the range.

By putting all its components in a row and slimming it down, Dyson managed to enable this to be the first cordless vacuum that can work while lying flat on the floor, allowing it to clean in the obstructed and tight spaces such as under wardrobes, beds, coffee tables and the like.

“The Dyson Omni-glide represents a completely new way of cleaning homes not just in Malaysia but the world over of indoor fine dust,” says Will Kerr, Head of Product Development for Floorcare at Dyson. “It occupies a unique niche, meeting the needs of many users in Southeast Asia and Malaysia.”

According to Will, “6 out of 10 home owners in Southeast Asia typically live in homes with hard floors and who prefer a daily spot clean of fine dust around their homes which requires something light, maneuverable and powerful, qualities that are built into the Dyson Omni-glide,” adds Will.

The power and nature of the design is akin to existing Dyson designs like the powerful Digital Slim and V11 albeit slimmed down and optimised for spot cleaning. You still get Dyson’s powerful Hyperdimium digital motor powering the Omni-glide with 8 cyclones and 98,000G of centrifugal force generated and the ability to spin up to 105,000rpm to separate ultra fine particles of dust from the air. 

Like other Dyson cordless vacuums, all these fine particulates are filtered through a 5-stage HEPA grade filtration system that is able to capture 99.99% of particles as small as 0.3 microns such as pollen and tiny motes of dust before being vented out of the machine in a cleaner state than when it went in.

To retain its svelteness and its portability ,the Dyson Omni-glide understandably has a smaller battery with a rated 20 minutes of usage before needing a recharge though this combination of short, intensive bursts of cleaning makes it ideal for the Omni-glide’s intended mission profile. The real magic though is in the Dyson Omni-glide’s main omnidirectional attachment.

What’s so special about the Dyson Omni-glide cleaner head ?

Specifications aside, the main calling card of the Dyson Omni-glide is its effortless ability to glide around and under obstacles and obstructions and even function while lying flat down with a nigh perpendicular attachment thanks to the specially engineered Fluffy cleaning head.

When taken for a test run, it’s unlike any other Dyson cordless vacuum as moving around is almost like nudging a well oiled shopping cart. “One of the key criteria in the design of the Omni-glide was the measurement and implementation of strict push force,” said Will. Throughout the design process, it was imperative that the entire vacuuming process was as light and effortless as possible to create what Dyson calls a ‘floaty feeling’. 

“Throughout our product development, we ensured that we maintained that floaty feeling by carefully measuring strict push force when moving forwards and backwards on a hard floor in our R&D labs, measuring resistance with every iteration and prototype to ensure that the final product has an almost effortless glide,” said Will. 

Adorable name aside, the key to this smooth, effortless gliding movement was the design of the Fluffy Omni-glide attachment is that it has not one but four 360-degree rotating castors that can swivel and move on a dime. Its incredibly manoeuvrable with the ability to move forwards, backwards and sideways without getting stuck while maintaining high suction power. 

Will also notes subtle details on the attachment head, ”The castors are made of TPU to ensure that it never scratches hard floors while the attachment head cleans all the way to the edges, the better to clean even the extreme edges of where a wall meets the floor in an effective manner.”

Dyson Omni-glide Price and Availability

The Dyson Omni-glide+ is available in Malaysia with the aforementioned five attachments priced at RM2,199 at the online Dyson store at http://www.dyson.my