The Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine is a high-end cordless stick vacuum. It uses a 315 AW suction motor with a dual conical roll anti-tangle floorhead. The floorhead has an LED light to illuminate fine debris. A piston inside the dirt compartment can compress debris, extending the time between emptying. It comes with a Submarine mopping floorhead that can mop floors or pick up liquids. There's also a conical turbo brush, a combination upholstery tool and soft-bristle brush, and a crevice tool.
Our Verdict
The Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine is a very good choice for cleaning a house. The dual conical roll floorhead handles most everyday debris on bare floors and does a remarkable job lifting pet hair from carpets. That said, it can struggle to pick up large debris from carpets because a plastic support in the middle of the floorhead blocks embedded debris from being sucked up, leaving a strip of uncleared material with each pass. It's also quite bulky and can leave debris behind in corners and along baseboards. The dustbin piston system compresses dirt in the dustbin, letting you clean for longer before having to empty it. Build quality feels noticeably more solid than older Dyson cordless models, and the runtime is long enough to cover a lot of ground on a single charge. Its HEPA filter and sealed system also keep fine dust contained while you vacuum. Emptying is messy, though, since the bagless dust compartment releases a cloud of fine dust into the air.
Clears most everyday debris on hard floors in a single pass.
Effectively lifts embedded pet hair from carpets.
HEPA filter and sealed system contain fine dust as you clean.
Long runtime covers most homes on a single charge.
Build feels sturdier than earlier Dyson cordless vacuums.
Floorhead leaves a strip of debris down the center on carpet.
Emptying the dirt compartment releases a cloud of dust.
Struggles to clean along edges and in corners.
The Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine is a great vacuum for small apartments. Its compact stick form factor stores neatly on the included wall dock, which also holds a couple of attachments. Pet hair pickup is excellent on furniture and carpets, and bare floor performance is good for everyday messes like crumbs and dust. The HEPA filter and sealed system keep fine dust from being reintroduced into the air while you vacuum, which matters more in a tighter space. The main caveat is that emptying the dustbin releases a cloud of fine dust, which is harder to deal with in a small living space without easy outdoor access. Carpet pickup is also a weak point, with debris left behind in corners and along edges.
Clears most everyday debris on hard floors in a single pass.
Effectively lifts embedded pet hair from carpets.
HEPA filter and sealed system contain fine dust as you clean.
Build feels sturdier than earlier Dyson cordless vacuums.
Wall dock and compact form store neatly in tight spaces.
Floorhead leaves a strip of debris down the center on carpet.
Emptying the dirt compartment releases a cloud of dust.
Struggles to clean along edges and in corners.
The Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine is great for cleaning stairs. It's light enough to carry up and down stairs easily, and the cordless design means you don't have to drag a power cord around or search for outlets between floors. The HEPA filter and sealed system keep dust contained while you work, and the floorhead clears most debris on stair treads in one pass. Pet hair pickup is also strong on stair-runner carpet. The primary downside is that the wedge-shaped floorhead leaves a strip of debris down its center, and it can't fully reach into corners where treads meet risers, so you'll want to switch to an attachment like the crevice tool for those areas.
HEPA filter and sealed system contain fine dust as you clean.
Light enough to carry up and down stairs comfortably.
Cordless design lets you move easily between floors.
Floorhead leaves a strip of debris down the center on carpet.
Struggles to clean along edges and in corners.
The Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine is good for cleaning a car. The handheld configuration is light and easy to maneuver, and the cordless design means you don't have to worry about finding an outlet near your car. The conical turbo brush, crevice tool, and combination tool cover hair on seats, debris in tight crevices, and dust on dashboards and upholstery.
Handheld configuration is light and maneuverable inside a car.
Cordless design means you don't need access to an outlet.
Turbo brush clears pet hair from upholstery.
The Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine is good at cleaning bare floors. The dual conical roll floorhead clears most everyday debris in a single pass, so you can rely on it to clean hardwood, tile, and similar surfaces. It also does a decent job pulling debris out of cracks and seams between floorboards, though the floorhead doesn't seal as tightly to these narrow grooves as older Dyson floorheads do.
Clears most everyday debris on hard floors in a single pass.
Struggles to clean along edges and in corners.
The Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine is okay at cleaning carpets. It picks up most fine, medium, and large debris on both low- and high-pile carpets. The issue is that the wedge-shaped floorhead has a plastic support spar running across the middle, leaving a strip of uncleaned debris down the center of each pass. The floorhead design also makes it tricky to clean in corners and along baseboards.
Picks up most debris in open areas.
Floorhead leaves a strip of debris down the center on carpet.
Struggles to clean along edges and in corners.
The Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine is excellent at picking up pet hair from carpets. The twin hair-screw rollers in the floorhead lift nearly every strand in a single pass. The turbo brush does an equally strong job on furniture, providing enough agitation and suction to pull hair out of upholstery. The main caveat is the plastic support in the middle of the floorhead, which leaves a thin row of hair behind on each pass and requires a second pass to fully clear. The turbo brush also tends to push hair forward into a clump, so you'll want to lift the tool to vacuum up the ball of hair that forms.
Effectively lifts embedded pet hair from carpets.
Turbo brush clears pet hair from upholstery.
Anti-tangle rollers prevent hair from wrapping around the floorhead.
Floorhead leaves a strip of debris down the center on carpet.
Turbo brush pushes hair forward into a clump that needs to be vacuumed up.
The Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine offers great filtration performance. Its HEPA filter and fully sealed system keep almost all fine dust contained as you clean, so you don't have to worry about releasing allergens back into your living space. Emptying the dustbin is another story, though. Because it's bagless, it releases a cloud of fine dust whenever you open the dust compartment's flap. To minimize the impact on your home's air quality, it's best to empty the bin outdoors.
HEPA filter and sealed system contain fine dust as you clean.
Emptying the dirt compartment releases a cloud of dust.
Performance Usages
Changelog
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Updated May 20, 2026:
We updated this review to include test results from our latest test bench.
- Updated Feb 13, 2026: We've updated this review to the latest test bench, adding Runtime, Mobility, Air Quality, and Mopping Capabilities sections, as well as a Swappable Battery test. See the Vacuum Test Bench 1.4 changelog.
- Updated Jan 28, 2026: Review published.
- Updated Dec 19, 2025: Early access published.
Check Price
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Dyson V16 is available in two variants: the Dyson V16 Piston Animal and the Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine, which includes the Submarine mopping floorhead. We tested the Submarine version; you can see a photo of its label here.
If you come across another variant, please let us know in the comments so we can update our review.
Popular Vacuum Comparisons
The 2025 flagship Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine introduces two features for Dyson: a piston to compress debris and a dual conical roll anti-tangle floorhead. While the piston buys you extra time between emptying the vacuum, the benefit varies based on debris type. While most cordless Dyson vacuums have unimpressive built quality, this one feels noticeably sturdier.
That said, the large floorhead has a plastic strip down the center, which results in worse carpet pickup performance than the Dyson V15 Detect, and the V16's wedge-shaped floorhead is difficult to get into edges and corners. Despite the V16's extremely powerful 315 AW suction motor, it can't deliver the same suction at its floorhead as the Dyson Gen5detect with its 262 AW motor. The 400 AW Samsung Bespoke AI Jet Ultra has even more power and offers better carpet pickup performance. As a mop, the V16 is about the same as its predecessor, the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine, since its Submarine V2 mopping floorhead is so similar to the original Submarine floorhead. All in all, it's not a meaningful upgrade over earlier (and more affordable) models.
If you're looking for more alternatives, take a look at our recommendations for the best cordless vacuums, the best Dyson vacuums, or the best vacuums for hardwood floors.
The Dyson V15 Detect is a better vacuum than the Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine. The V15's bristled brushroll offers better carpet pickup than the dual conical roll floorhead on the V16. Though pet hair pickup is outstanding for both vacuums, the V16 leaves a strip of undisturbed hair down the center of its floorhead, requiring another pass. The V16 has a more powerful suction motor than the V15, but it doesn't deliver better performance on any floor surface.
The Dyson V15s Detect Submarine is a slightly better vacuum than the Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine. The V15 offers marginally better performance on carpet, and the Submarine mopping floorhead performs a little better than the Submarine V2 mopping floorhead on the V16. On the other hand, the V16 offers about twice the battery life at low power than the V15.
The Dyson Gen5detect is a better vacuum than the Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine. The Gen5detect's soft roller floorhead delivers better performance on bare floors than the V16's dual conical roll floorhead, and the Gen5detect also offers better performance on carpets. However, the V16's twin brushrolls lift pet hair off carpets better than the Gen5detect, which leaves more embedded hair behind.
The Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine is a better vacuum than the Dyson V8. The V16's dual conical roll floorhead offers better debris pickup on most floor surfaces, and the more powerful V16 is better at picking up pet hair from furniture as well. The V16 also has a much longer battery life, allowing you to clean a much larger space on a single charge.
Test Results
The Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine delivers great performance on hard floors. The dual conical roller floorhead easily picks up all fine debris as well as most medium and large material when you set the suction slider on the floorhead to Large Objects. If you select Maximum Suction, you'll leave more medium- and large-sized debris behind.
The Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine offers fair performance on high-pile carpets. It clears most fine, medium, and large-sized debris with the floorhead's suction gate in the Large Objects setting. If you select the Maximum Suction setting, you'll leave more medium- and large-sized debris behind, but it still won't increase performance on fine material.
The floorhead's V-shaped design makes it difficult to maneuver into edges and corners, leaving material behind in these places. There's also a plastic support along the middle of the floorhead, which leaves strips of debris behind, requiring you to make another pass.
This vacuum's performance on low-pile carpets is reasonable. With the suction gate at its Large Objects setting, it picks up most fine, medium, and large-sized debris, but leaves uncleaned areas along the center of the floorhead, requiring a second pass. Setting the floorhead's suction gate to Maximum Suction leaves a little more large-sized debris behind and doesn't increase performance for other material sizes.
The floorhead's wedge shape makes cleaning wall edges and corners quite difficult, requiring you to pivot it while still leaving behind debris.
This vacuum's pet hair pickup performance on low-pile carpets is remarkable. The twin hair screw rollers built into the floorhead pick up nearly every hair, including deeply embedded hairs. However, the dead zone at the center of the floorhead leaves hair behind, requiring you to make a second pass offset from the first.
The Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine delivers excellent pet hair pickup performance from upholstered furniture using its hair screw turbo tool. This turbo head offers enough agitation, and the vacuum provides enough suction to pick up nearly every hair. The tool tends to push hair forward into a clump that can be left behind. You'll need to lift the tool and vacuum directly over this clump to avoid distributing the hair back down on the upholstery.
This vacuum does a decent job of removing debris from cracks. Performance is worse than that of older models like the Dyson Gen5detect with its Fluffy Optic floorhead because the V16 floorhead distributes suction over a larger surface area and doesn't seal as well to the floor. It's much easier to pick up this debris using the other attachments with the vacuum at full power.
The Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine's build quality is good, a notable improvement over earlier Dyson vacuums. In particular, the plastic construction is more rigid than its predecessor, the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine, making the vacuum feel fairly robust despite the occasional creak as you move it.
All components click together well, with a release at the top and bottom of the wand to detach the connected tool. The Submarine mopping floorhead is well-made and easy to clean, though it's not very well-sealed, and water can leak out if you tip it.
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Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine vacuum
- Vacuum body/dirt compartment
- Filter
- Battery
- Dual conical roll anti-tangle floorhead
- Submarine wet roller floorhead
- Wand
- Tools and brushes
- Conical turbo brush
- 2-in-1 combination tool (upholstery tool, soft bristle brush)
- Crevice tool
- Docking station
- Dock hanger
- Docking station
- Drip tray
- Charger with charging cable
- Guides and manuals
- Warranty information
- Submarine floorhead information
- Dock installation manual with mounting screws
- Quick Start Guide
The Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine is relatively easy to store, though the Submarine floorhead and docking station require a slightly deeper space than most other cordless stick vacuums. There's also no wand clip for storing accessories. You can store two attachments on the docking station, but you'll have to find space for everything else.
This vacuum's dirt compartment offers an adequate capacity. It's a little on the small side of average for a cordless stick vacuum. The piston feature compresses debris to maximize capacity, though this only works with compressible materials like hair. Hard debris won't compress much, so you'll need to empty more often depending on what you're vacuuming.
This vacuum has a solid runtime, showing a major improvement over the Dyson V15 Detect. With the floorhead attached, you'll get around 17 minutes in Boost mode for heavy debris, with significantly more runtime on lower power settings, so a single charge is enough for most cleanups in average-sized homes.
This vacuum has a great battery system. The battery is swappable and user-serviceable, so you can keep a spare on hand or replace it down the line without sending the vacuum in for service. The LCD display shows your exact battery percentage remaining. The downside is that it takes over four hours to fully recharge.
The Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine is decently easy to maintain, though there are a lot of parts you have to keep clean. Fortunately, all parts are easy to access.
The dirt compartment's piston helps keep the dirt compartment clean, even though some hair might stick to it. It moves all debris to the bottom of the dirt compartment, making the dirt easy to remove once you open the compartment's bottom flap using a release button. You can also separate the dirt compartment from the vacuum body using two tabs on the sides of the dustbin for deeper cleaning.
The dual conical roll anti-tangle floorhead doesn't clog with hair like other vacuums, but it does roll hair into a ball and trap it behind the rollers. Thankfully, it's easy to remove the rollers to clean out the hair.
For more details about user maintenance, take a look at the user manual.
The Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine incurs somewhat low recurring costs. Not many parts need to be replaced on a regular basis. However, they're hard to find in most regions.
- Filter: The exhaust filter should last the lifetime of the vacuum if it's cleaned according to manufacturer recommendations and only needs replacement if it's damaged.
- Submarine Head Wet Roller: The manufacturer recommends you replace the wet roller in the Submarine floorhead after six months of normal use. It's best practice to replace this roller whenever you notice significant wear and tear.
This vacuum has many quality-of-life features. The floorhead has a built-in LED to illuminate fine debris. When you install the floorhead, you can choose between Eco, Auto, and Boost suction modes, with Auto being the default. Auto adjusts suction based on the surface it detects and the number of particles it senses with its particle counter, which it shows on the display. Auto mode changes to Med mode when you use this vacuum in a handheld configuration, which deactivates the sensors.
The dual conical floorhead has a manual suction slider gate, allowing you to choose between Large Objects or More Suction. There's more room to accommodate large objects in the floorhead when you set this to Large Objects, while More Suction seals off the floorhead hose, concentrating the suction.
When you connect the Submarine mopping head, you can choose between Wet and Max. Wet is the default wet mopping setting, while Max temporarily increases the mopping head's pump power to increase water flow, though this doesn't increase roller speed or have much effect on power consumption. In mopping mode, the display only shows the battery percentage, not the time remaining, as it would in vacuum mode.
You can connect this vacuum to your phone to check the vacuum's status and settings, and update the vacuum's firmware.
The Dyson V16 Piston is quite portable. Its total weight is slightly under its predecessor, the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine, though there's a little more weight on the handle. Its weight is low enough that it's reasonably easy to carry around.
The Submarine V2 head weighs exactly the same as the previous version:
- Empty: 3.09 lbs (1.4 kg)
- With full clean water reservoir: 3.75 lbs (1.7 kg)
- With full clean water and dirty water reservoirs: 4.52 lbs (2.05 kg)
This vacuum is decently maneuverable. It's easy to get under couches or low tables, provided you crouch. On furniture, it's no problem to move it wherever you need to clean, and the multiple attachments make cleaning tasks easier. With a little practice, you can vacuum tasseled rugs and high-pile carpets without the floorhead getting stuck, and electrical cords won't jam in the roller either.
However, the unit is poorly balanced, and extended use will cause wrist pain, making it unsuitable for people with limited mobility. You'll also find the convex floorhead difficult to position against straight edges, requiring constant twisting to clean right to the edge. And although the built-in nozzle is convenient to use without an attachment, the opening is very small, making it hard to clean a large area.
Since this is a cordless vacuum, its range is limited only by the remaining battery life and the room left in its dirt compartment.
This vacuum has outstanding particle filtration. Its HEPA filter and fully sealed system keep nearly every particle of dust contained, so you don't have to worry about it stirring up allergens or kicking particles back into the air as you vacuum.
Like most bagless vacuums, the V16 releases a cloud of fine dust into the air when you open the dirt compartment. The piston feature does help push debris cleanly to the bottom so it falls out in one go, but it doesn't prevent the dust cloud. To keep this from affecting the air in your home, it's best to empty the vacuum outdoors or directly into a deep garbage bag.
This vacuum delivers reasonable suction. That said, the dual conical roll floorhead is larger than the floorheads on older Dyson vacuums, distributing suction over a larger surface area, so the suction is lower. Also, the floorhead doesn't seal as well to the floor as older floorheads, further limiting suction.
The airflow through the hose is good, and this vacuum has plenty of power to lift even large debris. That said, these results don't reflect the powerful 315 AW airflow that Dyson advertises.
The Dyson V16 Piston Animal Submarine is fairly quiet and shouldn't be too disruptive when you're having a conversation or watching TV. The dual conical roll floorhead is just as quiet as the earlier Dyson V15s Detect Submarine's Digital Motorbar floorhead on bare floor, and a little quieter on carpet.
This vacuum offers satisfactory performance cleaning stains. Its Submarine V2 floorhead features a high-power Max mode, the only difference over the older Submarine head used with the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine. Performance heavily depends on the pressure you apply. Stain removal performance is decent with just the weight of the head, but if you push down on the floorhead, you can increase the friction and agitation, improving performance at the expense of greater physical effort.
The mopping system is nearly identical to that of the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine: it uses an absorbent roller that soaks up water, and a pump that pulls water from the roller and discharges it into a separate tank. The tank isn't fully sealed, so the water can spill out if the tank is nearly full and you move the floorhead too quickly, or if you pick the floorhead up at an angle. Soaking up water this way is a slow process, and it's not much more effective than a manual mop. It may appear fine at first because the water is spread very thin, but another pass with a higher concentration of dye shows there's still a lot of water present, and a final pass shows little improvement.
