Dyson launches new cordless vacuum cleaner with mopping feature

Charlie Park, vice president of Dyson, introduces the company's V12s Detect Slim Submarine cordless vacuum cleaner at the InterContinental Seoul COEX hotel, Wednesday. Courtesy of Dyson Korea

By Baek Byung-yeul

Dyson launched a new cordless vacuum cleaner in the Korean market that can simultaneously remove dust and act as a mop, challenging Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Chinese companies that are offering their competitive cordless cleaners with mopping features, the company said Wednesday.

Dyson said its new V12s Detect Slim Submarine applies a water-cleaning head to its cordless vacuum cleaner head, spraying 18 milliliters of water every minute to clean floors. It is designed to spray just the right amount of clean water to wipe away liquids, dirt and grime, the company said.

Charlie Park, vice president of Dyson, said the company developed the product because the use of hard flooring continues to increase not only in Asia, but also in Western markets such as Europe and the U.S.

“This is our first machine that cleans by wet floors. Sweeping wet floor clean and dry floor cleaning, bringing together technologies to detect to wash and to detangle,” he said.

“In Korea, we learn that floors are predominantly hard floors, which won't be a surprise to you. We also learned that mopping is a key part in a lot of people's cleaning routines in Korea. We have also learned that 74 percent of people that have wet mop attachments on their stick bank use it at least once a week,” Park said during a press conference.

“But we also realized that these wet floor attachments have many problems that have yet to be solved. They can be ineffective at removing stains from the floor and larger machines that are designed specifically for wet floor cleaning can be cumbersome ― big, heavy, difficult to maneuver and difficult to clean. So I'm really excited to be here today to share with you our solution, which we believe tackles these problems,” he said.

Park introduced how the company's new machine solved these issues that others have. “This is our first machine that cleans by wet floors, sweeping wet floors clean and dry floor cleaning, bringing together technologies to detect to wash and to detangle,” he said.

Dyson Korea said the V12s Detect Slim Submarine cordless vacuum cleaner will be available starting Thursday on Dyson's website, Dyson Demo Store and in Dyson stores nationwide.