Dyson definitely doesn’t do things like everyone else. With its R2 Nurovi Wash+Dry, the British manufacturer replaces traditional round mops with two triangles designed to better clean corners and edges. An original idea, but is it really more effective?
6 / 10
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- Excellent suction on hard floors
- Precise cleaning of corners and edges
- Efficient navigation and reliable mapping
- Sackless cyclonic system
- Clear and complete user interface
- Pet hair not thoroughly sucked on carpets
- Stain removal insufficient on stubborn stains
If Dyson has an excellent reputation with its stick vacuums, it has never really managed to impose itself on the robot vacuum side. I had the chance to test Dyson Spot+Scrub AI a few months ago, and I was disappointed by that model, very far behind the competition and with capabilities below today’s standards.
With the R2 Nurovi Wash+Dry, Dyson aims to compete with the best robot vacuums on the market. The manufacturer bets on a suction of 21,000 Pa, automatic dust detection, and a bagless cyclone station, but also, and above all, its renowned triangular mops, all for a more approachable price of 849 €. This model intends to “think differently” about automatic cleaning, to borrow the words of another well-known brand.
I tested the device in my apartment, covering roughly 45 m², with tile, several rugs, and a dog that sheds enough fur to challenge any robot vacuum. An ideal field to see what this new Dyson is really capable of.
Test conducted on a unit loaned by the manufacturer.
Design and build: pure Dyson aesthetics, but lacking elegance
Hard to confuse the R2 Dyson Wash+Dry with any other robot vacuum. Dyson sticks to its design language with a docking station whose tanks immediately evoke the turbines of its vacuums. The whole thing is original, but also frankly imposing. At nearly 52 cm tall and 47 cm deep, you’ll need to plan ample space to install it.
The perceived quality left me rather hungry. Despite a price of €849, the station relies heavily on plastic, which isn’t inherently bad, but it doesn’t give a premium impression. The Dyson R2 is far from a cheap vacuum, but its direct competitors do better at integrating harmoniously into the home.
Where I do recognize the builder’s touch is in the assembly of its various parts that make up the station. The device houses two water reservoirs (clean and dirty) and a 2.6-liter cyclonic collector. This last feature works bagless, a welcome advantage to avoid constantly buying consumables.
L’accès aux différents compartiments est surprenant au premier abord, et il faut prendre le coup de main pour comprendre comment retirer le bac à poussières, mais au final l’ensemble est très bien pensé, avec un bouton qui permet de l’ouvrir au-dessus d’une poubelle et éviter de se salir les mains.
Le robot est quant à lui assez classique dans sa conception, avec une forme ronde et une hauteur de 9,6 cm. Le contenu de la boîte va à l’essentiel, avec le robot, ses brosses et ses deux serpillières triangulaires. Dyson ne fournit ni patins de remplacement ni solution nettoyante. C’est un peu léger, j’aurais apprécié au moins un jeu de serpillières de rechange.
Suction: excellent on hard floors, disappointing on carpets
With its 21,000 Pa, the R2 Nurovi Wash+Dry isn’t aiming to set power records. Dyson emphasizes its Twin-Capture system, which combines a mechanical recovery of large debris with suction for fine dust.
On hard floors, the result is simply excellent. Dust, crumbs, and everyday dirt are effectively picked up, while the extendable side brush allows cleaning right along baseboards. Dyson proves here its undeniable expertise in suction.
The robot also features a Piezo sensor that should automatically adjust power based on the detected dust quantity. A good idea on paper, even if the corresponding information didn’t always display correctly in the app during my test.
Things get trickier with pet hair. Despite the pair of brushes claimed to detangle, my dog’s fur quickly accumulates there and eventually hinders cleaning. On carpets, it’s even rather disappointing: instead of gathering hair, the Dyson sometimes piles it into little clumps and leaves them behind as it moves on.
I found numerous tufts on a black welcome mat, similar to the living room rug after the robot had passed. Even after two passes over the affected carpets, results remained insufficient. I had to pull out a handheld vacuum to finish the job. Dyson does market this device as suitable for households with pets. Unfortunately, that hasn’t proven true for me.
Automatic emptying of the station doesn’t always manage to evacuate these clumps of hair. You must then intervene manually and regularly to clear the dust collector or the brush. At this price, one would hope to forget the vacuum more often.
Floor washing: triangles reach into corners, and after?
This is the main originality of the Dyson R2 Nurovi Wash+Dry. Rather than circular mops, the manufacturer opted for two triangular paddles inspired by the Reuleaux triangle. To shine in social settings, it’s a triangle with rounded sides that can rotate perfectly inside a square, consistently touching all four sides. In Dyson’s case, this shape is intended to reach the corners and borders usually neglected by robot vacuums.
And on this point, Dyson keeps its promise. The mops indeed reach the far ends of rooms better and pass closer to walls. The eye can see the difference versus a more traditional robot vacuum, which always leaves a small margin. The precision is there, but I didn’t observe better washing results than with standard circular pads.
For footprints and light dirt, the Dyson does its job properly. A single pass is usually enough to bring the floor back to clean. However, things get tricky with coffee or sauce stains. Even after two passes, some traces remain visible. The triangular mops don’t seem to press hard enough on the floor and sometimes tend to smear the dirt rather than pick it up, leaving marks on the surface.
I also tried the intensive mode, which increases the amount of water used, without observing a significant improvement. The triangular pads thus reach more surface, but their cleaning effectiveness remains rather average compared to the market’s best models.
Another issue on long-pile carpets: the mops can touch fibers and damp them, despite the lifting system. Hair then sticks to the pads before being scattered onto the tile. This isn’t a unique problem for this robot, and I didn’t encounter it with the doormat, but on thick carpets, you’ll need to disable washing.
Navigation: good mapping with a few hitches
As with its motor, the Dyson R2 Nurovi does not rely on technological overkill and rests on a package including LiDAR and laser sensors to move around the home. The initial mapping took a few minutes with no particular difficulties, correctly identifying the different rooms and producing a fairly precise plan.
The robot then adopts a methodical movement, skirting the walls before sweeping the surfaces in a zigzag. Transitions between rooms are smooth and returning to the docking station poses no problem. The threshold in my apartment was also cleared without issue, with a lift capability up to 4 cm.
Obstacle avoidance is less consistent. Dyson properly navigates around most objects but can be less precise on a following pass. It can also tend to force its way, especially on initial cleans, bumping into furniture. This behavior didn’t cause major issues during my test, but it lags behind more advanced rival systems.
Overall, the navigation did leave me satisfied. The R2 Nurovi knows where it’s going and covers zones and surfaces adequately, even if obstacle detection could be more reliable. Solid, but it can and should do better.
MyDyson app: thorough, but not always convenient
I’m not a big fan of the MyDyson app, but after a year of updates, this fresh interaction with the software is a pleasant surprise. Setting up the robot is simple, without the bugs faced previously, the interface is pleasant even if a bit dark for my taste, and the mapping is sufficiently complete to modify rooms, create forbidden zones, or add virtual furniture. You can also view a three-dimensional map, even though the furniture rendering remains fairly rudimentary.
Dyson allows precise customization of cleans, with several water levels, the choice between suction and washing, and the option to schedule one or two passes.
The problem is that these settings mostly need to be defined room by room. To start a full, personalized cleaning of the entire home, you must perform many manipulations, whereas competing apps usually offer a much more immediate automatic mode.
Strangely, zone cleaning turns out easier to use, since you can apply the same parameters to a selected surface. Dyson would benefit from adopting this logic for full-house cleaning. A kitchen doesn’t need the same washing intensity as a living room or bedroom. This is a must-have setting for advanced users, and rather than trying to be different at all costs, Dyson would do better to copy its rivals.
The history is, however, very well thought out. It clearly distinguishes cleaned surfaces that were vacuumed from those washed, allowing you to quickly verify the work done. It’s a pity that the dust level display did not function correctly during my trial.
Autonomy and maintenance: a station that lacks efficiency
Dyson claims up to 90 minutes of autonomy and a full recharge in 6 h 30. During my test, 64% battery remained after 42 minutes of cleaning, a reassuring result for maintaining a mid-sized home. Promise kept, and even slightly exceeded during a complete cleaning with 1h40 of continuous work.
To clean about 45 m², the R2 Nurovi required 1 h 05, counting back to the station to wash its mops every 10 m². A second test on 32 m², but with more obstacles on its path, took 1 h 12. Fairly long durations, but not necessarily problematic when the robot works while you’re away.
Automatic maintenance disappointed me more. Dyson claims the mop wash at 75 °C, followed by air-drying at 45 °C. In practice, some dirt remains on the mops after their station cycle, requiring manual cleaning.
Drying is even less convincing. After two hours, the mops stay wet, forcing me to extend the cycle to four hours. Even after this long cycle, they remained damp to the touch, whereas almost all other robot vacuums I’ve tested in recent months are able to dry their pads properly.
Fortunately, the mops are removable and can be washed separately, by hand or in a machine. But this is precisely the sort of task you want to minimize when investing in a model with an automatic station.
The bagless cyclone collector is a good idea, but some hairs remain stuck in the internal reservoir and the ventilation duct, even after several emptyings. You can see them clearly through the semi-transparent cover, and removing them is quite difficult.
Between fur to remove from the brush, pads to clean, and insufficient drying, this Dyson robot vacuum ultimately demands more manual maintenance than I had hoped for.
Dyson R2 Nurovi Wash+Dry: Clubic’s verdict
Dyson deserves credit for offering a robot vacuum that doesn’t look like all the others. The R2 Nurovi Wash+Dry cleans hard floors remarkably well, moves around the home efficiently, and sports a bagless cyclone station that is appreciable. Its triangular mops also reach corners and borders better, without revolutionizing washing.
Yet when conditions get tricky, limits appear. Pet hair accumulates in the brush and ends up redeposited on carpets; coffee or sauce stains resist several passes; and the station doesn’t always manage to clean and dry the mops properly. All these faults mean more manual intervention than you’d wish for.
We can’t say Dyson failed with the robot vacuum, but the R2 Nurovi Wash+Dry lacks consistency. At €849, it’s hard to forgive its shortcomings in washing and automatic maintenance, two functions rivals handle far better today. The originality is welcome, but at this price you mainly want a device that cleans up without us having to go back and re-clean after it.
Daniel Brooks
I cover everyday products with a practical eye, from kitchen tools and home essentials to smart gadgets and consumer trends. My goal is to help readers understand what is genuinely useful, what is worth the price, and what deserves a second look before buying.