You can use power tool batteries in your Dyson Stick vacuum cleaner

Whether you’re tired of your Dyson stick vacuum’s short run time, or you’d rather not replace a worn-out battery with an expensive one, here’s a novel solution: use power tool batteries instead.

Why use power tool batteries with your Dyson stick vacuum?

We’re big fans of Dyson stick vacuums, but their biggest flaw is limited battery life. The limited battery life isn’t much of an issue if you only remove it from the charger to sweep up some spilled coffee grounds in the kitchen or pick up a few dust specks from the stairs.

But Dyson stick vacuums are quite powerful and it would be nice to use them longer. With a longer battery life, you have a great vacuum option in between those quick touch-ups and taking the time to pull out a corded vacuum for extended vacuuming sessions.

If the original battery in your Dyson stick vacuum cleaner is at the end of its useful life (and probably out of warranty), now is the perfect time to upgrade it.

And by an upgrade, we don’t mean spending $40 on an identical proprietary Dyson vacuum cleaner battery to replace the worn out one. We mean putting an adapter in there, allowing you to use batteries from common power tools for some serious runtime.

So serious? Depending on the battery size of the power tool you use, you can double or even quadruple the run time of your Dyson stick vacuum.

Are there any downsides?

Surely, you might be thinking, there must be a downside. For the most part, there isn’t. It’s a pretty solid all-round upgrade that takes advantage of power tool batteries you already have on hand. However, there are two potential drawbacks to be aware of.

Some combinations of third-party batteries and Dyson models cause the power head (the attachment with the brush beater powered by the vacuum’s battery) to stop working because it can’t get the correct voltage. And most battery/vacuum combinations disable full power mode for a similar reason.

In my daily use of the Dyson broom vac those things don’t bother me at all because if I want the beater brush I just use a regular full size vac and never use the max-boost because the regular mode does a good job of sucking up everything I throw at it (and it drains the battery faster).

If any of those things are a deal breaker for you, read the reviews of the particular adapter you’re considering carefully, and when in doubt, stick with a first-party Dyson replacement battery rather than an adapter.

Here’s what you need to upgrade your Dyson Stick vacuum

To upgrade your Dyson vacuum to use power tool batteries, you need to know the particular model of your Dyson stick vacuum (such as the Dyson V6, V7 or V8) and the power tool platform you want to use with it.

For example, if you have a Dyson V8 Animal stick vacuum, or any variation of the V8 line, and your power tools use Milwaukee 18V batteries, you’ll want to purchase this V8 to Milwaukee 18V adapter.

You can find a wide variety of them on the market, including:

• Milwaukee 18V adapters for V6, V7 and V8
• DeWalt 20V adapters for V6, V7 and V8
• Black & Decker 20V adapters for V6, V7 and V8
• Makita 18V adapters for V6, V7 and V8

To use, simply unscrew the retaining screw on the original Dyson battery pack, remove it and replace it with the adapter.

Then, to use your Dyson stick vacuum, simply pop in one of the power tool shelf’s rechargeable batteries of your choice and you’re good to go.

The only real difference between how you used your Dyson before and how you use it with the adapter is that to charge the batteries, you won’t hang the vacuum on the base, but instead pull the battery out and charge it using the charger as you would if you were going to use battery with a power drill or reciprocating saw.

If you have multiple batteries, you can get more runtime per battery than old Dyson batteries, and you can swap them out as you use them. No more running out of juice halfway through making a quick pass of powder through your house. You can change the battery when it runs out and go back to it.