Whether you're tired of how little run time your Dyson stick vacuum has, or you'd prefer not to replace a worn-out battery with an expensive proprietary one, here's a novel solution: use power tool batteries instead.

UPDATE: 11/2/22

Dyson reached out to us with the following statement:

Dyson strongly advises against using non-genuine battery attachments with Dyson machines as they have not been tested to our reliability and safety standards and may cause serious harm. We recommend only using genuine Dyson parts purchased direct or through our official 3rd party suppliers. Any damage caused to machines by non-genuine batteries will not be covered under the Dyson guarantee.

Why Use Power Tool Batteries with Your Dyson Stick Vacuum?

We're big fans of Dyson stick vacuums, but their biggest shortcoming is limited battery life. Limited battery life isn't a big deal if you're just taking it off the charger to sweep up some spilled coffee grounds in the kitchen or grab a few dust bunnies off the stairs.

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

If the original battery on your Dyson stick vacuum is at the end of its life (and likely well outside the warranty window) it's a perfect time to upgrade it.

And by an upgrade, we don't mean dropping $40 on an identical proprietary Dyson vacuum battery to replace the worn one. We mean slap an adapter on there, allowing you to use common power tool batteries for serious run time.

How serious? Depending on the size of the power tool battery 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-around upgrade that takes advantage of the power tool batteries you already have on hand. There are two potential downsides to look out for, however.

Some combinations of third-party batteries and Dyson models make the powerhead (the attachment with the beater brush powered by the vacuum battery) stop working because it can't draw the right voltage. And the majority of the battery and vacuum combinations disable the max-boost power mode for a similar reason.

In my day-to-day use of the Dyson stick vacuum, those things don't bother me at all because if I want the beater brush, I'll just use a regular full-size vacuum and I never use the max-boost mode because the regular mode does a fine job vacuuming up everything I throw at it (and it runs the battery down faster).

If either of those things is a deal breaker for you, read the reviews for the particular adapter you are considering carefully, and when in doubt, stick with a first-party Dyson replacement battery instead of 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 happen to have a Dyson V8 Animal stick vacuum, or any variation of the V8 line, and your power tools use Milwaukee 18V batteries, you'd 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 the V6, V7, and V8
• DeWalt 20V adapters for the V6, V7, and V8
• Black & Decker 20V adapters for the V6, V7, and V8
• Makita 18V adapters for the V6, V7, and V8

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

Then to use your Dyson stick vacuum, just pop on one of the rechargeable batteries from your power tool platform of choice and 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 back on the cradle but instead pop the battery off and charge it using the charger like you would if you were going to use the battery with a power drill or reciprocating saw.

If you have multiple batteries, you can get more run time per battery than you would with the old Dyson batteries, and you can hot-swap while using it. No more running out of juice halfway through doing a quick dust-bunny pass across your house. You can swap the battery when it runs down and get right back to it.