What's the deal with the heavily-advertized Dyson vacuum cleaners?

[Bob F]

Th "multi-cyclonic" only describes how it stores the dirt, not how well it gets it from the carpet.

[salty]

How about this? I OWNED a Kirby and thought it was absolutely excellent, although a bit pricey, and things such as the jig saw attachment were a bit silly. It was great as a vacuum cleaner and rug shampoo-er, though. Thirty years later, I wish I still had it. I bet it is still in like new condition, because my first wife, who got it in the divorce, never did a lick of housework in her life.

[aemeijers]

Or they they were broken. When I lived in the apartments, I used to find at least one orphan a month sitting by the dumpster. Almost always, all they needed was the string cut out of the beater bar, the hairballs removed from the elbow in the plumbing, and maybe a new belt to replace the smoked-slick or broken one. If they were shiny enough, I'd get them running and drop them off at Goodwill, or give to friends to sell in their garage sale.

That is one definite downside of moving into a house. Instead of 17 dumpsters that I would walk by every evening on my walk, now I get to listen to idiot dogs barking at me, even after we have been introduced multiple times.

-- aem sends...

[LDC]

When you wrote Hepa, if you meant HEPA, there is a HEPA standard: they are able to trap at least 99.97 percent of particles of .3 microns.

[Joe]

Is the mis-capitalization really that much of a stretch?

[SMS]

Avoid it at all costs. In a recent vacuum cleaner test it was rated 11th.

What you want to do is to buy a commercial vacuum cleaner. If you have a Costco Business Center near you, they carry them. They are not exceptionally expensive, they last a long time, and they suck.

Dyson is for the same people that buy the Bose Wave Radio!

[Kuskokwim]

Yes, CU has rated vacuums:

Rated #1 with a score of 73 is a Hoover WindTunnel Anniversary Edition U6485-900, price range of $186.99 - $253.54.

Best Dyson, DC28 Animal, is rated #12 with a score of 67, price $599.99.

[Sum Guy]

I bought the Nov CR issue last night, but apparently it's not the issue that contains an indepth review of vacuum cleaners - just a table showing a handful of best performers. This is the Canadian version, and the special Canadian insert that shows the equivalent cdn models isin't even showing the correct model numbers.

I was going to buy a one-month access to CR's online website, but when I got to the point where I was filling out my CC information, it said that it was a _recurring_ one-month charge unless or until I cancelled it, which I immediately swore at them. They just lost some direct revenue because I wanted a one-time charge to my card, not to have to deal with cancelling it so I wouldn't be charged for a second (etc) month.

It would be nice if there was a code inside the CR magazine such that if you bought CR at the news stand that you could use the code to access the CR website for a limited time (one month?).

I purchased a Sears Kenmore "Elegance" model 23107 (black color) which is same as 23106 and 23105 (purple and yellow). The Elegance black model ($399 CDN, on sale) is the same as the US Ebony 28614 model ($288 USD). We get screwed up here in Canada over the exchange rate, seeing how the CDN dollar is almost at par with the USD.

All of the sears vacuum cleaners (including the really expensive "Blue" (US) or Intuition (Canada) have the same canister unit and beater-bar roller brush. The Blue/Intuition has a beater bar unit with a detachable hard-floor cleaning head, but all units have a small powered accessory head for cleaning stairs and furniture.

There's a lot of talk about suction and hepa, but it's all noise. How the beater-bar interacts with carpeting is where your real cleaning action is. All vacuums have enough suction to bring dirt/hair into the capture bag or container once it's been dislodged by the beater bar.

[Jules]

Which? They make quite a few different models, and you don't say where you are...

We had a DC05 at one point - the filters would block up quickly, part of the hose assembly broke after a while (and they only wanted to sell me a whole new hose assembly at great expense rather than just the fitting that had broken), and the whole rotating brush part which was supposed to run via the airflow was just a joke and next to useless (I'd end up stripping the whole brush assembly apart at least a couple of times a month, which gets old fast).

Never tried one of those Dysons with the ball, if that's what you're talking about.

[Jules]

Interesting - back in the day I used to hear nothing but praise about their off-roaders; sounded like they were just as capable as the more expensive equivalents from other manufacturers.

[Jules]

Hmm, I remember a friend having one of the Alpine turbo versions (not sure if they were ever sold in the US?) and it was a really fun car, particularly on twisty hillside roads :-)

Power output even without the turbo was twice that of the standard vehicle, though, so it was a reasonable power/weight ratio in something with a reasonably sort wheelbase...

cheers

Jules

[willshak]

I have a central vacuum, but sometimes you just need to pick up some local debris and don't want to drag 30' of hose out and snake it to wherever you need it.. My other vac is a Bissell combo upright/canister vac that I bought in WalMart when I wasn't shopping for a vac. I spotted that candy apple red machine on the shelf and had to have it. I think it was about $150 USD

[willshak]

on 10/17/2009 7:54 PM (ET) Joe wrote the following:

As long as it isn't Hep-A that you are talking about. :-)

[Joe]

Clever. Nice one! ;-)

[salty]

And an even shorter service life!

[Rod Speed]

Sum Guy wrote

And just how long do you expect it would take before that ended up on the net ?

Not if you dont have carpet.

[krw]

We have a five-year-old Dyson. Before that SWMBO would go through a Hoover, Eureka, or whatever, every six to nine months. They would either lose suction (sucks to lose impeller blades) or would blow out the side of the case. Yes, they aren't designed to suck up pennies, but the fact is they do. The Dyson may not work any better but it

*is* built better than the $100 vacuums out there.

[SteveB]

If you have a really good product, people know about it, and you don't have to spend a lot on advertising. If you don't, you advertise the hell out of it. They have to sell a lot of vacuums to just break even on the advertising. Like Geico. Tons of TV ads. Nascar cars. Drag racers @ $40,000 a run. If they want to drop the cost of their insurance, simply cut the ad costs. Allstate is beating them up pretty good now by just advertising prices, and not going with all the hoopla. I'm just sick of seeing the cavemen.

Steve

[SteveB]

Curious that you have such a strong opinion on something you don't own. Virtually all of the reviews from people that actually bought it are 4 and 5 stars (Dyson Animal). Google has a review consolidator - click on the "all reviews" link.

R

reply: I don't own any Oakley glasses. I think anyone who would pay $200 to $300 for a pair of sunglasses needs to be confined and observed for a week. The same goes for vacuum cleaners. I've had $5 garage sale vacuums that did as good as a new one, and if they died, hell, just go get another one.

Rhinestone shades (@$200 a pair) or cheap sunglasses, as some prophet once said.

Steve

[SteveB]

And no one would be pissed off, feel that they had been screwed and leave a bad/horrendous review in retaliation? I find almost just the opposite in almost everything - people more readily leave bad reviews.

reply: I quit reading online reviews. They all looked like they were written by the same English major, and I could find very few negatives.

I'd rather ask the neighbors or friends, or come here.

Steve