Dysons again

[Mary Fisher]

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Perhaps the time lapse and improvement in models is why the responses are more positive than they have been in the past.

Thanks,

Mary

[Dave Baker]

As did I. Inherited an old HJ from my mum when she died, then another from my gran when she died plus a Miele upright from a friend who was chucking it out. None of the three would do more than slightly rearrange cat hairs on the carpet, even with new brushes and belts, and the only way to get rid of them was go round the whole house with trainers on dragging my feet across the carpet and pulling the hairs into balls which I could then pick up. That took a couple of hours and although quite good for the thigh muscles wasn't something I felt inclined to do more than once in a blue moon.

The old DC01 shifts nearly every cat hair with no more than a couple of passes. The amount of extra dust it found compared to the Hoover was frightening. For the first few days of using it it pulled out bucket loads and then it finally settled down to mainly just the fresh cat hairs each time. I had no idea I was living on top of such a filthy dust packed carpet but it explains the years of asthma after using the Hoover which I suspect did more to disturb the dust and beat it up into the air than actually picking it up.

[AK]

Rubbish yourself! When I had a bagged vacuum cleaner I did not have to empty the bag after each vacuum, in fact I onlt emptied it about once every

4 weeks, now I have to empy on each vacuum

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'm simply quoting other's findings. Statistics.

Obviously, reliability is based on the number of problems in a sample. It would be a very poor maker where every one broke down. It might be that only one in three gives problems while a better make is one out of ten.

However, as a straw poll, do a search on this group. You'll find dozens of questions about fixing Dysons - with the same problems cropping up time and time again. Not so with others. Now I know Dyson might be the most popular, but not by this proportion.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I personally have an inbuilt reaction to something with is over hyped. Nor can I work up much enthusiasm about a vacuum cleaner - despite me being the one who uses it.

[Stanley]

The filters are there to protect the motor and I think to clean up the outgoing air.

They are designed for normal household use not cleaning up after building work. Used on soot and plaster of course the filters will block. Soot is sticky as well as small particles. My old Hoover cylinder blocks very quickly on fine powders so I use a brush and dustpan first.

Used for normal carpet and lino cleaning for which they were designed they do not lose their suck and the filters will go on for at least three months before they need washing.

Trading Standards comes out of my taxes. Please don't waste their time on this. Use your Dyson within the spirit of its intended use and it will serve you well. Get a hack vacuum cleaner out of the local paper for your DIY cleanups.

[Rob Morley]

People are more vociferous when they're annoyed than when they're content. Maybe the happy owners are getting annoyed at the disproportionate amount of slagging off that Dysons seem to receive.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

This is a common statement. But was the old Hoover in top condition - new brushes, drive belt, bag etc? If not, it was hardly a fair test against a new product.

Also, you can see the dust being lifted by a Dyson. Not so with a bag type. So you'd need to weigh the amount for a true test.

I'm not saying it still wouldn't be better. Just that it's best to be a bit scientific about things.

After all, a brand new Hoover might well have done the same against a worn out Dyson.

[Rick Dipper]

I got this (below) from dyson today.

It imples that normal houeholds don't have open fires, nor do they have residents that work in the building trade.

Rick

From: Darran Crook To: "' [e-mail]'" Subject: Dipper 31299 Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2004 14:34:09 +0100

[Rick Dipper]

See my post, which is a mesage from Dyson themselves. This later post answers the "why are they crap" question.

Rick

[Andy Hall]

Well..... I guess that these days most don't.

Do you think that you would have had a different answer from any other domestic cleaner manufacturer? I wouldn't include the wet/dry or workshop types which are meant to be for heavier work.

If I had an open fire (I have in the past), I might expect the domestic cleaner to deal with the general film of dust on and around the hearth which accumulates daily, but not to participate in a full blown chimney cleaning exercise.

Equally I might use the domestic cleaner to pick up dust from drilling a few holes but not from the wholesale removal of plaster from a wall during a day's DIY.

Obviously you *can* take the view that a Dyson or other domestic cleaner should be able to cope with all this lot, but I'm less than convinced that a trading standards officer would agree.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[mike ring]

"Mary Fisher" wrote in news:417f8574$0$2656$ [e-mail]:

My old Miele just blew up (really; bang, flames, dense black smoke, bits of burned sponge filter shrapnel).

As Argos have a 20% off (that'll do it for me) I got a Dyson Dc11 allfloors, and it's the dog's (apostrophe *does* indicate the genital case).

The Miele died just about on completion of a mat; when I got the Dyson home I did the same rug and got a monstrous amount of cat hairs and othe rubbish out.

I hate the looks but the design is awesome, the apprpriate bits click on and off dead easy, though learning about all the catches forces a bit of RTFM.

I like the way it all builds into one unit for storage; the Miele seemed to be a wheelbarrow full of hoses, wands, turbobrush etc.

Plus I got 53 squid off *plus* a tenner voucher ;-))

mike

[Dave Liquorice]

I should think that is correct, open fires are not common place in the UKs housing stock, indeed many homes don't even have a chimney. It does vary by area though, open fires are the norm in Middleton-in-Teesdale as there is no mains gas there. There is mains gas in Alston so most homes use that but open fires are still fairly common. Overall though these places are small and won't make a significant percentage of the total UK housing.

And what percentage of the population work in the building trade? The odd bit of dust from putting up a shelf or two wouldn't be a problem but using one as part of a whole house refurbishment is not what they are intended for. If your requirement is for a commercial grade cleaner buy a commercial grade cleaner and don't winge when your expensive domestic one can't cut the mustard.

[Dave Liquorice]

True enough but the cannister of a Dyson doesn't hold that much and it's not compacted like a bagged cleaner. How ever I still say they do a better job.

[Dave Liquorice]

I've got the cheapo Earlex jobbie with that feature. Does the business and gets serious abuse. It does loose suction when the filter clogs up though, take it outside and a good brush restores it's power. Not seen replacement filters in the sheds, unlike Dyson spares...

[John Rumm]

In some ways I think that the see through bin was a master stoke of design/marketing, all the other makers thought it was a silly idea and counter productive, but it does cause the "wow, yuck!" response that makes neighbours etc rush out to buy one.

[Mary Fisher]

Thus admitting that their houses are dirty!

Mary

[Stefek Zaba]

Compelling as a story, but not what my children even at primary school learnt to call "a fair test". I hypothesise (but would be happy to be proved wrong by actual experiment) that as your Dyson's now 7 years old, if you were to repeat the trial with a brand-new "bagged" cleaner - if the DC-01 is an upright, then a fair comparison for a cylinder includes a motorised bruch - you'd find the brand-new one similarly able to produce plenty of gunge used just after a go with the now-aging Dyson.

Over time, cleaners do get less effective: parts which are closely-fitting and almost airtight when new become looser and leakier with age, filters clog, post-filter air passages get dirty and so slightly narrowed; hence my belief - backed up by only one household's experience - that the newness of a vac affects its effectiveness quite markedly...

Stefek

[Dave Plowman (News)]

How can you possibly know unless you tried it?

[Andrew Gabriel]

I like them but I haven't waded all through this thread (done too many before;-).

I've used a DC01 (I think, or whatever the early non-upright one was called), and I own a DC04 and DC07. One thing which is very obvious is a program of continuous improvement -- when I've found niggly things which could be done better, they have been fixed on later models. Also, the suck is much stronger as you move through to later models. Actually, the DC07 is probably at the limit, in that it's difficult to extend the hose against the suck and the beater noticably tries to suck the carpet into it.

My DC04 has been used for building work all its life. It wasn't bought for that purpose, but it works very well. I am careful not to bash or drop it as people report it is fragile, but it works particularly well with brick and plaster dust. It can keep up with the dust output from a plaster chaser, which a bagged cleaner just can't touch (if the bag works, it clogs in a few seconds, and if it doesn't clog, it just chucks the dust out of the exhaust). Beware that the handle on the dust container wasn't intended to take the weight of a container full of brick dust though -- I haven't broken it but it would probably be easy to do when emptying the container.

-- Andrew Gabriel