I have a $100 coupon to use for Lowe’s and I need a new vacuum cleaner. I’ve bought two cheapish (under $100) ones in the last few years and they’ve lasted slightly longer than a case of indigestion so, since I have the extra $100 anyway, I want to get a nicer one. I’ve been debating paying yet another $100 over what I was going to spend and getting one of the $400-$500 Dysons as I’ve heard great reviews of them, but I don’t always trust epinions and the like (a lot of padding) and the people I’ve heard it from always heard it from a friend of their cousin or whatever.
So has anybody here used a Dyson? Are they all that (and more to the point are they worth the extra money)?
I like mine, but don’t have any other vacuum cleaners to compare it to. When our bathroom was being worked on the contractors needed to use the vacuum and they were really impressed by it (one of them called it the Terminator of vacuums).
no problems with performance
bagless is nice but can be annoying to empty - I have yet to do it without spilling some dust on the floor.
it’s slightly heavier and noisier than I would like, and gets hot easily
some friends who have owned other vacuums in the past say that the Dyson almost makes them enjoy vacuuming
The more you spend on a vacuum cleaner, the longer it should last. (I should know. I have bought many. Currently, a Panasonic, which has worked admirably for eight years and cost around $400, or so.)
And I did not know you could buy indigestion by the case.
We’ve had our Dyson for about three years and we have no intention of going back to other vacuums. It’s just flat out the best designed vacuum I’ve ever used. The customer support and company policies are great too. They’ve been prompt and fair with us every time. They even comped our first replacement hose(one of the kids stepped on it’s connector) and an edge tool we just flat out lost because we had never made a claim against their warranty. I’ve gotten lots of compliments on the vacuum and it always amazes me when I vacuum under the sofa and two full size pencils get sucked up into the vacuum but it still doesn’t clog. They just hang out in the u-bend waiting for me to remove them. Really a remarkable product.
Definitely worth it. We got one a couple of years ago and it really does a good job. We have two cats and a dog, and our Hoover Wind Tunnel (which cost $250) wasn’t doing a very good job picking up the hair. We had vacuumed the day before we got the Dyson, and of course we tried it out as soon as we got it out of the box. We were horrified at how much crap the Hoover had been missing. There’s something oddly satisfying about watching the canister fill up. And if you vacuum up a cheeto, it’s downright entertaining.
I haven’t had one of these, but I worked for 17 years in industrial filtration and know that those clear chambers where you watch everything flying around are not only just for entertainment, they also make the particle capture worse, and take up space and energy. You want the things you pick up to settle quietly someplace, you don’t want to disturb them. In my downstairs office and shop and for the car, I use a shopvac with an extra-efficiency filter kit. For upstairs, Mrs. Napier makes the cleaning lady use some cheesy thing that takes special tiny mail-order bags and blows its exhaust out in front of itself, and I don’t know what I’m talking about.
My MIL has a Dyson. She likes it. Personally, I think they’re too much money. My current vacuum was a “bonus” from a catalog my husband got at work as a Christmas gift. Can’t beat “free” I always say. It sucks. And that’s all I need. A vacuum that sucks.
The first one we got was a lemon. kept slipping and making this horrid grinding sound - in the shop four times with them saying “we can’t find a problem” before they finally gave us a new one.
The new one doesn’t slip - but it doesn’t pick things up well either - everyone says how much stuff they see - what I see is crap on the floor and I have to run over it four times to get it into the canister. Its heavy and the attachments are a pain in the back end to use.
I like my Oreck.
Consumer reports ranks a lot of vaccuums better than the Dyson. My mission in life is telling people what a horrible peice of crap the Dyson is. But obviously, other people like them. I’m seriously thinking about giving mine away because it makes me angry looking at it.
(Its a really expensive vaccuum to not like - I’d highly recommend you borrow one or try one before you buy one)
We have a Dyson “Animal” (the purple one) that we got during Tax-Free Week a couple of years ago. With two heavy-shedding dogs, it’s been a godsend. Haven’t had any issues with it whatsoever.
My only complaint is that, even with the upholstery attachments, it’s a bit bulky to use in small areas, like the car or the stairs. I end up having to lie it on its side so the hose won’t kink.
If you search history, you’ll find various threads on the Dyson. I have had one for a couple of years and love it. Everyone else who’s had one loves it.
They are expensive. But they are really light and have the suction of a much heavier vaccuum - if I didn’t have stairs, I wouldn’t care.
They, however, do not have a hose, which is why Oreck “gives you” all the little secondary vaccuums - you need something other than the upright for some jobs. The secondary vacs aren’t great.
They also still require bags (as far as I know, mine is ten years old), which add to the cost.
But I covet a Meile - so I think Orecks are cheap.
I have the Dyson Animal too. We’ve had for two or three years now and I’ve never had a problem with it. I love it. I wish it had a better tool for stairs, but that’s my only issue with it. I don’t find it heavy and it’s quieter than my cannister vac was. In fact, the dog used to bark at the cannister vac, but just kind of ignores the Dyson.
It does an excellent job of picking up stuff. I have a black lab that just explodes dog hair all over the place.
As an aside, we too, had just vacuumed the day before we bought our Dyson. We ran the Dyson as soon as we got it unboxed. We were astounded at how much that thing picked up, not to mention slightly squicked out.
Yes, they do need bags. I think my dad’s is 5 years old and he’s stressing about getting more bags because you can only get them in one place around here and he can get lost pulling out of the garage.
I keep telling him to give me the info and I’ll order for him on line. Still waitin’ on that…
I’ve had mine (the base model - it’s yellow) for about 2 years and I love it. It does a really good job at picking up dog hair. It is so good at picking up things that you sometimes end up sucking up things you didn’t want it to suck up, like shoe strings attached to shoes in closets.
Three negatives:
Contray to claims, it can get clogged. We had to take it apart to unclog it.
It’s expensive.
It’s too tall to fit under cabinets.
Do a price comparison before you buy. Costco used to carry them for about $50 off normal retail. Not sure if they still do. Looks like HSN is selling a DC14 model with free shopping for $419.90.
My Oreck is eight pounds, my Dyson weighs in at 24 (just weighed them on the bathroom scale). Its a relative thing…the Dyson is light compared to my mother’s Hoover - which I think is made out of stainless lead.
We did the same thing when we bought our new Eureka Boss SmartVac (highly recommended by Consumer Reports), and wouldn’t you know it, the new Eureka sucked up a lot of dust too. I’m thinking when most people notice this, that simply means their old vacuum really needed replacing and their new vacuum is an improvement on the old model.