Dyson: hype or what?

quote:

---

I would never buy again from someone who to the unfortunate cost to his workers, who helped to put him where he is today, clears off to the far east to manufacture the goods just to maximise his allready high proffits. Just my opinion you understand and I dont expect others to agree with me, But ------

---

There's much more to this story than inherent greed, like the refusal of planning permission to expand the existing site, for one.

It's only the manufacturing that shut down though, the R&D is still here and employs more people than the manufacturing secton ever did. There is an obvious trade between the need to remain competitive (in terms of costs and time to market) and the desire to maintain jobs. Failure to remain competitive means *everyone* loses their job - which would you prefer?

Bear in mind that Dyson re-invests significantly more of its 'profits' back into its own business (for the ultimate benefit of its employees) than many other businesses. It's easy to look at a headline and see its obvious effect on people and jobs, but harder to see the bigger picture as an isolated outsider. Dyson strikes me as an inherently concerned employer, from the corporate image they present, if you care to scratch the surface of a negative headline.

As for the product, it works well, but has an element of cheesy build about it.

Nothing major has broken on mine and it's years old now, but it has some serious drawbacks, not least of which is the problem Alex mentions, that not matter how well it sucks dirt, emptying it results in a significant proportion of it being put right back where you retrieved it from!

And yes, it moved the problem from blocked bags, to blocked filters, the advantage being the latter approach keeps more suction for longer, in my experience, which is better than a burst bag and trying to clean up it's resultant mess, on my old Hoover.

Andy.

Earlier this year Office World were selling 'Henry' for £80 with free delivery. I see no reason to spend more and I can clean the whole house without unplugging it...

Paul

What's your house plugged into?

Steve - Imagine a builder on a site - with a Dyson!
You would never live it down.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Andrew L. Weekes:

It's only the manufacturing that shut down though, the R&D is still here and employs more people than the manufacturing secton ever did. There is an obvious trade between the need to remain competitive (in terms of costs and time to market) and the desire to maintain jobs. Failure to remain competitive means *everyone* loses their job - which would you prefer?

---

Well said Mr. Weekes.

>Will add something funny when I think of it.<

Rasher wrote:
>Steve - Imagine a builder on a site - with a Dyson!
>You would never live it down.

I've seen several carpenters here in Dublin with the cylinder version of the Dyson, including a very abusive floor sanding man varnishing the neighbours floors.

Nick

It seems to me that Dyson went through a bit of a British Leyland period. I obviously got the Friday afternoon lot.

Andrew,
As I said ,I don't expect everybody to agree with me,But I think a large proportion of his exworkforce might.
Rasher
I think their problems were a bit more that just a Friday afternoon job,unless there are 365 fridays in a year. I seem to remember Dyson himself being given a hard time by that old Botox recipient Ann Robinson regarding the inability of his cleaners to do just that, his reply was that the complainants had the bought the wrong machines, believe that for bare faced cheek, as one type was designed for carpeted floors another for wooden/laminate floors and yet another for picking up pet hairs,thats 3 dysons per house hold,[the old maxim, "Wheres theres muck there's money" certainly would apply at this rate,as if he hasen't already made enough money] I think not! give me my old Kerstar it will suck up lamimates, carpets, bricks and even pets let alone small chaps with or without socks
oldie.

Hmm. Just like the other reviews I've seen, this is a mixed bunch. It's a lot of money for something that isn't 100% reliable, or even necessarily that good.

I've never heard of Henry vacuums. I am now leaning more toward a Eureka to take care of my tiled floor, three filthy cats and all the sand that blows in.

BTW, it's interesting to see "hoover" used as a verb. I haven't come across that in many years - doesn't happen here or in Scotland.

Regards,
Davie

I suppose they may have different priorities, but the cleaners everywhere I've ever seen/worked seem to use Henry and it's commercial sized brothers.. never seen a Dyson.

From what I've seen/read when I thought I might need a new Vacuum some time back, Miele and Bosch are worth a look, and AIUI quite a bit cheaper than most Dysons.

Paul

Hype.

I used a Dyson once, it worked ok but was certainly nothing special.

Well done Bhoyo!

About time we had a proper 'men's smoking room' debate about the real issues of our time. That chap Tyson and his J Edgar machines have, until now, surprisingly escaped the fair and robust reviews this forum produces.

I've never been a fan of the garish and uncouth colour schemes of his Anne Summers range of sucking engines but blow me I do enjoy the performance of my Oreck vacuum driven cleansing utensil.

It's one of those nastily advertised "will suck-start a jumbo jet" gizmos that is "used in all the world's leading hotels" but it works a treat and if it breaks the spares are peanuts.

I bought mine about 10 years ago and of course the current version comes with more memory, an upgraded operating system and broadband.

When my old one's performance started to droop I asked their friendly customer deflectors if I could upgrade my DOS version and was told, "No silly customer, you must buy a new one."

I skipped them and went to the ever-helpful chaps in the Parts department and (as every Oreck comes with a complete parts explosion diagram and parts list) asked if I could order a couple of replacement bits. "Of course you can - what would you like?" I then proceeded to order an entirely new machine apart from things like the handle, wheels and casing. Cost me about £45 all in! Still goes like the clappers.

It has a manly style about it -the Oreck. A bit like Olive Naim kit.

No nonsense stuff where other blokes gather outside your front room window looking at you hoovering and admire how hard you look and wish they could be like you as you go about your manly chores.

The Henry is also great value. There have been other posts from heavy duty users of Henry of plaster and complete walls being consumed but I have found it indespensible for retrieving children under the age of 5 or 6 from the nasty gaps to be found at the back of certain types of sofa. There have been regrettable instances of large patches of skin being removed from the children in the process but I have simply removed these from Henry's dust bag and placed them washed and sealed in a sandwich bag and returned them the the child's parents explaining that they may be of use in the future if a skin graft is ever required.

all the best

192.168.0.1

At a risk of repeating what's been said I'll make the following comments about Dyson ownership based on 8 years living with 2 x DC01's and a DC04:

1/The wands are prone to splitting,(no problem though as Dyson's excellent customer service will send new ones but it's an annoying feature)

2/The motors burn out quickly: I echo all previous comments about this and in my experience the machine should not be used continuously for more than 45 minutes.

3/They are heavy

4/They are loud.

5/They are to be avoided if you have a carpet with a high wool content as they're really too powerful,(As I found out to my cost)

6/They are expensive compared with others

I now run an upright Hoover having been advised by the man at the local rubbish tip who I spoke to when dumping my DC04. He said he sees loads of Dysons: they're made of rock but in all cases the engines have failed. Hoovers he sees the least.
I was advised similarly by the people at Curry's and Dixon's: in the opinions of the sales people I spoke to there, Dysons were the least reliable. Their advice? If it's a cylinder vacuum, you can't go wrong with a Henry. If it's upright, Hoover it is : they've been making them longer than almost everyone and are good value for money and very reliable to boot.

Ah yes Sebo - the Mercedes of vacuum cleaners.

My dear old mum chucked her Dyson in for a Sebo when she no longer had the strength to push her DC01 around anymore. I can't remember what model she's got but I expect it has a typically stupid name like most of the vacuum cleaners on the market seem to.It may be called the Sebo "Bratwurst" or "Schitt" but she rates it highly and I can see why: nicely built, very quiet and light and it sucks like Linda Lovelace.
Before she had the Dyson though, she'd got conned into buying one of those Kirby's: anyone got experience of those? If Sebo are the Mercs of the vacuum world then Kirby must be the Ford Zephyr equivalent and the sales technique is outrageous....

We had a Kirby salesman round once. High pressure selling or what? I seem to remember that one of the TV consumer programmes did a feature on them once. I can understand how people could be conned into buying one of these things.

They give a demo then ask you a number of leading questions then twist your answers when they try and convince you to buy. I picked up on the word 'need' creeping into the script as in 'you said that you need a clean home' (the question was something like 'is a clean home a good thing?', answer was obviously 'yes').

I argued that I NEED air to breathe, food to eat and water to drink, I didn't need to buy his overpriced vacuum cleaner and especially not on the ridiculous credit terms on offer. It was when he started mixing up the daily cost, weekly cost, actual monthly payments, APR and other figures in an attempt to confuse me that I got very pissed off with him and asked him to leave.

I couldn't get rid of him, I had to virtually throw him out in the end. As he was packing up his stuff he accused me of being racist because he didn't complete the sale (he was black). I just picked up the rest of his stuff and dumped it outside and told him to go.

I must admit I need a drink after he had gone!

Must be something about me and vacuum cleaners!

That's the sort of experience my dear old parents had:
Kirby's distributor cold-called them and set an appointment up. Halfway through the demonstration, my parents's phone rang and it was the guy's boss calling for him. Apparently he was one sale away from winning a holiday from the company and he'd never had one in his life. Well, my parents who are very kind gullible people fell for this hook line and sinker and feeling sorry for him, ordered the Kirby.The sales guy sold them the one he bought round and buggered off pronto.
Needless to say, they paid well over the odds and any new parts, etc have been extremely expensive. It's now in the garage and I use it to vac out my car occasionally,(when it works).
I had the same sort of experience with a Dolphin Bathrooms rep who I asked to come round to talk about a shower. Four hours and a complete bathroom makeover later at a cost of £2500 I gave him an order just to get rid of him.
I phoned back the next day and cancelled. His boss immediately reduced the price by 50%: I told him what I thought of his company's sales tactics and inability to recognise my true needs and slammed the phone down.
It's been a similar thing with high pressure sales tactics from conservatory companies. I used to live in a first floor flat and my pet hate was companies canvassing late at night. I used to agree to see reps just to see the look on their faces when they got inside my flat!

Now that you mention it, our salesman's 'boss' rang and said something very similar about holidays etc.

Once had a double glazing salesman try to persuade me to buy some to replace our secondary double glazing with sealed units. As I was bored I let him run through the whole spiel before telling him that we were actually renting the house.

These people are parasites and we owe it to the human race to waste their time at every given opportunity.
Whilst I'm ranting, I really detest those companies that send products in the post for "a free trial". I think there's a law against it now but my grandma,(RIP), was caught out by one such company who sent her books "on approval". Being 94 years old and not able to even read the so called small print she kept them unaware she either had to pay or send them back,(at her own expense) Naturally, the company concerned pursued her for monies threatening to take her to court at which point my mother intervened. The company would not relent though and my mum had to pay her "bill" to shut them up. They still continued with the unsolicited book sending though....scum.....
I really really hate unsolicited faxes though: the nerve of having to send a fax to the company concerned at a whopping £1.50 a minute just to get them to stop: it should be outlawed...
This is getting off the thread though: my apologies readers!

I agree completely with all the comments about the methods used to sell Kirby vacs in the UK. This is fundamentally a cultural problem, and in the hands of the manufacturer.

The product however, is good. We bought a Kirby in 1990 -- a nephew of mine got a summer job working for the local distributor, so we were able to secure a 3yr old "repossessed" machine for 350 quid, without having to go through the Kirby demo and all that stuff with the blue fabric and bed-bugs...

Ours is mostly high-polish die-cast aluminium, with black trim. It reminds one of a Russian presidential limousine (a Zil) from the Brezhnev years. We are a cat-rich household, and it deals with everything to which it is applied with absolute effectiveness. We use it about once a week on both carpet and hard floors, the bag is so huge that it only needs emptying 4 times a year, and the accessories are well-designed and actually do what they're supposed to, even indluding a brush tool which works a treat for Mana. We had three drive belts with the machine, and the last one needed replacing only a month ago. I obtained three new ones on-line for 8 quid posted -- they take about 45 seconds to change.

Downsides:

It weighs a lot. Stairs aren't that easy, and its grip on carpet makes it quite an effort to push in any situation. Modern ones have driven wheels which sense whether you're pulling or pushing, and assist appropriately, but you pay through the nose for this!

It's loud. If you started using our Kirby in a theatre during the encore of a Deep Purple concert, you'd get complaints.

Other than that, it's fantastic. Kirbys work with both suction and a rotating brush, so they are no good with sisal or similar floorcoverings. They are very simply engineered with good materials, and a true "heirloom" product with a proper lifespan, rather than some plastic marketing concept. It's like a military-grade Henry with an upright form factor, and as such is likely to run till Doomsday.

The only other vacs I would consider are:

(1) a commercial Electrolux upright with all tools stowed on board ready for use. These cost over a thousand quid, and are a joy to use.

(2) a Sebo -- real thought goes into these, and they seem to work well.

(3) a Rotork Cyclone: this is now almost a collectors' item, and Dyson's "proof of concept" exercise while he worked for Rotork. It's fundamentally an upright Dyson, only executed in pink anodised aluminium, and cost over 2 grand in the 70s. No idea how good they were, though!

Whatever, there is no excuse IMHO for making a vacuum cleaner which lasts for less than 10 years -- this is "silver telly syndrome" in one of its worst forms.

Best;

Mark

A repair shop near to us had a sign in the window along the lines of 'Stan has been fixing vacuum cleaners for 20 years and this is the only one he recommends'. The sign was leaning up against a Sebo.

I'm doubtful of the benefits of medical grade filters in a cleaner which you then have to empty the container of (rather than just sealing a bag). Seems that any benefits you had whilst using the machine are negated when you come to empty it.

Is that a recommendation to keep Stan in the repair business?

Back on topic, just got delivery of a DC11. I must say I am a tad disappointed. The DC08 I bought for my mother last year came with two heads (contact and turbo) and both are better at movement and sucking force than the "all floors turbo brush" that the DC11 comes with. Also the DC11 is quite heavy and needs emptying more regularly. So there you are, if you're into Dyson cylinders, stop at a DC08 which really is very impressive.

Couldn’t be bothered to read the whole thread because the word Dyson was mentioned, needles to say the bloke and his products are a fucking joke. Stick to something that’s works like Sebo.
Martin

1. 'I'm intrigued by the Dyson vacuum cleaners ' I thought they weren't vacuum but cyclone...
2. Dyson is not much liked round these parts for sacking most of his workforce in Wiltshire and moving production to the far east (h could have done that in the first place).
3. Generally women love Dysons - probably because of JD's toff-type charm. But really they're not well-made.
4. With a Henry you get a free baseball cap.
5. The unique selling point with the Dyson was the lack of a bag - I would have thought the use of a bag for containing and emptying the dirt made it an essential ingredient.

My 15 year old AEG has never failed and is still has plenty of power in the suction department. Trouble is it's getting a bit tired in other areas. The cleaning head is cracked, the hose has split in a couple of places, the on/off and power selection buttons sometimes need a second or third push to get them to do anything.

It's time to get a new vacuum cleaner and my wife is adamant that we're getting a Dyson. After hearing a few woeful tales from friends and neighbours whove bought Dysons and now the posts on this thread I personally wouldn't have one in the house.

I was thinking about a Miele. Does anyone have any experience of these machines?

Stewart,

I've used Miele and they are very good. Recommended by a cleaner who would mutter curses under his breath about most vacuum cleaners.

The vacuum cleaner I have actually bought cost £16 and it actually worked, not very well mind you, but didn't care about leaving it behind when I moved after a years use.

Have also used Dyson's and don't like them. Motor stops within 6 feet of any plaster, design feature I suspect!

Matthew