Dyson

So sorry to hear that Dagny! My store manager was ultra cool, he and I spent a lot of time discussing pans and vaccuums. I'd noticed the AllClad disclaimer, but didn't read far enough to see the Dyson one. I asked him about using it on the AllClad and he said "I'll let you use it on anything in the store". The cashier didn't even blink an eye when I gave it to her, so I assume it's their store rule ...

Wonder what HQ thinks of that.

[Vanquisher]

I can't afford a new vacuum right now, but ahhh, one day. I have a Hoover that I got as an open box at Sears. It was reguarly $300, and I got it for $180, so I thought that was just awesome. It does a really good job of picking stuff up, or so I thought. It is bagless, but cleaning out the filter is gross. The attachment hose is pathetic, really, but overall, I like it. I can't think that I would like another vacuum $570 worth? I still need more convincing.

Consumer reports rates Dysons really, really poorly. Overall, the DC14 ia #17 on thair ratings list. (My vacuum is #10.) It is so, so expensive too! I think before I buy one (in 10 years), I would have to try it out on my carpet. So, Next time one of you that has one comes to visit me , bring your dyson along.

[migirl]

Jenn, I tried to use my 20% coupon and they wouldn't let me! It said on the bottom, in teeny-tiny print that you can't use it on Dyson. Pfft.

Really? That's weird, because I made sure to read and re-read my 20% coupon for Bed, Bath, and Beyond just to make sure that I could use it on my Dyson and mine didn't have the 'no Dyson' disclaimer. That's odd that yours said that you couldn't use it on the Dyson.

I, too, love my Dyson (got the purple one too!) and was just telling DH that it actually makes me look forward to vacuuming! If you have the means, I highly recommend it.

[PrincessFiona]

Sooo...We don't have a 'dyson'...we have a full-size Simplicity Canister vac that is not bagless....but it is fabulous.

One of the reasons that we went with this is because I prefer the canister style to the upright style...and...I guess I like being able to pull the bag out and toss it.

We go through vacuumes like crazy around here...it seems like every year we were spending another $160 for a vac that would quickly give up the suction and eventually break.

This one has been to the repair shop more in the last two years than you would ever believe...Aidan pushed it down the stairs and the lid broke off...Thomas vacuumed a sock and then ripped the hose trying to get the sock out by force ....you name it....and they have repaired it for FREE....It came with a 2 year warranty.

We paid a pretty penny for it, but it's been worth it....it has tons of attachments for carpets, stairs, hardwood floors, etc and it's really easy to maneuver.

Just thought I'd throw my vacuume love out into space here...even though ours isn't a dyson :>

kris

We are tough on vacuums, I guess. Our current $80 Target Eureka isn't vacuum enough for our family.

I remember seeing Dyson low on the list on Consumer Reports, too, but it sounds like everyone loves theirs. What is at the top of Consumer Reports list? (I cancelled my CR subscription because they charged my credit card for another year subscription without asking ).

[PrincessFiona]

Nellie,

I read that Dyson still got a 'very good' ranking, but that there were some cheaper models that got better rankings including kenmore, hoover and eureka....also, that includes the DC14 that was ranked later because the data hadn't arrived in time or something.

Most reviews I've read for Dyson though have people saying "best vac I've ever had...." so...maybe consumer reports are off base on this one! Still, it did get a very good ranking.


kris

[PrincessFiona]

Obviously, I need to get off of my butt and do something else...because I'm thinking waaaaay too much about vacuumes now. But here's an interesting tidbit on consumer reports and vacuumes. If you go to the website, they actually do some ratings of the big brands too...they give dyson a thumbs up!
http://www.vacorama.com/consumer_report ... ained.html

The Truth about Consumer Reports (Explained With Vacuum Cleaners)


Disclaimer
The article is strictly about our opinion, as 29 year vacuum industry repair professionals, of Consumer Report's appliance testing. We do not claim to have any affiliation with them, nor with their rating system. Reporting on Consumer Reports' findings is a violation of copyright law, so we legally can't mention the details of their results. Though under our First Amendment rights as American's we feel we have the right to mention them by name in the following article.

Why We Would Question a Consumer Advocacy Organization
The reason we are writing this article is because of the length in which our customers have trusted the Consumer Reports' findings, and our opinion of the validity of those findings. As we started looking towards other industries, we found many professionals to have similar concerns about the results of this consumer organization. Detroit News reported that the average number of survey cards filled in and sent back to Consumer Reports for one of the most popular categories(Automobiles) is 480,000, out of over 4 million sent. Given the fact that the majority of American families have at least two cars, this is a response rate of 6% in one of the most popular categories. In addition, I think most people would agree, that when a response rate is that low, any proper testing organization should then calculate the personality profiles of the 'type of people who actually fill out those cards' into their results. Although I'm sure consumer reports has a lot of talented and good hearted people working there, I find much of their system to be worth questioning, and through vacuum cleaners, i will show you why.

Planned Obsoletion
When it comes to vacuums, we would really like to know why some of the top rated machines are ones that we have seen to be the most unreliable, easily clogged, and easily broken. We find that overall, time and time again, they do not please customers. We also find a lot of professionals who agree when it comes to many of the other Consumer Report categories, they just don't add up. We have been fixing vacuum cleaners, all day long, every day(except sunday) for 30 years. We know what parts on what machines will break and within what time period. Every year we go and see the new models, how they work, their pricing, and what major stores will carry them. Every machines has both good and bad points, our primary goal as a store is to match the right vacuum with the right person for the amount they want to spend, and the only way to do that is to know these machines inside and out. There is a brutal fact about many of the appliance industries in this country that most people don't seem to realize. The vast majority of the products you see in the big department stores are specially designed to break within a certain time window. Coincidently, in that period will be the discontinuing of the essential replacement parts, and the lowering of prices of the original product. After years of research, these companies have started to realize that by pushing the public towards buying cheaper appliances more frequently, they will make a lot more money. While the public thinks they are saving, they are most definitely spending more money. With today's technology products actually can be easily manufactured to last a very long time, and they don't need to be a small fortune either. There are vacuums below 200$ that will last an average of 10 years given they are taken care of properly. If you live in Germany, when you buy an appliance, you will most likely have it for the next 30 years. It used to be that way in the United States before the birth of this new breed of engineering mixed with marketing, called 'planned obsoletion'. Planned obsoletion is a direct result of consumer support of the 'big box' mega stores. As competition between these large stores increases, so does the need to have lower prices. This is natural with all competition but when it comes to appliances, the end result is there is less room on the shelf for things that will last a long time because they don't move quickly enough. Strongly built, and innovative products are still being made and endorsed by industry professionals, but more and more they can only be bought on the net through specialty online shops such as this one.

The Worst Products
A big push towards planned obsoletion in the vacuum cleaner industry is the current trend of bagless vacuums. For those of you who are in your 50's or older, you might remember the vacuum cleaner industry tried this about 30 years ago. Even back then when these machines were metal and much stronger people were still displeased. Any unbiased vacuum cleaner industry professional/technician will tell you that bagless vacuums are far inferior. They are advertised as less hassle because of the 'no bag', but instead you have an array of filters that need to be cleaned and replaced, which are actually more expensive then bags and provide a fraction of the filtration. These are not sealed vacuum units, and will kick the majority of the smaller particles/allergens either back into the air (ever sneeze while vacuuming?), or they will go into the inner workings of the motor and quickly lower the performance of the machine until it dies, usually about 2-3 years time. Now wouldn't it seem that a consumer organization who's self proclaimed mission is to "test, inform and protect" would be aware of this trend towards planned obsoletion through bagless machines? I would think they would catch wind of it at some point in time, but it's funny how the vast majority of the products they test and inform us about are products that lay within this 'bottom line' based corporate agenda. There are well over 400 vacuum cleaner models available on the market in the United States at any given time, 1/3 which are some great machines (the ones most honest vacuum stores will try and carry), yet consumer reports is only willing to test about 30-40 of the most poorly engineered machines, a majority bagless? Coincidently these are the machines that you will only find in all the big box stores like Target, Walmart, Home Depot, etc... You won't find them much in the smaller vacuum stores that would actually have to deal with the customer response to these poor products.

What they Test For
Consumer Reports does actually do some very useful tests when determining their results, but not enough to give you the whole scope of the product. Some of the factors we take into account when summing up our opinion of a vacuum cleaner is it's life expectancy, weight, storage ability, ease of push, animal hair removal, filtration, odor resistance, ability to clean carpets, bare floors and fringed rugs. Due to the length of their testing process they can not test for life expectancy, which is what we think most people look for in a vacuum. Also, the majority of these performance aspects in many of these low quality machines will change drastically after only a month or so of usage. Which gives the public a situation where the biggest appliance companies are specifically designing their products to fair well with consumer reports, knowing they will work great out of the box, but as a very short period of times goes by, all the levels of performance will degrade very quickly. We believe a great vacuum cleaner, or any product for that matter should perform it's best for the majority of the lifetime of a product. We find very few vacuum cleaners on the consumer report list that do so.

I think products are generally better than they were when CR started. We bought the front-loading washer that was low on the CR list and I think it is great -- a huge improvement over the 25+ year old washer at our last house.

Thanks for letting me know that the Dyson still did well. For now, I'll just dream....

Just checked my BBYB coupon -- dyson and oreck are excluded in the fine print. Maybe I need to get to know the store manager when I'm ready to buy.

I'm going to try to post the ratings using the picture technique ....



The Hoover WindTunnel Self Propelled Ultra came out on top, Eureka Boss Smart Vac is 2nd, the $1330 Kirby is rated 6th, and the Dyson DC15 comes in 8th! Both Dysons get only "good" or "fair" ratings for noise and ease of use, but otherwise come out well. I'll admit the hose configuration has thrown me a bit ... but once I'm used to it I'll be fine (plus the fact that the hose isn't falling down all the time and / or getting tangled in the cord makes up for my confusion).

I had also changed my mind after checking CR a few months ago. Between the raves of people here, a sales guy at Best Buy who told us that he judges vacs by which come back, and the Dyson only comes back from people who are irritated by how confusing it can be, and talking with the store manager at BBB who advised I stick w/the DC07 b/c Dyson's rep told him the only difference between that and DC14 is the handle, I took the plunge. I don't regret it one bit!

The vast majority of the products you see in the big department stores are specially designed to break within a certain time window. Coincidently, in that period will be the discontinuing of the essential replacement parts, and the lowering of prices of the original product. After years of research, these companies have started to realize that by pushing the public towards buying cheaper appliances more frequently, they will make a lot more money.

That is very interesting!! I've sort of noticed that small appliances don't last like they used to and usually aren't worth repairing.

We got our Dyson in Sept when our Target Eureka conked out and literally would not pick up anything anymore. DH was choking when we bought it and he saw the price tag. I am glad I am not the only crazy one who actually enjoys vacuuming now. I feel like a nut, but I love seeing how much that stuff sucks up, and then I want to vomit just thinking about it. (West Texas dust really collects fast!) :clean:

But for any of you who think you may want one, Overstock.com sells them pretty reasonably and you can usually catch a free shipping too! Wish we had gone that route. We bought ours at Sams. And I have the purple one, too!

[Amiens]

The vacuum we currently have- is a Hoover that came highly recommended by CR. Alot of good it did us, as the spot that holds the edging tool, and extended wand- has broken off, and now the suction is not doing as well as it did 12 months ago. Yes 12 months is the amount of time we have had this vacuum for. Also, the tapered end of the extended wand- broken. We spent $200 for CRAP!

I am looking at either the Dyson or a Miele. We'll see if I can talk dh into this purchase. I was able to convince him that we should get the Whirlpool Duet HT washer and dryer last year.

Crystal

We bought our Eureka less than 2 years ago and it definitely does not work as well. At least it was only $80, but still!!

Crystal, if you get the Miele, let me know what you think. According to the survey on the link that Kris posted, its the perfect vacuum for our family!

[Amiens]

I have a really good friend who owns a Miele. She bought it after having a standard "junk" vacuum, as she likes to say; and raves about it. I am going to call her and ask her how long she has owned it. She absolutely loves it for wood floors. One of my other complaints about our vacuum- it spits stuff back out, especially when I am doing our kitchen on the bare floor setting. Drives me nuts. I vacuumed today, and the same thing was happening on our carpeted areas. I know that Matt wants to stay bagless, but after reading that article Kris posted, it has me thinking, plus I hate changing our canister because of all the dust that flies up.

Anyway, I will keep you posted.

Crystal

Do tell. Maybe a Miele can be my end of residency door prize.

I generally dislike cleaning but vacuuming is the one thing I like to do. Instant gratification.