h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Henry. Ours came from a skip and we just had to buy the bits. That was at least 5 years ago and it still does the job well. Sometimes we use it with a bag, sometimes not.

Mol

"there was one for fridges/freezers, one for tellys/stereos/vacuums/electrical gizmos and one set aside specifically for Dysons which was always nearly full."

Of course, it's always just possible that this container has been steadily collecting Dyson's since they first came out, has never been empied and just isn't quite full yet

"I'm a real technophobe, but I got a Dyson as soon as they came out. They're imcomparably better than the bagged hoovers. I'm currently on my third now.
Yeah, they're really heavy to lug around, but they collect dust you wouldn't believe you had."

oops. if they're so good, how come you've had three? and if they're heavy, thats a major design fault straight away.

Also, with Dysons, from reading the spec, I decided they were too specific; I'd need one for th the hard floors, one for the carpets... and each a good amount twice or more that of just about any other vacuum.

A bit like the Dyson handdryers, so flawed in their designed by the issue of their volume. I can't dry my hands with them as its too physically painful; the noise, and the frequency it is at, eitehr makes me want to run screaming from the room, or cover my ears with my hands, as the pain is so intense.
At least with the henry/victor/edward's they're easily sourced for spares and parts; Thinking about it, I've a shop up this road which sells bags for them, and all the attachments/replacement bits

As to the Dyson's avbility to get all that dust you didn't know was there... there's a reason you didn't know it was there... it wasn't* there; the dysons dragged it out from further within the carpet than would have ever gotten out of on its own accord... a carpets only going to stay clean from one hoovering, to the next time you walk on it; so what is the point of getitng it so surgically clean, if its only goign to be in that* state, for maybe four or five minutes? They're too damn expensive too IMO anyhow

I want an old fashioned style hoover hoover...

<>

Nah, the bloke at the depot said they sold the Dysons to a company who specialise in recycling them and they collect monthly.

I did for a while have a fabulously cheap vacuum cleaner which I chose simply because it could blow as well as suck (useful for inflating the spare double mattress). It lived on the top floor of the house (we have a three storey home so lugging the vacuum up and down is a bit of an issue) and was very good.

Husband got rid of it during a 'rationalisation' programme. I don't think the top floor has been vacuumed since.

Mol

My sister-in-law has a weird system. The vacuum is in the basement, but there are pipes fitted inside the walls and every room has a socket which you plug the hose into. No lugging.

Anyone tried one of the robotic ones? I hear they are pretty good but drive cats batty.

I've had three because they've worn out each time. Yes, I'd like them to have lasted longer, but I've probably been through more fridges & washing machines in that time. They're good because they remove a hell of a lot more dust. I think the point I was making was that they are so efficient that things like weight and reliability (which probably isn't all that bad) become unimportant by comparison.

Maybe it depends on the model- I've had the dc50 for 7 years. It's small enough to sit on individual stairs, which is a big plus.

Another Dyson fan. Love it because it just... works. It also appeals to me on an engineering level, in particular because of the ease with which it can be dismantled and cleared in the event of a blockage. This is a bigger deal than you might realise. It's hard to make something that works - it's much, much harder to make something that's easy to fix when (for predictable reasons) it stops working. (At the very very opposite end of the scale, someone I know owns a car which requires garage-level servicing to change a headlamp bulb. That is design idiocy bordering on negligence.)

And it's not floor specific, there's a switch you can operate with your foot for activating or deactivating the beater bar (which is the only difference). And it's full of little details that demonstrate that someone's actually THOUGHT about how you're going to use the thing. Everything's within reach when you're using it, all the tools store on it logically and do what they need to do, the cord is long enough and coils onto it well without any self-winding nonsense to break. It's covered in stuff that speaks of engineers actually using the thing and thinking about how they can make it better... then being allowed to do so. This is rarer than it should be...

Plus - and once past basic functionality this forms a major part of my buying decision - the British inventor went through thousands of prototypes and endless legal actions protecting his design and basically bet everything he owned on it and manufactured it in the UK, at least initially, and continues to be based in the UK.

>>..someone I know owns a car which requires garage-level
servicing to change a headlamp bulb. <<

Used to be that one type of tailight or front indicator lens
would fit most models - and all headlamps were the same.

Yes, it's design 'idiocy'. Designed to require additional and
expensive service. A plot to milk more cash from consumers
and 'make work' for the dealers.

Virtually all modern cars have the same problem. There are
fewer and fewer user-serviceable parts on modern cars. And
no two cars have the same parts anymore.

That's why it makes more and more sense to maintain an older
classic as your daily driver. It is actually much cheaper and
a great deal more satisfying.


~jwf~

I used to have a Dyson, but I found it messy to empty & the motor packed up after a couple of years.
Now I have a Miele cat & dog model which is doing good service.

I was disgusted by how much it cost me to replace a bit on my old Dyson a few years ago.
(~£40 for the main tubey-bit that the brush-thing connects to)

I was even more disgusted when I got a letter through the post about 2 years later telling me that my 5 year free warranty for replacing broken bits on my Dyson was about to run out.
As Homer Simpson used to say.

>>Another Dyson fan. Love it because it just... works.

How long have you had it for? I'm interested to know if their reliability has improved.

Their reliability, as stated by people in this thread, would seriously put me off a Dyson, asides the price thing... Well, especialy in conjunction with* the price thing... mainly because I hate shopping, I just want to buy things once then not ever have to worry about the horror of re-shopping for one, for as long as possible... Gas boilers are particularly peeving me at the moment, as there just don't seem to be any, anymore, with a lifespan more than just one decade or so (my current one isn't worth repairing, after only being in for about 12 years )

You don't always need to go to Dyson for parts. Some market stalls have them.

OK, but other makes don't need regular spare parts, they just keep soldiering on. My Electrolux has had one replacement filter in all the years I've owned it, and that came free with it to start with.

That's true, but would Sebastian Vettel drive a Daewoo?

It seems most of us are just ecstatically happy that the damn things work. Low expectations?

I've had mine for ...gosh...7 years! In that time I've replaced the filters (proper Dyson ones are £30, but my wee man does acceptable alternaive for a tenner) a few times, replaced a missing purple sucky thing (£10 ish?) had it serviced once, and just had to replace the rod (£35).

Our cleaners, who come every fortnight and hoover the whole 3 storey house, used this machine for the first time this week, and remarked on how efficient it was - 10 times better than the old Vax, they said.