Is Dyson the Best Vacuum? Top Ten reasons NOT to Buy a Dyson.

Dyson, a very popular new vacuum brand is advertised as being unique because of superior design features and filtration qualities. It is also rumoured that Dyson spent over 200 million dollars launching their vacuum in the United States - over ten times the highest annual budget of Hoover.

Having a fair amount of experience with this "revolutionary" vacuum, I have a few complaints. Having put these questions directly to dyson representatives, they have yet to give me more than a canned speach about James Dyson's 5000 prototypes and 'round the clock testing. So, if anyone is interested, here are my ten complaints.
By the way, these comments apply primarily to the upright models.

1. They are useless on bare floors. The suction is poorly chanelled on one side of the vacuum only, there is no rubber strips or brushes channelling dirt, the opening is too large, and the spindly little roller brush collects dust bunnies. If you try to pick up sand, it will smear it around.

2. The extension hose always wants to collapse when you are using it, making one feel as if he taking a cat for a walk on a leash in the rain. Should you be using the hose and be unlucky enough to suck up something that clogs hose, you will experience the body of the vacuum come flying at you and crashing into you.

3. Everytime you use it, you have to dump it. This means that you get an opportunity to breathe some of the most disgusting and polluted air you have ever breathed in your life. This is a common complaint for bagless vacuums. In fact, filter bags were an INNOVATION in vacuum cleaner technology! The first vacuums to be made were bagless. Bags were invented to contain the dirt. Today, a good vacuum cleaner will offer fleece filtration bags that seal before you lift them out of the vacuum, containing all allergens and contaminants. If you have asthma or allergies, please pay attention to this. YOU DO NOT WANT A BAGLESS VACUUM. Hepa Shmepa! If have to dump and clean out the dirt you have already lost the air quality battle.

4. Dysons have plastic wheels not rubber ones. They should not be run over wood floors.

5. Dysons are extremely noisy. I heard a story once that the marketing executives at Hoover once did some research into making quieter vacuums. It was found that the perception of vacuum power was associated with noise and that people would think that if the vacuum was quiet, it wasn't powerful. I think Dyson has played on this misperception of the masses.

6. Dysons are extremely heavy and akward to use.

7. Dyson has no warranty service centres(in Canada). This tells us that service outside of warranty will be expensive or non-existent.

8. Almost all maker's of wool carpets do not recommend using a Dyson to clean wool carpets. The stiff brush and non-variable suction combine to shear the top suface off the carpet, filling the collection bin with carpet fluff. Some of you may already know what I'm talking about.

9. The final HEPA filter is not replaceable. They claim this filter is good for the life of the vacuum. Conversely, this means the vacuum is good for the life of the vacuum. If a filter is filtering something then it needs to be replacable.

10. Dyson loses suction. There is design flaw where one of the removable ducts doesn't always seal when you put it back in. This can be very frustrating because it's really not obvious where the problem is.

I hope this has been helpful for anyone considering buying a Dyson. Please remember to be suspicious of any company that spends more money telling people about it's research and development than on the actual research and development. Now you know where most of your $500 went.