"Bill Schwab" wrote in message
...
Gang,

Thanks to all who replied: built-ins and backpacks are interesting. You
are certainly not the only group with members who swear by Dyson. After
some searching, budgeting, and deliberation, I went to Home Depot with the
expectation of leaving with a Dyson pet vac. Looking at the thing, I
suddenly wasn't so certain. Ok, the real reason was that they were doing
a little bait and switch: sales mentioned on line, not in the store, or so
it seemed. Looking at the web page again, I still see no indication of a
different in-store price. Whether or not they would honor it wasn't the
point: it's slimy.

Is it possible that the point is you wern't ready to spend a lot of money
on something as pedestrian as a vacuum cleaner? g

There is an old joke: to the optimist, the glass is half full, to the
pessimist, the glass is half empty; to the engineer, the damn thing is
twice as big as it needs to be. The more I learn, the more it sounds like
sound judgment vs. a joke So the careful shopper gives way to the
engineer: call me nuts, but the Dyson $550 beast is not built all that
well. There are lots of snap-in plastic parts, avoidably weird
mechanisms, seals that look pretty good today, but probably will not next
year, etc. I could see the duct tape and rubber bands accumulating with
time - not good on something so expensive.

My Dyson DC14 (not the 'animal') is three years old. Nothing's broken,
glued or duct taped. I bought it for $400 on sale at Sears. Don't tell my
wife, but I have used it to clean up the shop and drywall repair dust. The
vacuum looks like new.

Dyson claims that their HEPA filter never needs to be replaced (for the
"life of the vacuum"); Bissell says to replace theirs at six months or so.
I should be able to buy quite a few replacement filters for the difference
in price.

Mine has the original filter. It's washable. It's three years old. Every six
months I clean it (and the entire dust seperator section) in about ten
minutes.
Vacuum cleaner companies count on the insane markup of replacement filters
or bags for the bulk of their profits. When you buy that first-of-many HEPA
filters, think about how little it cost to make versus how much it cost to
buy.

If the thing turns out to suck (the bad way), I will let you know. For
now, it looks like a pretty good buy. I hate to tell you what it picked
up in just a few minutes in the entry way (tile), carpet near the dog's
main hang-out, and "the other bath" (more tile and some dusty base boards)
=:0 In a tight space, I notice some heat from it; I don't find it
ominous (no hot motor smells), I think it's just the cost of moving the
air. It isn't terribly quiet, but the aforementioned ear buds and hearing
protection will do nicely in that area. It has not had time to accumulate
any old crud, but there is NO smell while running it.
Same thing with the Dyson- it doesn't smell like a vacuum because it is not
blowing dust and dead mites back into the room air.
Sounds like Bissell has ripped off er, cloned some elements of the Dyson
design. I don't understand your comments regarding the design- the snap-in
parts allow for quick disassembly in case of a clog (happened to me just
once when it sucked up a cat toy that made through the hose and to the
second turn) and the majority of the plastic parts have some flexibility (
and impact-resistance) that shows a bit of subtly in engineering.

-Carl