DIYbanter - View Single Post - What's the deal with the heavily-advertized Dyson vacuum cleaners?

Sum Guy

wrote:

Consumer reports is totally unbiased??????
I think not.

Pretty close - but there will ALWAYS be a bias.

They are probably have a bias against price or cost. They seem to
mechanize, automate, and use instrumentation recordings where possible.
A db meter for noise. A mechanical actuator to measure pushing force
when vaccuming. Measured amounts of dirt that are dumped on carpets and
then weighed to see how much the vacuum actually picked up. Even a
clean room with an airborne particulate counter to verify the
hepa-filter claims (their conclusion is that even regular vacuums that
don't claim to be hepa will work just as good as ones with "hepa"
filters).

I've got a kenmore canister that's about 8 years old that I want to
replace (the kenmore is being moved to a different location - not that
it's not working anymore).

The durability and performance of the beater bar, extension tube, flex
hose and handle are my primary concern, as those are the components that
experience wear and tear. Any improvements to those components that
result in less air leakage as those parts wear, wearing of rotating
parts, breakage of thin plastic, etc, are what I would seek to know - if
such things are actually knowable in this age of disposable products.

I've found that the Dyson claim of "never losing suction" to be a red
herring. Even my 8-year-old kenmore can completely fill the disposable
waste bag, indicating that it still has enough suction to pull material
from the floor even when the bag is 100% full. And I prefer to throw a
bag away vs dealing with dumping a canister. Noise level is also very
important to me - my gut feeling is that the bagless units are louder.

Online consumer reviews are a mixed bag. They could be accurate and
representative, or they could be biased (a tendency to compain vs
praise) or they could be faked or planted by the manufacturer (or the
competitor).