Heavily abused Dysons

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Yep I could do that comparison in my shop and make the bosch the Looser very easily. The problem with Utube vids is that its very easy to make the vacuum you want to win win and the vacuum you want to loose, loose badly. Been there done that.

I did that recently with a Miele and made it loose horribly after a customer showed me a Utube vid where the Miele outcleaned the dyson. I love showing customers this and have one of every model of my competition to aid in this.

As for the vacuum bags $ 20.00 for a pack of 5 Thats to pricey for me. All the hospitals here in SA that are worth there salt have massive central systems with UM a cyclone on them. Infact I don't know when last I saw a Hospital with a normal vacuum in it.
 
Many UK hospitals

have reduced the amount of vacuuming they do as it was actually thought to be unhygenic due to what could be breeding in the cleaner and the dust bags. Carpets have all but been eradicated, but also the method of vacuuming hard floors was considered liable to unsettle dust in a way that made it airborne, to the extent that dust-mopping floors has been favoured. Hospitals here also prefer paper hand towels over electric dryers, again for the belief of moving around germ-borne air. That is of course excluding Dyson hand dryers which have been able to make a presence in some establishments.

As for that video and as for the comments that the Dyson can be made to look more favourable should one choose to, it has to be remembered that these videos are little more that the results of, say, a survey, where comments and statistics are gathered in such a way as to reflect only the aspects which the commissioner of the survey wishes to convey to the 3rd party. The video here was completely biased in favour of the Bosch, and in normal usage no cleaner would be expected to cope with that kind of debris. Indeed with any cleaner, I would be inclined to sweep the area first.

But this does not mean I am standing up for Dyson either. One only has to review their own official videos to see they too like to show matters from a certain angle. For instance, those cleaners which in tests are mechanically moved back and forth, and cleaners dropped from a height continually. What does this prove? It proves they held their own during rigid factory testing. It does not prove they will hold out in 'normal' use. That, as we all know, is an entirely different way of testing the durability of anything.
 
$20-00 is equivalent to roughly £12. For that you get double the amount of SEBO bags for the commercial BS36 series - 10 bags to you, compared to the 5 you quote - and that's taken from a Trader company AFTER VAT has been added. Numatic are even cheaper in some cases £5-95 which is half of U.S $20-00 gets you 10 bags for the Numatic.

Whilst SOME hospitals depend on wet cleaning to get rid of dust, several hospitals and department stores that have vinyl mix floors use a mix of dry polisher machines and some that have the combo suction bags on them to pick up dust. Other departments use Henry vacuums or more expensive commercial tub vacuums with even more elevated costs on dust bags, that aren't as mass available to buy such as Numatic or SEBO.

My point in all of this is, it doesn't really matter that much that dust bags have to be purchased in lieu of a bagless vacuum - after all - lets face it - if Dyson offered a much better built vacuum designed for commercial usage, I bet the sole plate wouldn't be so easy to scratch let alone have obvious external wear parts that wouldn't scuff or shatter that easily.

Matt - have you tried trundling your Hoover TP model up and down the stone flagstones of that church? See how long that lasts.
 
I'd not want to run a TP over those flagstones, wouldn't last a minute! Can't think of much that would really, apart from a kirby, which would probably level the whole area over a period of time, breaking down the raised corners...

The one win about the dyson soleplate is it's flared, so will ride up and over the top of the corners, and as it's got a large surface area just glides and absorbs the impacts for a time.

However, would love to run a TP over the carpet!
 
here is a dramactic version:






🛡️


Let me tell you a story.
Not just any story — a saga of survival, grit, and two battle-scarred DC07s.


One lives the life of a commercial workhorse.
The other? A builder’s companion, forged in dust and duty.


We’ve all heard the Dyson horror stories —


“Oh, mine kept breaking,” they say. “It was rubbish.”
But today, we look to the other end of the spectrum.
Not the fragile, fickle machines of myth. No. These are SOLDIER DYSONS — machines that refuse to die.



🏛️


For years, I’ve been the quiet caretaker of the church vacuums on our village green.
I’m not religious — not in the slightest. But I believe in service. In showing up. In fixing what others discard.


When I arrived, they had a DC01.
A machine so ill-suited to its task, it practically begged for mercy.
Filters every week. Wheels, brush rolls, base plates every three months. Cables. Switches. It was a mechanical tragedy.


So I stepped in. Sold them a nearly-new DC04 All Floors for a laughable £30.
The cleaning lady was ecstatic — no more endless part replacements.
That machine held strong for nearly five years.
Until someone annihilated the sole plate and stripped the brush roll bare.
At that point, I gave the verdict: it’s done. Time for a new warrior.




Enter the DC07 Animal.
Six years old. No major issues.
But at 4.5 years, it went eight months without a filter wash.
I assumed they were doing it. They assumed magical pixies were.
The result? The motor gave out. A quiet pop — the sound of neglect.


I took it home. Called Dyson.
The repairman, a legend in his own right, turned a blind eye to its clearly non-domestic use.
He gave it a new motor, a fresh HEPA filter, and a clutch to replace the slipping belts.


I replaced the sole plate myself.
It had been dropped down the stone stairs to the choir vestry — the cyclone assembly bears stress marks like battle scars.
The brush housing is worn from pivoting across uneven floors.
But it still runs.
It still fights.


This DC07 is no ordinary vacuum.
It’s a veteran.




🏗️


This wasn’t just a bargain. It was a heist.
Found in the back of a major electrical retailer’s stockroom — handle cracked, dismissed as outdated.
They let it go for £9.97.
Nine pounds. Ninety-seven pence.
For that price, I didn’t just buy a vacuum. I claimed a legend.


I took it home. Registered it. Told Dyson about the broken handle.
They sent me a new one — no questions asked.
And just like that, I had a full 5-year Dyson warranty on a machine destined for war.




This DC07 wasn’t built for domestic bliss.
It was born for chaos.


  • Cars.
  • DIY carnage.
  • Building sites.
  • Church deep-cleans.
    I bought it knowing full well it would face the worst — and it has.

It’s cleaned up water, wet plaster, spilled paint.
It’s vacuumed rubble from demolished walls, roof debris, chimney soot, and the ghosts of coal fires past.
The motor now sounds like hell — cold starts resemble a cat being slowly fed into a blender.
But it still runs.
It still fights.


I’ve washed the post-motor filter more times than I can count.
The pre-motor filter clogs so badly, dust bypasses it like a jailbreak — choking the post-motor filter in retaliation.
I even extended the cable, because this beast doesn’t deserve to be tethered.


If it ever gives up, I’ll clean it down, slap on a halo, and cheekily try a warranty claim.
Dyson may never know the battlefield this machine has seen.




Look inside the hose — it’s blackened with soot.
The handle wears the scars of paint and plaster.
The brush roll soldiers on, though the sole plate looks like it’s been through a war zone.


And here it is — working away in the loft after the new roof, surrounded by rubble and grit.
When it’s not being abused, it rests in the garden shed like a retired gladiator.




⚔️


These machines aren’t just vacuums.
They’re survivors.
They’ve faced plaster storms, stone staircases, and the wrath of soot.
They’ve cleaned churches, cars, lofts, and lives.


The newer ball-style Dysons?
I doubt they’d last a week in these conditions.
But hey — I’d love someone to prove me wrong.


Until then, the DC07s stand tall.
Two machines. One mission. Zero surrender.
 
basically, dyson's work for some use cases, others not. This job could also be done by a Hoover 652 on the carpet and an older Electrolux cylinder with a HARD FLOOR tool. That way there is no base plate to wear out. One for the carpet and one for the hard floors. Same job and less changing about. I clean my classroom with an Electrolux d338 from 1982. It has encountered masses of leaves, wet grass, spilt food, chalk, fluff, you name it it has had it. It is only about 3 months into it's service life, though I will update this thread when I am through with using it at school. I simply open the lid, take the reusable cloth dustbag out, shake it over the bin, put it inside out and bash it on the wall outside, then you just pop it in and close it up. No filters to worry about, no bags to buy, no loud noise, good performance and will outlast all the modern commercial machines. It was used in a wood work shop, likely for 13 years as it said "2012 in service" written in sharpie on the inside. I found the bag so full it was solid and required hitting firmly to dislodge the dirt inside. Their is a large rug in my classroom that students years ago named "Steve". Steve is medium pile and incredibly dense. Piles and piles of dirt come out of Steve every time I clean. I have used a Kirby g6, a stick vacuum and a Tellus (nilfisk) gs80. None are as good as the Electrolux. Every use the Electrolux gets thrown about getting it out of it's corner and on to the floor. Then it is rammed into furniture, danced on ( there has been people weighing 65 kg literally dancing about on the body many, many times), used on all kinds of mess, etc, etc. It has not yet showed any sign of stopping or slowing down. Remember that this classroom has 30 11-12 year olds coming in and out three times a day and also eating in their twice a day. All that is cleaned up to twice a day taking up to an hour each time. I have also used it as a blower for leaves outside and cleaning the school vacuum. The school has a 2012 numatic 15 litre James type machines with the switch that automatically goes to low power. When I joined this school at the start of the year it had a hose that was less than 1 metre long and covered in tape, no bent end, a filter with a hole that was brown, the hose cuff was taped to the wands, the floor tool base plate was held on by ONE screw and rusted out completely and the bag looked like it hadn't been changed in years. I fixed it up and it is now a joy to use. The school never changed the bag so the Electrolux had to suck the dirt from inside it. This Electrolux has helped in repairing a few vacuums and emptying out 4 completely full Hoover 612/262 bags. Never a problem, always there.
 

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