My brand new Dyson DC03i

[ibaisaic]

Jack,

Thanks for the info on the DC27. I find it odd that Dyson say that people don't like tracks in their carpets. That's why I prefer uprights over straight suction cleaners as you can tell that the carpet has been freshly vacuumed. When my partner came home after I first used my Miele S7, he exclaimed that it looked like the carpet had been mown!

I have a Vax Mach 5 but was almost put off buying one when I felt the softness of the brushes. I had a Maytag Windtunnel with a similar brushroll, but far stiffer bristles. Didn't you say that you were getting a stiffer brushroll to try in your Vax Mach 7?

Mike

I didn't used to like Dyson, especially when I used to be so loyal to Hoover. Now Hoover is a shadow of the company it used to be, I am widening my interest to include other brands. I have a love hate relationship with Dyson. I do think that they make interesting cleaners, but until they get the noise level to an acceptable standard, they will never be one of my daily drivers.

My favourite brand has to be Miele. I love using all the Mieles
I own. I love the quietness, performance, build quality and filtration of their cleaners. If I had to get rid of most of my collection, the Mieles would be the ones I kept hold of.

 

[vintagehoover]

Hi Mike,

all I can say is what I've been told; during the development of each new model, the cleaner is subject to home-trials. Dyson also gather feedback from members of the public in the forms of focus groups, on current models.

The resounding answer Dyson have consistantly got from these groups is that Brits don't want a carpet with lines in. Pyschologically, it's because it makes the carpet look good as soon as you've finished vacuuming, but as soon as you walk on it, you get footprints in the pile as it gets trodden flat again. It appears to negate the task you've just spent 10 mins doing, which annoys people - they feel it needs doing again almost as soon as they've finished!

And of course, the public rather differ from us; they don't want to have to vacuum daily to keep their carpets looking good. They find doing it once or twice a week a pain! They think they should vacuum again, but they don't want to. Thus, they find themselves resisting the urge to act - think how uncomfortable it feels to ignore a ringing telephone, for example!

 

[vintagehoover]

Roger,

when TTI/Hoover launches a new product, Vax always subject it to a rigorous assessment, to consider whether it's appropriate for introduction in the UK. The Mach range got the green light, the Windtunnel 2 didn't, and the Platinum collection are still under consideration.

The machines are put through all sorts of testing during this process. They weren't happy with the amount of wear caused on certain carpets by the American brush-rolls, which is why the bristles they ended up using were so much softer.

I am intending to put a US brush-roll in my Mach7, it's one of the many things on my 'to do' list which I haven't got around to yet!!

 

[rolls_rapide]

Groomed Pathlines!!!

The general British Public want a bloody good slapping!

The whole point of an upright is to reactivate downtrodden pile and remove deeply embedded grit.

Maybe Dyson engineers should consider adding beater bars to their machines, to compensate for the Public's desire for soft, tickling brushes.

 

[vintagehoover]

Dyson will NEVER use beater-bars, because they're so strongly and historically associated with Hoover. And 'Hoover' is as dirty a word at Dyson as 'Dyson' is on this forum!

Not surprising; they refused to see him when he approached them to licence his Dual Cyclone technology, then infringed his patents selling by their inferior version of his cyclonic design with their 'Vortex'model. And now, Hoover R&D for new products consists of taking the latest Dyson model and asking 'How can we do this, but cheaper?'

Dyson's whole 'thing' is coming up with new solutions to old problems.

Beater bars? No. Agitation using ultrasonic waves? Perhaps....

 

[rolls_rapide]

Beater bars are a proven technology...

...and they work quite effectively. To dismiss that outright is rather short sighted. I wonder just how much more efficiently a Dyson would perform if it had beater bars.

Ultrasonic vacuum cleaner agitation, on the other hand, is an unknown technology that has problems of its own - namely the problem of keeping the agitator tuned to the fabric being cleaned. One only has to look at the textile industry, where ultrasonic cutters/sealers are routinely used to trim selvedges, to know that they are not the definitive answer to all fabrics.

 

[vintagehoover]

'Beater bars are a proven technology...'

So were bags!

'Ultrasound' was illustrative of my point that they'll go for the new technology which makes headlines, not someone else's 83-year old brainchild.

Whilst the UK public is perfectly happy with the clutch set-up, and Which? Magazine continue to award Dyson machines 5 out of 5 stars for carpet cleaning, they have no pressing reason to sink R&D funds into developing something new.