Eurekaprince:
You are right, the LG Kompressor uprights do get excellent ratings in Consumer Reports over most Dyson models. BUT, the reason for that is most likely due to their aggressive brushroll, the primary reason why, in my opinion, Dyson's are poor carpet cleaners....their brushrolls are wimpy & don't do a good job of grooming carpet, lifting the nap & removing dirt from the carpet pile. Whereas most of Dyson's multi-cyclonic competitors do have good brushrolls. If you think LG's Kompressor uprights are superior, then why is one of the Hoover T-Series the Number 1 bagless upright in the current issue? It's only because the brushroll on the Hoover is signifigantly better than the Dyson! Case in point....back a couple of years ago, the Dyson DC28 Airmuscle earned the highest cleaning scores in Consumer Reports. It was so good, it even matched the Kirby Sentria's score! Why? Because it has an aggressive brushroll which is much better than most of Dyson's other vacuums. This explains why the LG Kompressor gets the better scores, & not because the Kompressor technology is superior.
Also, when you say "But the compacting mechanism constantly allows for more space in the bin, and the block of dirt is easier to dispose of. I don't think we consumers care how many cyclones there are. Just as long as the cleaner cleans well and is easy to use", I would strongly disagree with you on that! Yes, the Kompressor feature is nice....it's definitely a benefit that the dirt is compacted down into a "dirt puck" so that dust doesn't fly around as much when emptying, like a filtered cyclonic upright would. BUT, when you say consumers wouldn't care how many cyclones a bagless vacuum has, that's where you are dead wrong! If you look back a few years at customer reviews on Amazon.com & Epinions.com for filtered cyclonic upright & canister vacuums, most consumers were complaining that the dirtbin was too messy to deal with, due to the filter cleaning, & that they lost power quickly. Now, can you REALLY say that a filtered cyclonic upright would be easy to use if you have a messy dirtbin & filter to maintain, or that it would clean well if the vacuum constantly lost suction power due to a clogged filter? I think not. These days, consumers want superior performance, & that's what the multi-cyclonic bagless vacuums on the market today deliver. And bin capacity isn't a huge concern, not when the bottom-emptying dirtcups are so easy to empty & hold a decent amount of dirt. The concern of dust flying everywhere & the mess it created, like what happened in the past with filtered cyclonic vacuums, is long in the past.
Tom G: I must say I agree wholeheartedly with your opinion that Bissell's multi-cyclonic system is 2nd best after Dyson. As most people here know, I have had a blue Bissell Healthy Home 5770, the first Healthy Home that's now called the Heavy Duty, since 2010. That vacuum has always impressed me with it's design & cleaning performance, & it's multi-cyclonic system captures a LOT of dust. Having said that, the only way you can really clean it out is to take a compressor to it, or use another vacuum with a blower port- say a Filter Queen or TriStar- & blow it out with the hose & a crevice tool on the end to concentrate the airflow. If you wanted to wash it out, you have to remove several screws that holds everything together, & not nearly as easy as other vacuums like Hoover's & Panasonics where everything can be disassembled & washed easily. I have also noticed that not all the dust comes out from the inner cyclone chamber when emptying the dirtbin- If you separate the cyclone assembly from the dirt bin by pressing on the 2 latches, & take the cyclone assembly outside & gently tap the inner chamber on a hard surface, there's a lot of dust that will fall out. Hopefully, Bissell will improve both the Healthy Home in the future so these will no longer be issues.
As for Hoover, I must say I am not impressed with their multi-cyclonic system at all. I just ordered & took delivery of a Hoover Windtunnel Air Pro UH72450 on April 29th. It's Hoover's answer to the latest Dyson Ball models, as it's steerable, just like the Shark Rotator Lift Away. While it's a darn good upright, & it has AMAZING suction power, I was totally surprised at how quickly the pre-filter got clogged with dirt....and it's only been used 4 times since I took delivery of it! And yes, it does have a good pre-filter that looks very much like a copy of the Dyson Ball DC29 pre-filter, but it's gonna need cleaning frequently. Hoover recommends in the user's guide to clean the pre-filter every 2 months, but with how dirty it got, I think it's gonna need to be cleaned every 2 to 3 weeks. I had ordered a spare pre-filter & HEPA filter to set aside for the future, & Hoover didn't charge extra for them (most likely since I was ordering directly from Hoover, & it's a new offering), but something tells me I am gonna need that pre-filter far sooner than I initially thought. I will be creating a separate post about the Hoover in the next couple of days, giving my complete assesment of the vacuum. It's a good vacuum & does an excellent job cleaning, but it certainly has some flaws.
Rob