11 ms·

I'm surprised at this - seems bizarre that it's a 'great product' but isn't commercially viable in any way? As an aside, I really can't understand why people a

• the-dude 7y ago
  Bose. Bang & Olufsen.
  • Svip 7y ago
    Back when CRT televisions were the only option, Bang & Olufsen really made televisions of that era look great. But with flatscreens, everyone can make a television look great, so they've lost their edge. My point being, I don't think the comparison is fair. B&O used to be something. I don't think Dyson ever was.
    • riffraff 7y ago
      Didn't they invent the bag-less vacuum cleaner?
      • maxerickson 7y ago
        No. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_cleaner#Cyclonic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_cleaner#Cyclonic They marketed a portable vacuum that doesn't use a bag or filter as the first dirt separation stage.
    • samwhiteUK 7y ago
      I don't know if you've used a B&O TV lately - crap
      • agumonkey 7y ago
        what was crap ? the whole thing, some part of the design ? or too peculiar ?
    • agumonkey 7y ago
      Are you sure BO are in the same class as Dyson ? BO seemed to me a very niche luxury brand, Dyson is way more mainstream. Both have different values.
      • the-dude 7y ago
        I believe B & O just did the enclosures and used other manufacturers parts so you basically bought a Philips TV in another jacket.
        • DaiPlusPlus 7y ago
          Yep. In the days of CRTs, Sony’s heavily patented Trinitron (aperture grille) CRT tech was the best by miles - no way B&O could engineer that themselves.
        • agumonkey 7y ago
  • hondo77 7y ago
    B&O linear tracking turntables rocked. You could dance on those things and the record would keep playing as if nothing was going on.
• FerretFred 7y ago
  >I'm surprised at this - seems bizarre that it's a 'great product' but isn't commercially viable in any way? The UK government are pushing EVs heavily but there's no charging infrastructure in place and very few can afford the £30-40K it costs to buy them :(
  • dangrossman 7y ago
    > there's no charging infrastructure in place There are over 15,000 EV charging points in the UK today, which is about 2X the number of petrol stations. Ionity will have 40 350 kW fast charging stations in the UK as well.
    • TwoHeadedBeast 7y ago
      Not really comparable. A charging point is more like a parking spot, where you park the car and charge it, you might not come back to it for days.
    • 0xffff2 7y ago
      > There are over 15,000 EV charging points in the UK today Is a "point" a single cable, or a location with potentially several cables? >which is about 2X the number of petrol stations Sounds like a useless comparison when a petrol pump can serve far more vehicles per hour than a charging cable. Not to say that GP is right, but accurate comparisons are much more convincing.
      • dangrossman 7y ago
        Electric vehicles don't get fueled the same way as petrol vehicles. Comparing "vehicles per hour" of someone's garage or driveway to a petrol station is also a useless comparison, yet that's where most electric vehicles get charged most of the time. I think I provided a sufficient counter to "there's no charging infrastructure", however. Whether it's sufficient, or cheap enough, or reliable enough, is up for debate, but whether any infrastructure exists isn't. You also don't need a whole lot of infrastructure when only 1% of new cars are electric, and the country is so small.
• hodder 7y ago
  Not much to get. People aren't willing to pay prices which will provide enough margin to cover costs. Electric cars are a tough business, especially for a company with no established auto supply chain or auto manufacturing experience. Teslas are often touted as great products, yet there is no sign that they will ever turn a penny in cumulative cash profit. NIO is going bankrupt. Chevy bolts are touted as great products, but GM loses money on them and don't see profit potential for several more years. And they have the supply chain and experience. There has yet to be a commercially viable plug in electric car. Not a shock that it is also true for Dyson. Why is this being downvoted? I didnt say electric cars will never make money. I am stating the FACT that no company makes money on them YET.
• hhs 7y ago
  I think Dyson has tried to position itself as a Veblen good.
• mattlondon 7y ago
  We had one of the V1 (or maybe V2?) vacuums and it had some obvious design floors: e.g. the exhaust blew forward out of the front, so if you were trying to suck up some fluff, the exhaust blew it away from the vacuum! You had to reverse over it to get it - madness! I remember ranting about it whenever they were held up as masters of industrial design etc - clearly people saying that did not have one :) I've not used any since, so don't know if they are any better these days or not.
  • quasse 7y ago
    I have a Dyson DC33 and can confirm that the exhaust blowing dust away from the vacuum is still a major problem. I end up chasing bits of pet hair around the floor with it because it blows them away faster than I can vacuum them up.
• dominotw 7y ago
  > the suction is poor compared to anything I've used in the past What did you use in the past?
  • djaychela 7y ago
    She had a Bosch cordless one previously, that was better. It's supposed to be capable of replacing your corded one, but it's simply not up to the task - any corded vacuum I've had was better - a £30 LG was -way- better than the Dyson it replaced (when the motor failed, it was BER), and lasted a lot longer. If I need to clean the car, I'd do it with my old Henry that I found by the side of the road.
    • dominotw 7y ago
      ahh ok. I have the v11. Seems to work fine, I clean my house car ect. But I haven't really compared it against others.
  • bmurphy1976 7y ago
    I'm not the op but my wife bought a Dyson. It was a piece of crap and and suffered all the problems and more the op mentioned. Broke after a couple years and we ditched it. I went back to using my 20 year old Dirt Devil. That thing is awesome and will suck up anything. Emptying it is slightly annoying but it's way better than the Dyson ever was.
• Invictus0 7y ago
  > like giving a Wookee a prostate examination Can't stop laughing at this
• jbarberu 7y ago
  When moving to the US we decided to not skimp out on the vacuum and went with a Dyson Ball Animal 2 (an almost $500). It's one of the worst vacuums I've ever used. It's clunky, has poor suction and is a pain in the ass to empty/clean. I don't know if it's because it's an upright or if it's just a bad vacuum. Every canister style vacuum I've used in the past have been a pleasure to use compared to the Dyson. I even prefer to use my ShopVac over the Dyson for the house... :(
  • mprev 7y ago
    We had one of those. Terrible bit of equipment. Flimsy plastics, never stayed upright, no tools. Waste of money.
  • rasz 7y ago
    You probably should of did a little bit of research an got a Miele.
    • jbarberu 7y ago
      We had a Miele back in Sweden, which was great. Unfortunately they're a bit more difficult to come by around here, which is why we went with the Dyson (which we did research ahead of buying). It just seems the people reviewing the Dyson must never have used a good vacuum before :(
• pdovy 7y ago
  I have a V7 that my mother in law gave us and the cordless part is the only thing it has going for it. It doesn't do nearly as good a job as our corded Miele but it's good enough that I'll use it to spot clean when I don't want to lug that out.
  • cactus2093 7y ago
    Honestly curious, what kind of floors are you cleaning where you notice this, really deep carpets or something? I feel like the suction on my dyson v6 is perfectly adequate, better than any other cordless I've used and as good as an average bigger vacuum. We have mostly laminate floors and some really short carpets in the bedroom, and on either surface the dyson works well, pretty much gets everything visible after a single pass. I definitely don't feel a need to get a bigger vacuum for deeper cleans or anything.
    • ghaff 7y ago
      I'm pretty much the same way. No pets, a lot of hardwood floors, mostly oriental carpets where I have them, etc. I got a V8 after my old cheap handheld vacuum died, in part because I almost never could be bothered hauling my old canister vac out of the closet. (I have a housekeeper once in a while so that mostly takes care of the full-house periodic vacuuming.) It works plenty well for my needs and it's so quick and easy to pull out and do a quick pass of a room or two.
    • pdovy 7y ago
      The brush attachment is actually quite good on rugs/carpet, but most of our house is hardwood or tile. The hard floor attachment we have is basically a soft roller that is supposed to sweep debris backwards and funnel it to the actual vacuum inlet. This doesn't work particularly well and will sometimes fling debris out the back, and the design also seems to mean that it works best pushing forward, rather than just vacuuming in kind of a W motion. I have a theory that this is worsened because our house is old and the floors are not that even, so maybe it's not able to trap debris as effectively? Our other normal vacuum's hardwood attachment is the super simple suction cone type thing, and that will suck up basically anything in it's path.
• dariusj18 7y ago
  I bought vacuums that were supposed to be as good as Dysons and they always sucked (though there are some Sharks I've heard good things about). Then I finally bought a Dyson (a v7) and it's been great. Great design and function.
  • deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  • wazoox 7y ago
    Isn't sucking what a vacuum cleaner's supposed to do ? :)
  • EpicEng 7y ago
    In my experience Dysons are overpriced garbage. Do yourself a favor and buy a miele next time.
    • bonestamp2 7y ago
      It doesn't look like miele makes a cordless stick vacuum to go up against his V7. I've got a Dyson V8 and it is the best vacuum I've ever owned. I'd be happy to try a miele if they made something comparable though.
• dtwest 7y ago
  > they take about the same time as any other dryer This is false. Before the Dyson Airblade and the really loud Xlerator ones, World Dryer was the most common hand dryer (in America at least), and they are awful. Forget about 10 seconds, you could stand there for 60 seconds and still want to use paper towels after.
  • djaychela 7y ago
    Sorry, it's not false. I dried my hands using an Airblade V2 on Saturday in a services washroom. I timed it. It took 32 seconds. I did the same when using another make (when I was at PyconUK, in Cardiff city hall, feel free to check them out), and it took 30 seconds.
    • simias 7y ago
      Was the other drying one that used a similar design as Dyson's Airblade or something that predates it? Because the parent was talking about the state of the art for hand dryers before Dyson and I concur with them, it was pretty shit. On the other hand I wouldn't be surprised if other vendors these days managed to clone Dyson's design and even improve on it.
    • TeMPOraL 7y ago
      I don't get the times in this thread. 30 seconds is still ridiculously long. I could dry my hands with a hair dryer at minimum setting faster than that. On Dyson ones I used I could dry my hands in under 15 seconds. How are you people drying your hands?
      • LoSboccacc 7y ago
        I don't get the craze for those fastest but actually slow hand dryers I dry them on jeans pockets and it takes two seconds top
      • dpark 7y ago
        You should consider that perhaps everyone else isn’t crazy. Dyson claims 12 seconds. Undoubtedly that is optimistic and many people will find it takes longer if they aren’t doing it exactly the way Dyson expects. Personally I like the new air blades but also don’t find that they fully dry my hands. They get most of the water off and I move in with life. If I wanted my hands towel dry, I’m pretty sure I’d need more than 12 seconds.
• specialp 7y ago
  Dyson really got the bagless vacuums to become the dominant vacuum in the USA. I think while it looks cool and relieving to see lots of stuff whirl in a transparent tornado chamber, it is far inferior to actually having a bag. You then have to dump out a dusty dirt container somewhere (hopefully not inside) and clean and sometimes replace an expensive filter. Vacuum bags are pretty cheap, and biodegradable, and much cleaner to replace. It holds a lot more too before affecting suction resulting in less empties.
  • abawany 7y ago
    I agree. I wasted a lot of time and money on bagless vacuums before realizing that I spent more time cleaning and futzing with them than with the actual vacuuming. Got a Panasonic bagged upright and it is nice; cleans well and I don't have to do anything but throw the bag away after a while.
  • ticmasta 7y ago
    Plus our municipal garbage pickup explicitly requires you to bag dirty or dusty trash like this (ex: furnace filters) so I end up transferring from a bag-less vacuum to a bag, plus get dirt and dust everywhere and can never get all the crud out of the vacuum canister. The vacuum is OK, but having to clean the canister multiple times per use is a major pain. Bagged are superior for this reason alone.
  • hevi_jos 7y ago
    I personally love Dyson system. I have an old Dyson working, so powerful that making new ones of that power is forbidden in the UE. Dumping the dusty container is much better than using bags in my own experience. When I used them they were extremely expensive and hard to find. The vacuum loses power as it fills. If bags are cheap, that I don't know, it is only because Dyson has made them a commodity. Using it for years (maybe decades) and never changed the filter, which is extremely easy to clean regularly.
  • vixen99 7y ago
    Dyson may recommnend a new filter but our's has run for 18 years with no extra purchases of that kind (we clean the filters ourselves. No problem). Brilliant machine and easily the most impressive domestic product we've ever purchased. Greater suction power would likely be dangerous in some circumstances. Not having to replace bags is such a bonus.
• ryanmcbride 7y ago
  I never understood the appeal of the Dyson 'bladeless' desk fans. They have fan blades, they're just in the base. The novelty isn't worth the $272 (current amazon price) to me.
  • Aunche 7y ago
    The real "benefit" of the bladeless fan is that it produces continuous wind rather than choppy wind. It's not exactly something you notice until you learn about it though. Then suddenly you start notice that regular fans actually are choppy.
    • ryanmcbride 7y ago
      Well at least that's something I guess
• karolist 7y ago
  Bought a V8 cordless and my wife is raving happy about it every time she vacuums, the other alternative was Bosch, although I trust the brand very much when it comes to vacuums I'd rather not risk it.
• balfirevic 7y ago
  Do you have a better battery-powered vacuum to recommend? That's an important feature and comparing them to corded vacuums is comparing different things.
  • djaychela 7y ago
    Previously she had a Bosch. Forget the model number. It worked well (I thought it was a viable corded replacement), but it died after a few years (apparently a common problem), and that prompted the purchase of a Miele corded vacuum (way better, but again died, this time due to the motor taking a bath!)... then the Dyson, which was billed as a corded vacuum replacement. To me, it's a glorified dustbuster.
    • UnityRanson 7y ago
      > To me, it's a glorified dustbuster. I recently bought V11 and have been blown away with how well it does its job and how effortless vacuuming has become. As a corgi owner, I am forced to do vacuuming pretty much every day and I could not stand dragging a regular vacuum cleaner with a cord everywhere, especially up the stairs... I honestly don't understand how I was able to live without a cordless vac for so long!
  • greedo 7y ago
    Oreck makes good cordless vacuums.
• samfriedman 7y ago
  I tried a few Dyson vacs and was never much impressed by them. I got a Miele canister vac recently and that thing has blown me away with how effective it is. Quiet, powerful, and very well and thoughtfully designed.
• oxplot 7y ago
  > I really can't understand why people are so enthusiastic about Dyson products If you've used one and don't get it, you may not be the target audience. On multiple occasions, I've asked a friend of mine to try various products I use which I believe are excellent in many ways, only to be told that they were average or junk compared to what he uses. I believe what he uses mostly to be complete and utter junk! So I don't know ... As far as Dyson vacuums go, V10 tipped over for me. The suction improved noticeably as did the run time. The bin is quite larger as well and my pet peeve, emptying the bin cleanly, is done perfectly in V10. I used to have to deal with hair in previous models. After V10, I never once touched the inside of the bin to do extra cleaning. The motor head in V10 does not get hair in it. It's like magic! As far as industrial design and feel of it goes, it's a pleasure to hold and use, so much that I sometimes over vacuum. The warranty and support is the best as usual, even past warranty period.
  • djaychela 7y ago
    >If you've used one and don't get it, you may not be the target audience. I need to clean things, I think I'm the target audience! Maybe from what you say then the V10 could swing me (certainly sounds like it has the issues that annoy me sorted out), but that's what was said about the V6 - corded replacement, easy empty, long running time, etc!
    • eaenki 7y ago
      I also need to use the internet and apps and yet Android or Windows will never get a cent of my money, but Apple does. You're the target if you value what the product design emphasises. In this case, you're on the other end of the spectrum of Dyson. Much like an India is on the other end of the spectrum of Apple.
    • oxplot 7y ago
      > V6 - corded replacement There is a huge range of corded vacuums that should not exist. I'd say this line is marketing crap. Even V10 isn't corded replacement across all corded vacuums. > I need to clean things, I think I'm the target audience! It all depends on your use case. If all you have is hard floor and a studio sized apartment, you don't even need a vacuum cleaner. Same way not every one needs a Ferrari to get from point A to B. Dyson's price range is certainly a good indicator as to why it's for a smaller market than your average vacuum cleaner.
• whywhywhywhy 7y ago
  > Dyson hand dryers in public toilets Just disgusting mold and bacteria traps, absolutely terrible design, just blows the water back in on itself and it collects or leaks down the side of the walls. Give me an Xlerator Dryer any day.
  • bonestamp2 7y ago
    Agreed. I was blown away in Japan though. They have Panasonic and Mitsubishi dryers that are similar looking to the Dyson models but they're much quieter and don't seem to have the same design problems (somehow) or they're just better at keeping them clean (probably).
• luckydata 7y ago
  my dyson handheld is the best vacuum I've ever owned. The hand drier thing is clearly false, they work WAAAAAY better than the normal ones.
• seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  I love my v8, you are right it isn’t the “best” vacuum cleaner, but it is so easy to use casually that I don’t really care. I might upgrade to a v10 someday because it fixes the emptying container problem, but I can even live with that for the moment. If someone knows of any better cordless full sized vacuum cleaners, I’d love to know about them. Right now there are lot of low quality Chinese models available, but if you have problems with the Dyson, then you definitely wouldn’t be happy with those.
  • laurencerowe 7y ago
    Supposedly the LG cordless vacuums are good, but double the price I paid for a v8. We have two floors of stairs leading up to our apartment so being cordless is a huge time saver.
• maccard 7y ago
  I bought a dyson V6 refurb on ebay from the dyson store for roughly the same cost as a branded upright vacuum. I live in a 550 sq ft apartment, space is a premium. It's compact (Hangs on a wall in a cupboard, taking up a space that we wouldn't use anything else for, rather than a large part of one of our other small cupboards) - the battery life is about 20 minutes, which is enough time to clean my entire apartment in one go, it fits under all my furniture, hoovers up our pet hair. What more could I ask for?
• lazyjones 7y ago
  > I'm surprised at this - seems bizarre that it's a 'great product' but isn't commercially viable in any way? As an aside, I really can't understand why people are so enthusiastic about Dyson products You already gave the answer: Dyson products are pricey for what they offer, so Dyson has a healthy profit margin (20%+), which isn't possible at this time with EV due to very strong competition that's not keen on being profitable, but makes very good cars and has a significant lead in advanced car software too.
• hourislate 7y ago
  Stop using air dryers in bathrooms. They blow fecal matter all over the place. >Hand dryers suck in fecal bacteria and blow it all over your hands, study finds. We know fecal bacteria shoots into the air when a lidless toilet flushes — a phenomenon known, grossly, as a "toilet plume." ... Into a hand dryer and onto your clean hands, perhaps. That's what a new study suggests. https://www.businessinsider.com/bathroom-hand-dryers-or-paper-towels-which-carries-more-bacteria-2018-4 https://www.businessinsider.com/bathroom-hand-dryers-or-pape...
  • joncrane 7y ago
    Most bathrooms with hand dryers eschew the paper. So the alternative is just walking around with wet hands? Or not washing your hands at all?
    • whamlastxmas 7y ago
      In my coworking space with only hand dryers (eco friendly attempt) I just tear a couple paper towels off in the kitchen and bring them in with me.
      • bdamm 7y ago
        The whole "eco friendly" thing about hand dryers never made sense to me. In fact, I think it's a marketing ploy by the air dryer makers. Paper towels are great, and they come from trees, which we can and want to grow more of.
        • redwall_hp 7y ago
          Well, paper and textile production is dirty as hell. Ask anyone old enough to have lived in a mill town. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_paper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_paper
          • bdamm 7y ago
• safgasCVS 7y ago
  I discovered this as well - we bought a really expensive one thinking it was going to be great etc. the thing has the suction power of a 70 year old asthmatic
• afterburner 7y ago
  The v6 is old, if your gf's had it for a while the battery's probably on its last legs, and it didn't last that long to begin with anyways. The more recent models have plenty of battery life.
  • smacktoward 7y ago
    Just what the world needed, one more thing you have to completely throw out just because the battery's worn...
    • afterburner 7y ago
      Battery tech improves. That's just reality.
• switchbak 7y ago
  The Airblade that has the slot to put your hands in is just nasty. It's like playing the game "operation", but instead you get gross germs on your supposedly clean hands. The Airblade "V" I find good enough, but still not worth all the hype.
  • tachyonbeam 7y ago
    I agree. What a gross, ineffective and shitty gimmick in the name of "design". There are some things that don't need to be reinvented, at least not in worse ways.
• jariel 7y ago
  'Great products' that are not economically viable are probably more common than regular products. It's easy to make something great when you don't have to worry about margins, supply chains, manufacturing, distribution etc. etc.. This happens all the time in consumer; every consumer product designer would love to add a bunch of features and functions, but often these things push costs way past what people will pay for. There are so many amazing products that would exist today if we were willing to pay 2x-10x the prevailing price - but we won't. I'm working with a team that's making toys. There's a faction that has an experimental AI piece that has some really fun applications, but it'd be a $150 toy (i.e. heavy processor etc.). The market will accept $40-50, which dramatically limits the kind of hardware that can go on there (i.e. micro-controllers only). Practically the whole business of hardware is about making those tradeoffs.
• not_a_cop75 7y ago
  Most of Dyson's products are great but commercially unviable. It might as well be their mission statement.
• amluto 7y ago
  Dyson cordless stick vacuums are excellent in the rather limited sense that there doesn’t seem to be much credible competition. LG at least seems to be trying. I would love a good stick vacuum with a bag. I find it rather annoying that every generation of them seems gratuitously incompatible with every other generation, and they don’t seem all that well designed or particularly reliable.
  • greedo 7y ago
    I've loved my Oreck upright vacuum, so when they came out with their cordless vacuum, I jumped on it. It uses a disposable pod to contain all the junk, and it has plenty of power and a long lasting battery.
• perlgeek 7y ago
  > I'm surprised at this - seems bizarre that it's a 'great product' but isn't commercially viable in any way? If you had a reputation for highly engineered/polished electric devices, would you admit that you hadn't managed to build a working electric car? You'd put up some vague reason that's impossible to disprove, and try to salvage your reputation.
• mstade 7y ago
  This airblade hand drier design nonsense has to stop. I was at a hotel in Miami some time ago and they had these airblade style drivers integrated into the water tap, like bars sticking out on either side, right over the sink. I took one look at it and went “nope, that’s terrible design; water’s going to spray everywhere.” As I’m leaving the guy who came up after me yells of a very annoyed “god damnit” as water sprays all over his blue shirt. Whoever designed that really shouldn’t be designing things.
  • rapnie 7y ago
    Yes, these are hilarious. First time I encountered them and was splattered with water, I thought "I must've just been pranked.. where's the candid camera at?".
• whycombagator 7y ago
  > As an aside, I really can't understand why people are so enthusiastic about Dyson products - I find them to be poor to use and poor performers. A few family/friends had Dyson vacuums over the years - always worked pretty good but failed frequently. Generally they grew to dislike Dyson products based on those experiences. I now have a perception of low reliability towards Dyson products as a result. However, many of the same friends/family (years later) now have Dyson stick vacuums and swear by them. > Dyson hand dryers in public toilets don't dry your hands in the claimed 10 seconds, they take about the same time as any other dryer, and usually lead to wet washroom floors as they blow the water all over the place. I find these particularly disgusting with how the design promotes build up.
• sliken 7y ago
  Heh, I mentioned my dyson problems to a repair place and they said "die-soon" and laughed. They do have a somewhat innovative design, but are made almost entirely of plastic and just don't last very long. Sure it's kind of cool to skip having to have replace vacuum bags, but it's much more of a pain to have to replace the entire unit because of a relatively minor problem. So I think it's mostly just good marketing and attractive products and consumers who don't look at the reliability/expected lifetime before purchase.