Dyson Worth the Hype?

I had a dyson, and it was okay, but it DID lose suction.
We switched 2 years ago to a Shark, and I will never go back to Dyosn.

My dyson is about 7 years old. I was blown away when I bought it (got it on sale and with a coupon at Kohls, so it was less than half price). But now, I'm pretty unimpressed by how it works. Cleaning the filters and the brush does very little to improve the performance. I hate to have to buy a new one after only 7 years - seems like a $500 vacuum should make it a little longer than that! But I literally have to run over fuzz on the carpet about 10 times before it will pick up, and often I give up and just use my fingers. I don't feel like it's doing a good job at all anymore. And what someone said about pushing crumbs around - yep. Same here -- have to pick it up and place it on top. And my mother in law used to complain about hers and I thought she was just crazy, but now, either I'm crazy, too, or there's a problem after they reach a certain age. I think any new vacuum would have been impressive. It's how they hold up that really matters - performance out of the box is a given.

No no no no!!! I've been waiting for someone to ask this question. :). I bought the Dyson Animal for $400, with a coupon from bed bath and beyond. It is unwieldy, pushes food like Cheerios around, sometimes I have to lift it up and place it over large crumbs to get them, and the wand was great, until recently it mysteriously stopped working. I can't figure out what happened, and the only directions that came with it are little caveman drawings, no text. I have rinsed the filters like I was supposed to. My landlord commented he had the same problem with it pushing food around. I have heard from several people since that Miehle vacuums are good, FYI.

Years ago, a Kirby salesman stopped by and wanted to do a demo to compare a Kirby to my vacuum. I had a basic model Dyson, the yellow DC07, which I had purchased for about half-price as a refurbished item.

The Kriby guy asked me to vacuum my entry rug with my vacuum. I did. Since it is a canister, you can see the dirt was picked up.
Then he put a catching filter in the Kirby and re-vacuumed to show me how much more he would pick up.

Not a speck was in that filter. Kirby man left. :-)

I've had that same Dyson for 8.5 years now. I had to replace a hose once, because I had accidentally cut it. But there have been no mechanical issues. I have a hard-floor tool that attaches to the hose, because it does a much better job than running the thing like you would for carpet.

Some people do get a lemon, but that happens with all brands. I've fixed other people's Dyson vacuums for them when they don't work because of user error. If a section is slightly dislodged (they clip together) it can make it seem like it has very little suction. Sometimes there is a partial clog that isn't apparent. Or very occasionally, the filter needs washing really badly.

I think our Dyson is worth it. I have had ours over seven years and it is still going strong. At one point about three years ago it started acting screwy - it would push big debris like Cheerios around and it wouldn't clean right in general. I got so darn mad. I paid full price for it and was furious it wasn't living up to my expectations. My husband tinkered around with it and finally "fixed" it. One of the connections had come loose and the vacuum was simply not performing. Since then, we have not had a single issue with it. It is unbelievably heavy but I like it a thousand times better than my father's similarly priced Oreck. I have hardwoods, tile and carpet. I use my vacuum cleaner on all floor types with excellent success. Good luck and happy vacuum shopping.

P.S. This question reminds me of my friend’s vacuum in college. Some overpriced thing she dumpster dived out of her apartment trash bins. It took her all week to vacuum her tiny apart because the vacuum had a short and would overheat to boot. It would vacuum a few feet at a time and then die. She would let it sit until the next day and resume vacuuming. The moral - even the best brands produce lemons.

I have the Dyson Drive. It's probably about 7 years old. I love it. I'd buy another Dyson tomorrow if this O. conked out.

Updated

Thanks to an amazing Lightening deal on Amazon before Xmas I got a Dyson after debating about it for ages.
It is absolutely worth the money! We didn't even get the animal one but we vacuumed the cat tower that would never get clean with our old vacuum and it was amazing how much cat hair came off of it! We totally noticed the difference in how clean everything got vs our old machine. How light it is is a huge plus! We have a two story house and it's not bad at all carrying it up and down. The upstairs gets vacuumed more now than it ever did LOL
They are expensive but I really do believe it is worth it!

I bought a dyson many years ago, so they may be different now.

I wound up bringing it back. It was way too loud and it had trouble adjusting to different heights (i.e. we have a big area rug on top of carpet).

I'm sure it's a good vacuum, but it wasn't for me.

We still love our Oreck 12yrs later - we get it serviced for $50 every two years. I've heard too many mixed things on the Dyson from friends with kids/dogs, and I've seen too many inconsistent Consumer Reports findings on Dyson to be sold on them.
We have a hard wood, tile, carpet in our house - we vacuum with Oreck, steam the non-carpet with steam shark, use the hand Oreck for baseboards/furniture/etc. Good luck!

We had the Dyson ball (I think it was the DC 31 or something like that). It's a very nice vacuum, but it was so expensive!

I left it with my ex because he insisted it was his, and I wasn't going to argue about a vacuum.

I bought the Shark Rotator Professional Lift-Away. This one, from Bed, Bath, and Beyond, specifically, because the extra tools you get are better than anywhere else. http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?SKU=40446653 I used the 20% off coupon you can get in the mail.

I love my Shark. It cleans beautifully. Hard floors, carpets, stairs, and everywhere else. Love it.

they are very good. You can usually find a decent deal on Craig's list for them. Khol's also carries them and if you get a 30% off coupon, it can be good.

My sister is a pretty clean person, she was babysitting her grand kids for several years too. She has a small dog. That's all.

So she runs her sweeper nearly every day. She borrows her daughters Dyson about once per month and she fills the cup several times through out her house.

So in my mind, her floors are way cleaner than mine. Yet she still fills that canister several times each time she borrows her daughters Dyson.

Her vacuum is a good name brand one too. She fills it almost once when going through her home almost every day.

My daughter bought a Dyson with the roller ball and loves it. In the past 12 years she's worn out three vacuums. When she saw Dyson on sale at Target she bought it. She had a coupon for an additional 20% off the sale price. I think she paid around $250.

She lives in a 3 BR apartment with a husband and 3 kids, no pets, but yet vacuums haven't lasted. They were name brand ones, too.

I had the Eureka The Boss vacuum, since it was the Consumer Reports best buy. A lot of people in my family bought the Dyson, and I started feeling left out, so I broke down and bought one when Costco had the sales around Christmas time.

I like the hose on The Boss better. I used it to clean all of my baseboards and door jambs. I think the hose on the Dyson is more difficult to use. Both of my family members who have Dysons (and long-haired dogs) had problems with the Dyson breaking and losing suction. My Dyson is new enough that I haven't had any problems with it, but honestly, I'd buy another Boss before I bought another Dyson.

Not worth the hype.

We have had our Simplicity Canister Vac for almost 10 years and it still runs like a new machine! We don't do anything "special", but do keep it clean and stored correctly. We have two kids, two long haired cats and a small house...

I would not spend the money on the Dyson. I have friends who have purchased it and of the three, two returned it b/c they didn't think the difference in functioning justified the ridiculous price tag.

They are marketing geniuses there, but it's a lot of hype. Get a good vac by a solid company and take care of it! If you do that, the new one (like your Orek) will last you another decade!

I have a Dyson Animal, which I've had for probably 6-7 years. I also have a Golden Retriever and 2 girls (3 and 5 yo). I use it probably every other day (esp. during shedding season like now!) and have had no major problems. (carpet+hardwood)

The one issue I've dealt with is hair getting wrapped around the spinning roller "brush", where it meets the ground, but I am 100% sure that would happen with any vacuum (+Golden). I simply remove the plastic covering and use scissors to cut away all that wrapped up hair so it works better on my carpets.

And yes, it is a pain to lug it up the stairs, and/or vacuum the stairs, but isn't that the case with any vacuum, esp. a stand-up one?

The whole vacuum can come apart for cleaning...which I've done a little, and you're suppose to wash out the "foam filter" every 6 months, but I never remember to do that. (it is a 6" diameter filter) My MIL bought a 2nd filter so she's always clean (she also takes apart the whole vacuum to thoroughly clean it!).

Oh, the other thing is I don't think it is a "carpet height" adjustment like some might. I recently installed really thick/dense carpet and the vacuum really sucks into it (which might be causing carpet damage?), so I get quite a work-out. No need to go to the gym that day! ;-)

Good luck!

We had one for about six months and finally gave up on it and sold it on Craigslist last month. It's all hype. We spent about $400 to ease my husband's OCD. He was convinced our Bissell wasn't getting everything (esp. with a German Shepherd that sheds everywhere).

Well, we learned our Bissell picked up far more than the Dyson and was just all around easier to use. We're back to using our Bissell. Maybe Dysons were awesome when they were the new kid on the block, but I think other manufacturers are doing just as good a job -- or in the case of Bissell, a better job -- of vacuuming carpets.

We have had several vacuums over the years and by far our Dyson Animal has been the best. I have long thick hair, as does my daughter. We also have pets that shed. The Dyson gets rid of all of it very well. I love the extremely long hose, so that I can vacuum the steps with out dragging the entire vacuum up the stairs. The Dyson is easy to use, easy to transport, easy to empty and does a great job. It cost a lot of money but I wouldn't buy anything else at this point. We have had ours for a few years and I still love it.

I think it's all personal preference (kind of like with kitchen appliances), but I love my Dyson. My mom had one of the "original" type ones which was substantially heavier, and we have the DC39 (Animal Canister).

We have tile and carpet, and it's easy for me to take up and down the stairs. It's easier for me to roll the canister around on the carpet than it is to push an upright vac. We have 2 kids (3.5 and 1.5) and a 3600 sq ft house. I vacuum the whole house once a week and the kitchen/living room probably twice a week. I haven't had the issue with it pushing cheerios/crumbs around. I use it to try and keep my kitchen crumb free since my kids are still kinda messy eaters, and we don't wear shoes in the house.