We must have had a dud as we got the Dyson animal hair one and it was terrible. Battery life was rubbish, the suction was crappy and the pick up just wasn't that good.

Ended up getting a gtech which was fine for 2 adults in a small 2 bed house with wooden floors, but now we have kids and a bigger place we got a Shark corded and it is amazing. Literally the best vacuum we've ever owned.

I'm not sure the cordless Dyson I have compares well to a good corded vacuum cleaner for cleaning power. But for me, I got one a couple of years ago (after thinking about getting a Roomba for the umpteenth time and concluding it wasn't for me) and it's been perfect for my use case. I normally have a housekeeper come by once a month. But the high traffic areas including the kitchen really need a quick vacuum now and then in between cleanings and the Dyson's been perfect for that. I hated having to haul my corded vacuum out to do this. (So I mostly didn't.) Now it's literally a couple minutes work to grab the Dyson and give a quick cleanup.

Same experience for us. The cordless Dyson is a lesser vacuum cleaner compared to our old corded hoover. But it's light, it's easy to grab from the charger and you don't have to deal with a cord, so it gets used more. It just removes all the friction from the chore.

Yeah, the gtech was a battery vacuum too, but placed the motor/impeller right next to the entrance of the device, no long pole. I wanted to love the Dyson because of what we paid for it, but I left me a bit meh. My folks have a corded Dyson now and it is a good machine, but I really feel the shark just wins. Man I am dull :p

My cordless Dyson (V10 Animal, I think) is strong enough to get stuck to the carpet on the highest power setting. I won't use it past medium because I'm afraid that it will tear up the carpet.

FWIW, we have six furry animals of our own (with four different hair types) and also foster and board dogs. We never buy the “animal” cleaning machine. I’ve never seen a product that in any way shows it’s somehow more capable of dealing with hair or messes than other products in the same line. I have had them be more expensive and flimsier relative to that same line though.

The "Animal" product line is identical to the regular product but comes with a few additional attachments (powered hand hair brush) and is a different color. We have a Husky dog that blows her coat twice a year, 2 longhaired cats and a shorthair. The machine is amazing.

We have both a Dyson cordless vac and a Shark corded one. We use them for different things - the Dyson is for spot-cleaning, toddler messes, cars, furniture, bedspreads while the Shark is for our floors. Both are very good at what they do.

I had a similar experience with the Dyson and then the battery died. After getting the battery replaced under warranty, the machine has worked great ever since.

I think Dyson benefits from the same effect as Apple/Tesla/Beats/etc. Their products are good but their triumph is upselling. Dyson cordless vacuums are like $800+, was your previous one that expensive?

My dyson cordless vaccum (v7) was 399$ (CAD) so it was not insanely expensive and I would not go back.

Their tech can probably be imitated at a lower cost, but I won't take chances with the cheaper knockoffs, the tradeoff is not worth it.

Their tech probably can't be imitated at the moment because they've got it patented up the wazoo. Luckily patents have a sane lifetime and once they expire I'd expect many competitors to show up with similar designs at lower price points and possibly better engineering.

Is there a Dyson-equivalent cordless vacuum that goes for less than $200?

Perhaps, but just like Apple they have a refurbished category where you can get very good deals - and that's on top of them having sales regularly.

I should add that I called Dyson once for my 7 year old wireless vacuum which was having battery problems. They mailed me a replacement completely free of charge. The upselling might be there, but the up-service also seems to be there.

This thread is filled with anecdotes. But vacuums do get tested periodically by objective reviewers. As I recall, the Dyson usually does okay, but it rarely wins overall, and never on price.

For a "wired" vaccum, i'll go with Festool every time, but yeah, Dyson wireless vacuum are pretty good.

People are talking about the household vacuum type (upright & cordless) not shop-vacs or dust collectors.

My household vacuum cleaners have almost always been corded (with the exception of a couple battery powered ones I had 5 or 10 years ago). Granted, I didn't shell out several hundred dollars for the cordless ones, but dead batteries and replacements got old after the first round so I've stuck to corded ever since. It's just not something I ever really had a problem with. The cords are typically quite long and I never have to worry about battery capacity or lifespan.

I was referencing GP's Festool comment - Festool does make great stuff, but in the vacuum space they mostly make dust collectors for woodshops and shop-vac style shop vacs -- not the household-style vacs we're talking about.

Gotcha. Sorry I misunderstood.

I actually hate my Dyson vacuum (animal 8 I think, or something like that). To me it's absurd that it has a trigger - very inconvenient when carrying it around, and tiresome to use for extended time. Made me think that Dysons are form over function, so the linked article plays well into my bias.

That's weird because the cordless Dyson vacuum we had was utter garbage and my 20 year old Dirt Devil was better in almost every single way except it didn't look as cool and had a cord.

1. Have you ever tried a Kirby?

2. My Kirby G3 is 25 years old and can suck a blonde through the chrome of a trailer hitch. How old is your Dyson? How long will your Dyson last? Can you get parts for it? Is it repairable?

The G3 does have bags but they're HEPA H11 and EN1822 that catch ultrafines, so there's negligible emissions and it's all contained in a bag rather than breathing that crap while dumping a baglass.