Removing and replacing paper towels with hand dryers in public bathrooms has been an unfortunately shortsighted move that's been copied without much thought. Hands aren't the only thing that get wet in a public bathroom. You may wash your face, you may be removing stuff off your clothing, and countless other uses that a hand dryer alone can't accommodate.
Seriously, if paper napkins and no Dyson Aerosol-Your-Skin-Cells-9000 means I don't have to think about the sanitary habits of my fellow citizens, that would be reason enough to stop installing them.
They also scream like a banshee and don't dry your hands. I happen to also wear a beard, perhaps you can see why having only the Scream And Don't Dry My Hands Machine available would be unsatisfactory.
The ultimate bachelor's vacuum cleaner was the Dyson DC15 Animal. It just cleaned and cleaned and cleaned, their newer stuff I dont rate.
Personally I'm never going back to a corded vacuum if I can avoid it.
The friction to use a cordless vacuum is very low compared to a corded one. And consequently, vacuuming change from being a chore that's done once few weeks for a an hour to some short 5-10 minutes burst every few days.
The point of anything cordless is how it eliminates the hassle of, well, dealing with cords. In case of a vacuum cleaner, one has to:
- pull the cord out
- plug and re-plug it
- ensure it doesn't get stuck around the corners and under furniture legs
- ensure it doesn't pull some other furniture and topple them over
In addition, corded vacuums have practically no power envelope or weight restrictions, so they end up being bulky, heavy and loud, even if the context in which they are used doesn't require the power.
Dyson cordless (I can't speak to any other) in contrast:
- weighs lot less and can be carried around with ease
- can be moved around without a second thought of where the cord is or whether it can be maneuvered in a certain way
- is a lot quieter (can be used at night)
- is instantly accessible without any setup so it makes sense to use it for a few seconds to clean something up
- can be used outside of the house where there is no power outlet - e.g. in the car in a rental apartment parking
Since I switched to cordless (which has been 6 years or so), I no longer dread vacuuming. It's actually a pleasant experience and sometimes, when I get a few minutes, I do a clean of areas that get dirty often (entrance).
The battery life and the power available have improved to the point where it's no longer something I worry about (especially for my two bedroom apartment).
Bought a Shark upright that I used in between my more thorough weekly rainbow vacuumings. But the shark was slowly falling apart, and you can't buy replacement parts and there are so many models, that finding used parts is not really possible either.
So I did the "buy once, cry once" routine and bought a Sebo E2 canister. Like many other European brands, parts are easily available and you no longer have a disposable product which is a win in my case.
- The Roomba goes once a day. It doesn't pick up much in one pass, but my house is much cleaner because it runs all the time. Covering the same spot many times, it does well.
- The Dyson cleans very well, and picks up all the places the Roomba doesn't get to or emergency spills. It's never run out of batteries.
On the whole, it's less effort and cleaner than with my old big'un vacuum.
And if I want to do a deep clean, I'd rather wash in either case.
I currently own a Dyson cordless for vacuuming the mattress when I change the sheets, a Bosch class M industrial vacuum and a Miele from before the dawn of time.
I’ve previously owned a Roomba.
I have the Bosch as a workshop vacuum and if I need to clean up something I don’t want blowing back into the air it’s the one I use. Eg brick dust or MDF dust.
Both my Dyson and my old Roomba were bagless and when you empty them it goes all over place.
I also don’t trust the filtering on them. They say hepa filters but that doesn’t mean it’s not leakng out case somewhere.
You only get one set of lungs so if it maters to you get something better than a Dyson.
My Miele still works well but I don’t trust the filtering on thar either.
If the Roomba kicks anything up:
- If it lands back on the carpet, it will get it on the next pass.
- If it doesn't land on the carpet, the air filter will get it.
My allergies are a lot better with this setup than what I had before.
However, the Dyson has a HEPA filter, but it's definitely not a sealed HEPA filter or "true" HEPA. Air goes around. The air coming out smells dusty. It's fine because it's only for things which the Roomba can't get to, but I'd be very unhappy with it as my sole vacuum cleaner. For what it does, it's super-convenient.
I should also mention: I have a carpet washing machine too. I rarely use it (much less than I should), but it's a huge step up.
It doesn't pick up a lot of trash on one pass, but it makes many passes. Even with many passes, it sometimes misses stuff that my old big vacuum would have picked up, but I run it every day or every other day.
The carpets stay really, really clean.
A side benefit -- to me -- is that I need to keep the floors Roomba-ready. If you leave laundry, cables, etc. on the floor, you've got a problem. YMMV if you have family; with some visitors, I can't use the Roomba at all.
The newer models offer larger batteries and debris capacity, and higher power (suction), but as you mentioned the V10 has been plenty for my household, so they don’t seem worth the extra weight let alone expense.
I previously had a V7 that worked well enough in a smaller home for a few years. After the battery started deteriorating I replaced it with an aftermarket one, but that was slightly larger so it no longer fit in the charging dock. Now the V7 lives in a campervan where it’s still plenty useful.
Our next kitchen won't be a Siematic.
The Dyson 'bagless' idea is a bit of a sham. Yes they work, but they don't work that well. They don't make as much suction as their bagged competitors so they cheat and use smaller orifices to increase suction instead of by having a larger motor or alternative design. Then in order to have 'like new' performance all the time you have to continually wash (which doesn't really clean well enough) or replace filters.
Some people love them but they don't make sense to me. If I'm emptying my vacuum I'm going to empty it into a bag anyway so I may as well use a bagged vacuum that works more consistently and doesn't throw dust everywhere.
It's not a sham, different use cases call for different things.
The suction is also pretty poor, however it makes up for it by having a roller in the vacuum head which picks up the dirt.
If you have anyone in the house with long hair its almost unusable as the roller will be clogged up after a single vacuum. A traditional vacuum with better suction and no roller wont have this issue.
On the plus side they are light and manoeuvrable, and the wall mount means you always keep it charged.
It's made of really cheap plastic and has cracked in a few places.
Being bagless is good in that I can see what it's collected but bad in that when come to empty it the dust I'm allergic to goes everywhere. (If only someone would invent a bag to keep the dust in eh?).
The cordless one does not quite match the suction, but it's so much more convenient and sufficient nonetheless.
Dyson aren't awful but they're definitely overpriced.