Um…a vacuum? As a gadget?
Yep. Because these aren’t your everyday vacuums. Dysons are truly something else. Here’s why –
James Dyson — that guy with the really dainty English accent — re-thought the vacuum. You see, everyone does vacuums pretty much the same way. They all suck air through a filter of some kind — either an explicit filter, or the sides of a collection bag. The idea is that the bad stuff gets stuck in the filter. Sounds simple, right?
Too bad there’s a wicked flaw there. It’s the filter. Suck enough dirt air through a filter, and two things happen: (1) the filter clogs, so you can’t suck as much air through it; and (2) you have to clear the filter, which usually means throwing away a bag and installing a new one.
But Dyson figured out that he could apply the principle of cyclonic separation to vacuums. Cyclonic separation says that if you create a “mini tornado” where you spin air round-and-round, the dirt and particulate matter flies out from centrifigal force alone. Thus, air and dirt are separated without the air ever passing through a filter which clogs.
The result is the Dual Cyclone vacuum cleaner. Air sucks up whatever you point the hose air, then several 900 m.p.h. tornados “spin the air clean.” No filter. No bag. No loss of suction.
I’ve had one of these for two years, and I’d sooner lick my carpet clean than go back to a regular vacuum. I was a little skeptical at first, and I’ll admit to buying the vacuum strictly because I loved the geek aspect of it.
But one pass through my basement turned me into a believer. The basement carpet had been vacuumed the day before with a regular vacuum — a very expensive Kenmore. Yet when I was done this time, the container of the Dyson was filled with what looked like dark gray cotton candy mixed with:
- little pink and blue people from The Game of Life
- what appeared to be grains of rice (Dear God, please let those be grains of rice…)
- what I think was hair from a cat which had died some time ago
- etc
It was disgusting, and it all came out of suppsedly clean carpet.
I use the Dyson on my basement carpet every week. And every week it sucks up an amazing amount of crap. That alone would be worth it, but the bonus is that I’ve never had to buy a bag or filter for it. And I never will. Not only do I avoid the expense, but I avoid vendor lock-in and the chance that someone will stop making bags for my vacuum someday.
The suction of the Dyson is amazing. I’m always half-afraid that I’m going to lose a finger down the hose if I’m not careful. It will suck up anything, so long as it fits down the hose. Another nice feature is that the entire suction line from the end of the hose to the final deposit int he waste container comes apart, so if you manage to get something stuck, you can always track it down and remove it.
It’s been two years of solid use for my Dyson, and I have yet to have a single problem with it. And note that this use includes a 13-year-old half-trying to break it so he won’t have to vacuum the stairs.
In researching this post, I was looking around the official Dyson site. How much of a dork am I because I’m giddy that they’re released a handheld version?
