Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

I recently visited a local vac shop, not the one run by a close friend. We discussed Dyson and other brands. He maintains that Dyson WAYYY overestimated the cost of returns/warranty repairs when he invaded the US vac market, which is why the Dysons were given a 5 yr warranty. He said Dyson, despite rumors to the contrary, is making money hand over fist, and show no sign of slowing down. Even though the hose is excluded as a warranty part, Dyson is issuing repair authorizations for them. He also said he is selling Dyson dirt canisters, cords, roller brushes, and hoses like there is no tomorrow.  He said Dyson is ready to cut prices when necessary to boost flagging sales.  The DC-07 will make a reappearance at  $299 or lower when the time is right.

I stopped by Best Buy to purchase a memory card  for my camera, and wandered down the vac aisle, of course. 33 full size vacuums on display. THREE bagged machines, all uprights. Other than Dyson, only ONE canister, a Dirt Devil straight suction. Dyson had on display three cans and four uprights, over 20% of the vac sku offerings!  There are new and interesting things in the vac shops, but nothing has changed at BBR where most of America buys their vacuums.  According to him, Panasonic has lost the contract to build Sears canisters.
All of this is, of course, excellent news for Kirby.

DysonInventsBig wrote:

Dib-stir:  Until you put 55 years in the vacuum business as your own boss I'll pass on your history lessons. I forgot more than you'll ever learn.

Carmine D.

vacmanuk wrote:

The HOOVER Junior is circa about 1949-50 and after.  Dust bag is over 60 years old.  It was probably one of the worse if not the worse designed in the industry for dumping.  Smallish bag clamp opening for dumping.  Very small, probably comparable to hand cleaner openings, bag opening on the vacuum.  The vacuum end of the bag always clogged even before full and the bag needed dumping.  It was an ideal candidate for an after market paper conversion, which I almost always convinced customers to consider before buying.

Don't think in terms of one type bag is the best for all people in all circumstances.  This is the shortsightedness of the die-hard bagless inventors/fans in the industry.  They believe bagless is the best for all customers in all cases over paper bags.  It's a false premise.  Be open enough in thinking to believe that vacuum consumers may run the gamut of what they want and buy from bagless to bagged including permanent reusable cloth like.  Especially with the advances in filtration and cloth.

Carmine D.

CarmineD wrote:
After 1958 Hoover's Junior models had paper bags as standard and it wasn't until the early 1980s a top fill dust channel was added. The 1980's Hoover Junior U1104 model has a a top fill bag system. The opening is huge and the clamp is similar. Paper bags are 6 litres capacity.  Filtration wasn't part of its design back then but you reuse the standard Genuine Hoover bags once it had been emptied again.

vacmanuk wrote:

I could easily see a similar lightweight upright now, even top fill, with a reusable cloth like HEPA bag, as a popular seller for small dwellings occupied by singles or couples with no little ones.  Priced at $150.  It would be very desirable as a competitor with ORECK and other lightweight uprights both bagged and bagless.

Carmine D.

In the UK there just aren't any brands that offer permanent bagged uprights now which is a pity but the bags have been proved to be messy which is why brands are probably afraid of putting the bags into them - lets not forget brands are out to make money on their products so whilst its a good idea to have such a vacuum on the market, companies would try and make a killing somewhere for the buyer to constantly buy something for the upright. The $150 pricing you quote does put it directly into a budget market in the UK although the cheapest bagged upright would be Chinese made and carries "Bush" name, the current price being £37.00 which translates as $56-80.