7 ms·

Dyson, techno-centric design and social consumption

85 points by 2earth 1y ago

2earth 1y ago
Please, James, don't sue me. It's just my opinion as a fellow Design Engineer... and in my defence, I probably wouldn't have written this if your company didn't constantly proclaim how amazing all your products are. And besides, these days, I can't exactly opt-out of a Dyson-altered existence, given that you're systematically making public washrooms everywhere louder, wetter, more expensive and more confusing. I don't really like your products, James, I don't like what they stand for and I don't like you either, for that matter. Anyway, here's (just some of) the reasons why. But please, James, don't sue me.
- detourdog 1y ago
  The germ spreading of the circulating air always creeps me out.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - echelon 1y ago
    The particulate aerosolization worries me. In the future we're going to regret breathing bad air. It's the accelerant for so many health problems.
    - eddythompson80 1y ago
      > In the future we're going to regret breathing air. It's the accelerant for so many health problems. A non-oxygen dependent energy system for the human cell is the only option moving forward. We need to utilize a clean energy source like sunlight and dump that oxygen dependency once and for all. Cyanobacteria was a crutch dependency that helped bootstrap that whole life thing pretty quickly for the demo. We have a proven concept now that we know work. Can we leave the idea to use oxygen back in the GOE era where it belongs now? Building all this complexity on top of a fundamentally flawed bases like oxygen reactivity was the main mistake.
      - echelon 1y ago
        I love the satire. (Did I really write "regret breathing air" before editing or something?) Oxygen is an amazingly energy rich fuel and is super abundant for us. The oxygenation of earth was one of the key steps, and it might be a "hard step" for other civilizations. Of course oxidation causes a lot of damage and byproducts, and is one of the causes of our aging and death. But without it, well... I was primarily referring to particulate matter suspended within the air we breathe. High PPM / particulate measurably reduces lifespan in several population studies, and it also produces noticeable pulmonary and cardiac disease states. Polluted air is bad.
        eddythompson80 1y ago
        shit sorry that way my mistake. lol. I meant to add a strike through "bad" but realized HN doesn't have strike through, so I deleted it and thought I added a "FTFY" but forgot to add it. sorry about that.
        echelon 1y ago
        No worries at all! I frequently edit my comments on HN to better wordsmith my arguments, so I half thought I'd made the mistake and been caught in a slip up.
      - aledalgrande 1y ago
        This sounds like a big refactor. Is the multifecta aware of it?
      - tim333 1y ago
        Come a week Thursday after the singularity we can all upload and be done with that air nonsense.
mkj 1y ago
It didn't include the terrible battery pack design of the vacuum cleaners either. They could have added a few resistors (already supported by the battery management chip they're using), but instead they didn't so the battery packs just fail. https://old.reddit.com/r/18650masterrace/comments/tifbgr/dyson_battery_pack_tear_down/ https://old.reddit.com/r/18650masterrace/comments/tifbgr/dys... and the eevblog original linked there.
- ok_dad 1y ago
  Jesus, they have a battery handshake? We truly do own nothing.
  - nancyminusone 1y ago
    This is hardly unique to Dyson. Pretty much everything that has multiple lithium ion batteries does the same. It sucks but that's the price you pay for lithium ion.
  - wpm 1y ago
    Sadly, the lack of good sense and typical selfishness and shortsightedness of a human being means that when you don't, you get the spate of e-bike battery house/apartment/highrise fires that were hitting NYC. You kinda can't fuck around with li-ion. I don't like that my Bosch e-bike batteries have closed-source schematics, software, and chargers (i mean really, what the fuck am I going to steal Bosch), nor that the software that runs on the bike is utterly locked down to the point where I can't even pay for a copy (it's available only to e-bike dealers and none of them have leaked it as far as I can tell), but unfortunately, I have no trust in my fellow schmuck to not accidentally or negligently build bombs when they rebuild their battery packs, nor would I trust them not to do stupid shit with the e-bike software like remove speed limiters. I barely even trust myself to rebuild packs, and I kinda-sorta know what I'm doing, which is just enough to get myself into trouble. I still look at the two packs I have rebuilt with a side-eye, months and years on from when I built them.
    - bitmasher9 1y ago
Onavo 1y ago
Dyson is like the IKEA for household appliances. They are pretty and fancy and somewhat featureful but they never seem to hold up to the truly high end stuff like Sebos/Miele. Those brands will cost you an arm and a leg but they will do exactly what it says on the tin, and nothing more. No gimmicks, just suction.
- autobodie 1y ago
  My Oreck is more than I have ever needed and I think it was around $100.
  - pipeline_peak 1y ago
    Push forward, push backward, lift up cord and turn to the right Push forward, push backward, lift up cord and turn to the right
  - jahsome 1y ago
    I have a corded oreck and a Dyson stick vac. I absolutely adore the oreck, and I rarely use the Dyson. In terms of maintenance and performance the Oreck is a reliable, one-click WordPress install, and the Dyson is a few dozen fickle micro services. I got the Oreck for like $20 on Craigslist a decade ago because it was listed as "broken." I bought it on a whim to see if I could repair it after one of the famous vacuum guy reddit AMAs. Without exaggeration, it may very well be the best $20 investment I've ever made. I was amazed how simple it was to disassemble and reassemble. There were surprisingly few components and every single one had an appealing heft and remarkable quality. As a somewhat funny aside: The woman I bought it from said she had three teenage daughters and it couldn't keep up. The first time I serviced it, I removed enough hair for several wigs. Ever since, it's worked incredibly and in the rare event performance has started to suffer I've been able to service it myself multiple times over the years, and replacement parts are readily available. It's designed to be maintained. After each service it works literally good as new and I fall in love with it all over again. Contrast that with my hand-me-down Dyson. It's awkward as all hell to store. Battery is pathetic and charging is a pain. So much delicate plastic. It clogs practically every use; though to be fair my children and animals are all filthmongers. The components feel cheap, and I can't help but feel like it's hostile to the average consumer attempting to repair it. It's deteriorated in performance even though I've used it lightly. If I had spent even a single dollar on it, I'd be so pissed.
reaperducer 1y ago
[flagged]
- ivell 1y ago
  I have found the parts to be very expensive though.
  - reaperducer 1y ago
    I have found the parts to be very expensive though. Seems OK to me. I have an articulated, motorized brush head on the way. ~$51, including shipping. Pretty good considering recent inflation, tariffs, etc…
- mostly_harmless 1y ago
  I don't hate Dyson because it's trendy, I hate Dyson because my $700 vacuum wont pick up cheerios; a common spill with toddlers.
  - IncreasePosts 1y ago
    Buy a dog. The dog picks up the cheerios and the $700 Dyson picks up the dog hair.
  - danpalmer 1y ago
    I don’t have a Dyson, but my vacuum also struggles with items so big they don’t fit under the roller. I don’t generally find it to be a problem because at that size they’re easy to pick up. Not defending Dyson, there’s a lot of valid criticism here, but at some size pieces are too big to vacuum, and if that size is Cheerios, maybe that’s not much of a problem? I’d rather have a vacuum that does well at the small stuff I can’t reasonably pick up.
- tristor 1y ago
  > I suspect that 90% of the people on HN who complain about Dyson (and most other consumer products) have never owned one, and are just aping things they've read online just to have something at all to say. Same suspicion for me. I've owned two Dyson vacuums, and the only reason I had to buy the second was because someone stole the first one when they broke into my apartment over a decade ago. My current vacuum is more than 8 years old and has been repaired a few times doing it myself, and is still fully functional and comparable or better than most new vacuums. Dyson makes very good products that are also beautiful. Yes, they're plastic, yes they're expensive, no they're not necessarily on paper the /best/ at their thing, but they're good, they're repairable, and they pass the wife acceptance factor.
bredren 1y ago
This piece doesn't mention the fluffy cones next gen replacement to the dyson stick vac: https://youtu.be/ve6JuJV17FQ?si=aCq_qwtpAhRyS0by&t=159 https://youtu.be/ve6JuJV17FQ?si=aCq_qwtpAhRyS0by&t=159 It was announced a month ago and seems to handle the design criticism in this blog entry. If it works as well as demonstrated will put it in a new class of vac.
- Ambroisie 1y ago
  I have to say, I don't see what makes it handle the criticism from the OP. It looks exactly the same as every other Dyson product I've ever seen.
  - brulard 1y ago
    Same as other Dyson product? Have you watched the video or used their vacuum cleaners?
phoronixrly 1y ago
I find it perplexing that the new Dyson urinals are not present as an example of what good design is...
ubercow13 1y ago
>Dyson hand dryers are very fast, but as a result, they fling water everywhere Isn't that the whole point of them? Instead of imparting enough heat energy to evaporate all of the water on your hands, they just push it off which is much faster and more energy efficient. How would they work better than regular dryers without doing that?
- wpm 1y ago
  If the goal is to optimize the singular task of "get water off hands ASAP", sure it probably solves that fairly well. There might be more to the task though. What affect does it have on the user? Getting splashed with water, usually at crotch height, is a nuisance and is somewhat embarassing. The loudness of these dryers is also a nuisance, and can be downright painful depending on how many are going at the same time in a large public bathroom. Long enough for permanent damage? Probably not for the average hand-washer, but for the people who have to clean those restrooms all day, perhaps an occupational hazard. Also, the trough shaped ones are disgusting.
  - justinrubek 1y ago
    The trough ones are such a poor design. Carefully try to wiggle your fingers in there, and then they blow with force such that you touch the wet dirty surface that everyone else has touched. I don't understand why these things exist, let alone why people choose to put them in a bathroom.
- MangoToupe 1y ago
  Perhaps evaporation?
- aag 1y ago
  I have never found a hand dryer that works better than the Dyson ones. They actually dry my hands quickly, and they don't deafen me in the process unlike some of their competitors.
  - danpalmer 1y ago
IshKebab 1y ago
I used to work for Dyson and I think this is quite off in many ways. * The industrial design of Dyson products is generally great. I don't think they poke you or anything like that. They even have nice affordances like all the things you can use being red. Contrast that with my terrible Shark where everything is black. Took me a good few seconds to find the bin release button. It also has an atrocious UX - a slow on/off button instead of a trigger, and an amazingly useless "smart power" feature that just varies the power almost completely randomly as you vacuum. When I worked there all the vacuum guys were worried about Shark because their pickup is apparently better. They needn't have worried because their UX is so abysmal. Although I guess in fairness Which doesn't know UX exists. * Some of the criticisms of the tech are valid, e.g. the hand dryers spraying water everywhere (they easily erode painted walls and now they generally install them only on tiles). But those are just flaws of the tech, they don't negate the fact that the hand dryers are much better than the standard cheap ones. He quotes the claimed hand drying time for a cheapo dryer as being close to an air blade but anyone that has ever used one knows how much of a lie that is. The washing machines did damage clothes but apparently the main reason they stopped making them was a manufacturing issue with the drum. * I don't think anyone really believes that James Dyson is personally inventing all Dyson products now. That doesn't mean he has no influence. When I worked there (about 10 years ago tbf) he still had huge influence over the designs, especially the ones he cared about. The one thing that is true is that Dyson won't make anything that isn't patentable because James Dyson dislikes his products being cloned so much. So even though though could make really good versions of normal products, they don't. Also they are way too expensive. Though in fairness my shitty Shark was expensive too. Don't buy a Shark.
- detourdog 1y ago
  My only complaint about the Dyson products is that they compromise on battery tech to help margins. I would expect such a design focused company to use the best batteries despite the effect on margins. No sense charging top dollar and using less than state of the art batteries.
  - IshKebab 1y ago
    Tbh I don't remember that being mentioned at all. Even if true a huge bonus of buying Dyson is you can get cheap third party batteries easily.
wetpaws 1y ago
[dead]
colesantiago 1y ago
Would it be best to make an open source company to challenge Dyson? Everything will be worker and independently owned (bootstrapped and no VCs), no patents (we don't care about clones) Just make great product that is open has free software. If there would be significant interest Dyson could have a direct competitor just like many other open source companies like System72 and Red Hat
svelle 1y ago
I have a v12 and I couldn't be happier. Best cordless vacuum I've owned. Had an aeg before that was about half the price. But it sucked. Still some of the criticism holds, such as the terrible wall charger.
- doright 1y ago
  I owned one and the build quality was pretty bad. The plastic tab holding the door to the dust holder snapped off with barely any force. The exact same thing happened to someone else I knew.
- dizhn 1y ago
  I believe vacuums are supposed to suck.
spandrew 1y ago
I dunno about this; that greenlight vacuum they brought to market a few years back is dope af. My first little orb Dyson is still kicking almost 15 years after I bought it. I think their brand isn't just about tech itself, but the utility exploring novel tech can drive.
hermitcrab 1y ago
Dyson has not made himself very popular in the UK by advocating loudly for Brexit, then moving the HQ to Singapore, then firing almost his entire UK R&D department. Someone I know was fired by email while on holiday. Bastard.
m463 1y ago
I had a dc34 and loved it. cost about $190? Point and shoot cleanups with the edger attachment. The humdinger should be a more modern replacement, but it sucks. No trigger, no fun.
pedalpete 1y ago
I feel this completely ignores the role of brand in the equation. Dyson's brand is to be technologically forward. It is supposed to look like the future, which is why the angular mix of colors works for the brand. Bosch, I have no idea what their brand aesthetic is, or what they are trying to say. This doesn't mean that the Dyson is better than Bosch, or any other competitors, just that brand does come into the equation as well.
- randycupertino 1y ago
  For hairdryers particularly dyson is very trendy. People wait in line for limited edition hairdryer cases, it actually crashed sephora's website for one of the limited edition case colors, I think it was rose gold. And the hot pink dryers are very statement making pieces for salons. They are definitely great at marketing and partnering with influencers. Per my hairdresser they aren't the best products on the market but they have great branding.
llsf 1y ago
I have a Dyson DC15 (https://www.dyson.com/support/vacuum-cleaners/uprights/dc15 https://www.dyson.com/support/vacuum-cleaners/uprights/dc15) purchased in 2006. Using it once a week (with few exceptions here and there) for nearly 20 years now, and working perfectly fine. Yes, it is heavy, and corded, but it is a beast, and still amazed at how much dust it gets every week. I have to admit that I am not impressed at all by the latest Dyson cordless versions, including the new Dyson PencilVac (https://www.dyson.com/discover/innovation/new-machines/pencilvac-launch https://www.dyson.com/discover/innovation/new-machines/penci...).
- brulard 1y ago
  I have a V12 and had V6 cordless before and I am quite impressed by these including the Pencil one. It made vacuuming at our home quite simple even for kids. Where do you see they are lacking?
  - llsf 1y ago
    Okay maybe I am an outlier, but when I vacuum my place (1400 sqft), it takes about 1hr. I fill half of the container with dust. I am kinda thorough, maybe borderline OCD :) And so I need a vacuum that is not going to lose power, so I am happy to stay corded, with full sucking power all the way. I can see the Pencil useful for a quick limited vacuuming.
theturtle 1y ago
All I see with Dyson is shitloads of overpriced plastic. I refuse to use any of the various expensive always-break plastic Dysons and prefer my heavy fifty-year-old Kirby Omega. Actual metal. You can still get almost all parts for it, they'll rebuild it, and it is incomparable at sucking up and mulching spilled hay and wabbit poop. I could probably vacuum my driveway with it. $35 used on eBay years ago. It has a headlight.
ryandrake 1y ago
I've always wondered why central vacuum systems never took off. We recently moved into a house that was built in that sweet spot in the late 80s / early 90s when central vac was getting pretty popular, and we love it. Quiet, light (you're not hauling around a motor) and with lots of wall inlets, you can vacuum the whole house with a pretty short hose. In my view, this was peak vacuum design, and they perplexingly seemed to go out of style and are not built into newer homes.
- brulard 1y ago
  The investment is quite big, I don't know about maintenance but I would expect these air ducts need to be cleaned regularly. Then you need to switch the hose many times to clean the whole house, right? I'm using dyson v12 slim battery vacuum and I'm quite happy. Battery lasts for almost 50 minutes, it's easy to empty, quite lightweight and the green light illuminating the floor is so useful. I don't see why I would ever consider the central one.
leonroy 1y ago
You could say the same about Apple or any company over 20 years old which has had time to go through a few department leads and culture shifts. I’ve had the Dyson DC02 (1995) - great machine, rubbish plastic in the handle which always cracked after 5 or more years. The filters were also a terrible, throwaway design. Then bought the DC25 (2008). The DC02 still worked, but this was a dramatic upgrade, solid, strong, easy to clean the brush bar (a long haired dog and 2x daughters made this a god send feature) and easy to wash filters. Then bought the DC16 - their first cordless. Appalling suction and batteries which died after 1-2 years of use. Next decided to try a different brand and bought a Miele CX1 (2019) - their first bag less cleaner. Highly rated, very expensive. It had the worst brush head I’ve ever seen, required fiddly disassembly to empty the weird little dust compartment within the canister and had a very odd dust filter which was a pain to clean. Terrible vacuum and lousy design compared to our previous Dyson. Now we have the V15 - phenomenal cordless vacuum. Can’t praise it enough. It’s just a vacuum mind but it’s very good. As an aside we’ve also bought the Dyson fans for work. The circular one worked well the HP02 heater purifier which cost a fortune has a high pitched whine which is so irritating that everyone turns it off and this is despite Dyson reluctantly taking it back and ‘fixing’ it - whereupon a year later it’s back to whining. Dyson himself seems a hypocrite and a little questionable - between Brexit and then incorporating in Singapore and also buying swathes of British farmland I’m not exactly enamored. Also backing out of the Dyson car seemed a low ambition move to me given he has total ownership of the company and is one of the few people in the world who can make that kind of impact. But the article itself just seems a nothing burger.
rhinojosa 1y ago
But as an owner of the Dyson WashG1 mop, It is quite magnificently the greatest cleaning equipment I enjoy using often. It guides well, vacuums well, mops amazing and overall a marvel in design and function. It's a must for those with pets and little ones tracking everything everywhere. There is literally only two design complaints I have, the pull out tray to clean should have a cocking slide trigger to release all the residue and junction joint frame from the dual canisters is a little to cheap plastic for me, it's only a matter of time before the latches break.
thesaintlives 1y ago
Worst most overrated vacuum cleaners ever. Totally crap!
Centigonal 1y ago
If Dyson is picking shiny tech-centric design to the detriment of practicality, then why are their vacuums still the clear top choice in the cordless stick vac category? I'm trying to purchase a new cordless stick vac for a family member, and all the review sites put the Dysons at the top.

85 points by 2earth 1y ago

Please, James, don't sue me. It's just my opinion as a fellow Design Engineer... and in my defence, I probably wouldn't have written this if your company didn't constantly proclaim how amazing all your products are. And besides, these days, I can't exactly opt-out of a Dyson-altered existence, given that you're systematically making public washrooms everywhere louder, wetter, more expensive and more confusing. I don't really like your products, James, I don't like what they stand for and I don't like you either, for that matter. Anyway, here's (just some of) the reasons why. But please, James, don't sue me.

detourdog 1y ago
The germ spreading of the circulating air always creeps me out.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- echelon 1y ago
  The particulate aerosolization worries me. In the future we're going to regret breathing bad air. It's the accelerant for so many health problems.
  - eddythompson80 1y ago
    > In the future we're going to regret breathing air. It's the accelerant for so many health problems. A non-oxygen dependent energy system for the human cell is the only option moving forward. We need to utilize a clean energy source like sunlight and dump that oxygen dependency once and for all. Cyanobacteria was a crutch dependency that helped bootstrap that whole life thing pretty quickly for the demo. We have a proven concept now that we know work. Can we leave the idea to use oxygen back in the GOE era where it belongs now? Building all this complexity on top of a fundamentally flawed bases like oxygen reactivity was the main mistake.
    - echelon 1y ago
      I love the satire. (Did I really write "regret breathing air" before editing or something?) Oxygen is an amazingly energy rich fuel and is super abundant for us. The oxygenation of earth was one of the key steps, and it might be a "hard step" for other civilizations. Of course oxidation causes a lot of damage and byproducts, and is one of the causes of our aging and death. But without it, well... I was primarily referring to particulate matter suspended within the air we breathe. High PPM / particulate measurably reduces lifespan in several population studies, and it also produces noticeable pulmonary and cardiac disease states. Polluted air is bad.
      - eddythompson80 1y ago
        shit sorry that way my mistake. lol. I meant to add a strike through "bad" but realized HN doesn't have strike through, so I deleted it and thought I added a "FTFY" but forgot to add it. sorry about that.
        echelon 1y ago
        No worries at all! I frequently edit my comments on HN to better wordsmith my arguments, so I half thought I'd made the mistake and been caught in a slip up.
    - aledalgrande 1y ago
      This sounds like a big refactor. Is the multifecta aware of it?
    - tim333 1y ago
      Come a week Thursday after the singularity we can all upload and be done with that air nonsense.

mkj 1y ago

It didn't include the terrible battery pack design of the vacuum cleaners either. They could have added a few resistors (already supported by the battery management chip they're using), but instead they didn't so the battery packs just fail. https://old.reddit.com/r/18650masterrace/comments/tifbgr/dyson_battery_pack_tear_down/ https://old.reddit.com/r/18650masterrace/comments/tifbgr/dys... and the eevblog original linked there.

ok_dad 1y ago
Jesus, they have a battery handshake? We truly do own nothing.
- nancyminusone 1y ago
  This is hardly unique to Dyson. Pretty much everything that has multiple lithium ion batteries does the same. It sucks but that's the price you pay for lithium ion.
- wpm 1y ago
  Sadly, the lack of good sense and typical selfishness and shortsightedness of a human being means that when you don't, you get the spate of e-bike battery house/apartment/highrise fires that were hitting NYC. You kinda can't fuck around with li-ion. I don't like that my Bosch e-bike batteries have closed-source schematics, software, and chargers (i mean really, what the fuck am I going to steal Bosch), nor that the software that runs on the bike is utterly locked down to the point where I can't even pay for a copy (it's available only to e-bike dealers and none of them have leaked it as far as I can tell), but unfortunately, I have no trust in my fellow schmuck to not accidentally or negligently build bombs when they rebuild their battery packs, nor would I trust them not to do stupid shit with the e-bike software like remove speed limiters. I barely even trust myself to rebuild packs, and I kinda-sorta know what I'm doing, which is just enough to get myself into trouble. I still look at the two packs I have rebuilt with a side-eye, months and years on from when I built them.
  - bitmasher9 1y ago

Onavo 1y ago

Dyson is like the IKEA for household appliances. They are pretty and fancy and somewhat featureful but they never seem to hold up to the truly high end stuff like Sebos/Miele. Those brands will cost you an arm and a leg but they will do exactly what it says on the tin, and nothing more. No gimmicks, just suction.

autobodie 1y ago
My Oreck is more than I have ever needed and I think it was around $100.
- pipeline_peak 1y ago
  Push forward, push backward, lift up cord and turn to the right Push forward, push backward, lift up cord and turn to the right
- jahsome 1y ago
  I have a corded oreck and a Dyson stick vac. I absolutely adore the oreck, and I rarely use the Dyson. In terms of maintenance and performance the Oreck is a reliable, one-click WordPress install, and the Dyson is a few dozen fickle micro services. I got the Oreck for like $20 on Craigslist a decade ago because it was listed as "broken." I bought it on a whim to see if I could repair it after one of the famous vacuum guy reddit AMAs. Without exaggeration, it may very well be the best $20 investment I've ever made. I was amazed how simple it was to disassemble and reassemble. There were surprisingly few components and every single one had an appealing heft and remarkable quality. As a somewhat funny aside: The woman I bought it from said she had three teenage daughters and it couldn't keep up. The first time I serviced it, I removed enough hair for several wigs. Ever since, it's worked incredibly and in the rare event performance has started to suffer I've been able to service it myself multiple times over the years, and replacement parts are readily available. It's designed to be maintained. After each service it works literally good as new and I fall in love with it all over again. Contrast that with my hand-me-down Dyson. It's awkward as all hell to store. Battery is pathetic and charging is a pain. So much delicate plastic. It clogs practically every use; though to be fair my children and animals are all filthmongers. The components feel cheap, and I can't help but feel like it's hostile to the average consumer attempting to repair it. It's deteriorated in performance even though I've used it lightly. If I had spent even a single dollar on it, I'd be so pissed.

reaperducer 1y ago

[flagged]

ivell 1y ago
I have found the parts to be very expensive though.
- reaperducer 1y ago
  I have found the parts to be very expensive though. Seems OK to me. I have an articulated, motorized brush head on the way. ~$51, including shipping. Pretty good considering recent inflation, tariffs, etc…
mostly_harmless 1y ago
I don't hate Dyson because it's trendy, I hate Dyson because my $700 vacuum wont pick up cheerios; a common spill with toddlers.
- IncreasePosts 1y ago
  Buy a dog. The dog picks up the cheerios and the $700 Dyson picks up the dog hair.
- danpalmer 1y ago
  I don’t have a Dyson, but my vacuum also struggles with items so big they don’t fit under the roller. I don’t generally find it to be a problem because at that size they’re easy to pick up. Not defending Dyson, there’s a lot of valid criticism here, but at some size pieces are too big to vacuum, and if that size is Cheerios, maybe that’s not much of a problem? I’d rather have a vacuum that does well at the small stuff I can’t reasonably pick up.
tristor 1y ago
> I suspect that 90% of the people on HN who complain about Dyson (and most other consumer products) have never owned one, and are just aping things they've read online just to have something at all to say. Same suspicion for me. I've owned two Dyson vacuums, and the only reason I had to buy the second was because someone stole the first one when they broke into my apartment over a decade ago. My current vacuum is more than 8 years old and has been repaired a few times doing it myself, and is still fully functional and comparable or better than most new vacuums. Dyson makes very good products that are also beautiful. Yes, they're plastic, yes they're expensive, no they're not necessarily on paper the /best/ at their thing, but they're good, they're repairable, and they pass the wife acceptance factor.

bredren 1y ago

This piece doesn't mention the fluffy cones next gen replacement to the dyson stick vac: https://youtu.be/ve6JuJV17FQ?si=aCq_qwtpAhRyS0by&t=159 https://youtu.be/ve6JuJV17FQ?si=aCq_qwtpAhRyS0by&t=159 It was announced a month ago and seems to handle the design criticism in this blog entry. If it works as well as demonstrated will put it in a new class of vac.

Ambroisie 1y ago
I have to say, I don't see what makes it handle the criticism from the OP. It looks exactly the same as every other Dyson product I've ever seen.
- brulard 1y ago
  Same as other Dyson product? Have you watched the video or used their vacuum cleaners?

phoronixrly 1y ago

I find it perplexing that the new Dyson urinals are not present as an example of what good design is...

ubercow13 1y ago

>Dyson hand dryers are very fast, but as a result, they fling water everywhere Isn't that the whole point of them? Instead of imparting enough heat energy to evaporate all of the water on your hands, they just push it off which is much faster and more energy efficient. How would they work better than regular dryers without doing that?

wpm 1y ago
If the goal is to optimize the singular task of "get water off hands ASAP", sure it probably solves that fairly well. There might be more to the task though. What affect does it have on the user? Getting splashed with water, usually at crotch height, is a nuisance and is somewhat embarassing. The loudness of these dryers is also a nuisance, and can be downright painful depending on how many are going at the same time in a large public bathroom. Long enough for permanent damage? Probably not for the average hand-washer, but for the people who have to clean those restrooms all day, perhaps an occupational hazard. Also, the trough shaped ones are disgusting.
- justinrubek 1y ago
  The trough ones are such a poor design. Carefully try to wiggle your fingers in there, and then they blow with force such that you touch the wet dirty surface that everyone else has touched. I don't understand why these things exist, let alone why people choose to put them in a bathroom.
MangoToupe 1y ago
Perhaps evaporation?
aag 1y ago
I have never found a hand dryer that works better than the Dyson ones. They actually dry my hands quickly, and they don't deafen me in the process unlike some of their competitors.
- danpalmer 1y ago

IshKebab 1y ago

I used to work for Dyson and I think this is quite off in many ways. * The industrial design of Dyson products is generally great. I don't think they poke you or anything like that. They even have nice affordances like all the things you can use being red. Contrast that with my terrible Shark where everything is black. Took me a good few seconds to find the bin release button. It also has an atrocious UX - a slow on/off button instead of a trigger, and an amazingly useless "smart power" feature that just varies the power almost completely randomly as you vacuum. When I worked there all the vacuum guys were worried about Shark because their pickup is apparently better. They needn't have worried because their UX is so abysmal. Although I guess in fairness Which doesn't know UX exists. * Some of the criticisms of the tech are valid, e.g. the hand dryers spraying water everywhere (they easily erode painted walls and now they generally install them only on tiles). But those are just flaws of the tech, they don't negate the fact that the hand dryers are much better than the standard cheap ones. He quotes the claimed hand drying time for a cheapo dryer as being close to an air blade but anyone that has ever used one knows how much of a lie that is. The washing machines did damage clothes but apparently the main reason they stopped making them was a manufacturing issue with the drum. * I don't think anyone really believes that James Dyson is personally inventing all Dyson products now. That doesn't mean he has no influence. When I worked there (about 10 years ago tbf) he still had huge influence over the designs, especially the ones he cared about. The one thing that is true is that Dyson won't make anything that isn't patentable because James Dyson dislikes his products being cloned so much. So even though though could make really good versions of normal products, they don't. Also they are way too expensive. Though in fairness my shitty Shark was expensive too. Don't buy a Shark.

detourdog 1y ago
My only complaint about the Dyson products is that they compromise on battery tech to help margins. I would expect such a design focused company to use the best batteries despite the effect on margins. No sense charging top dollar and using less than state of the art batteries.
- IshKebab 1y ago
  Tbh I don't remember that being mentioned at all. Even if true a huge bonus of buying Dyson is you can get cheap third party batteries easily.

wetpaws 1y ago

[dead]

colesantiago 1y ago

Would it be best to make an open source company to challenge Dyson? Everything will be worker and independently owned (bootstrapped and no VCs), no patents (we don't care about clones) Just make great product that is open has free software. If there would be significant interest Dyson could have a direct competitor just like many other open source companies like System72 and Red Hat

svelle 1y ago

I have a v12 and I couldn't be happier. Best cordless vacuum I've owned. Had an aeg before that was about half the price. But it sucked. Still some of the criticism holds, such as the terrible wall charger.

doright 1y ago
I owned one and the build quality was pretty bad. The plastic tab holding the door to the dust holder snapped off with barely any force. The exact same thing happened to someone else I knew.
dizhn 1y ago
I believe vacuums are supposed to suck.

spandrew 1y ago

I dunno about this; that greenlight vacuum they brought to market a few years back is dope af. My first little orb Dyson is still kicking almost 15 years after I bought it. I think their brand isn't just about tech itself, but the utility exploring novel tech can drive.

hermitcrab 1y ago

Dyson has not made himself very popular in the UK by advocating loudly for Brexit, then moving the HQ to Singapore, then firing almost his entire UK R&D department. Someone I know was fired by email while on holiday. Bastard.

m463 1y ago

I had a dc34 and loved it. cost about $190? Point and shoot cleanups with the edger attachment. The humdinger should be a more modern replacement, but it sucks. No trigger, no fun.

pedalpete 1y ago

I feel this completely ignores the role of brand in the equation. Dyson's brand is to be technologically forward. It is supposed to look like the future, which is why the angular mix of colors works for the brand. Bosch, I have no idea what their brand aesthetic is, or what they are trying to say. This doesn't mean that the Dyson is better than Bosch, or any other competitors, just that brand does come into the equation as well.

randycupertino 1y ago
For hairdryers particularly dyson is very trendy. People wait in line for limited edition hairdryer cases, it actually crashed sephora's website for one of the limited edition case colors, I think it was rose gold. And the hot pink dryers are very statement making pieces for salons. They are definitely great at marketing and partnering with influencers. Per my hairdresser they aren't the best products on the market but they have great branding.

llsf 1y ago

I have a Dyson DC15 (https://www.dyson.com/support/vacuum-cleaners/uprights/dc15 https://www.dyson.com/support/vacuum-cleaners/uprights/dc15) purchased in 2006. Using it once a week (with few exceptions here and there) for nearly 20 years now, and working perfectly fine. Yes, it is heavy, and corded, but it is a beast, and still amazed at how much dust it gets every week. I have to admit that I am not impressed at all by the latest Dyson cordless versions, including the new Dyson PencilVac (https://www.dyson.com/discover/innovation/new-machines/pencilvac-launch https://www.dyson.com/discover/innovation/new-machines/penci...).

brulard 1y ago
I have a V12 and had V6 cordless before and I am quite impressed by these including the Pencil one. It made vacuuming at our home quite simple even for kids. Where do you see they are lacking?
- llsf 1y ago
  Okay maybe I am an outlier, but when I vacuum my place (1400 sqft), it takes about 1hr. I fill half of the container with dust. I am kinda thorough, maybe borderline OCD :) And so I need a vacuum that is not going to lose power, so I am happy to stay corded, with full sucking power all the way. I can see the Pencil useful for a quick limited vacuuming.

theturtle 1y ago

All I see with Dyson is shitloads of overpriced plastic. I refuse to use any of the various expensive always-break plastic Dysons and prefer my heavy fifty-year-old Kirby Omega. Actual metal. You can still get almost all parts for it, they'll rebuild it, and it is incomparable at sucking up and mulching spilled hay and wabbit poop. I could probably vacuum my driveway with it. $35 used on eBay years ago. It has a headlight.

ryandrake 1y ago

I've always wondered why central vacuum systems never took off. We recently moved into a house that was built in that sweet spot in the late 80s / early 90s when central vac was getting pretty popular, and we love it. Quiet, light (you're not hauling around a motor) and with lots of wall inlets, you can vacuum the whole house with a pretty short hose. In my view, this was peak vacuum design, and they perplexingly seemed to go out of style and are not built into newer homes.

brulard 1y ago
The investment is quite big, I don't know about maintenance but I would expect these air ducts need to be cleaned regularly. Then you need to switch the hose many times to clean the whole house, right? I'm using dyson v12 slim battery vacuum and I'm quite happy. Battery lasts for almost 50 minutes, it's easy to empty, quite lightweight and the green light illuminating the floor is so useful. I don't see why I would ever consider the central one.

leonroy 1y ago

You could say the same about Apple or any company over 20 years old which has had time to go through a few department leads and culture shifts. I’ve had the Dyson DC02 (1995) - great machine, rubbish plastic in the handle which always cracked after 5 or more years. The filters were also a terrible, throwaway design. Then bought the DC25 (2008). The DC02 still worked, but this was a dramatic upgrade, solid, strong, easy to clean the brush bar (a long haired dog and 2x daughters made this a god send feature) and easy to wash filters. Then bought the DC16 - their first cordless. Appalling suction and batteries which died after 1-2 years of use. Next decided to try a different brand and bought a Miele CX1 (2019) - their first bag less cleaner. Highly rated, very expensive. It had the worst brush head I’ve ever seen, required fiddly disassembly to empty the weird little dust compartment within the canister and had a very odd dust filter which was a pain to clean. Terrible vacuum and lousy design compared to our previous Dyson. Now we have the V15 - phenomenal cordless vacuum. Can’t praise it enough. It’s just a vacuum mind but it’s very good. As an aside we’ve also bought the Dyson fans for work. The circular one worked well the HP02 heater purifier which cost a fortune has a high pitched whine which is so irritating that everyone turns it off and this is despite Dyson reluctantly taking it back and ‘fixing’ it - whereupon a year later it’s back to whining. Dyson himself seems a hypocrite and a little questionable - between Brexit and then incorporating in Singapore and also buying swathes of British farmland I’m not exactly enamored. Also backing out of the Dyson car seemed a low ambition move to me given he has total ownership of the company and is one of the few people in the world who can make that kind of impact. But the article itself just seems a nothing burger.

rhinojosa 1y ago

But as an owner of the Dyson WashG1 mop, It is quite magnificently the greatest cleaning equipment I enjoy using often. It guides well, vacuums well, mops amazing and overall a marvel in design and function. It's a must for those with pets and little ones tracking everything everywhere. There is literally only two design complaints I have, the pull out tray to clean should have a cocking slide trigger to release all the residue and junction joint frame from the dual canisters is a little to cheap plastic for me, it's only a matter of time before the latches break.

thesaintlives 1y ago

Worst most overrated vacuum cleaners ever. Totally crap!

Centigonal 1y ago

If Dyson is picking shiny tech-centric design to the detriment of practicality, then why are their vacuums still the clear top choice in the cordless stick vac category? I'm trying to purchase a new cordless stick vac for a family member, and all the review sites put the Dysons at the top.