A Dyson By Any Other Name

jasonwhite — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 02:26:00 GMT

OK, so you have seen the commercials on TV, and the British accent that goes along with the narrators voice, that of James Dyson. As the story goes "Over 5000 Prototypes and 15 years later" we now have the Dyson (http://www.english.dysoncanada.ca/)vacuum which is a sleek well designed unit that does not loose suction or use bags.

So you are probably wondering what this has to do with technology, and I think the cleaning lady that was grumbling about my last vacuum would agree. About 2 weeks ago, my Eureka bag-less vacuum died, made a high pitched whine and thats about all it will do and the cleaning lady was none too happy to even try to attempt to clean the floor with it, oops I forgot to mention it to her before she arrived, so off to shopping I went. Ever since I saw the Dyson I wanted one, the commercials kept ringing in my head about design, cyclones and bag-less, I wanted one. Now the shocking part came when I wet to look for one, the higher end models can be as expensive as $699 and there was no way I was paying that much. I looked on line, I checked out the shopping channel for one (They do have some great deals from time to time, and a very convenient payment plan) and then I thought I would look locally. I checked out all the big box stores and at the Future Shop (Yes I know they are the great Satan but i had to look) I found my deal. An open box Dyson DC21 for $449 what a steal I thought, I tracked down an "Associate" and off to the cash we went, I paid eagerly in anticipation and headed home.

So here comes the technology part, out of the box it came and it was very easy to put together, I would have used the manual if I had one (The open box was missing the manual) but it was so intuitive that I didn't need one. It comes with the canister vacuum, a very smartly designed hose that wraps around the canister, a crevice tool, hard floor tool and power nozzle for carpets and rugs. The power cord reels itself out of the unit when you pull on it, and you push the reel in button to put it back in the unit, works as it should. So I reel it out, plug it in but the wand seems a bit short so I give it a tug and it gets longer! At this point I feel like a cop at a riot and in my hand I have a baton that expands at the flick of my wrist. I then click on the power nozzle and and press the red power button on the canister, I hear suction but no power nozzle action, wait I see a button on the nozzle I press it and we are off to the races.

Since I have a dog and 2 cats, lots of hardwood floors and 2 area rugs I need something to deal with lots of surfaces. The first thing I point it to is an area rug, with the power nozzle on I go to work. Not only does it remove almost 2 weeks of uncleaned animal hair up, it picks up dirt I had never seen before come out of the rug, did I mention this nozzle turns on a dime it hadles like sports car. Next I power off the unit and put on the hard floor attachment, I could have just turned off the power nozzle and used it as it was, but what is the fun in that. Ok now this is cool, the way the power nozzle attaches to the vacuum when not in use is just amazing hard to explain but trust me it is very well thought out. So I click on the hard floor attachment and start to clean, it picks up everything I can throw at it: dog hair, cat hair, dog food, plant leaves, a penny and finally a nickle (Don't worry they went back in my pocket later on) The bin was full on the unit, very easy to empty, just click out and go to the trash, put hand in bin to remove 6 cents, rotate your wrist and dump into trash.

So while using this unit I have to say it did what they promised, has lots of technology in it and it uses cyclones! You can actually see the dirt travel in a cyclone while it is on, also I found out after I bought the unit that it comes with a 5 year warranty. After I went to their website to download a manul for it, it had a toll free number, I called it and asked a few questions and the guy on the other end spoke english and actually seemed to care that I called, now this is a piece of technology that I think I am going to love and not loathe.

ThinkTech

A Dyson By Any Other Name