HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

⬐ reedf1

Maybe he should explain his Brexit position? As far as I know this man is not an expert in anything but shirking expensive gimmicky fans and being a huge hypocrite, why he should be considered a authority in design I don't know.

I've ways wondered what clout James Dyson gets for being confused with Freeman Dyson, an actual genius.

⬐ karaterobot

> Maybe he should explain his Brexit position?

Why would he do that in a design Q&A session? Wouldn't people who tuned in to hear him talk about design feel like their time had been wasted to benefit people who wanted him to discuss his unrelated and thematically irrelevant political opinions instead?

⬐ teawrecks

OP didn't say he should talk about it in this video.

⬐ krona

> Maybe he should explain his Brexit position?

Do you also think Freeman Dyson should explain his position on climate change to your satisfaction?

⬐ blitzar

Thats gonna be tricky, you thinking dig up the corpse and ask him or break out the Ouija board?

⬐ dylan604

Either way, the point stands. Just because you don't like someone isn't really justification for asking a tough question if you're not willing to ask similar tough questions to somebody you do like.

⬐ 8note

If he doesn't want to be asked about it, he shouldnt tell the public about it.

⬐ teawrecks

I would be infinitely more interested in Freeman Dyson's position on tough topics than James'. But Freeman isn't an influential figure today, so it wouldn't be very relevant for most people. James on the other hand...

⬐ blitzar

Well it was a terrible example; asking tough questions of a dead person is an incredibly tough thing to do.

Asking a nonagenarian, alive, at the tail end of their life specifically their position on climate change is hardly a "tough question" anyway. It is a question of the future, unless one is challenging them on their past misdeeds (congratulations for berating a 90 something year old), which they will sadly experience very little of. I suspect in every scenario the position of the person asking the question will be a lot more insightful.

While I completely agree with your point; if for a single issue any person is giving regular interviews, putting out press releases, commenting frequently on their social media and funding single issue political campaigns, and in all ways is identifying themselves with said issue, then mentioning it is fair game.

⬐ dylan604

So you're saying you wouldn't be interested in what Einstein, Newton, Turing, etc had to opine? It seems some people are really boring around here.

⬐ blitzar

I think it would be absolutley interesting, I am not sure it would make any sense. If you rocked up at a press conference Newton was giving in 1727 and asked him his opinion on Climate Change or if he thought Mexico should or would pay for the wall what does one expect the answer to be?

Perhaps Nero would be better to ask about the wall, you might need to explain the whole fall of the roman empire, the sailing over the horizion, discovering americas, chucking tea into the harbour, baseball, stealth bombers, kim kardashian, twitter. And yes after all that, Nero thinks Mexico should pay for the wall.

⬐ blamazon

Also, Dyson products feel incredibly cheap in the hand to me for the price paid. You can just feel how many cycles of cost reduction each one went through.

Expensive products are one thing, but products that are upmarketed primarily because a big name wants more money, rub me the wrong way. It shows a disdain for your customer.

I feel holding him up as some guru perpetuates this annoyance.

⬐ kmlx

depends on the dyson product. i've got the dyson supersonic hairdrier. rock solid, feels super expensive (and it is). best hairdrier i've had, and i went thru them all.

⬐ tigerlily

Well, the worst product I own is one of his bagless vacuum cleaners. The crummy look and feel, the unbelievably loud and high-pitched whine and the accompanying tinnitus-inducing higher order acoustic harmonics, and just the overall plasticky shittiness of it after about an hour of dragging it around is simply vomit-inducing.

My pet hate is the 100x added friction between the retractable bristles and my plush carpet. It's costing me extra in time and energy to push this thing around.

My next vacuum cleaner will instead be a janitor-grade Nilfisk.

⬐ blitzar

> just the overall plasticky shittiness of it after about an hour of dragging it around is simply vomit-inducing

Get the battery one. No more hour of dragging it around - you only get 5-7 minutes before it is dead, then back on the wall. The downside is I think they found an even lower bidder for the plastic when they made them, so that 5 minutes feels like a lifetime.

⬐ freshpots

Really 5 minutes? That has not been my experience, not even close.

⬐ mas-ev

I love my Dyson SV10. Bought it 3 years ago and it's still working like a champ. I don't use it to vacuum a whole room but more for rugs or clean up jobs. I've got a Roomba S9+ for whole floor jobs. Swiffer wet jet for mopping/dust/hard floor.

⬐ 123pie123

>My pet hate is the 100x added friction between the retractable bristles and my plush carpet. It's costing me extra in time and energy to push this thing around.

we had the same issue, there should be a slider on the front to turn down the vacuum power. We turn it to about 50% on the deep pile carpets

⬐ xahrepap

I don't have a Dyson vacuum. But when I got new carpet the company I bought it from gave us a "How to care for your new carpet" brochure. And one of the first things was "do not use a Dyson".

I asked about it and they said that they can ruin your carpet. Too much suction, I think is what they said. It's been a few years.

⬐ chrisseaton

What made you own it if it looked and felt crummy?

⬐ LeoPanthera

It's funny how polarizing they are. I have one of the handheld battery powered ones with the long stick so you can clean the floor, and it honestly works better than any vacuum cleaner I've ever owned before, and pulling the lever to dump out the contents into the trash is immensely satisfying. I love it.

I definitely think that people hate more things, in the past few years. It's no longer enough just to dislike something, you have to really despise it, tell all your friends, and advertise that online.

I don't think I like this trend.

⬐ belval

It's one of the weirdly polarizing HN topic, depending on who comments first you will have threads full of praise or threads full of straight hate for their product.

FWIW: I like my Dyson handheld and it works well. We had one at my parents as well and it could do the two floors without any issue.

⬐ adwww

It's a bit hard in the UK to separate his products from his politics.

Maybe like reviewing a MyPillow in the US.

⬐ ploxiln

People hate things which they dislike and are popular. Nickleback, for example. If no one ever listened to Nickleback, nobody would hate them, there's lots of worse bands. But it's the popularity that really gets people riled up.

For cordless stick vacs, for a city apartment, I say Dyson is really pretty good. But they can get quite expensive, and they look high-end (while also goofy-futuristic) so wealthy people buy them, and they're not the best vacuum of any kind, so ... yeah they really rile up the haters.

⬐ tigerlily

You know, you're right, and I mislike the trend too. Yet, my battle with the vacuum cleaner in question is one I face each week, and of all the things I'm faced with, I do so loathe it. It's just a feeling, maybe of being nauseated. So I hate the vacuum. It's ok to hate a thing right? I mean, I don't hate people. I don't even hate James Dyson.

But then hate doesn't describe a feeling, in the same way that yuck is not a taste descriptor. Hate's become an individual reflex, that when aggregated seems to boil over online like an orchestra of diet coke and mentos.

To be fair to the vacuum cleaner, it probably has saved its worth in bags :)

⬐ mattbee

For me, the battery-powered vacuums do what they say, but you need to fuss them a lot.

The lever to dump the contents broke after a year, so it works but doesn't stay attached to the handle. I have to be careful opening it to avoid dumping the small bin in the big bin. It doesn't click back on without some force, so you can be pushing it around looking like it's working while there isn't actually a seal, so it pushes the dirt around the floor.

The filter clogs at the slightest provocation, so if you don't wash (and dry) it daily, it will start pulsing uselessly until you do. It doesn't work unless the filter is bone dry.

The high-powered speed busts your eardrums; my children scarper when I use it for even a few seconds and I find it painful. It burns the battery up in under 3 minutes.

So it is fine but there are a lot of trade-offs that you have to learn about.

I still keep their mains-powered vacuum too, which is a lot less stressful. Also because I like pain, their robot Heurist 360, which is generally awesome except for 5% of the time when it gives up in the middle of a run for no obvious reason.

⬐ open-source-ux

Summary:

He talks about:

- His favourite products

- The worst designed product he owns

- His design heroes (and why)

- On the lack of experience when creating a product and turning that to an advantage (see below)

- On creating a prototype and patenting your physical product

- Speed of execution when creating a product

- Why hand dryers are not quiet

- Why he believes design and engineering is inseparable

An interesting opinion from Dyson on the lack of experience:

> "I think a lack of experience is a great help. An expert thinks he knows it all but he's also rather inhibited by his experience, his knowledge. He finds it difficult to steer off the well-known path.

> Whereas if you have a lack of experience, but huge curiosity, and you approach your new challenge with naivety, I think it's easier for you as inexperienced designer to come up with something different and to follow a different path."

⬐ elil17

“I think a lack of experience is a great help.”

A great quote from someone whose vacuums don’t work very well.

He’s an expert in product user interfaces and marketing. His vacuums and air purifiers are great at that and not so much at doing the job they’re meant to do (the old air multiplier fans before they added filters and the original air blade designs are, of course excellent).

⬐ elil17

If you’d like to hear people absolutely obsessed with vacuum cleaners talk about why Dysons are terrible and also the history of vacuuming: https://overcast.fm/+R7Mg3Gl98

⬐ LeoPanthera

Here are the subtitles from the video, if you don't want to watch a video: https://pastebin.com/zwapbcy0

⬐ chrisseaton

When he says printers are the worst designed things, would be great to see a Dyson-engineered printer that was solid and reliable. Shame there probably isn't the market for them anymore.

⬐ estsauver

Brother printers are consistently reliable and high quality, particularly the laser jet ones. I highly recommend getting one that doesn't have a scanner also, they just do one thing, really really well.

⬐ Jolter

I’ve been using a Canon MFP 4270 since 2008 and it’s been consistently reliable and great.

The only issue is Windows no longer recognizes it by default, so you have to manually install drivers off their website. And of course, Windows Update regularly breaks the install so I have to reinstall them. I don’t blame Canon for that though.

Getting new toner cartridges has been no problem as of yet, but I suspect the market is drying up by now because there were mostly off-brand ones available last time I had to get one.

⬐ aaronax

Eh, the multifunction one I bought a year ago told me the toner was out and wouldn't print until I reset the counter using some obscure menu process. I have printed hundreds of pages since then, so they apparently are into scamming just like the rest.

⬐ djur

They only tried to scam you once, and there was a way to reset it? Is "scam" really the parsimonious explanation here, rather than "sensor error"?

⬐ AussieWog93

It's at the very least a dark pattern.

There's no reason it needs to actually block the printing - it could simply pop up with a warning saying that the toner is low and attempt to print anyway.

I'm not sure about Brother, but I do know that some other printer cartridges contain an electronic counter in them that will declare them as "out of ink" after printing a certain amount of pages (even if there's plenty of ink left in the cartridge).

⬐ gorgoiler

…and for scanning get a Fujitsu ScanSnap ix1500 (or sibling.)

An amazing product. The UI is a touchscreen but it makes up for it by 70% of it being a giant blue button with “SCAN” on it :)

And so fast too.

⬐ chrisseaton

I've got a higher-end Brother laser printer with no other functions integrated and it still frequently gets confused. Just doesn't feel robust or solid.

⬐ rcdemski

I second this. I bought a brother multifunction laser printer several years ago and it consistently works without fail, works with built in drivers on Windows and Mac so there’s no funky packages installed, and their toner lasts forever.

⬐ NoPicklez

I wonder if the people on this thread that complain about the battery life shortly after buying it use the vacuum in its "turbo" or "power" modes.

I purchased one of the LG stick vacuums and I've vacuumed almost the entire house with it. Whereas my housemate picked it up and vacuumed one large room and the battery was half flat, he complained about it, then I caught him vacuuming the entire room on the boost setting simply because he wanted the most suction possible. But it wasn't needed at all.

⬐ gorgoiler

I always saw Dyson as an expert marketer more than a designer. His renown as a design guru feels, again, just like more marketing. Sort of like he’s famous for being famous and no one can remember what got him there. Like a Kardashian of consumer goods?

Anyway, that’s the end of my comment on the actual link. Now to go into HN mode…

Apropos of nothing, if you want to cheap out on brittle fashion-status goods then enjoy your Dyson. But if you’re serious about dust extraction, these are my three go-to machines:

1/ Home: Sebo BS360 Comfort. Dual motor, unbreakable, amazing piece of industrial design. The kind of thing you clean a whole hotel with. You can replace the head brush strip so easily, mid clean, like changing tyres in a Formula 1 car.

2/ Shop: Festool CTM Midi. Doubles up as a cart of course. RFID hose recognition and remote control via the outlet and/or Bluetooth enabled tools. Good in the wet if you ever need it. Strong. I’ve stacked a lot of stuff on this and dropped it down more than one flight of stairs and it’s still refusing to self disassemble. The power cable itself accounts for probably 10% of the machine cost and the M version is safe for oak sanding and MDF dust.

3/ Fun: Makita brushless 18V backpack. Pretend you’re a ghostbuster. Won’t pick up debris without clogging but great for doing a quick dust bunny sweep or freshening up your vehicle. I spilled a bunch of packing beads in the street once and this thing was worth it’s weight in gold for the cleanup.

⬐ thot_experiment

I didn't know too much about him, thought he was probably a chill engineer type. Holding him in somewhat lower esteem after this. He sets off my bullshit detector, too good at business and showmanship and not enough of that spark for the science.

I would have respected him if he had said "there's a fan in the bottom and we blow air up out the circle in a way that pulls a bunch more in with it" with a glint in his eye. The way he described it made me want to throw up in my mouth.

⬐ goldenchrome

He's a designer, not an engineer. He seems like a designer to me.

⬐ verytrivial

How nice of him. I'd rather he paid his tax though.

⬐ the_cat_kittles

im thinking of starting a crusade to inform people that there is an actually cool billionaire inventor who is totally legit, and his name is dan gelbart. i challenge anyone to watch his prototyping series on youtube and then tell me elon musk is cool lol.

⬐ gswdh

None

⬐ throwawaymanbot

Quick.. ask him about brexit and how although he was a big supporter of it he moved to Singapore!

⬐ AussieWog93

So many angry people here using any excuse they can to shit-talk this guy. It's almost like I'm on Reddit and someone has made the mistaking of expressing a shred of admiration for Elon Musk.

⬐ chrisseaton

Yeah, had no idea there was this much bitterness and hatred for Dyson of all people!

⬐ austinjp

"Of all people"? You seem surprised. I'm surprised you're surprised. His corporation has a track record of closing factories in the UK and moving manufacturing abroad, while actively avoiding tax.

Of all people? Really?

⬐ chrisseaton

Neither of these things out of the ordinary for most business owners or comedians or sports people etc!

⬐ austinjp

Ehm... exactly. Dyson is no different. Plenty of them get exactly the same sort of vilification for similar actions.

⬐ PaulDavisThe1st

You live, you learn.

For some people, the discovery that successful and reasonably charismatic entrepeneurs can be ... well, shall we say less than ideal human beings ... comes as quite a shock.

⬐ chrisseaton

Not sure what people were expecting lol - surprise almost all rich people optimise their taxes as much as they can within the law!

⬐ adwww

He's actually quite a bit like Musk. Only without the personality, and his only fans live in public toilets.

⬐ blamazon

I am upset to see so many here not giving the professional courtesy of using his full title, Sir James Dyson OM CBE RDI FRS FREng FCSD FIEE.

⬐ hellbannedguy

I was on Elon's side until that Texas move. (I believe this money saving move is just a start. Elon and his delicate ego, along with that overpriced stock (I let that slide for years because I was a fan boy.) It's weird how worship pans out. I was giving him the benefit of doubt too much. Guess what--going to Mars is a childish dream, and feel it's just another tax dodge. His quote today is "I will be paying more tax than anyone in history" Yea--because you know tax rates are going to rise. You know your overpriced stock will drop to a third, or maybe less than $100 of what it is now eventually. Get out while you can slick? Date another techno singer? Let the fools holding your stock get wiped out.

I'm glad people are seeing these wealthy parasites for what they are.

As to Dyson--don't get me started. Granted I only knew him, until today, for that rediculious vacuum that I see around twin with "free" signs, and those narcisstic tv commercials.

⬐ ascorbic

I'm guessing you don't live in a country whose politics he manipulates and whose tax he avoids.

⬐ ghostwriter

Before going after individuals like Dyson in that regard, deal with institutions like the City of London Corporation and BoE first [1].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np_ylvc8Zj8

⬐ ascorbic

I've not bought their hoovers either

⬐ vladharbuz

I find it repulsive that his first recommendation to “inventors” is to file for a patent. Really, the most valuable piece of advice you have is “make sure you secure legal protection in case other people rip you off”? By all means, that's probably a thing you have to think about at some point, but surely there is more important advice for creatives than “lawyer up”.

⬐ blamazon

To quote Dyson from the same video:

> “An expert thinks he knows it all but he's also rather inhibited by his experience, his knowledge. He finds it difficult to steer off the well-known path.”

One of Dyson’s well-known paths might be wielding patent laws against competitors.

⬐ krona

He speaks from experience.

⬐ wavesplash

For patents on physical things/devices, he's giving very good advice. You need to file within the 1st year you've used the item in commerce.

The internet is littered with great products that weren't patented, then copied (sometimes by their overseas contract manufacturer itself just running a 2nd shift on the production line).

If you don't have global patent protection, you find yourself competing with your own product sold cheaper by someone else and no way to fight it. Super common problem for popular products.

⬐ vladharbuz

Fair enough, that makes sense, maybe it's just my being allergic to legal combativeness.

⬐ verisimi

Does he talk about the design of the legal structure for his tax avoidance vehicle that holds the land he has bought up in the UK? lol

https://whoownsengland.org/2017/09/19/why-is-james-dyson-hoo... "By July 2017, Farmers Weekly was reporting that Dyson’s empire had grown to 13,355 hectares, or 33,000 acres."

⬐ brink

Bill Gates is doing the same thing. It's annoying.

https://agfundernews.com/gates-if-not-for-climate-then-why-i...

⬐ dillondoyle

I think in the US there are also a good tax breaks for creating 'farms' on your land. Since we give so much subsidy to the industry. IIRC lot of billionaires will get sheep grazing or something like that to claim their mega mansions as farms. I thought I remember Marc Cuban is an example but can't find a quick source. So maybe my memory is wrong on this one.

⬐ 20211215throw

Here in NJ a typical middle class house pays 10-25k/yr in property taxes. But if you have 5 acres and sell a few thousand dollars worth of pumpkins you pay near zero because you're a farm. https://www.nj.com/politics/2019/09/how-to-cut-your-property...

⬐ verisimi

"Despite sustainable agricultural development being one of the key focus areas for his nonprofit Gates Foundation, the Microsoft co-founder claims that his farmland investments are not tied to climate. But while Gates might be solely focused on returns, one should not overlook farmland investing’s potential to drive sustainability on a massive scale."

how is a non-profit able to make farmland investments at all? What exactly is the difference between an investment vehicle and a non-profit?

But... these guys care for us!

⬐ hellbannedguy

1. His 501c3 gives back less than 1% back to the USA.

2. Personally, I feel like most nonprofits are shady, especially the rich boy tax dodging ones.

3. I have paid a tax on every pc I bought over the years because of him.

Will never understand his fans.

⬐ oh_sigh

Because a non-profit in the US just means that they can't distribute profits to the shareholders, not that they can't try to make money. They just need to use their profits to further their mission instead of distributing to shareholders. For example, the Gates Foundation could own a completely conventional farm, and run it like a conventional farm, but any profits they generate could be used to buy and deliver malaria pills to at-need countries (or something like that). That would be an acceptable reason a non-profit owns farmland.

⬐ blitzar

any profits they generate could be used to buy more farms to make more profits to buy more farms with

⬐ verisimi

sure - it could buy malaria pills, or it could just buy more farms.

⬐ missedthecue

The giant German conglomerate Bosch is structured in a similar way. 92% of the company is owned by the Bosch family charitable foundation 'Robert Bosch Stiftung'

⬐ turtlebits

I don't get why people hate him so much. I already do the most that I can to reduce my tax basis, is that immoral? I know several people who have moved to Nevada/Texas to avoid paying estate taxes.

⬐ 8note

Yep, it's immoral, and it gets more immoral the richer you get.

⬐ adwww

You're not a super influential figure with the prime minister in your WhatsApp.

Nor did you lobby an entire country to do something stupid to enrich yourself.

⬐ klyrs

With great power comes great responsibility. If you're not a billionaire, the so-called* hatred isn't directed at you and you shouldn't be taking it personally.

* not hatred, actually, just greater expectations of those with greater power

⬐ CamperBob2

No, it just means you're next.

⬐ tim333

It's an oddity of UK tax law that farms are exempt from inheritance tax and so a sensible investment for old rich people who want to pass stuff on. Clarkson's farm was bought for the similar reasons some years before they decided to do a TV show. You don't need odd legal structures - just buy a farm.

⬐ blitzar

The real oddity is that the government takes 40% of your stuff if you die.

⬐ adwww

If we didn't have that oddity wealth would largely still belong to landed gentry.

⬐ blitzar

Which it does, as they dont pay any inheritance tax... for the upper tier in society it is openly called a voluntary tax that only the poor (what one might consider middle class I guess) or stupid get stuck with.

⬐ thecleaner

Curious. Do you have referance to the legal text here ?

⬐ jimnotgym

I really dislike Dyson.

1) Move to Singapore, citing that Britain won't join the euro as a factor. 2) EU energy efficiency test goes against his product 3) Campaigns for Brexit

I had one of his vacuum cleaners and it was under powered and always needed cleaning inside. I got a Meile with a bag afterwards. Much more powerful for less money.

⬐ rootusrootus

It's hit or miss. For a plug-in vacuum, there are others I would choose first. But for a cordless stick vacuum, nobody else is comparable.

⬐ city41

I find their stick vacuums are complete junk. I'll never buy a Dyson again. They get clogged almost every time you use them (you gotta either jam a butter knife down the main intake or take apart the filter, both susceptible to blockage). The max button gets stuck in the on position, the battery only lasts a few months. I don't understand the appeal at all.

⬐ dylan604

>They get clogged almost every time you use them

Sounds like Dyson would be a perfect to start making consumer printers!

⬐ agumonkey

With air flow based paper loading mechanism.

⬐ rootusrootus

I guess I've had better luck. It doesn't clog for me (but it does suck up so much fur from apparently clean carpet that it fills the basket fairly quick). My only real complaint is that the charging base is flimsy. I haven't broken it yet, but that's because I'm fairly careful with it because it looks so fragile.

⬐ blitzar

The max button is like the old turbo button for your computer.

Does anyone really use 'slow' mode?

⬐ mensetmanusman

Turbo mode kills the battery faster and stresses the battery harder.

⬐ blitzar

So basically when I push that 'max' button I am overclocking my dyson. Walking the glorious tightrope between a performance boost and molten mess of silicon.

Cleaning day just got a whole lot more fun.

⬐ city41

Slow mode would increase the battery life from 5 to 10 minutes though.

⬐ blitzar

It also reduces suction, thus requiring 20 minutes to do the 5 minutes of vaccuming.

⬐ smeyer

What type of floor do you and others complaining in the thread have? I own one, and almost never use the "max" setting. I have hardwood floors and a hardwood floor-specific head for the vacuum, so I'm wondering if all the negative experiences are coming from folks with carpet.

⬐ blitzar

Carpet, and rugs; hardwood floors get hand polished in my house, we are not savages.

⬐ rootusrootus

I use max for carpet, weak mode for hardwood. Doesn't take a lot to pick things up off a hard surface, but running the carpet beater off air suction needs a lot more oomph.

⬐ tshaddox

They are generally the most powerful stick vacs, but in my research it seems like there are several more practical options (and for a lot less money). I like the vacuums with a single head containing both a soft roller with an exposed front face (for picking up larger debris while maintains decent section with hard floors) and a traditional brush roller behind it. The Dysons I have seen come with two heads that are interchangeable, and in my apartment changing the head between hard floors and carpet is a total non-starter.

If you want to suck sand out of a groove in a hard floor with sheer power, or get the most debris you can out of a thick carpet, Dyson might be a great choice. But if you just want to quickly do a routine vacuuming of your (smallish) home I think there are better cheaper options.

⬐ rootusrootus

We mostly end up using ours for touch up work between deep cleaning with a corded commercial vac that I bought years ago. The battery just lasts barely long enough to make a halfway decent pass over the living room. Good for when I want to just quickly get the place tidied up without dragging out the rest of the cleaning gear. I find that we keep the house cleaner in general if it's trivial to run a vacuum over the floor pretty often.

⬐ chrisseaton

Their hair straighteners are also awesome - the only brand able to put a curl into my wife's hair.

⬐ celticninja

Hmmm, straighteners, put in a curl, sounds defective.

⬐ chrisseaton

No, it's called a 'straightener' but it's a generic tool for controlling the shape of hair - can straighten or curl - both are intended use-cases.

⬐ blitzar

Can hair curlers also straighten hair or is it a one way process?

⬐ chrisseaton

I think hair curlers are cylindrical, while straighteners are flat. You can curl with a flat surface by heating up and then curling around the whole thing. But with a curler there's nothing flat to shape against!

⬐ blitzar

I have googled it, a person on youtube claims to be able to straighten hair with a curler; some kind of magic I think - I am not willing to suffer the pain that watching the video would inflict on my youtube reccomendations to determine the exact form of magic or witchcraft involved.

⬐ dylan604

Just searching for it probably did harm in and of itself. "Because you searched for..." type of stuff

⬐ blitzar

Probably best I log out of youtube on the tv otherwise someone is going to expect dyson hair curlers/straighteners/curlers for christmas.

⬐ antoniuschan99

I have a Shark Vertex Cordless. It has a duo dry roller and a no-tangle roller. No other Cordless Vac had that.

It's last year model though, not sure what the improvements are now!

⬐ blitzar

> But for a cordless stick vacuum, nobody else is comparable.

I own one; if it is better than the rest then the whole genre of stick vacuum cleaners should be taken out back and shot.

Core function (sucking things up from my carpet and disposing of the content): charitably I would say it is poor for the half a room that the battery charge lasts for. Build quality: terrible cheap brittle cheap shattering cheap plastic. Price: extremely expensive, 2x anything else.

I have had some shitty appliances over the years, but those tend to at least be so cheap that the only guilt you feel throwing them in the bin is that you are destroying the planet and not your finances.

⬐ mountain_peak

> if it is better than the rest then the whole genre of stick vacuum cleaners should be taken out back and shot

Great (and amusing) comment; we have three vacuums in the house: a 1984 Central Beam, a 2002 Miele corded canister, and a Dyson cordless stick vac. I've replaced the bearings, motor brushes, power head belt and beater, and smooth floor head exactly once each on the Beam. Other than changing bags and HEPA filters, the Miele hasn't needed a thing, and the Dyson, well as I detest throwing things out, I've fixed it several times to-date, but it truly is shoddy quality for the price.

The battery pack died twice - the first time, I replaced it with another Dyson pack thinking I could repair the original - no such luck as the PCB is sealed with a thick layer of silicone, and the thermal cutout pretty much has to be destroyed to be removed as it's epoxied between two of the batteries. I managed to remove all six batteries and found one faulty cell, damaging the PCB in the process. I repurposed the rest of the cells to fixing a laptop battery pack.

We were careful with the second pack and ensured it was only charged for three hours at a time after the batteries were drained, but it also died, while its cheap ($60 vs. $250) Amazon replacement has been solid ever since.

Then the powerhead stopped working. After taking it apart, it was obvious that the wires traveling through the swivel joint lacked mechanical protection from repeated stress . Most of the wires on "good" vacuums that pass through a swivel joint are protected by a coiled spring with plenty of slack. In the Dyson, there are two 18GA wires with thin insulation passing through the joint. The positive wire was severed, and the negative wire was very close to failure. I managed to strip away enough insulation to attach two new wires with appropriate slack within a protective spring (from a ballpoint pen). So far, so good.

I'd have to say Dyson stick vacs are engineered to fail in several ways. Interestingly, my wife purchased a Dyson canister vacuum for the night cleaners at her office, and it's still going strong 10+ years later.

⬐ heckerhut

Thanks that was very informed and helpful.

⬐ blitzar

I applaud your fine work. Funnily enough I had first gen canister way back in the day and it was a reasonably good product, didnt quite get the 10 years out of it, but respectable nevertheless.

I will keep in mind your experience, the nature of this beast and break out the tool kit at the first sign of trouble, as it appears many of the faults are really just quality or design issues.

Repurposing battery cells is probably just beyond how far I will go, I never got the battery building merit badge in my scout days, but never too late to try!

⬐ rootusrootus

I don't really disagree. They seem flimsy, battery life ain't great. But they suck better than any other cordless stick vac. Which might say more about the competition than anything else. I'm actually pretty impressed with what it picks up, given that it runs on a battery.

⬐ jimnotgym

I had a Dyson cordless. I couldn't clean a while room on a charge. I live in a 2 storey house, it couldn't do the whole stairs. It got quickly worse. Lovely light format, but far too weak to be practical.

⬐ tlear

I wonder about this, I heard same claim before. I however owned 2 of them over the last 5 years(moved a country and did not bring first one). Fact that I bought the second one kinda tells the story.

Honest I never had any issue with them.. maybe if you have a huge house? Or really thick carpets. I find it incredibly convenient and it works well enough, convenient means you can use it every day and do not need to get through that barrier of getting something out of the closet. I have the charging station mounted next to the fridge and honestly I will never buy another kind of vacuum.

⬐ seoulmetro

Seems like a conventional, more powerful and cheaper vacuum that was the same factor to fit next to the fridge would suit you better.

I haven't seen a cordless vacuum that actually worked and have resorted to corded vacuums for my entire life.

Vacuums should suck, they should suck a lot but Dysons don't really suck all that much (haha)

⬐ tlear

Hmm that is kinda my point for my uses it does suck more than enough ;) but then we don't have any carpets except carpeting on stairs and it's charge is more than enough for that on max power.

If I had carpets in the house I think I would get corded as well. But why have carpets is a better question.

⬐ blitzar

It certainly is convenient enough to use every day, but you have to. Any attempt to deeply clean a moderately sized room is going to involve considering a recharge, and certainly more work than basically any plug in.

I can think of a few small flats with all laminate flooring I have lived in that it would have been great in, but the $20 small plug in thing I had worked probably just as well, and not a lot less convenient.

⬐ Isthatablackgsd

> I got a Meile with a bag afterwards.

Hiyo neighbor! I love my Miele bagged vacuum (Powerline C2), my partner hate it because it is lumpy to move around. So we have a second vacuum, the Shark one, for "less lumpy". I always use my Miele when I want to vacuum because I need powerful suction and brush to remove my dog stubborn fur which Shark one failed to do so.

⬐ GekkePrutser

I got the C1 after having a Hoover bagless one that was so weak it didn't even pick up all the dust from my laminate floors.

The Miele is excellent and strong and the official bags aren't even that expensive.

⬐ shiftpgdn

I hate my shark so much because it feels like cheap plastic and is weighted weird so it constantly falls over. Also the bin is comically small.

⬐ Ruthalas

Does "lumpy" mean "heavy" or "unwieldily" in this case? Or does it not roll smoothly or something like that?

⬐ Isthatablackgsd

My vacuum is canister one, so it is two-pieces vacuum which is why it is lumpy to my partner. The shark one we got is a upright vacuum.

⬐ pkulak

He's really good at building things that sound like they're better but aren't. Collecting dust and filth in a bag is just _better_ than putting it in a bin that you now have to empty and clean out. Large blades are better at moving air than tiny blades.

I've got myself a Miele vacuum and a Winix air filter. They are simple, and work great.

⬐ scoot

Don't even get me started on the worst designed hand dryers ever. Who wants to put their hands into two thin streams of air and move them up and down while avoiding the sides, and not being able to rub them together to distribute the moisture? Give ma an XLERATOR any day.

(And I hear the hair products aren't all that.)

⬐ jimnotgym

I had forgot about those. An expensive and worse alternative to a powerful regular dryer

⬐ GekkePrutser

And his hand dryers in public bathrooms are so noisy I wouldn't be surprised if they cause hearing damage in the long term. Those things are awful.

⬐ MonaroVXR

Completely different vacuum cleaners, there's a dedicated reddit for it.

Check it out.

⬐ e40

For the Meile or some other one? Please name it. Thanks.

⬐ MonaroVXR

I can't name it, Miele is probably good enough. That's y'all mean right? Miele.

Bag is in the "lower-end" "better", than bagless.

With bagless to get mostly the best experience (until you figure it out yourself) you will need the original bags from the manufacturer since they fit the best. Otherwise you can use other ones if you figured out it's been the same.

I choose for a bagless one, since my apartment isn't that big and my floor consist of wood. But the filter needs to be cleaned too, yes even the bagless ones need to be cleaned. But it depends how much stuff you are vacuuming and big your house is.

If I had two kids and a partner, I would take a industrial vacuum cleaner. (Since the price is not much higher than the consumer one.)

⬐ jimnotgym

Then the ventilators thing happened. "Don't give resources to medical firms that know how to build ventilators...give it to Dyson who will build it faster, better...unapproved and a complete failure

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/22/covid-lan...

⬐ verytrivial

And stitching up getting Dyson as one of only two brands of approved air ventilation in state schools. Grifter.

⬐ chrisseaton

Wasn't the Dyson one half the price of the other?

⬐ AngusH

Although it looks like Dyson was not actually paid anything and covered the £20m development cost themselves:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52409359

⬐ nyc111

Design and engineering are not different fields, he says. He says what is fundamental is design.