Which Vacuum cleaner

[lurker]

I have now been "in charge" of housework for a year and want a better cleaner.

We currently have a 4 year old dyson and with regular filter cleaning is pretty much perfect for cleaning the carpets.

However,
The use of a nozzle (for edges etc) is a pain; the damn thing needs half dismantling!
Cleaning the stairs is troublesome
I'd like to use it on the car.

So............ those battery ones look the solution.
But,
Do they clean (suck) well?
I think its unlikely I need to use it more that 10-15 mins at a go so charge life might not be an issue and assume the overall battery life issues are now solved.

So what do you suggest.
I like Dyson but am looking at the g-tech jobs too. Any others?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Dyson are no longer developing mains vacuums, apparently.

I'll stick with my Henry, thanks.

 

[thick_mike]

Only got experience with the dyson jobbie (dc35 I think). Had it for about 7 years and it’s been great. I thought it was on the way out recently, cutting out intermittently, but it was the battery getting to the end of its life. I bought a higher capacity replacement from amazon for £20 and it’s as good as new.

 

[stuartpaul]

Jim,

We've got a dyson cordless and found it so good we got rid of the mains powered one. And we have a shedding dog which it deals with admirably.

There are drawbacks, - don't find it any good for the car but I tend to use one of the workshop vacs for that.

Tools can be a bit of a pain but that's overridden (for us anyhow) by the overall simplicity of use.

 

[transatlantic]

I have a Dyson V6. Great for carpets, but not good for hard floors in my opinion. Mine came with two heads, the normal carpet head, and then the fluffy thing for hard floors. Admittedly the fluffy head works well for hard floors, but it's a royal pain if you have a lot of mixed carpet/hard floors/rugs etc as you have to keep changing it. Not a very good design. You shouldn't need to have to change heads.

However, having tried a Hoover and Vax cordless before returning them for the Dyson, I can say the Dyson is a LOT better (in terms of suction).

 

[Steve Maskery]

I bought the V6 a few months ago.
When it's working properly it is fantastic. Light in weight.
But.
I find that when using anything other than the main carpet head, it "hunts" all the time. It cuts out and restarts, cuts out and restarts. Every few seconds.

I rand Dyson and the young and far too chatty, lad told me to check the flap at the motor end. It was jammed and that stopped the air flow.

OK, I thought.

But it continues to do it now, even though the flap is working properly, with monotonous regularity.

And the boost button thingy makes it even worse. On my carpet all it does is suck the tool down into the carpet and it stops working altogether.

As I say, when it works it's great. But on balance I think I wish I'd bought something else.

If you want, you could come and try it out on my house. I'm decorating so it would be a good test...

 

[transatlantic]

I bought the V6 a few months ago.
When it's working properly it is fantastic. Light in weight.
But.
I find that when using anything other than the main carpet head, it "hunts" all the time. It cuts out and restarts, cuts out and restarts. Every few seconds.

I rand Dyson and the young and far too chatty, lad told me to check the flap at the motor end. It was jammed and that stopped the air flow.

OK, I thought.

But it continues to do it now, even though the flap is working properly, with monotonous regularity.

And the boost button thingy makes it even worse. On my carpet all it does is suck the tool down into the carpet and it stops working altogether.

As I say, when it works it's great. But on balance I think I wish I'd bought something else.

If you want, you could come and try it out on my house. I'm decorating so it would be a good test...

It'll also do that if the filter is clogged. Even if it looks clean, take it outside and blow it down with the blower on your shop vac. Works a treat!

If that doesn't work, you may have a clog internally. Which is a known issue among users. Unfortunately it's not very easy to take apart though. But doable.

 

[MARK.B.]

You might like to take a look at the Shark duo,have seen some good write ups about it compared to a dyson or g-tech

 

[Jasper42]

This wife does that part of our marriage, but from the bits I have listened to: we have gone through a number of dysons and got a shark about 6 months ago, she thinks the shark is really good. I have used it once and works very well but i’m No expert

 

[Blockplane]

From the cheapest to the dearest, they all lose performance over time as parts wear. My response is to buy Tesco Value and replace every 2 to 3 years.

 

[MattRoberts]

I've got the v6 too. I find it fantastic - and only need to use one head for carpet or hard floor. I find the trick for doing carpet is not to push it to hard, and to let the head do the work.

The only down side is the battery life, but it's more than adequate to do one level of the house on a single charge

 

[Lons]

About a month a go I was persuaded to buy a Bosch cordless for the missus and she loves it despite having 2 Dyson corded vacs already. She only uses it on the hard floors, (we have a lot :roll , for the dog hairs and on the stairs but it's pretty powerful. Cost £150 from Appliances Direct.

her brother and mum both have the same model.
Bosch Athlet 25.2 BCH625K2GB

 

[Mrs C]

Dyson Hand held is fab, Use the short battery life as a positive- brilliant excuse for not doing too much cleaning!

 

[powertools]

G tech for us.
Both sweeper and cleaner.
Lidl shop vac for car.

 

[novocaine]

a v6 and an upright Vax. both are great, the V6 is fantastic for the stairs as the missus can't carry the full vac up (and when she hoovers the stairs for the first time I'll let you know how she copes) and for all those little bits like the rug in the front room or the kitchen floor after the kids have been in there. the Vax is the last of the high wattage ones, it sucks, which in this instance is a good thing, it gets more out the carpet than the v6 and has a massive hose for doing the car without having to carry it round. I find the V6 hard to get into the nooks and crannies on the car.

if you want wireless, get the V6, if you want a good suck, get a Vax.

now thats said, I hate with a passion the addition of the "turbo" button on the V6, it's complete marketing bullcrap and it really annoys me, it's only there so they can claim a battery time at a reduced (and rather feeble) power then push the turbo button for the rest of the marketing wank about how it has x suction. garbage, the turbo button being on doesn't give you more power, it gives you the amount of power it's designed to give, it's when it's "off" that it's doing it's job.

I've invented a new way to carry water, I saw the fire brigade using a "bucket" but it's to large for home use, so I've made it smaller and painted it fancy colours, think I'll call it the Fury.

 

[transatlantic]

I've got the v6 too. I find it fantastic - and only need to use one head for carpet or hard floor. I find the trick for doing carpet is not to push it to hard, and to let the head do the work.

The only down side is the battery life, but it's more than adequate to do one level of the house on a single charge

Don't you find it snow plows on hard floors? (with the normal head)

 

[Dimokslis]

I give my vote for Henry as well.

 

[Arron]

We switched over to the top end Shark a few months ago, fantastic cleaner and much much better than the Dyson it replaced!!
There is a switch on the handle to go from hard floors/carpets and it does an impressive job of both!
We have 3 kids and a dog so it gets a good hammering #-o

I can’t see us ever having another Dyson again.

 

[MattRoberts]

Don't you find it snow plows on hard floors? (with the normal head)

Not at all, if anything it's the opposite. Hard floors are fine, but the power heads can catch on carpet if you push them too hard, but a lighter touch tends to work fine

 

[transatlantic]

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