[Closed] When did vacuum cleaners become so expensive?!

Why would anyone need anything more than a Henry? Even they're expensive.

Apparently too heavy and ugly. I nearly responded with a joke, but value my balls.

Why would anyone need anything more than a Henry?

Because they’re shit.

Worse, the quality of (most of) the devices is nowhere near the price comanded. It takes the Micky.

Dyson are my bete noir. >£600 for something you have to push around yourself and still feels like it’s made of the same nasty plastic as the kid’s toy one. It’s a joke.

The margins are eye-watering. They (Dyson) sell them at cost to staff and retailers. That’s when you realise there’s £400 to share between JD and the retailer. For (in his case) something that will end up in landfill in a couple of years.

FWIW, the best I’ve had have been SEBO (upright) and Miele (cylinder). They are still a fortune. But simplicity and effectiveness make it less painful in the longer term. And at least it is a longer term.

Sorry, rant over.

Dyson did well because he realised people feel rewarded when they see the dust they've collected. The vacs are shite, heavy, noisy, complicated and unreliable.

By cheap buy twice? I have meile vacuums - great bits of kit but at a price.

People want to clean their new lockdown bikes with a dedicated bike vacuum cleaner? 😉

I’m a Henry (hetty actually) pleb and marvel at how impossible it is to break, how it’s sucked up everything from sick (not entirely intentional) to builders rubble...

Wonder what sick looks like going round a dyson? 🤔

I worked for Dyson for 6 years and I'm still amazed at what emotion a domestic appliance can elicit.
The margins are crazy though, Curry's made less on selling a £250 Dyson than a £100 Vax. People paid the money though as Dyson somehow made something that you keep hidden away in a cupboard in to a lifestyle accessory.

I have a superduper top of the range dyson that I was given as it was broken. Fixed it and it worked for a while (light duties, one carpet and one rug in my house), currently waiting on some spares to get it working again. It’s around 2 years old. Utter garbage, thing feels like a toy, if that’s premium then give me cheap any day

Said this before but local tip has an ISO full of Dysons, lots are not that old. They apparently get a good bit of cash for a container full, seems people need the parts. Counter to this we have had a Miele, whole family liked but lasted 3-4 years. We have two Henrys. The blue one is well over 20 years old, still going strong in the workshop now. It was only replaced in the house as it looked so battered after two house rebuilds but has never had anything done to it.
If one ever has fix one, all parts are available and it’s easy, doubt that can be said of many others.

My Dyson has been going for 10 years now so I've got no complaints.

I remember the bad old days of bags. No thanks!

Where abouts are you OP?

I have a lifestylers Dyson vacuum (corded) for sale.
Since we got a cordless it hasn't had a look in.

We got nearly the cheapest (£<150) Miele over 10 years ago and still sucks all the dust amazingly. Need to buy the special Miele bags but I think we're probably still quids in over a Dyson that would be dead by now.

Also have had a cheaper £60 battery job that can be upright or dust buster style for about 5 years that is light and easy for everyday cleaning round the kids rather than the weeklyish proper clean.

Instant dismissal at Dyson if you dare to call it a Hoover.

I have no probs with James Dyson. As a designer/inventor he's amongst our best,and has done a lot, created jobs, an industry about dead breathed with new life and directions.
But way overpriced. Stupidly so. And the entire thing is based upon technology already in use, which was industrial cyclonic dust extractors. He just shrank them down to become mobile cleaners that were more efficient than previous.
So now every cheapo mass produced in China battery operated vacuum cleaner gets a £150 mark up. If you didnt have them selling at 400, none of these landfill specials would cost as much.

Theres another company now advertised where the owner presents himself as an inventor, etc etc but his machines are just bog standard made in China to a nothing design and he has the audacity to charge originally £300.
This one is now offering instead of a simple crappy plastic box to catch the dust, but no layers of filtration or cyclonic effect as with a Dyson, obviously spewing fine dust back out he's released the TRIPLE filter.
Ye gads is that not going backwards ?. 3 bags inside eachother and you dispose of it when full and INCREDIBLY...fit a new bag.
Battery operated, of the cheapest quality there, and the poorest a/h rating, and he is still charging £200.

I worked for Dyson for 6 years and I’m still amazed at what emotion a domestic appliance can elicit.

Try working in a bucket factory.

I don’t like James Dyson, he’s the worst kind of greedy billionaire who pretends he acts benignly whilst shafting local workers and shipping his money overseas.

Having said that, I can’t kill our nearly 20 year old Dyson HOOVER. Probably speaks volumes about how little I clean our house rather than reliability.

Yeah hydrocyclones have been used for years in oil and gas and mining to separate out solids from a liquid medium. Same principle.

@Drac
I'm genuinely interested in why you think Henrys are shit. We have one at work - it's pug ugly, and it's awkward to take up stairs, but wow can it suck.
We also have some sort of Dyson - an 'animal' I think. It's light and pretty (if you like that sort of thing), but unless at anything other than light dust on hard surfaces.

I'd take the Henry every time.

I’ve got a shark and rate it highly. I want to buy a robot hoover but the shark refuses to die

Buy Miele, run for ten years. Send back for full refurbishment for £125. Repeat.

I have a Vax thing thats a bit like a dyson, paid £60-70 for it. Does an amazing job on the carpets. Its hose is worse than useless as a hose alone, so I use an old henry that just wont die for that. But yes, its perfectly possible to buy a decent vacuum cleaner for sub £100. I imagine the more expensive models that nidge the ton the hose is good too.

Parents had a Sebo. Refused to die until my sister ran over the cable whilst using it. Sent it back to Sebo and it got a full refurb for not much money. For some reason they got rid of it and got a rechargeable dyson.

I borrowed the dyson to give the car a clean whilst visiting, it was awful. We have a Henry and it is a bit bulky but can suck a ping pong ball through a hosepipe and refuses to die even after cleaning up after knocking walls and chimneys about.

Edit: Every hotel I've ever stayed in have either used a Sebo, Industrial version of Henry or a Miele. Never seen one use a dyson.

I’m genuinely interested in why you think Henrys are shit. We have one at work – it’s pug ugly, and it’s awkward to take up stairs, but wow can it suck.

I suspect he's referring to the current breed of power-restricted models, of which I have one. Something to do with EU regulations I believe.

And it's not shit, but it's not great. I'd swap it for a 20 year old Electrolux in a heartbeat 🙂

I’ve found the polar opposite that’s why easily. We’ve a 15 year old dyson that was relegated to cleaning out the log burner. The newer one is 9 years old and gets used for everything else. Clean the filters or replace them once in awhile and they keep going. People through them away without checking this when they’d function fine.

Another vote for the Vax fake Dyson thing. And Henry. Henries are ridiculously robust and suck up EVERYTHING.

Henry here with an extension hose which makes the weight much less of an issue!

It's only used for doing the stairs these days because we replaced the increasingly eccentric cleaner with a robot vacuum/mop, which, granted, lasted about a week more than the warranty (see other thread) but even so is much cheaper and does not leave strange underwear in the tumble drier.

They don’t have to be: £60 gets you a bagless Hoover cylinder cleaner

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/4556938?clickSR=slp:term:vacuum%20cleaner:19:144:1

Why pay Dyson money?

£50 Gumtree Dyson here, bought because everyone else falls for the marketing of cordless and 'better'.

It's our second Dyson in about 15 years.
That one was also second hand.

We've had a SEBO K1 for at least 15 years. So far as I can tell it's working just as well as when it was new. It's also interesting the the current SEBO K1 looks identical.

I hate Dyson as much as the next guy, but cordless vacuum cleaners are pretty useful.

Dyson early adopter but binned it as I wasn't fitting another £100 motor when it threw the windings off the commutator for the second time.

Had a quite good Samsung cyclone thing for a few years but it needed filters washing every few weeks so messier than bags. Then the motor went bang.

Henry since then (10yrs) and has been indestructable and suction perfectly good. The oe bags take ages to fill, don't lose suction and very clean to change. A new Henry is less than the Miele refurb mentioned above - and never needs a refurb 🙂

Another Henry owner here. My mrs sent me to get a new (Dyson) vacum cleaner so instead of buying online I went to the local place that repairs them and sells new one's Got chatting to the guy who has been repairing for 20 plus years and asked him what the best model of dyson to get, His answer was none of them. Told me the first 2 models were great then after that they were as he put it great for the repair buisness! asked him what he had at home and low and behold a Henry.
The mrs was a little underwhelmed when I took it home but now thinks it's great.
Most professional cleaners use them so that must count for something!

I don’t like James Dyson, he’s the worst kind of greedy billionaire who pretends he acts benignly whilst shafting local workers and shipping his money overseas.

Do you know anyone who actually works for Dyson? Do you know how much of his own money he spent on the Government’s ventilator debacle? Or how he treated the staff who were working on the project?
I do. You’re talking prejudiced bollocks.

Nobody here bought a Kirby then..?

Managed to get a half price Dyson through a staff code

still not worth £250 as pointed out above

plastic is awe fully breakable and no bearings or grease to be seen

SHAME ON YOU DYSON

I've got a Vax thing. Picks up dirt and dust and that's all I ask of it. Henrys are great and I've never owned a Dyson as the price is comical for something that sucks up dirt. Used one of those ball ones though and it was shite.

Henry's are ok, they suck ok, are fairly small and light for the type of vacuum they are and are relatively cheap which is why they are used commercially, they are effectively consumables.

If you want a proper vacuum for all jobs you need one of these:

Great for the car, carpet, hard floors, rubble, connecting to power tools (separate power socket on the vacuum) and also does liquids, used mine for pumping out the pond. Still only £150 from Screwfix. Best tool I ever bought.

One of them even has led lights so you can ‘see’ under the sofa.

My mum's Hoover from the 60's had a light on it, even the kid's toy hoovers in the 70's did. I've inherited 3, a Miele that's around 12 years old and going well, an Electrolux that judging by the colour is late 70's early 80's and best of all this

Why are Henrys consumables?

I've worked the same place for 25 years and never seen the cleaners kill one.

They are made in the UK and all parts available as spares.

Surely the exact opposite of a "consumable" product?

Because since some time in the last few years they've been restricted to 92W or something, like all vacuum cleaners.

Old vacuums are of course brilliant; they're 2500W of carpet sucking max power. New ones just seem to be full of complicated trickery to try and talk dirt out of the carpet.

That's just Thunderbird 2.

as good as Henry's are and we have loads of them at work I bought a Screwfix own brand wet and dry vacuum - the motor was a lot more powerful and bags are as the same price as Henry's. It's been great and we a mega shedding dog so is in constant use.

Ms Eyestwice thinks that bike parts are a rip-off so I just buy what she wants when it comes to things she's after...

The Henry is 620W, the Nilfisk is 1250W, and does water as well. £30 more for double the power and extra functionality.

The EU regulation sets a measure of how much dust a vacuum cleaner can pick up. Presumably in an attempt to stop people purchasing on the basis of a more power is better fallacy.

they are annoyingly expensive. I've just bought (yet to be delivered) a ShArk Duo cordless thing for upstairs after our Dyson refuses to run (pre me taking it apart to try and fix it). Downstairs, we have large floor space ~140m3, so i invested in a robot thing, Ecovacs. That's brilliant and has been a godsend. It will drag a microfibre mop round with it if you want which is surprisngly efficient and picks up mucho dirt not otherwise sucked up..

I did once hear someone in the industry say that Dyson's biggest contribution was in convincing the public that it was OK to pay more than £100 for a vacuum cleaner.

Well, I'm now in the doghouse.

She spent so much time vacillating about different options last night, I ordered a model that will do what 'we' want and no more (well what I thought she/we wanted) no daft extra bells and whistles, i.e. led lights, lift-off sections, etc.

Unfortunately she suddenly changed the goal posts, and now what I've ordered doesn't do enough. Apparently.

I just thought they sucked up dirt. But it seems not.

Oh well 🤷‍♂️

We have a DC01. Circa very early 2000s.

Saved from the tip over ten years ago. In laws were about to throw it out because "it just wasn't picking up any dust". The explanation came in verbal italics, as it if was surprising that it needed the odd bit of maintenance.

I took out the three or four easily removable bits of tube. Removed the blockages of dog hair. Cut all the dog hair from the floor brush. Cleaned the filters with a hose. Surprise - works perfectly.

Offered it back to them. They said no thanks, had already bought another vacuum.

We kept it. Still going. Bit knocked about now. Seems quite well made. Hard to argue with the purchase cost.

We have a DC01. Circa very early 2000s.

We had a DC02. Worked pretty well and I loved the stair hugger design. Mrs OW said it had to go because 'it was smelly'. Nothing we've had since has worked as well.

The early Dysons were better made and did move domestic vacuums away from bagged filtration which an clog as the bag fills (although doesn't seem to be an issue with my stupendously performing Nilfisk) but it was hardly new technology, cyclone systems had been used on industrial extraction systems for years. As said above the cleverest thing Dyson did was make the dust collector transparent.

Since then he's just turned into a life style brand, all marketing, value engineered to maximise profit. £450 for a fan heater, it's still basically a fan with a heater element and a fancy nozzle, same with the hair dryers and straighteners, not magic leaps in technology, just clever marketing and gullible idiots prepared to spend £200 on hair straighteners when a £30 set is just as good.

Our dyson is one of the first purple and pink ones (1998 dc04), we have had it 8 years, our old neighbour rescued it from a skip on a building site full of plaster and rubble, the switch was stuck in the on position with what looked like a bit of a boiled sweet, cleaned it up and it works just fine, looks like crap but who cares.

She spent so much time vacillating about different options last night, I ordered a model that will do what ‘we’ want and no more (well what I thought she/we wanted)

There's a special place in purgatory reserved for those who mansplain hoovering 😀

We have a Dyson Animal upright thing, a few years old, absolutely hate it. Weighs a ton, wife can't carry it up the stairs. Very thin cheap plastic bits which keep snapping on the bin. The upright lock thing to use the hose works about 1 in 5 times; it normally just falls over with a big crash. Very hard to use on carpets, just seems to get stuck. It does suck stuff up, but a complete PITA to use. Hoping it dies soon so I can buy anything else...

Henry's are OK. They're a great garage/DIY vacuum but they're not great around the house.

The lower end Miele are much better for not a lot more money. From about £150. The extra tools on the Cat and Dog model make sense if you've got pets.

You can buy non-OEM bags to save money

https://ao.com/l/cylinder_vacuum_cleaners-miele/1-6/127-57-59/

We bought the cleaners at work two Dyson for cleaning 17 small offices twice a week, both vacuums had to go back under warranty in the first year & both died within three years.

Replaced with a Panasonic & a Henry, both still going fine eight years on - only issue was a flex replacement on the Henry after it got caught in a door hinge.

We have a Dyson Animal upright thing, a few years old, absolutely hate it. Weighs a ton, wife can’t carry it up the stairs. Very thin cheap plastic bits which keep snapping on the bin. The upright lock thing to use the hose works about 1 in 5 times; it normally just falls over with a big crash. Very hard to use on carpets, just seems to get stuck. It does suck stuff up, but a complete PITA to use. Hoping it dies soon so I can buy anything else…

had one for 15 years, and hated it for 15 years. But it kept working. Our cleaner refused to use it (and uses a Henry...). Fortunately the Dyson has just died, so we've gone Shark Duo thing

Try working in a bucket factory.

Will it make you a little pale?

Why are they so expensive? Got to support that coke habit.

We bought the cleaners at work two Dyson for cleaning 17 small offices twice a week, both vacuums had to go back under warranty in the first year & both died within three years.

Replaced with a Panasonic & a Henry, both still going fine eight years on – only issue was a flex replacement on the Henry after it got caught in a door hinge.

Since when did you think a domestic grade vacuum cleaner would last very long under commercial use? I've had 2 dysons now and on the box and warranty it clearly states 'for domestic use only'. Got to buy the right tool for the job. As a student I used to work for a casual labour agency and did alot of cleaning. Mostly with Henry's..they were ok at the job of actually vacuum cleaning but were not bullet proof and the only reason the company had them was they were cheap. Effectively disposable. The main reason I wouldn't consider a Henry for my home is the form factor...the hose type cleaners are a PITA to use and more of a PITA to store. I much prefer an upright (personal choice I understand).

We had a DC04 back I the day...brilliant thing...far superior to the cheap cleaners I had been buying up until then. Was a bit heavy and bulky but not so much so it was a problem. And when we say heavy we're not talking so heavy it is a problem for a normal reasonably physically able adult's, so lets not get carried away with ourselves into thinking they're like Thor's Hammer heavy, just a little bit heavy. It lasted forever and even when it did die it probably could have been repaired, but we just replaced it for a newer model so I see how the newer ones are not as robust as the older ones. Works just as well if not better but definitely not as robust.

But at the end of the day cheap cleaners work fine...it'll just take longer to clean the home as you have to go over the carpet four or five times more than a better performing hoover, and you'll be forever changing bags as it's best to change them long before they actually get full, and it wont last as long. If you're happy with all those compromises then just buy cheaper and a bit more often.

Some truly worrying levels of engagement with this thread.

Since when did you think a domestic grade vacuum cleaner would last very long under commercial use?

Dyson stated in his autobiography that many of this hoovers were being used in commercial settings with no problems (this was back in the DC02 ear).

Some truly worrying levels of engagement with this thread.

You should try a washing machine or fridge thread.

In typical STW contrariness:

I’m genuinely interested in why you think Henrys are shit. We have one at work – it’s pug ugly, and it’s awkward to take up stairs, but wow can it suck.
We also have some sort of Dyson – an ‘animal’ I think. It’s light and pretty (if you like that sort of thing), but unless at anything other than light dust on hard surfaces.
I’d take the Henry every time.

Our cleaners (yeah, bite me) used to bring a Henry and when they'd finished, the carpets were still covered in dog hair. We now ask them to use our (ten+ year old) Dyson) and that actually cleans the carpets.

The vacs are shite, heavy, noisy, complicated and unreliable.

No (see above), yes, yes, no (I took ours pretty much to bits, cleaned it all out of 10+years accumulated dust, and put it all back together in about an hour), no. IME.

I’m a Henry (hetty actually) pleb and marvel at how impossible it is to break, how it’s sucked up everything from sick (not entirely intentional) to builders rubble…

Wonder what sick looks like going round a dyson? 🤔

We've got a George, but we lost all his Wet cleaning kit moving house so he's only half the man he was. (FYI, the wet cleaning isn't great, it requires completely rebuilding him and takes up as much room as the cleaner, Id just rent one when you need it).

He's brilliant, yes bags... every few months my Wife complains he's gotten very heavy and stopped sucking. I ask if he's recently gotten married? Then I change the bag. They're £5 for a box of 10 from any super market and take about a min to change. You do get messy in the process.

I've got a cordless Hoover branded one too, it's complete pish.

Inherited my brother's old upright bagged Panasonic when we got married 21 years ago and had that for donkeys years. When that eventually died we bought another Panasonic second hand on eBay for £5, lasted a few years. Then we bought a Hoover bagless as Panasonic dont make vacuums anymore. That lasted 2 years and died recently. So have just stumped up for a Sebo. It's bagged, looks like a Panasonic, great reviews and works brilliantly. Pricey though, best part of 300 dabs.

My Dysons useless it sits around collecting dust

Well actually it turns out the Vax Air Stretch Pet Max I bought is actually very good, and the wife is happy(ish) with it.
I'll still have to pay at some point, just because.

Having used a Shark 'something', it feels very similar in use, but £100 rather than £250.
I'm liking the extra long cord and extension hose. Can plug it in and it'll reach the whole of out downstairs in one go.

Some truly worrying levels of engagement with this thread

S'important, innit 😉

Just bought a Hitachi drum vacuum cleaner as that's what everyone gets out here. Approx 70 quid and excellent, powerful, bagless and largely indestructible.

Not sure why, outside of the venerable Henry, drum vacuum cleaners aren't more popular in the UK.

That looks like a monster Hugo.

Middle East? Looks to loud and inefficient for an EU Country.

Yep, Doha. That probably is the reason! Can't imagine it's the most efficient thing in the world! Funnily enough, used a posh battery Dyson last summer and found it laughably poorer.

They're a bit like a 30 year old American V8 car.

Nothing sophisticated but loud, reliable, effective and cheap.

Henry (Hetty) getting on for 11 years old here. Never had a bag in it. Bypassed the hi/lo switch after about a year and never looked back. Then last week it cut out halfway though a major (and embarrassingly rare) car vacuuming session. Thought it had overheated so left it to cool but still not happy.
Full dismantling today (7 screws, all the same and simple Philips head) and it turns out it's just worn carbon brushes on the motor. Managed to push the offending one slightly forward to buy a little time and all good again. A pair of non-oem replacements ordered from Amazon tonight for £7.
Really can't fault it for generally indestructibility.
We also have a Dyson ball thing acquired from grandmother-in-law. Thought it was good at pulling dog hair out of the carpet until Mrs got a simple metal shower thing from wish and pulled out a full dog coat from one room! And on hard floors it can't cope with anything bigger than a grain of rice and just pushes it along in front instead of sucking it up.