Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsVacuum that does not work on carpet? Bad design! Buyer Beware!
Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2018
For those that don't want to read any further, here are the big issues with the Dyson:
1) The cleaning head height is not adjustable, but rather has a floating head design.
2) The floating head does no allow for pickup of some larger items that the competitors do better.
3) The floating cleaning head causes too much suction on thick carpets and area rugs - The vacuum does not work on some carpets!
4) Dyson does not advertise up front that it may not work on carpets. What else do they expect us to be vacuuming?
Detailed review:
After passing up Dyson upright vacuum cleaners for the past decade, we finally decided that as a Christmas gift to ourselves this year that we would finally go with a Dyson. We had previously gone with the more affordable Shark competitors, and while Shark has just as good, if not better warranty on their products, it just seems that we would wear them out in a matter of years. We have 3 dogs that shed uncontrollably, and we are constantly having to run the vacuum several times/week to keep the hair mess under control.
We were excited to try the Dyson and quickly assembled it when it arrived. My wife proceeded to take it into the living room to clean our large area throw rug. The suction was so powerful that the cleaning head sucked itself down to the rug, not allowing the vacuum cleaner to me moved until it was powered off. We scratched our heads for a second, thinking that there must be some setting for carpets or rugs. We read the manual, and it indicated that some rugs may clean better with the rollers off. We tried with the rollers off and she got the same result...
I knew this was a hard vacuum to pull as the suction is very high, so I tried it myself. As soon as you turn it on, it would immediately suck itself down onto the carpet. I was able to force it backwards and forwards, but I was using so much force that I could feel the plastic flexing and was afraid that I would break the unit. It simply wasn't working on our throw rug.
For test number two, we took it into the bedroom. I have to admit that for this test, the Dyson passed with flying colors. It sucked up a ton of dirt and carpet cleaning powder that had been building up in our carpets since our last vacuum started to lose it's suction. I was thoroughly impressed with how it performed in the bedroom. Unfortunately, it was the living room throw rug test that was making me extremely concerned. After reading many reviews and watching some YouTube videos, there were several recommended fixes, such as drilling some holes to let out some pressure, or putting a plastic furniture slider on the front to lift up the front lip, allowing for some air to flow.
I'm sorry, but having to perform DIY fixes on a $400-500 product is simply unacceptable. I was refusing to believe that Dyson would sell a product that is supposed to be a vacuum cleaner that would not work on some carpets. I decided to call Dyson.
Dyson advised that our carpet is "not compatible" with the Vacuum cleaner. I'll state that again. Apparently, our carpet is not compatible. Like having an MS DOS computer and trying to run apple or OS/2 software on it. Who would have thought that one of the most prestigious vacuum cleaners would put out a vacuum cleaner that is not compatible with rugs sold from Lowes and Home Depot, who also sell Dyson. If someone were to hold up picture cards and tell me to identify which are compatible or not compatible and held up a vacuum cleaner and a grassy lawn, I would say "not compatible". But holding up a picture of a vacuum cleaner and a throw rug or carpet, I would think "compatible!".
To be fair to the Dyson representative that handled my call, they were completely respectful and appeared to already understand what we were calling to complain about. They apparently have had these complaints before and knew exactly how to respond. They recommended that we consider exchanging for a cordless model, but with how frequently we need to run our vacuum to clean up after our dogs, relying on a battery to be charged was not a viable option that we wanted to consider at the current time.
So here we are, 6 days away from Christmas, and we had to return our Christmas present, and again have ordered a product from one of Dyson's competitors. It's a shame, because I really wanted to try giving their products a fair chance. I've had friends and family that swear by the Dyson vacuum cleaners, but I guess this new direction in design has now introduced "compatibility" issues.
The one star review might be harsh, but this was clearly a choice by Dyson, they have been informed of the problem, they failed to advertise it before people go through the trouble of buying, unboxing, assembling, testing, disassembling, re-boxing, and returning. Such a hassle because a product was poorly designed, poorly communicated, and poorly resolved outside of stating that it's not compatible and needs to be returned.
