I got the Wife a Dyson vacuum for Christmas.  yah yah yah, that's what they tell you NOT to get your wife for Christmas.  But that's what she wanted and she LOVES it!  

Our old vac is 8 years old.  My wife has to vacuum 2 or 3 times over the same spot just to "clean" it.  Not to mention it struggles with picking up dog fur from our Beagle and Shiba.  It's just a chore.  With the new vac, it picked up so much crap from the carpet that was just vaccumed with our old vac.  It's well balanced that it's almost effortless to move around.  It's easy to empty the dirt.  Everything is just that much easier.  My wife absolutely LOVES it.

She recently said to me now she understands why I love Ducati that much.  She said she now has the Ducati of vacuums!  LOL  

Put a Ducati Performance or Corse sticker on it and call it even! My wife was at a friend's house today dealing with little kids and when I told her over the phone about the DMF replies and the other comments I've seen on line she chimes in and tells me how her friend has the same Dyson DC-25 and I could hear her friend chattering away in the background about it. She and her husband have about 6 cats and I know their house is a little IZ_ and she has two little kids. She loves the Dyson and was yelling in the background to get one.

Need to check the Termi website and see if there is a Ti or carbon slip on can for it! The money issue just gets to me but I guess it needs to be viewed as just another expensive household appliance. I paid big bucks for a stainless side by side KitchenAid 'frig and I swear two days after the warranty ran out the ice maker died. We don't use that much ice so I bought old school ice trays from Target and they work just fine.

I clean offices for a living and I prefer Simplicity brand over anything else.  One of the few that is made in USA.

ANY new vacuum will perform better than an unmaintained one.  If you are dead set on dropping the ching on the Dyson then go for it...

HOWEVER - a little time spent taking apart your old vac and cleaning the passages, as well as a new brushroll and belt will do wonders for the suction.  Check the impeller too.  If it has any cracks it will cause the machine to vibrate and be very noisy.  Worn impeller also decreases suction.

In summary a ~ $50 overhaul will have the old vac like new and leave some cash for more bike mods. 

I can appreciate that advice. I recently replaced the brush on the Eureka upright, keep fresh belts on hand and regularly change them, clean the foam inner filter with ever bag change, blow everything out with compressed air in the garage and use 3M Filtrete bags. Other than adding nitros and a big bore kit I think the vac I have is doing all it can do. The dog hair just seems to magically "weave" it's way in the rugs, carpet, the furniture she brushes up against to say nothing about what ends up on our clothes. And the current vac just can't pick it all up. I run it over and over and over the same spot just to get 90% of it up. And that's with a fresh bag and roller brush so it's doing the best it can do. The hardwoods aren't the problem it's the rest of the house.

Dyson all the way - get the less 20% coupon out from Bed Bath and a Blond and you're set.

+1 on the Ducati sticker

The Dyson has been the ONLY household appliance I've ever had that has lived up to the hype. Period.

And I have yet to "maintain" it in any way outside of regularly emptying the canister and freeing the rotating brush of hair a couple of times per year.

Come on guys I don't want to seem old fashioned (I am).. but vacuum cleaners..

I was a professional housekeeper for a while and have never used a dyson. I used a Meile swivel upright .Yes it has a bag .What I can tell you about the meile is this It has a seperate motor for the brush. The brush roller runs on a toothed belt ljust like Ducati Cams do on later model engines. It gets under everything. It will suck start a space shuttle. my employers had pets......4 cats and six dogs. There was animal hair everywhere. Given the choice I would use nothing else. Its an option you might want to explore. The cost of them has now come down to that of a dyson but they used to be in the almost a thousand dollar range......They come with a 39ft cord as well so room to room is not an issue. They are very powerful.So from a professional housekeepers point of view, these rock. Most folks only have the cheap vacuums that are very mediocre and that is all they need but when you have 10 shedding animals, dirt from a farm and employees being traipsed everywhere and then dust from woodstoves etc, the machine they had kept their home with my help spick and span. Meile all the way.Its money you will not regret spending.Why buy  a new Yugo when you can buy a good used Mercedes for the same money?

Quote from: oldfastwin on February 14, 2011, 02:42:56 PM
Put a Ducati Performance or Corse sticker on it and call it even!

I would put Ducati Corse stickers on a lot of things in the house but I know better.  Once I leave the garage, I know I am on somebody else's turf.

Know that feeling all too well. Recently had a newly framed Duc print (the Decade of Domination/WSBK print I posted about before) leaning up against a wall in the house. Just sitting there, doing nothing. And the wife's spidey senses kicked in and in a nano second she was there, I don't think her feet even touched the ground! Pointing at the offending framed motorcycle goodness she asked "what's that doing in here?" Before I could answer that it was headed for the garage and I had set it down because my hands were full she stated "that's not going on any wall in here!" I think she's still mad about the time I pulled all our wedding pics out of their frames around the house and replaced them pictures of scooters I cut out of Cycle World and Motorcyclist. It was just a joke... well, at least I thought it was funny. Guess not.

Quote from: badgalbetty on February 15, 2011, 07:00:22 AM
I was a professional housekeeper for a while and have never used a dyson. I used a Meile swivel upright .Yes it has a bag .What I can tell you about the meile is this It has a seperate motor for the brush. The brush roller runs on a toothed belt ljust like Ducati Cams do on later model engines. It gets under everything. It will suck start a space shuttle. my employers had pets......4 cats and six dogs. There was animal hair everywhere. Given the choice I would use nothing else. Its an option you might want to explore. The cost of them has now come down to that of a dyson but they used to be in the almost a thousand dollar range......They come with a 39ft cord as well so room to room is not an issue. They are very powerful.So from a professional housekeepers point of view, these rock. Most folks only have the cheap vacuums that are very mediocre and that is all they need but when you have 10 shedding animals, dirt from a farm and employees being traipsed everywhere and then dust from woodstoves etc, the machine they had kept their home with my help spick and span. Meile all the way.Its money you will not regret spending.Why buy  a new Yugo when you can buy a good used Mercedes for the same money?

+1 on the Miele.

It's the only other vac I would recommend over Simplicity.

Like BGB said it's the Mercedes of vacs.

Quote from: oldfastwin on February 15, 2011, 08:25:59 AM
Know that feeling all too well. Recently had a newly framed Duc print (the Decade of Domination/WSBK print I posted about before) leaning up against a wall in the house. Just sitting there, doing nothing. And the wife's spidey senses kicked in and in a nano second she was there, I don't think her feet even touched the ground! Pointing at the offending framed motorcycle goodness she asked "what's that doing in here?" Before I could answer that it was headed for the garage and I had set it down because my hands were full she stated "that's not going on any wall in here!" I think she's still mad about the time I pulled all our wedding pics out of their frames around the house and replaced them pictures of scooters I cut out of Cycle World and Motorcyclist. It was just a joke... well, at least I thought it was funny. Guess not.

    That's hilarious!  However, I can see how that wouldn't go over very well.

I kind of like the Dyson, my Dad has one, but my wife is married to her Kirby. It seems to work OK. The only thing I don't really like about it is that it's heavy, heavy like a tank. That's because its made of die cast aluminum. It was well used when we got married about 10 years ago and it's still going strong. I recently bought her a G5 Model because I found one on craigslist for cheap. her old one cost like $700 or something. I found the one on CL for $175. It's newer but she still mostly uses the old one. Both of them have shampoo attachments that work pretty good.
If the Miele is the Mercedes of Vacuums. The Kirby is like the Old 30 year old Mercedes sedans you still see driving around. The ones with the heavy duty door hinges, and that old school solid feel that just keep running.

I like the inventiveness of the Dyson, but not all the plastic, although the plastic makes it light.

Hard to find much these days made like that. "Built like a tank" aren't words used very often any more. That vac will probably last another ten years. Easy. People like light weight stuff so using plastic makes them happy and saves the manufacturer money. Guess a titanium and carbon fiber vac is out of the question.

Quote from: oldfastwin on February 15, 2011, 08:51:56 AM
Guess a titanium and carbon fiber vac is out of the question.

Now your talking my language.. but not for a vac..