Dyson is crap (mostly)

Submitted ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨elucubra@sopuli.xyz⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.zip⁩

https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/b59556e3-0554-41a6-b58b-b2a89b4b3b12.webp

A friend lent me a Dyson bladeless fan (first bullshit, it’s an enclosed ducted fan, so yeah, blades) that is so overcomplicated it’s mind boggling.

400 €

Amazing features:

color screen. On. a. fan. Why the fuck!!

Remote: I can get onboard with that, but this shit has 6 buttons and 2 rockers. All I need is an on/off/1/2/3 button, a swing, and a cold/hot that is: cold/low/medium/high heat. 3 buttons.

Noisy. My cheapo stand fan from Aldi moves more air and is way more silent.

“Air multiplier technology”… So a Bernoulli shroud. Yeah. Revolutionary. Cutting edge.

Swings. Ohhhh, the innovation! Also tilts. Wow!!!

Air filter: O.K. makes sense in a fucking 400€ machine. The again, complete purifiers go for 25€ at IKEA, and I’m making one, 3D printed, that uses an automotive HEPA cabin filter, 7€, and 4 120 ultra silent 120mm PC fans, 9€/4. And an aliexpress PS/buck converter (undecided). Now I may print some bernoulli shrouds!

Dyson replacement filter: 90€. So I can buy an IKEA purifier, and when the filter is clogged, chuck the whole thing, purifier AND filter, 4 times before I replace the Dyson filter.

Etc…

I used to own a Dyson corded vacuum cleaner. The brushes needed replacement. First gripe on a hideously expensive vacuum. Why brushes?? Why!!! I open it up to replace, and the innards were so cheap ass and flimsy it hurt seeing them. screw stubs without reinforcements, plastic clips so flimsy that they broke just by looking at them, self tapping plastic screws (brass threaded inserts cost ME cents.)…

Also, "Look! we are soo cool! Cyclonic particle separation! Like they invented the tech that has been separating sawdust in woodworking shops and sawmills for a century!

And loud. Unnecessarily loud. They make their vacuums loud on purpose, because people associate loud with power.

I now own a 20 yr. old Vorwerk Kobold, made by the same company that makes the Thermomix, an amazing kitchen appliance. Solid, no problems with spares 20 yrs later, silent, HEPA paper bags (bagless are shit, look up vacuum technician opinions on the web) and has great suction (insert sophomoric joke here). SILENT! So silent the dog doesn’t give 2 fucks about it.

That said, Commercial Dyson hand dryers are the only hand dryers I’ll use. Good.

But yeah, they are the Apple of air moving appliances; make people believe they have invented a lot of shit, while they are essentially packagers of that technology, Gouge customers, convince customers that hardware is great (It’s not, and TBH, a lot of Apple’s isn’t either.)

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Honytawk@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
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- doomchapel666@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  this killed me. i laughed so hard at this meme that I died.
  
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mushroommunk@lemmy.today ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I had the pleasure of helping a buddy tear down some of their products for his senior thesis in college (he was a mechanical engineer who needed someone who remotely understood the circuit board side).

His and his professor’s take (who was curious to see the insides and so hovered a little more than he normally would) were that the products have some very solid engineering, creative uses of basic principles (like that Bernoulli shroud you mentioned) but largely invent the problems they solve (a bladeless fan isn’t really that important after we started adding cages).

Sure cyclonic seperation was around, but it wasn’t common in the household, they brought it there and it really is great for filters, it just, doesn’t need to be everything they try to make it be.

This was a while ago so I would absolute believe things have changed since then but they noted some of the “cheap” innards you did were actually at stress points so they would break first instead of the more expensive and harder to replace parts. Stand mixers (I know Kitchenaid) do this as well, they use nylon gear that will strip if the paddle gets stuck instead of burning out the much more expensive motor. Again, this was a while ago so I’d absolute believe they’ve started cheaping out on manufacturing too but without actually seeing (well, having my mechanical engineering buddy see) I couldn’t say.

That being said, if their new vacuum with the conical rollers really works as well as they say and others adopt it I will weep with joy. So…Many…Hair tangles (yes I need to vacuum more regularly, but I’m so sick of cutting the hair off)

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- elucubra@sopuli.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  The vacuum cleaner I had, floor model, corded, would have been 10-12 years now. I fixed it and proptly sold it. I don’t think it would withstand another teardown without breaking something. I’m not saying the engineering concepts are bad, but they are designed with planned obsolescence, with fragility in mind.
  
  Filter Queen was making home cyclonic vacuum cleaners from 1928. No innovation there.
  
  Bagless vacuums have been around a lot longer too. Bagless vacuums are more convenient at first, but filters will eventually get impossible to clean completely. I have a Bosch 2 in 1 cordless, hand/broom, which I hate cleaning out. With my Kobold I simply replace a paper bag. Clean and fast, and the bags are quite cheap.
  
  The things I’m referring to are not sacrificial parts, like the gears you mention, but parts and shells that don’t need sacrificial parts, quite the opposite.
  
  All in all, there is absolutely no reason for those vacuums to cost 5x the price of equivalent competitors. Does a conical brush justify a 600€ price tag?
  
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- CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  
  Stand mixers (I know Kitchenaid) do this as well, they use nylon gear that will strip if the paddle gets stuck instead of burning out the much more expensive motor.
  
  Or they could do a current limiting sensor that doesn’t require disassembly (which probably drives disposal and sale). I tore down a kitchen aid about 15 years ago because it died after 3 months of weekly bread making (inside the published limitations) and it wasn’t exactly robust inside. They’re cruising on reputation. The price hasn’t gone up in years but the cost to make it has; fill in the gap. I’m a pretty solid Ankarsrum fan now.
  
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- ne0phyte@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I’ve always wanted a Dyson vacuum (I guess I’m old even saying this sentence) and eventually bought a Dyson V12 Detect Slim.
  
  The suction doesn’t keep up with my super old wired one, but it’s so comfortable to use. I actually like vacuuming but getting the vacuum, plugging it in, managing the wire length I can cover etc just to quickly clean something was keeping me from doing it.
  
  I probably could’ve gotten some other battery powered vacuum, but I am very happy with the purchase. And it absolutely handles hair like a pro. Long hair never clogs up, it just ends up as a ring around the filter in the dust chamber and comes out in one blob with ease. They may be overpriced design pieces but they actually work pretty well. Cleaning carpet with the respective attachment also works incredibly well. When I first got it I cleaned SO MUCH dust from sofas, carpets, corners I could never get to easily.
  
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- givesomefucks@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  
  Stand mixers (I know Kitchenaid) do this as well, they use nylon gear that will strip if the paddle gets stuck instead of burning out the much more expensive motor.
  
  This is actually the story behind Phillips head screws as well.
  
  When factory automation took off, they couldn’t program the machines to stop when a screw was tight. So it would overtightened and deform the product.
  
  So automated manufacturing started using (very shallow) phillips head screws, and once they were tight the head would strip, the bit would spin free, and the machine read the lack of resistance as “stop”.
  
  As machinary advanced, they were able to stop before stripping, and products had functional screws again. Because of that Phillips screws were able to get deeper bites, but they still can strip out eventually, because they were literally designed to do that when over tightened.
  
  And we’re all just still using it, because that’s what most people use. Pretty much anything else is always going to be better.
  
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  - elucubra@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Philips screws were not designed to strip. They were designed to cam out. Completely different concept.
    
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Wfh@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Let me tell you the best thing about Dyson vacuums. They’re super popular. Which means there’s an entire industry of compatible spare parts that keep them going forever (or at least until the last bit of plastic crumbles). My Dyson V7 of Theseus still runs like new.

There are fucking adapters for power tools batteries. This is an absolute game changer. Because the stock battery is shit. It’s weak, barely holds enough charge to vacuum my flat’s floors on regular mode or my bed on turbo mode, is way too expensive to replace, and that’s when new. Now I put a fucking massive 5A/h Makita battery and it holds enough charge to vacuum every single surface in my flat several times over on turbo mode. I can have a spare one ready to go if it decides to die. And when it doesn’t hold charge anymore, I’ll just have to bike to the nearest hardware store and finish my cleanup before the morning is over.

My parents have gone through several vacuums from other brands since I bought my V7. Not only are they worse at their only job, as soon as something breaks, they had to buy a new one because there are no spare parts. They always refused to buy a Dyson because they’re too expensive. They’ve probably spent 3x as much as me on vacuums over the last decade and a half.

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- Dookieman12@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  A Shark is all of those things for $199
  
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N0t_5ure@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I surprised it doesn’t require you to install an app, connect it to the internet, and subscribe to their air flow services.

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- elucubra@sopuli.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Doesn’t look that way, although the thing does have an app, but it only has one physical button, so if you lose the remote, you either connect via an app (for a fan, really?) or you buy a replacement. Why not 2 buttons and a menu, since it has a screen, as a bare minimum?
  
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CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Bagless Dyson or Miele are all I’ll use because I’ve got too much dog hair to use a bag.

But Dyson cheaply built and overpriced.

I recently had the misfortune to try a battery operated model. It wouldn’t pick up a coffee bean off a table with the suction tip directly on it. $50 with a cord works better.

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- Dookieman12@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Try a Shark. To me, they’re a correctly-priced Dyson. All the same features, same aftermarket options, but about 1/3 the price
  
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- Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Got a Dyson cordless around six years ago, a v8 I think. It has no problem picking up coffee beans on “low”, I wonder if the one you tried was broken.
  
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- Habahnow@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I don’t understand the reasoning behind not using a bag when you have a lot of dog hair, could you explain?
  
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  - CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I’ll fill the bag in one go during shedding season which seems to be always lately, and they’re not cheap. Bagless I just tip out the hair into the rubbish bin and keep going.
    
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atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I remember seeing a study that on at least some models of the bladeless fan, the fan in the base moved more air by itself than the entire contraption does.

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