Dyson Vs. Bissell

From Fozzee.net

As noted in numerous front page postings recently, Becky won a vacuum at NFM. There was a bit of debate over exactly what model it is, and it turns out that it's a DC 17 Animal... DC 17 just means that it's their suckiest model yet. The "Animal" designation means that it comes with a bunch of extra tools. I'm not sure what all they're for, but there's one of those turbine detail brushes and some other crap. I'd heard rumors that this model had been reported to damage carpets because it sucks so hard. I don't know about that; our carpets look great.

Anyhow, we thought we should put the new cleaner to the test. First, we cleared the room, and vacuumed with the old Bissell. I've had that vacuum since I got my apartment in college. Then, we vacuumed the same area again with the Dyson. We got the same amount of dirt AGAIN. That means that (in theory), the Bissell picked up only half the available dirt. I'll be the first to admit that this isn't an empirical test, but it definitely gives you a sense of how well it works.

Update: I was checking out my Google Analytics report the other day, and found that this page is taking a TON of hits... Well maybe not a ton, but a ton relative to this site. A quick check indicates that this page is (was) the #5 Google hit for "Dyson vs Bissell"; Not bad.

Having had the vacuum for almost a month now, I felt like I should post an update to how it's working. Last week, I used the hose attachment to clean on top of a very dirty shelf. It sucked up some pretty big chunks of stuff. The hose is also quite a bit longer than I'd initially thought. It does rely entirely on stretchiness for it's length, though, so the cleaner tends to get tugged along. On the upside, unlike most upright cleaners, the Dyson turns off the floor beater when the handle is in the fully upright position (which it has to be to use the hose). There's also a manual override to turn the brush off.

What continues to impress me about the Dyson is it's ability to squeeze blood from a stone, or at least dirt from a clean carpet. Also, the composition of the dirt removed. Some of the dirt is so fine, it's barely dirt, but more like dust. Moreover, none of this dust makes it back into the air. The Bissell was notorious for being covered in crap blown from it's exhaust port. I'll be interested to see how the Dyson's output air quality changes as the filters age and become saturated with dust.

Also, in the near future, we'll be testing the Dyson's capabilities with regard to pet hair. The Dirt Devil Kone we have doesn't seem to bother Molly much, but the Dyson has a very different sound.

The Bissell's Dirt	The Dyson's Dirt (2nd pass)