I remember seeing a commercial a few months ago for the Dyson vacuum cleaner. The inventor, James Dyson, was tired of the lousy suction his machine produced so he set off to create something better. I was in the middle of researching innovation and the intriguing part of the story is that he produced over 5,000 prototypes before he came up with his design. I took a quick spin through his website and determined that although it looked like an interesting product, I wasn’t going to plunk down $400 on a vacuum cleaner.
Our machine bit the dust Sunday so we needed a replacement. Our current model had a number of flaws. Pieces broke off within the first year, it made this horrible, ear-splitting screeching sound when you used the hose attachment and finally the motor that controlled the beater brush gave out. Dyson’s marketing had us nailed – were tired of lousy products that needed replacing every few years. Off to Target for a Dyson.
After unpacking it, I discovered that one of the wheels wobbled like a bad shopping cart. After spending that kind of money it was going back to the store. Target didn’t have any more in stock so it was off to Home Depot. The new model is great. I unpacked it and had it setup in a matter of minutes. I tested it on a small area in our family room and it was amazing how much dust the machine picked up. It is also pretty quiet.
We’ll see how it stands the test of time. My 12 year old son wants to be the first to vacuum the whole house with the new machine. More testimony to Dyson’s marketing magic.