All we have is a second hand Dyson DC34, which is really only good for spot cleaning, and my wife is getting sick of the dog hair everywhere, especially the rug and bedroom carpet (everywhere else is uncarpeted, but we'd still like to vacuum that, if that's a thing??). She knows a cleaning lady who swears by her Dyson V11, but I've briefly searched here and it seems that people in general recommend to steer away from Dyson. I would've been fine with Dyson if it was a $100-$200 thing (more towards $100 though) but the fact that we're talking about a $450+ vacuum, well I'd rather just get a more BIFL brand and model based on what I've read.

Other things I've heard about the V11 is that it's a fine secondary vacuum but not really great for your main "deep cleaning" vacuum. And considering we don't have anything great, I'd like to get something solid first, even if that means it's not a sleek cordless unit.

Any other insights or recommendations? Should we steer clear of the Dyson V11 or what are your thoughts?

Budget - $400-$500 is the number in my head, but not stuck on anything if it's BIFL and a life changer.

Flooring types & other cleaning needs: dog hair, some carpet + rug, and hard wood

I’ve had my Dyson V11 for just over year now and I can honestly say as hard as I try to like it I’ve been disappointed from day one. Got it as an Xmas gift and was really happy but I’ve found it becomes blocked to the point of not working pretty much every time I use it, I can’t use the highest setting on it, the regular setting is very weak, it spits half of what you have hoovered up out as soon as you turn it off and I’m having to constantly clear its airways out. I have a dog and a cat but have always hoovered daily so there is no crazy build up of hair that should be causing the hoover to struggle yet it just doesn’t seem to perform! Anyone else found these problems with this model?

I’m planning to get a new vacuum cleaner soon, and the Dyson V11 is on the top of my list.

Before making any decision I would like to know more about it. You can help me by sharing what is the one thing you wish you had known before buying it.

This vacuum is honestly amazing, the suction power is incredible and it does a great job at getting dirt out of my carpets, before this I thought my carpets were clean, but now after using this I’ll never look at them the same again.

My girlfriend received a Dyson V11 for Christmas from her mother. She was really excited about, and I’m heartbroken to see her disappointment in the product. From the first week the vacuum has never consistently worked, and customer service at Dyson is a nightmare. Talk about a run around. I must warn anyone looking at this vacuum they are in for a headache.

Although our vacuum charges and lights up, most of the time it simply does not work. At first we thought it was a defective battery. Getting a replacement battery from Dyson was a nightmare. I won’t go into the details, but it took hours and repeated calls to finally make a claim and get another battery. Then the delivery of the battery went awry. When we finally did receive the battery, the trouble persisted.

I just watched my lovely GF go for vacuum and try it, because she wanted to clean the apartment, and of course it doesn’t work. The fact that it was a gift from her mum makes it even more depressing. Maybe it’s a trigger malfunction?

If it were easy to simply call Dyson and get customer service, we would have received a replacement vacuum weeks ago. Instead we’ve put it off because the customer service and automated run around is so time consuming and frustrating. That’s probably the intention - to deter you from calling!

Hey everyone, just wanted to share my experience with Dyson in case you’re considering buying one of their vacuums.

To start, yes, Dyson products are sleek and powerful at first. For the first 11 months I genuinely liked the vacuum. It looked great, worked well, and felt worth the hype.

But right around the 11-month mark mine broke. That’s where things really went downhill.

Here’s what I wish I knew before buying:

The return and replacement process is incredibly slow. It took me almost two months to get a new vacuum. Two months without the product that is marketed as premium.

Customer support is unhelpful and extremely slow. Most of my time was spent waiting in chat queues or getting bounced around. No urgency, no real solutions.

And most frustrating of all, at every single step I tried to escalate or at least let someone know that things weren’t working as they should. I asked for better support. I flagged delays. I explained how long it had been. But no matter who I spoke to, nobody could actually do anything. There was no way to speed things up, no flexibility, no real help.

That’s what really got me. I can understand that sometimes processes are slow. But when you talk to a real person, explain the problem, and they still can’t do anything. that tells me the system is built to be this frustrating. That’s not what I expect from a premium brand.

(I have reached out to them even after the experiance to allow them to make it right and still nothing)

Also worth noting: you can’t even leave a review on their website. I spent over an hour on support chat just trying to figure this out. Turns out there’s literally no way to leave a product review unless you’re invited to. So the glowing reviews you see? They're curated. That felt deceptive.

So yes, Dyson looks nice on the surface, but if you expect your vacuum to last more than a year or want a company that stands behind its products, I’d say proceed with caution. I’m only sharing this because I wish someone had told me before I bought it.

I live in a 1200 Sq. Ft (110 sq. m) single floor apartment in India. All rooms are tiled and don't have carpets.

I have a budget of 50K-70K INR (~670-950 USD) for purchasing a new vacuum. My home gets a fair amount of dust from outside and I'm finding it really hard to keep it clean. My depression also doesn't help with doing my chores regularly. I'm finding it hard to motivate myself to clean my apartment (or at least my room) during the weekends.

I have heard quite good reviews about the Dyson cordless vacuums via Twitter. I'm especially draw to Dyson because several folks said they find it much easier to do 5-10 minutes of vacuuming every day because of how cordless vacuums need much less "mental" effort to get started. I can somewhat relate to this as I also own a mid-level corded vacuum and I find myself being put off by the thought of vacuuming because of the ceremony involved - the corded vacuum needs careful maneuvering around the house, the wire gets tangled on the various object lying around etc).

This has made me think about getting a Dyson V11 Absolute Pro which retails around 50K INR (690 USD).

However, I am not sure if I'm better of purchasing a robot vacuum since my main goal is to avoid the mental pressure of not doing my chores and procrastinating frequently.

I'm conflicted between the two choices and need some input. Here is what I see as the pros and cons:

1. Dyson seems to be an established name in India, at least compared to Robot Vacuum brands. EcoVacs and iRobot are the only two premium brands I could find on Amazon and both of them seem to have only a couple of service centers for whole of India (and not the city I live in).

2. As I said, I've seen many people on twitter posting positively about how Dyson has helped them make regular vacuuming fun. For Robot Vacuums, I can only find reviews via Amazon and they are either very positive or very negative and majority of complaints seems to be about poor customer service when things break within few months of purchasing. To be fair, I've also found bad reviews for Dyson, but very few are about customer service and lack of replacements.

3. EcoVacs and other brands of robot vacuums come with a 'mopping' feature which seems attractive to me. Not sure if this is just a gimmick though.

4. Robot Vacuums seem to need the auto-empty base to be worth investing as the solution to 'eliminate chores' . This pushes the cost to the higher end of my budget. The Dyson, while still at the lower end of the budget, will not eliminate the "chore aspect" completely.

5. Dyson seems to support handheld mode for cleaning surfaces like tables, bookshelves etc. Robot Vacuums won't work here.

Given the above issues with poor customer service in India, I'm not sure if it is worth investing in a robot vacuum at this point. I'm looking for something that will serve me for at least 2-3 years without too much maintenance cost. At the same time, I want to make sure this investment will help me break my depression cycle by keeping my home clean with minimal effort.

Should I bite the bullet and buy a robot vacuum? or should I just get a Dyson? Let me know your thoughts :)

Thanks in advance!

Hi community,

I had been looking for a cordless vacuum cleaner, and I stumbled across a used Dyson V11 Absolute Extra (purchase year 2021) for my small apartment.

All the attachments are there, and it looks good based on the pictures. But I will be checking it out in the next days about its battery health/run-time on different modes. I have been able to negotiate the price to 150€. Do you think this is a good deal?

What should I watch out for? Looking forward to your responses. Thank you!

Dear Sucking Machine aficionados, I am writing to give my first impressions of the Dyson V11 cordless.

I am coming from a Dyson DC25 Animal that I bought in 2012ish, and which served me loyally and truly and without fail in all that time. In my new house I have sealed concrete floors that are uneven in places and the DC25 head being somewhat lopsided due to wear was leaving scratches. I wanted to go cordless but had some doubts as to whether or not it would be vigorous enough for my higher pile area rugs. I also was heartily disgusted by some of the prices for what i thought of as a glorified dust buster.

I eventually came across the V11 for $130 off so I took the ole plunge. As a person who invariably has buyers remorse panic attacks every time I hit "place order" online, I did the same on this occasion and fretted for a full 6 days while i waited. Was this the worst purchase ever made? Am I the worst shopper that ever shopped? Et cetera.

Anyhoo, it finally came, and I am very happy with it. It has three suction levels which are easily selected and it shows you how much time is left on your battery at each level. The middle level is sufficient for most of my needs.

My favourite aspect about it is i can get in every awkward nook and cranny with the different attachments and configurations without moving all my darn furniture every time. I have a superflooff cat that leaves a trail of wispy fur everywhere she goes and to which I had fully surrendered except for a spring and fall deep clean. But the V11 is so pleasurable to handle I sometimes get it out for fun, and my house hasn't been cleaner since I built it. Rather than vacuum once a week for half an hour now i do 5 minutes a day in the higher traffic areas and it keeps the place way cleaner all the time. I love it.

The cat hates it because I use the smaller powered attachment on her, which works amazing fwiw.

Well i hope that helps some poor soul that's wandering in the vacuum shopping wilderness like I was. There is hope, my friends.

Post Scriptum: it also dumps/cleans up very easily.

Addendum: Some people think Dyson vacs are plasticcy and cheap, and while I shared those concerns when I bought the Animal 12 or 13 years ago, it was so reliable that I wasn't concerned about build quality this time around.