I purchased one of these fellas today after having just returned my Dyson. Yes, that’s right, I RETURNED MY DYSON! To be honest, I am still scratching my head as to why so many people throw praise at the Dyson. I had one of their “Animal” vacuums for one day, and although it was a nice product… really, is it worth almost $500? I mean, I am talking about a LOT of money here, so why should you spend that much money on a vacuum cleaner?
The simple answer is that you don’t have to. The Dyson Animal picked up just a small amount of debris from my fully-carpeted apartment when I tried it out. The Bissell Pet Hair Eraser was almost half-full after I used it earlier today, only 12 hours after having using the Dyson.
I’m not sure what to make of this, to be honest. The Bissell (which costs about 1/3 the price of the Dyson) seems to do the job much better. Although the unit is quite bulky, and requires some assembly (the instructions were a joke), I have much cleaner floors as a result. And my biggest peeve about the Dyson was that, after paying all that money for a product that was called “The Animal,” I still had to pay an extra $69 for the pet hair attachment! Is it me, or is someone trying to rip me off here? (Edit: I have been told that one of the Dyson Animal vacuums comes equipped with the aforementioned attachment).
As for the Bissell, it comes with all of the attachments that you will ever need, and did a great job on my upholstery as well as my carpets. Although the hose isn’t as long as the Dyson, I was able to clean everything that I needed to clean without any setbacks.
My conclusion is this – if you believe that a Mercedes Benz is the best car out there because of its price tag, then you will probably be better off with a Dyson. However, if you just want a vacuum cleaner that does a decent job regardless of how much it costs, then go with the Bissell.
Simply put, my Bissell Pet Hair Eraser vacuum cleaner does a better job than the Dyson Animal, plus I have an extra $300 in my pocket.
Now, does that seem like a no-brainer to you?