People are fighting about whether Dyson vacuums are trash, but the arguments don’t stack up – here’s my take as a vacuum expert

Vacuum cleaners divide opinion more than you might expect, and the brand that people seem to feel most strongly about is Dyson. Behind every diehard Dyson fan there are 10 more people ready to eagerly proclaim that they’re the worst vacuums in the world.

At the weekend, designer Mike Smith proclaimed on X that Dyson vacuums were “not for serious vacuumers” and the ensuing thread went viral, with over 1,000 people piling in to air their vacuum views.

I manage the vacuum cleaner content for TechRadar, which includes reviewing vacs from many different brands and putting together our official best vacuum cleaner ranking. All of that means I spend far more time than the average person thinking about vacuum cleaners.

I’m neither wildly pro- or anti-Dyson, and this discussion didn’t sway me any further in either direction. What it did do is make me even more confident in my long-held belief that what most people actually have a problem with is not Dyson vacuums, but cordless stick vacuums in general.

Cordless stick vacuums are not the same as traditional upright vacuums or canister vacs. In some ways, they’re worse. Providing strong suction requires a lot of power, and the bigger the battery the heavier the vacuum – so brands are constantly trying to balance whether to provide customers with longer runtimes or a lighter build.

A bigger dust cup means a vacuum that’s bulkier and heavier, so there’s another trade-off there in terms of how often you have to empty it. They also seem to be an inherently less robust type of cleaner – cordless stick vacs are expected to have a far shorter overall lifespan than other styles of vacuum.

In short, if you choose a cordless stick vacuum, you should expect limited runtimes on higher suction modes, canisters that need emptying regularly, and for it not to last forever. For those compromises, you get something you don’t need to plug into the wall, and which you can easily use to vacuum up the stairs – or even on the ceiling – if you want to.

Of course, some cordless vacs perform much better than others, but broadly speaking you should expect those pros and cons to be true whatever model or brand you go for. Dyson stick vacs might not be for “serious” vacuuming, but boy are they good for convenient, comfortable vacuuming.

(Of course, the other element when it comes to Dyson is the price. I get into this more in my article exploring if Dyson vacuums are worth it, and I’ve also written about by experience of Shark vs Dyson vacuums, if you’re interested in that comparison specifically.)

In the thread, the name that crops up again and again from the opposing chorus is Miele. This brand is synonymous with canister vacuums, and not a direct comparison. One of the very best vacuums I’ve used in terms of outright suction power remains the 25+ year-old upright that used to belong to my Nana and now lives in my parents’ house. But it weighs a ton and takes up a load of space, so when it comes to cleaning my own flat, I’d reach for a Dyson (or similar) every time.

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