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Dyson, techno-centric design and social consumption

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Re: Dyson, techno-centric design and social consumption

#51

>Dyson hand dryers are very fast, but as a result, they fling water everywhere Isn't that the whole point of them? Instead of imparting enough heat energy to evaporate all of the water on your hands, they just push it off which is much faster and more energy efficient. How would they work better than regular dryers without doing that?

Perhaps evaporation?

Re: Dyson, techno-centric design and social consumption

#52

I used to work for Dyson and I think this is quite off in many ways. * The industrial design of Dyson products is generally great. I don't think they poke you or anything like that. They even have nice affordances like all the things you can use being red. Contrast that with my terrible Shark where everything is black. Took me a good few seconds to find the bin release button. It also has an atrocious UX - a slow on/…

> Although I guess in fairness Which doesn't know UX exists.

What is "Which" in this context? As used here it appears like a proper noun.

Re: Dyson, techno-centric design and social consumption

#53
post #4

Dyson is like the IKEA for household appliances. They are pretty and fancy and somewhat featureful but they never seem to hold up to the truly high end stuff like Sebos/Miele. Those brands will cost you an arm and a leg but they will do exactly what it says on the tin, and nothing more. No gimmicks, just suction.

My Oreck is more than I have ever needed and I think it was around $100.

I have a corded oreck and a Dyson stick vac. I absolutely adore the oreck, and I rarely use the Dyson.

In terms of maintenance and performance the Oreck is a reliable, one-click WordPress install, and the Dyson is a few dozen fickle micro services.

I got the Oreck for like $20 on Craigslist a decade ago because it was listed as "broken." I bought it on a whim to see if I could repair it after one of the famous vacuum guy reddit AMAs. Without exaggeration, it may very well be the best $20 investment I've ever made.

I was amazed how simple it was to disassemble and reassemble. There were surprisingly few components and every single one had an appealing heft and remarkable quality.

As a somewhat funny aside: The woman I bought it from said she had three teenage daughters and it couldn't keep up. The first time I serviced it, I removed enough hair for several wigs.

Ever since, it's worked incredibly and in the rare event performance has started to suffer I've been able to service it myself multiple times over the years, and replacement parts are readily available. It's designed to be maintained. After each service it works literally good as new and I fall in love with it all over again.

Contrast that with my hand-me-down Dyson. It's awkward as all hell to store. Battery is pathetic and charging is a pain. So much delicate plastic. It clogs practically every use; though to be fair my children and animals are all filthmongers. The components feel cheap, and I can't help but feel like it's hostile to the average consumer attempting to repair it. It's deteriorated in performance even though I've used it lightly. If I had spent even a single dollar on it, I'd be so pissed.

Re: Dyson, techno-centric design and social consumption

#54
post #35
post #4

Dyson is like the IKEA for household appliances. They are pretty and fancy and somewhat featureful but they never seem to hold up to the truly high end stuff like Sebos/Miele. Those brands will cost you an arm and a leg but they will do exactly what it says on the tin, and nothing more. No gimmicks, just suction.

that is totally not my experience. you don't have to buy the latest and greatest, I've bought a V8 a few years ago. it does it's job perfectly fine like in the first day. it's the only vacuum (of the ones I've owned) that is capable of cleaning the cat hair from my sofa. maybe there are other products capable of that now, some years have passed, but the quality of dyson is pretty top notch.

Similar experience here. I bought a refurb V8 that weirdly needed service right away, but on the flip side, I got a new motor/electronics for free since it was under a fresh warranty. About 4 years later I still really like the V8 general vacuum tasks with the caveat I have mostly hard floors and no high pile carpet.

Re: Dyson, techno-centric design and social consumption

#55

>Dyson hand dryers are very fast, but as a result, they fling water everywhere Isn't that the whole point of them? Instead of imparting enough heat energy to evaporate all of the water on your hands, they just push it off which is much faster and more energy efficient. How would they work better than regular dryers without doing that?

I have never found a hand dryer that works better than the Dyson ones. They actually dry my hands quickly, and they don't deafen me in the process unlike some of their competitors.

Re: Dyson, techno-centric design and social consumption

#56
post #50

>Dyson hand dryers are very fast, but as a result, they fling water everywhere Isn't that the whole point of them? Instead of imparting enough heat energy to evaporate all of the water on your hands, they just push it off which is much faster and more energy efficient. How would they work better than regular dryers without doing that?

If the goal is to optimize the singular task of "get water off hands ASAP", sure it probably solves that fairly well. There might be more to the task though. What affect does it have on the user? Getting splashed with water, usually at crotch height, is a nuisance and is somewhat embarassing. The loudness of these dryers is also a nuisance, and can be downright painful depending on how many are going at the same time…

The trough ones are such a poor design. Carefully try to wiggle your fingers in there, and then they blow with force such that you touch the wet dirty surface that everyone else has touched. I don't understand why these things exist, let alone why people choose to put them in a bathroom.

Re: Dyson, techno-centric design and social consumption

#57
post #52

I used to work for Dyson and I think this is quite off in many ways. * The industrial design of Dyson products is generally great. I don't think they poke you or anything like that. They even have nice affordances like all the things you can use being red. Contrast that with my terrible Shark where everything is black. Took me a good few seconds to find the bin release button. It also has an atrocious UX - a slow on/…

> Although I guess in fairness Which doesn't know UX exists. What is "Which" in this context? As used here it appears like a proper noun.

It is a proper noun [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Which%3F

Re: Dyson, techno-centric design and social consumption

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My only complaint about the Dyson products is that they compromise on battery tech to help margins. I would expect such a design focused company to use the best batteries despite the effect on margins. No sense charging top dollar and using less than state of the art batteries.

Tbh I don't remember that being mentioned at all. Even if true a huge bonus of buying Dyson is you can get cheap third party batteries easily.

I would say that the battery tech could be about 10 years old which would line up with your tenure.

Re: Dyson, techno-centric design and social consumption

#59
post #47
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jesus, they have a battery handshake? We truly do own nothing.

Sadly, the lack of good sense and typical selfishness and shortsightedness of a human being means that when you don't, you get the spate of e-bike battery house/apartment/highrise fires that were hitting NYC. You kinda can't fuck around with li-ion. I don't like that my Bosch e-bike batteries have closed-source schematics, software, and chargers (i mean really, what the fuck am I going to steal Bosch), nor that the s…

> nor would I trust them not to do stupid shit with the e-bike software like remove speed limiters.

I’m not going to lie, this is the first thing I would do if I could flash e-bike software.

Re: Dyson, techno-centric design and social consumption

#60
Would it be best to make an open source company to challenge Dyson?

Everything will be worker and independently owned (bootstrapped and no VCs), no patents (we don't care about clones)

Just make great product that is open has free software.

If there would be significant interest Dyson could have a direct competitor just like many other open source companies like System72 and Red Hat

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