Thank you for the information Benny, much appreciated.

I was thinking about you earlier actually and that I hadn't seen you "around" lately.  I hope you are well.

Well, after two days I've had enough!!  The Dyson is not staying.

On a positive note, it is the quietest and best made Dyson I have used, but as with all Dysons it is pathetic when it comes to carpet cleaning.

The surface dirt and dust is gone, but after going over the carpets again with a Senior or Turbopower it immediately becomes apparent there is a lot of missed dirt and grit deeper down into the pile.

I shall resist going into a full rant about the cleaner and its downfalls, but needless to say once the replacement hose comes in it'll be getting a full clean and polish and will be finding a new home ASAP, hopefully with a bit of profit in it for me.

I know there are people out there who collect and love them, but they are just not for me.  And in fairness, it probably isn't Dyson's fault, as I feel the same about all cyclonic bagless vacuums. 

Thing is though, it is either one or the other.

The newer Dysons I have used (DC04 and DC07) did indeed have better suction, but they felt like they could fall to bits at any given moment.

The DC01 feels very well made, actually on par with the Turbopower 2 in terms of build quality, but as has been said the suction is very poor.  I believe the air watts put out by the 1200W motor is 90, which is most likely less than any other upright cleaner on the market in the 1990s.

Just to be clear though, it isn't a case of "Dyson killed Hoover so I hate Dyson" (not that that's even 100% true) - if the DC01 had been made with the same build quality as it was, but had the same level of suction as a (and I know I keep using it as a comparison) Turbopower 2 and had a better brushroll capable of actually agitating the carpets I would have no hesitation in praising it. 

But, as is the case with a lot of things, you can't have it all.  Well, except for the Turbopower 2...

Apart from the top heavy design, narrow internals prone to blocking and the bag door sucking inwards and splitting down the middle, of course ;)

I'm not a massive fan of old Hoover's either. The classic Junior's, Senior's and Turbpower 1's were of course fantastic cleaners, but the TP1 suffered from flimsey plastic and by the mid-70's, the Junior's and Senior's were massively outdated compared with that other manufacturers were offering at the time.

My dislike of Dyson is similar to Jamie's. The DC01, whilst a relatively solid machine, was a shocking performer compared with pretty much everything else that was on the market at the time. Whilst there's absolutely no question that the newer machines are far higher performing with better brushroll's, quieter motors and more efficient cyclones, the cost of that has been in the quality of the machines which is getting steadilly worse.

My God Chris, you agreed with me - are you feeling OK!?

True indeed. Things did improve in the late 70's with the Junior Deluxe and later the High Power Compact uprights - they were more stylish and modern looking at the time, directly rivalling the Lux 500's, Hotpoint Swallow, Kenwood Powerboost, Panasonic/National Jetflo and Hitachi CV50 of the time. But I've always felt that Hoover, whilst great cleaners, were always just a few steps behind the competition.

And the Dyson has now gone to a new home!!

I spent £10 buying it, no petrol money as I was going into town anyway and the only part I had to buy was a new hose for £6 on eBay, so given that I sold it for £30 I've just made myself an easy £14 profit.

If only I could get my hands on more old Dysons to clean up and sell on - I could make a business of this!