Dyson, the design company known for its bagless cyclonic vacuum cleaners that maintain suction even as they fill with debris, shared an Achilles heel with even the most plebeian vacuums –the nuisance of tangling hair.
The problem is the cleaner head’s “brush bar,” which spins on a horizontal axis to loosen debris on floors so that the vacuum can suck it up.
Pet hair (human hair too, for that matter) tends to wind itself into the spinning mechanism, requiring it to be cut away.
So it was probably a matter of time before Dyson took on brush bar technology. The result is called the Dyson Tangle-free Turbine tool, which replaces the horizontal spinning brush bar with a pair of disks that spin horizontally, like a pair of DJ turntables that face the floor.
According to Dyson it took 187 prototypes to get it right and 19 patents to protect the innovations on just the turbine tool – so named because air intake–not belts–drives the spinning motion of the discs.
The Tangle-free Turbine tool is available for $70 and works with vacuums from the DC21 on, except for DC24 and cordless products. It is included in the tools for the most recent Dyson vacuum, the DC41 Animal Complete, which lists for $650.
We called on Susan Roupe, a professional housekeeper of 28 years, to try it in a home with a long-haired cat. Ms. Roupe, who has owned vacuums from Oreck, Shark, and Dyson, among others, gave the turbine tool high marks, having tried it on a bedspread liberally covered with cat hair. “It picks up better” than the brush tool, she said. And it didn’t tangle after extensive use. Her only concern was that it be kept away from children, because it might be too easy to catch a curious finger in the rotating discs.
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