First impressions count...

So the Dyson arrived this morning. Boy #2 and I circled the box warily, wondering what we were about to unleash once we set the 'Animal' free, but we needn't have worried.

Accompanied by little squeaks and loud shouts of 'Amazing!' and 'Wow' (three year olds are cheap dates), I slid the beast out of it's packaging, and started to assemble it. Boy #2 was impressed; mainly because he has already earmarked the box as the basis for a robot costume (I forsee a trip to the supermarket for more tinfoil in my near future), and I was impressed because the machine really was as easy to put together as it had appeared at the demonstration.

Raring to go, I decided to ignore the fact that the flat had been cleaned only 2 days previously and give the place a good going over. We have hardwood floorings in all the rooms but 2, it all looked relatively dust-free; how bad could it be?

Well, I have to say that the wood flooring was reasonably blameless; there was some dirt, but really, not too bad. (Of course, the Boys have been at school for most of those two days; Monday morning will probably tell a different story). But the sisal in our bedroom and dressing room was different ball-game altogether.

I had had my suspicions that the Miele hadn't been totally suck-tastic for a while. This may of course have had something to do with our cleaner's misplaced thrift in not replacing the bag regularly, and my laziness in simply getting on and doing it myself, but I suppose that actually this is one of the advantages of the bag-less system. In any case, a great deal more rubbish came out of the sisal than I had anticipated, so the Dyson definitely scored points here.

Just for good measure, then I gave the sitting room furniture a quick going-over with the special attachment. (I know, Ineed to be careful, before I know it I will be turning into my mother and knitting my own pasta). Did I imagine that it looked cleaner afterwards? Who knows...

Overall then, initial impressions are that the Dyson is:

1. easy to assemble (the instructions are very clear)
2. easy to use (and changing heads was very straightforward)
3. easy to pull around
4. delivers great 'suck-ability' (it is impossible to say that with a straight face, btw)
5. quite a lot noisier than the miele (I had been warned about this and it's not a huge problem, though if I still had a babe in arms who napped frequently, the option that the miele has for running more quietly would probably be missed)
6. is easy to put away.

And comes with a great 3-year-old sized cardboard box that will be a terrorising the neighbourhood as a robot before you know it.

An Introduction

So yesterday I and 5 other bloggers were invited to the Dyson PR office in South Kensington to be introduced to the brave new world of Dyson 'machines'. Well, new to me, that is. Not actually so new in reality; the company is over 25 years old, and the cyclone technology that gave birth to the original Dyson vacuum cleaner is now out of patent, it's so established.

I do so like to be on the cutting edge of technology.

Anyway, I and my blogging colleagues were given an insight into the wonderful world of Dyson (and I'm writing that in a totally non-ironic sense), and personally, I really liked what I saw. The company seems on the ball, they certainly had the right team giving us our guided tour - if you want to get a group of mums on-side then getting a fellow mother who also just happens to be head of acoustic engineering at Dyson to lead them through it is a most excellent plan - and it was a relaxed and enjoyable couple of hours.

All that remains is for the 'machine' they are giving me - to see if it stands up to the test of central London dirt and 2 small boys with a marked preference for incredibly small pieces of lego and lots of stickers and glitter - to arrive.

Watch this space for info on our road-test...