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Author Topic: Dyson seizes victory in European courts over Brussels vacuum cleaner rules  (Read 9224 times)

Offline MVOlga

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Sir James Dyson has won a shock victory in the European courts over Brussels rules which the company says unfairly penalised its vacuum cleaners.

An appeal in the European Court of Justice said a previous ruling from a lower court against Dyson had “distorted the facts” and “erred in law”.

Sir James has been fighting an EU ruling which requires vacuums to be labelled showing their energy efficiency and cleaning performance as part of a green drive by Brussels bureaucrats.

The billionaire entrepreneur argued that the tests are only relevant to vacuums with their dust bags empty and do not cover them when they are full, as they would typically be in normal use. A full vacuum would typically use more energy.

Quote

3 Minutes With James Dyson

What has been the secret to your personal success? Failure has been my biggest secret to success.It took more than 5,000 prototypes before I succeeded in creating my first bagless vacuum cleaner. Today we have over 3,000 engineers and scientists at Dyson who are actively encouraged to fail; it's all part of the design process.

What would you like to change most about the UK? There is an ever-increasing shortage of skilled engineers in the UK which must be rectified. Britain has 37,000 engineering vacancies a year, but produces just 22,000 engineering graduates.

What would you like to change most about your sector/industry? The engineering sectors image needs to change. When engineering is mentioned, people envision a man in a boiler suit repairing a cooker but engineering entails so much more than this. We must excite young people about designing and making things.

What is your idea of perfect happiness? Working on new ways to solve problems by engineering technology hands-on. I’m lucky as that it is what I do every day!

Dyson’s vacuums use a “cyclonic” design without a bag to collect dust and the company argued that the tests used by the EU unfairly disadvantaged its products.

Two years ago the company argued in the European general court that there was a way of testing conventional vacuums when the bag was full, so a comparison could be drawn between the two designs.

The European Court of Justice today upheld parts of Dyson’s appeal, backing the company’s claims that tests are available to measure a vacuum’s performance when full.

It also backed the British company’s by saying tests should “measure the performance of vacuum cleaners in conditions as close as possible to actual conditions of use”.

Judges in the higher court also hit out at the previous ruling, saying the “general court distorted the facts and failed to comply in its duty to give reasons”.

The court set aside the previous judgement, and referred it back to the general court, reserving costs.

The ruling was met with surprise at Dyson’s Wiltshire base, which had not been expecting the ruling so soon.

Sir James was a high-profile Brexiteer ahead of the EU referendum, welcoming the opportunity for British industry to get away from what Brussels’ regulations.

He previously poured scorn on the idea that the EU is single market, saying “it is not a single market. There are different languages, boxes, plugs, marketing and so on, different psychology, different laws. There’s a lot of cost involved.”

Quote

CV | James Dyson
Profession:
Inventor
Born:
2 May 1947, Norfolk (age 69)
Education:
Furniture design, then engineering at the Royal College of Art
Family:
Married, three children
Hobbies:
Running
Quote:
“Failure is interesting – it’s part of making progress. You never learn from success, but you do learn from failure.” (Interview with Entrepreneur magazine, 2012)

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Offline Madrat

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 :thumbsup: ;)

About time

Offline beko1987

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He does have a point, also, I've always wondered if the cleaners are tested with paper or synthetic bags (where available).

I reckon the EU should test vacs empty and full and take an average. Then test dysons with a clean and clogged filter
Collector and restorer of vintage vacuums, Dyson Appreciator! Come and see my blog, where I am uploading all my mountains of brochures, manuals and other vacuum cleaner paperwork, and also my youtube channel @beko1987!

Offline Madrat

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Any vac will perform fantastic straight out of the box under lab conditions, and many will beat dyson, but try it after it has done 1 or 2 carpets!


Offline beko1987

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I picked up a Sebo X1 this lunchtime, and it has an old synthetic bag fitted. It's half bricks (and flipping stinks) but has perfect suction still! With a paper bag, it may not be as great. The filter is also clogged (not as bad as the X4 earlier in the week was though)

But then we have all had Dysons that blow the release valve as soon as we turn them on, and open the pre filter to reveal a minging hair and dust covered bit of foam. The EU regs were the subject of much laughter and scorn from the collectors, because they are pretty rubbish!

We should do them...
Collector and restorer of vintage vacuums, Dyson Appreciator! Come and see my blog, where I am uploading all my mountains of brochures, manuals and other vacuum cleaner paperwork, and also my youtube channel @beko1987!

Offline Madrat

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Just another reason to get out. Its the same with white goods, they all have A+ ratings and are labelled as eco friendly but you cant recycle them or even fix them you have to throw them away and buy new. Something gone wrong there  :D

Offline beko1987

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Yep, it's all just a bit rubbish really.

I can see a positive, it's stopped all those 2300w horrible cheap vacuums that just threw a higher wattage motor in to hide the lack of development in the design. Look at the horrible bagless Hoover cleaners before and after the EU ruling, suddenly we saw baseplate changes, air path changes etc, on the most part for the better.

But it wasn't really needed at all! The X1 I've just picked u is 850w from 1997 and has plenty of power! I won't bang on about 250w Hoover Juniors that can outclean a DC24 (tool use withstanding). I've had 900w Hoover Compacts that have been perfectly fine. The race for bigger numbers started, and spiralled up.

Plus, the yearly energy use figure is utter twaddle. Who keeps their vacuum running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week etc? Average Joe who runs it round 3 times a week for 20 minutes won't use anywhere near that amount.

I've not seen many lower wattage motors burn out though (anyone else?) Someone commented on something somewhere else the other day that the new lower wattage Henry motors are falling over, but I've not seen that yet.
Collector and restorer of vintage vacuums, Dyson Appreciator! Come and see my blog, where I am uploading all my mountains of brochures, manuals and other vacuum cleaner paperwork, and also my youtube channel @beko1987!

Offline Madrat

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True about motors, not many burnt out juniors etc

Offline beko1987

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I'm keeping quiet on that, I have a 1224 with a duff motor (not opened it up yet though)!

I mention it in my YDK video (shameless plug - that motors are usually fine right until they arent. Junior motors can take having the carbons run down to the metal as they spin much slower, so the damage isn't done unless your really silly. A 1200w (or 1600w MTR299) or 2300w run down to the metal - doesn't take many seconds to scrap it!

Couple that with the frankly god awful filtration that I know alot of us see every day (and I always say Dyson have the best bagless filtration out there) and the heat gets generated, or fans fill up with crap and run off balance etc.

Bagged all the way!
Collector and restorer of vintage vacuums, Dyson Appreciator! Come and see my blog, where I am uploading all my mountains of brochures, manuals and other vacuum cleaner paperwork, and also my youtube channel @beko1987!

Offline GeorgeJ

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But then we have all had Dysons that blow the release valve as soon as we turn them on, and open the pre filter to reveal a minging hair and dust covered bit of foam.
That's how we benefit, though.  You were told "It's shit, it's broken, it has no suction.  Take it for $10." and then you have it up and running in 5 minutes.  ;)
You miss 100% of the Dysons you don't buy.  -Wayne Gretzky
 -Michael Scott  -GeorgeJ

Offline beko1987

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That is very true, we should not bite the hand that feeds us!
Collector and restorer of vintage vacuums, Dyson Appreciator! Come and see my blog, where I am uploading all my mountains of brochures, manuals and other vacuum cleaner paperwork, and also my youtube channel @beko1987!

Offline Parwaz7862

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Oooh
I doubt there's many modern vacuums that can clean well without maintenance after about a week's use, apart from Numatics, Dysons and all the other bagged vacs!

I agree tho, why test vacuums when they are new? People's vacuums are only new once and they'll be forever dusty :/

Offline beko1987

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As much as this thread drift is good and all, what have top loader washing machines got to do with the EU rating on vacuum cleaners?

Tayyab, how dusty is the inside of your bagless miele now? That had an A rating for dust emissions didn't it? A rated out the back of the post filter maybe...
Collector and restorer of vintage vacuums, Dyson Appreciator! Come and see my blog, where I am uploading all my mountains of brochures, manuals and other vacuum cleaner paperwork, and also my youtube channel @beko1987!

Offline beko1987

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Something else I've just thought of, whilst replying to Mr. Dyson's ERP thread, with these new erp machines, with the min and max sliders, what setting do the EU tests use? The Max locks the self adjustment of the baseplate doesn't it, and stops airflow escaping out the sides of the baseplate (so it snowplows and is a sod to push on certain carpet)
Collector and restorer of vintage vacuums, Dyson Appreciator! Come and see my blog, where I am uploading all my mountains of brochures, manuals and other vacuum cleaner paperwork, and also my youtube channel @beko1987!

Offline Parwaz7862

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My bagless Miele is very dusty around the bin area, but that's with doing mess tests etc if that helps along with normal vacuuming
The exhaust is on the side and I think that's nice and clean, just the cyclone area needs improving and maybe the seals I think

 

 

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