Dyson Technology in South Africa

I consider Relax With Dax a lifestyle blog, which means I cover a broad range of topics. But I did not think I would ever be writing about vacuum cleaners! However, what I saw today must be shared.

If you asked me to name brands of vacuum cleaners, I would come up with Electrolux and Hoover, that’s it. When I received the invitation to the Dyson product launch, I had no idea what sort of products they made. Then I had a flashback to something I saw while I was in London a few trips ago. It was a hand dryer in a public restroom. It was so efficient, it dried my hands in less than 10 seconds, unlike the other air blowing hand dryers that take twice or thrice that amount of time. I remember thinking at the time that this is good design. It was called the Dyson Airblade.

#ThingsAboutLondon 5. These hand dryers in public restrooms dry your hands in less than 10s. I hope we get them in SA. pic.twitter.com/boTbPVmS

— Dax Villanueva (@RelaxWithDax) October 17, 2012

So I decided to attend the launch, hoping to see some cool products. I did see cool products, in fact, way cooler than I could have imagined. I was genuinely blown away (haha, that’s funny because they were launching their new fans too).

About 35 years ago, James Dyson bought himself a vacuum cleaner. But after using it for a while he wasn’t impressed with it and took it apart to try and understand how it worked so that he could improve it. To cut a long story short, he invented the first bagless vacuum cleaner. Now Dyson has about 1500 engineers working on the design and improvement of the various Dyson products and their turnover worldwide is in the vicinity of $3 billion! It’s still a private company too.

I quite enjoyed that story, James sounds like a cool dude. But the best was yet to come. They did a demo for us. A typical demo where they throw some stuff on the floor and demonstrate how their vacuum cleaner picks up a ton more than the competing product. The focus of the event was the cordless vacuum. It’s pretty nifty. They have redesigned the engine to be teeny tiny, but just as powerful and fitted it into the handle of a handheld, battery operated vacuum! That machine is amazing. Here is a photo of me holding one.

I never thought I would aspire to own a vacuum cleaner. At about R5,500, they are not something most people can buy on a whim. But one day when I am big, I will own a Dyson vacuum cleaner. I wonder if there are 2nd hand ones available? Apparently they last forever.

But if you think that R5,500 is quite a bit for a vacuum cleaner, let me introduce you to the R6,500 fan. Yes, it’s a fan. Also a heater as it does hot air too. This fan is amazing, it does not look like a fan. There are no blades, it’s just an empty rectoval (my new word to describe a rectangular oval shape). It can also be an empty circle, there are different shapes. But look at these things. They are futuristic. They oscillate, they tilt, the have variable speeds (not 1 – 3 like normal blade fans, try 1-10) and they can detect the temperature and vary their output to keep the temperature constant. On top if it all, they are unbelievably quiet. Like, silent!

I WANT ONE! It’s the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. It even has a remote control that sits neatly on top and is held in place with a magnet.

I have no more words. Well, actually, I could go on forever about these products but I think you get the idea. Go check out their YouTube channel, it has tons of really interesting videos about how the products work.

You can also get more info at the website or Facebook page.