By now, most have at least heard of Dyson vacuum cleaners, the brainchild of British billionaire inventor James Dyson. Since introducing his first model in 1986 in Britain, Dyson quickly rose to the number one selling vacuum in that country in only two years and later in 2004 became the fastest selling vacuum here in the U.S.

In Canada, one in five vacuums sold is a Dyson and that country represents Dyson’s fastest growing distribution point worldwide. The question is “Why?” According to Dyson himself “I just developed new technology to make it work better, finding a creative way to solve everyday problems.”
Dysons do not have bags and combine a dual-cyclonic action (now with the introduction of the DC17 Animal - three layers of cyclonic action) that uses centrifugal force to remove any particles of dirt form the surrounding are and trap that dirt in a canister. New incoming air does not have to pass through this dirt, as it would with a traditional bagged vacuum, and thus cleans better, will not clog and will not lose suction no matter how much dirt is captured.

Enough with the mechanics, lets talk about style! The Dyson vaccuum cleaner simply looks great. With its modernistic approach to styling, Dyson has combined form and function to produce a winner. So much so, listen up ladies, that their research shows men are 50% more likely to be the ones doing the vacuuming. Now I know why I’m so passionate about this cleaning tool!

But Dyson is not resting on their laurels. They invest close to $100 million a year to new research. They’ve also introduced a new program in Canada called Dyson Canada Design Competition which is open to student designers. The contestants are rewarded for following Dyson’s engineering philosophy of a complete design; “a concept that looks good, solves a problem, works well and provides a real advantage over existing alternatives.” A $5,000 cash award goes to the winner - and a Dyson vacuum cleaner of course.

Dyson hopes to get into other appliances soon. He’s already made an attempt with a washing machine featuring counter rotating drums (who’s design has been discontinued to be replaced soon) and a commercial high-speed hand dryer.

They’ve also just released a new product to their vacuum line which is a slimmer version of their popular vacuums, called the DC18 All Floors

So what’s the next big thing? According to Dyson “For the past 12 years, robotics have been big. Domestic help will possibly disappear, so we’re looking into designing houses that accommodate robots.”

Sounds exciting.