Dyson, the U.K. home appliance maker, held a rare performance test in Seoul on Tuesday by comparing its own luxurious stick vacuum cleaner with cheaper competitors. 

During the event, Dyson’s motor drive engineer Graham Donald demonstrated the suction power of the company’s V6 Fluffy cleaner and the key technologies behind the device. 

Then, a “blind test” was carried out. 

He and two other staff members carrying three different stick vacuums started to collect baking power scattered on separate black tiles. While the Dyson vacuum cleaned the tile almost completely, some powder was left on the other two tiles. 

“These are the best machines in the category, and that’s why we compared these machines for the event,” the Dyson engineer said. 

Even though Dyson didn’t reveal the names of the devices, it seemed obvious what they were -- LG Electronics’ CordZero handy stick (VS7301SCW) and Swedish appliance maker Electrolux’s wireless vacuum cleaner (ZB5021). 

Vacuums from Tefal and Rycop were also used for another mattress suction test where a Dyson vacuum, of course, outperformed the others. 

But the problem was there were clear differences in their specifications to be compared directly with Dyson’s vacuum, one of the most expensive cleaners on the market. 

While Dyson’s F6 Fluffy is 1.19 million won ($977) and has 25 watts of suction power, the LG vacuum is a mass-market model priced at 299,000 won with less than 20 watts of suction power. The Electrolux model is priced at 469,000 won and has 20 watts of suction power. 

LG was especially upset about the comparison test held on its home turf. 

The tested model was one of the cheapest models of LG, while its high-end vacuums include a 1.04 million won product with 200 watts of suction power and a 459,000 won stick vacuum with 25 watts of suction power. 

“The test is clearly misleading consumers. It’s natural that LG and others are considering filing a lawsuit against Dyson,” said an industry source. 

In October last year, LG filed an injunction against Dyson to stop its ad campaign in Australia that claimed its cordless vacuum cleaner boasts “the highest suction power” among rivals.  

In the following weeks, Dyson agreed to remove the expression in the ad and LG withdrew the lawsuit. 

On Tuesday, Dyson said its sales almost quadrupled in Korea last year without further elaborating. It aimed to double sales figures this year.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)