Dyson DC14 Animal

After being so frustrated with my last 2 Hoovers and knowing that all sorts of things must be living in our rugs and carpets, I spent the most I've ever spent on a vacumn for the Dyson DC 14 Animal. We have 3 cats and 3 birds so we have down and feathers flying every where as well as cat hair everywhere you can imagine.

Fortunately, I was able to purchase the vacumn here on ebay for over $100.00 less than the $549 retail price you'll find in stores. I couldn't wait to test it out once I got it and, as far as the suction goes, it sure didn't disappoint. The first time I vacuumed after dumping the Hoover, I think I emptied the canister at least 20 times. I have to empty it twice just after going over a small 4 x 6 area rug! Unbelievable. And removing and emptying the canister couldn't be easier. No more struggling with a bag and having the dust fall all over the floor again when you remove it. Yuck! It's quieter and lighter than most other vacumns as well, plus the purple is just plain fun for a boring task!

We live in the desert so we have a lot of hard surface flooring with area rugs and the Dyson transitions from one surface to the other very easily. The suction is so strong, that for some of the lighter area rugs that it tends to suck up, you can use the vacumn without the beater brushes on and it does a good job of cleaning those rugs as well. The length that the hose will stretch is awesome! That was something that the Hoover really frustrated me with everytime I vacuumed. Just trying to vacume the cushions on the sofa, the hose was so short it would tip the Hoover over and it would fall on me every time. I was constantly bruised on my legs! The Dyson hose is so long I can vacumn the fabric cornice boxes that reach up 11' over our windows! I've been able to get to things that never got cleaned at all in the past, at least not without a struggle. It makes vacuuming very satisfying!

BUT, now for the things I find frustrating, even about the Dyson. The directions for putting the thing together were not very adequate. Because the Dyson is constructed much differently than a conventional vacumn cleaner, I had a difficult time figuring out how the hose and wand initially fit together, and I'm still not sure I'm using the attachments properly because there's no directions for those at all. The wand slides inside of the hose on the back of the vacumn, so in order to remove the hose you have to fully extend the wand, detach it from the vacumn, and put it ?, and then detach the hose. It's a lot of steps and no way you can do it with 1 hand. Frankly, it's a pain in the ass to switch from floor vacuuming to using an attachment on the hose. The "animal brush" for upholstery doesn't fit on the vacumn at all so you have to go get it and drag it with you from room to room . It does do a good job of cleaning, but because NONE of my attachments fit over the end of the hose all the way to use the clip provided on the piece to keep it secure, and it's a fairly heavy attachment, it constantly falls off and makes my hand tired using it. The flat floor attachment to fit under the bed has so much suction that it is really hard to push, so I've given up using it. The Zorb cleaner doesn't seem to do much and once again, there are no instructions for use, just a few line drawings. The last thing that I find really disappointing, especially for such an expensive vacuum, is that there is no light on the front of it.

So, it's not perfect, but all in all, even for the price, the positives outweigh the negatives. At least now I know my house is clean and my allergy symptoms have improved since owning it.

This is just an update: I have owned the Dyson for a little over a year now and it is still going strong. Usually every other vacuum I've owned takes a dump as sson as the warranty expires a year later. It still cleans and picks up everything really well, but it does clog, regardless of what the commercials say. I've had to dismantle the hoses a few times to unclog them, but then it's easy to put back together and works great again.

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