Customer Reviews: Read 60 more reviews...
 Mediocre and Not for Thick Carpet May 3, 2006
Clint Caviness (Winston, Oregon USA)
62 out of 84 found this review helpful
I bought this vac with high expectations. Unfortunately, it did not live up to them. I have brand new thick carpet. If you turn the unit on and just let it sit in one place for a few seconds, the beater bar bogs down and trips a ratcheting sound that resembles the noise of a cat getting sucked in tail first. I can repeat the problem over and over with ease. Initially, I thought it was a defective unit. But I have come to believe it just can't handle the thick pile. It works fine on every other floor.
After sending it back, I had opportunity to visit a Dyson dealer who also sells other brands. We threw salt, sand, rice and coins onto a big patch of his ceramic tile and store carpet and ground them in with our boots. Then I took the Dyson (DC 14 and DC 15 Ball), an Electrolux Commercial, Kirby G5, Oreck XL21, Eureka Sanitaire, and Riccar Radiance, and put them through their paces in a side by side test. The salesman didn't have to do much selling since the vacs had a chance to speak for themselves. While all the vacs got the stuff off the carpet, all but the Riccar took multiple passes (four on average). I also noticed that almost all of the vacs (except the Riccar) were strong on the right side but weak on the left. Both Dyson products beater bar seemed extremely underpowered on heavier carpet (we tried them on two weights of carpet) as did the Oreck. When we moved to the tile floor, the Dyson took the sand and salt off of the tile but left it in the cracks of the grout. Unacceptable to me.
In all honesty, when I finished the test, the Dyson products felt like plastic toys compared to some of the other products. They did a mediocre job but were incapable of dealing with the heavy carpet. Just pushing them through it was a labor, wearing my wife out after one large living room's worth of vacuuming. The Riccar, on the other hand, almost crept forward on its own. The Dysons would probably have faired much better on lower pile carpet. Had I not done the side by side test I would never have known how they all compared
I will buy a Riccar Radiance, the hands down winner in my tests. It is a little more expensive than the Dyson but far less than the Kirby. And it was the clear winner on the floor. The salesman didn't have to say anything at all. The Vacs did all the talking.
 Love my new (refurbished)Dyson DC14 FullKit:edited February 28, 2006
the cook at (Moss Beach, USA)
24 out of 26 found this review helpful
It's now July 2008. The Dyson is great! And when I finally read the instruction, I realized I'd been needlessly suffering using tool attachments with the wand in place... the wand is removable!!! That allows easy access to furniture, stairs, anything. The really great thing is that the rotating furniture/stair attachment works fantastically when the wand isn't in the way... the rotating brush keeps going when doing our carpeted stairs and velour furniture. Cat hair is gone!!! I love this thing!
OK. So I just got it and only used it to vac my upstairs (without moving furniture... just a quick test) and it took me barely 10-minutes for about 1200 sq ft of hard floor. It cleans great! It's extremely quiet, which makes me think it might be broken since Consumer Reports (and some reviewers of the DC 14 all-floors) said it was noisy. But after using a Hoover canister for the past 20-years, this thing is fantastic. Don't let anybody tell you that it doesn't do hard flooring. I highly recommend this vaccuum. I'll give a futhher review after a few weeks of use (and when I've had a chance to use all the tools). Consumer reports also gave it a lower rating for ease of use, but I put it together and got it going easily without reading the manual (don't tell Dyson!).
p.s., the cat was scared, but nowhere nearly as freightened as he is with the LOUD Hoover.
 Finally, got my Dyson.... September 9, 2006
Kirk E. Gouker (Indiana USA)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
I've wanted one of these since they came out on the market... but I had a Fantom Thunder, which was no cheap purchase itself and I couldn't see spending the money for a Dyson.
Last week, the belt broke on my Fantom, so I finally pulled the trigger and ordered this DC 14 Full Kit Dyson. I read all the reviews of the different models and felt like I picked the best one...
Today, I have been sweeping, and sweeping, and sweeping, and I cannot believe the amount of dust, dirt, and dog hair I have picked up! I thought my Fantom was amazing, but this is truly awesome!
I gave it four stars out of five, because I am not 100% pleased with the price. I do believe it is overpriced due to its popularity. I also worry a little about the lightweight plastic that it's made of... I hope it lasts... The last problem I see is that the instruction book is totally worthless... not good instructions at all... it's made for people who can't read apparently, because you mostly have to go by the drawings and diagrams. We had a little trouble assembling it, and that was frustrating.
All in all, I am very pleased that I bought it. I compared many different Dyson models as well as other brands as recommended by Consumer Reports, and I really think I picked the right one.
If you are wavering on whether or not to buy one, I say do it!
Versatile, easy to use, and effective, but does have flaws January 9, 2007
Eric Suing (Akron, OH USA)
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
I got this vacuum because I was constantly replacing the bags in my old vacuum and it didn't even have a rotating hand brush. I just got a dog and these weaknesses were really exposed.
The Dyson is solid. The bagless canister and filter system is VERY well designed and easy to use. It's not messy emptying the container at all and it maintains good suction power throughout its use. Speaking of suction power, on deep pile carpet, it won't get ALL the hair on one pass, so don't expect it to. This was a slight disappointment to me, but I doubt anything would get it in one pass. The extension handle, IMO, needs to be longer as I'm constantly leaning over when using it with the bare floor attachment, although it does work VERY well on bare floors. I also think it's sometimes difficult to use the full length of the extension hose without potentially knocking the vacuum over, although if you're careful, that won't be a problem.
Other than those small complaints, I'm pretty happy with the purchase. The bagless design was huge for me. The longer extension hose is great for stairs, and 30' power cord saves me a lot of hassle. It's also not as loud as my old dirt devil. I think it's slightly overpriced and probably should be about $75 less, but if you have the money and don't want to compromise too much, it's a solid purchase.
Miles above Hoover WindTunnel March 10, 2007
Y. Cho (Austin TX)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
We had been using a Hoover WindTunnel that we'd purchased five years ago from the factory store for 180. While it seemed to work reasonably well, it was just incredibly loud. And it was heavy and not so easy to maneuver.
What we like about this Dyson, which we purchased after reading an incredible number of reviews here at Amazon and elsewhere:
1. noise level, compared to the WindTunnel, is surprisingly quiet. We don't have to yell to hold a conversation while vacuuming.
2. Aesthetics. Going from Hoover to Dyson was like switching from Dell Dimension to Apple iMac.
3. Suction, of course. Every other review here which claims shocking amounts of dirt being picked up the first time is TRUE. Our landlord had steam-cleaned the carpet just a month before we moved in. It really was shocking to see how much was in the dust bin after the first vacuuming.
4. Ease of dust disposal. Really quite easy!
5. Not having to stock vacuum bags.
It's not a small sum to spend on a vacuum. However, we have a baby who's just about begun to crawl, and we convinced ourselves that getting a really good vacuum that can keep the floor clean was for the good of the baby. You can justify all sorts of spending when the baby comes! :-)
We were also considering getting an Oreck, but we weren't so satisfied with their XL Air Cleaner.
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