It must have been the full moon! I was trying to vacuum our carpet but was seeing that pet hair was not coming up. I checked our old Hoover Windtunnel and found the rotating brush was not moving. Not a surprise since it has been temperamental lately. In checking the brush I found that the plastic bar rotates on bearings of felt - that's right felt! The felt had worn away and the bar now was straining against the plastic and would not turn.
So, a new vacuum was in order. We have several pets and pet hair was a prime consideration. We went through the reviews and quickly noted that Dyson was positively reviewed in most places. But really, - $500 for a vacuum? We were heading toward another Hoover or Bissell but stopped short. Reviews of those units talked about noise, weight, messy bagless clean-up. If you hate a product going out the door - maybe we should be looking elsewhere?
So we took the plunge and bought a Dyson DC25 "All Floors". In reading the reviews it sounded like "The Animal" was what we needed for the pet hair. But Dyson, like many manufacturers, uses model numbers in a bewildering mix of letters/numbers. It turns out there are 3 DC25 models - The Animal, All Floors, and a Blueprint -Special Edition. They appear to have the same base machine - just different colors and attachments.
We found the only difference between the All Floors and The Animal was an attachment for The Animal that was used to clean stairs and furniture. The Mini Turbine Head fit at the end of the hose. This, the purple color and $50 seem to be the only difference. The Blueprint-Special Edition has a flatter head configuration to better get under things. It is about $30 more than the All Floors.
What we found was that we didn't need the Mini Turbine Head - the All Floors easily picked up hair with the include tools. If you find you want it - it can be purchased separately. We saw many on eBay.
So we got the unit home and unpacked it. Its various parts snapped together. The unit is all plastic, but strong plastic. The click-together was solid and reassuring. When turned on the unit is very quiet (compared to our old Hoover) and pretty light. The pet hair was sucked-up in one pass - amazing. It was actually kind of fun using this machine; I never thought I'd say that about a vacuum cleaner! It just works so well.
So, what the down-side? Well, the electrical cord is slightly shorter than our old Hoover and need to be moved more. In our house, the Hoover could be plugged in once downstairs and get all areas. The Dyson has to be plugged in a couple of places to reach the far ends of the house. The hose attachment is a built-in part of the machine that extends to clean stairs, furniture, and dust ceilings and so on. It too, is slightly shorter than the Hoover (although the Hoover hose was a separate attachment not stored within the unit itself like the Dyson). I could clean all the stairs with the Hoover hose without moving the unit - the Dyson will reach almost all the way but need to be repositioned to get all the stairs. The Dyson does not have a light - I came to rely on the Hoover headlight to see into dark corners.
I have forgotten to mention the bagless nature of the machine. We have always had vacuum bags in the machines prior to this. In reading the reviews, many people noted other manufacturers had awkward bagless set-ups. They were hard to get to, hard to remove, hard to empty and easy to spill dirt all over the place. Not the Dyson - the clear canister is up front where you can see when it's full, has an easy click button to remove it and take it to the trash can. A simple button releases the bottom of the canister and the dirt falls out. Clean, simple and effective.
We have had the machine about 3 weeks and are having no buyer's remorse. As long as the unit continues to work as well as it has so far - we will have thought our money has been well spent. It is just a joy to use this great product!
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