mantom

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August 25, 2013
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mantom's Reviews

Dyson - DC39 Animal HEPA Bagless Canister Vacuum - Iron/Purple

Dyson DC39 Animal Canister Vacuum Cleaner: Keep your floors free from pet hair with this bagless canister vacuum that features Radial Root Cyclone technology for powerful suction. Combo, stair and mini-turbine tools make it easy to clean hard-to-reach areas.

Boy does it suck

Customer Rating

3.0

Posted by: mantom

from aliso viejo, ca

on August 25, 2013

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Quality

4.0

Features

3.0

Performance

5.0

What's great about it: It really sucks

What's not so great: It really sucks

I purchased this vacuum for two reasons:

1) My place is a very small condo (550 sq ft). An upright just isn't practical as there isn't enough square footage to justify it's use. My condo has an almost 50/50 split between porcelain tile and carpeting (throw rug and wall-to-wall), both with tightly organized furniture attempting to maximize space.

2) I have long hair and wanted something that wouldn't choke on it. figured a vacuum designed for pet hair would do the job.

the good:

This vacuum cleaner has excellent (very strong) suction and is quiet relative to the amount of suction it generates. Anything within 2 inches of the end of the hose gets sucked up. When the canister/filter gets full or near full, suction is still pretty strong. The attachments are easy to install, connect, and disconnect. the canister rolls very nicely along the floor as you wander about sucking things up. You don't have to tug it to tag along even on thick carpet. The auto-recoil feature for the power cord works very smooth too. No worries about it recoiling like a measuring tape where you fear getting whiplashed. The recoil is very smooth and controlled, you don't have to help it along. If you have to vacuum open spaces with minimal obstacles, this vacuum is hard to beat.

the not so good:

Unfortunately my space isn't wide open. it's relatively tight which means lots of nooks, crannies, sticking the hose under the sofa, bed, and tables, between the side table and computer, inside the closet, between legs of all the chairs, book shelves, curtains, etc... Maneuverability is an important feature. I was surprised to find that this vacuum is difficult to maneuver in tight spaces - it's clunky. The handles are long and bulky. The very features that are advertised to make things easy to use and practical (gun handle, suction release, angled heads, ...) are exactly the same features that make the vacuum difficult to maneuver. You are forced to use the 3 foot long tube no matter what attachment you need. Problem is I have a lot of areas where that 3 foot tube gets in the way and I would rather remove it completely and go with the shorter hose, but that's not an option. I also found this vacuum not very friendly for vacuuming areas which are more than waist high. The angle of the hose connection at the canister as well as with the 3 foot tube takes away vertical reach as you cannot fully straighten the hose. The best you can get is a flat 'S'. This kink makes it tiring to lift the hose for extended periods to vacuum shelves, curtains, drapes, stairway steps, or ledges because you're always fighting the recoil tension in the hose. The only way to vacuum anything more than 5 feet off the ground is to buy their other expensive attachments so you can angle the heads on the end of the hose. really? A vacuum that costs nearly $500 and I still have to buy more attachments?

Speaking of attachments, while easy to attach/detach, there are no tools for disassembling for cleaning - such as getting hair untangled from the rollers. Steps are provided in the manuals, but no tools to undo the screws - which are not standard screw heads. They're large pieces of plastic designed to be unscrewed with quarters or half dollars. Even the quarter is not thick enough running risk of stripping the head of the screw.

My main beef with the roller head attachment is there is too much space between the edge of the head and the roller. This makes it very difficult to get into corners and wall base boards. It's almost designed to only do the open space while forcing you to use a different attachment for the corners and base boards. I shouldn't have to do that. for the areas the attachment fits, the rollers work very well. But they leave a fairly large gap between the roller and outer edge of the attachment that comes in contact with the furniture and walls.

Hairy situation:

The very feature that I wanted was the ability to vacuum without my long hair getting tangled in the roller brush. result - fail. You have to buy the non-tangling attachment for an additional $70 for that feature. if I had known that, I would've purchased the yellow version of this vacuum and saved the bucks as the two models are identical except for the mini-roller brush - which I don't need/use. I like yellow better too. sob.

cleaning:

Removing the canister for emptying was not intuitive. You must forcibly lift the carrying handle while holding the canister down as it's a tension snap-fit connection. Once you remove the canister, you have to make your way to a garbage can to empty it as it's a bag less device. Once you open the latch, all the dust comes flying out. It doesn't go straight down into the trash can - it goes everywhere like children smacking chalkboard erasers to get the chalk out. All that effort sucking up the dust is nullified the moment you attempt to empty the canister. My suggestion is to do this outside with the door shut behind you so the stuff doesn't go back inside. Don't do it while wearing nice clothes either. The part I hate most is it disturbs my allergies. Oh, before I forget, the size of the canister is something to pay attention to. If you're like me and have a small living space, you probably also have a smaller trash can which means a smaller trash can opening. This affects how you can empty the canister neatly because to do it without getting stuff all over the place, you need to be able to put the canister into the trash can below the rim so the dust cloud is contained. If you cannot do that, think twice about where you empty the canister. One work around is to wet the trash bag so the dust clings to it as it flies out, but a better workaround is to go outside and use a trash bag without the trash can - like emptying the grass bag of your old fashioned lawn mower before mulchers were available.

summary:

Fortunately I had reward points and a holiday discount, so I didn't pay the full price, but I still paid enough that I feel that this vacuum should be better at vacuuming the home than it is. I would expect these limitations to be present on an upright vacuum which by design has limited mobility. Not a canister model. I would call this a funsize shop vac, not an everyday vacuum for the living room.

If your vacuuming needs aren't too demanding this is a very good vacuum, but if you're like me and have a tight space or need maneuverability on the hose end, consider a different model.

This product is or has... Enough suction that a single-pass does the job, A light canister, Long enough cord

About me... occasional user, everyday user, All about design

I would recommend this to a friend!

Verified Purchaser:Yes

My Best Buy number: 2638713963

+10points

11out of 12found this review helpful.

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mantom's Answers

Dyson - DC39 Animal HEPA Bagless Canister Vacuum - Iron/Purple

attachments

are any attachments included (crevice, etc)

As stated on the box, the vacuum comes with the wide roller, extension tube with soft brush, upholstery attachment (4 inch wide without roller), and animal mini-roller brush.

This vacuum is identical to the regular DC-39 model with the only difference being the color (yellow vs. purple) and the pet version coming with the mini-roller brush attachment. hindsight being 20/20, I'd buy the regular DC-39 if I had to do it again. If I needed a brush, I'd buy the non-tangling brush attachment separately as it's more effective than the mini-roller brush that comes with the pet version. If you get the non-tangling brush on sale, your overall cost will be the same as buying the DC-39 pet version.

10 years, 8 months ago

Posted by:

mantom

from

aliso viejo, ca