Dyson DC07 Cyclone Animal Upright Vacuum, Purple
by Dyson
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List Price: Our Price: $200.00 You Save: $420.00 (68%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Home See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Dyson DC07 Cyclone Animal Upright Vacuum, Purple
Customer Review: Worth it's weight in gold
Summary: 5 Stars
Edit added: I have now owned this vacuum for a couple months and have grown to love it even more. It is designed to disassemble and clean very easily. I have experienced no clogging, but if I did, I could access nearly everywhere to clear it. Like any vacuum, hair and threads get wrapped around the roller brush and you must cut it free, but Dyson has clear instructions for that and the procedure is easy.
I said it was quiet but I've discovered that this is true only while vacuuming the floor; some of the attachments are very loud and I use ear protection while I use them. But the noise is due to the incredible suction power going through them and the benefits of that outweigh the trouble. I love vacuuming with this thing and still look for excuses to get it out and use it. Yesterday I did my car with it. The "animal" attachment was wonderful to do the interior floors. By the way, since this attachment is so narrow but still has a roller brush, it has been very useful to get tight carpeted spots in the house where the main machine doesn't fit. I have used it much more than I thought I would. The various other attachments did great on car interior surfaces and the long hose reached everywhere. I've discovered that it requires force to pull the hose out when the machine is on, but again, this is due to the incredibly powerful suction and hence the trouble is worth it. I had to learn that the "under the furniture" attachment has an adjustment for carpet/bare floor that is easy to miss. If you use carpet mode on a bare floor the suction will make it nearly impossible to use, so be aware of that.
I'd spend the money all over again for this vacuum; I absolutely adore it.
The original review:
I had a hard time deciding to spend the money when you can get an upright for one fifth the price, but when it arrived, it took less than half a day for me to conclude it was well worth every penny! This is THE best vacuum cleaner I've ever used, bar none.
It is designed to be very easy on the body, starting with the carry handle. Other uprights require you to hold the stick near the top and carry it with your elbow bent up, but the carry handle on the Dyson allows you to carry it with your arm down, like a suitcase. What a difference!
The power switch is located high so you can push it with your finger. My old upright has it on the bottom where you hit it with your foot but it is next to the button that unlocks the stick and I always hit the wrong one. That issue alone makes the Dyson worth the money, since my blood pressure will be much lower now!
The cord is very long! That means much less bending down to plug and unplug the thing. With low back problems, that means a great deal to me! I like the fact that the cord is not retractable; I had a retractable cord vacuum once where the spring got weak and the thing would not retract all the way. There was nothing I could do as there was nowhere to wind the cord; that will never happen with my Dyson.
The hose is extremely long compared to my old machine. It can reach a whole flight of stairs. No more carrying a bulky upright with me as I vacuum the stairs! But the hose vanishes to nothing when not in use. It actually becomes part of the vertical stick and so does not stick out or hang around it like my old one did, nor does it disconnect to not be around when I need it.
To use the hose you do not have to think about turning a knob from "floor" to "hose". My old upright had the knob near the bottom, so I was having to bend down again to rotate the thing each time I switched. The Dyson, you don't even have to think about it. The suction automatically comes through the hose when you pull it out, and automatically comes through the floor when you pull back the stick to do the floor. What EXCELLENT design! Unbelievably well thought out.
There is one mechanism on the bottom you have to bend down for, and that is the carpet/bare floor switch. But since you're turning the roller on and off I suppose it has to be there, and it doesn't bother me much since I don't have to use it very often.
Emptying the cannister is an absolute breeze. I used to dread shaking and knocking the old filter outside, with dust blowing back in my face. You had to do it outside or you'd get it all over the house again. This Dyson, you hold it over the kitchen trash and pull a trigger, and that's it! Nothing to it. I actually ENJOY emptying the cannister now! And I get to do it a lot, because this thing really sucks up the dirt.
The three basic attachments are locked well onto the machine, and do not keep falling off, like the ones on my old vacuum, and do not get in the way. This version, the "Animal", comes with a couple extra attachments which are worth it for me. I've already used the carpet cleaning attachment when my dog had an accident. It got rid of the stain.
I used to wear headset ear protectors when I used my old upright, but the Dyson is reasonably quiet so I don't need the ear protection.
I recommend going over the instructions carefully before using the machine, as it is not self evident by looking at it how to make everything work. But it is very easy to learn and so easy to use it is well worth it. The time I've saved from the long cord alone far exceeds the time I took to learn the machine.
If the materials are as durable as the design is good, this machine will pay for itself within a few years. But if you put a price on my back and muscle pain, this machine has already earned its cost. I used to hate vacuuming. Now I love to vacuum. I look for excuses to get out my Dyson. I couldn't recommend it more highly.
EDIT: It's 2010 now and my Dyson is still going strong, and I still love to use it.
Customer Review: So far, so good - Dyson DC07 Cyclone Animal - Sam's Club
Summary: 5 Stars
I will be honest and admit - after reading through the wonderful reviews on Amazon on the Dyson, the Oreck, and the various Electrolux and Hoover Models, and having grown up using Electrolux cannister models (2 or 3 different generations that my parents owned) as well as 2 or 3 different Hoover models that my grandparents owned and also having used my husband's upright Hoover that his mom gave him after she bought her Kirby, and after using a friend's Rainbow vac for 2 years (pretty cool, but messy), and using my mother in law's Kirby (sounds like a Boeing 747 at ground zero take-off and I already have a 100 decibal hearing loss in one ear!!) - after all of this, I ended up buying my Dyson Cyclone Animal at the local Sam's Club. I thought Amazon might match the price when I reported the lower price, but no dice.
I had also spent time on the Dyson website and they discuss the specifications of all their models, as well as the models they made for Sam's Club (like a Costco), and the actual specs of the two were exactly the same.
The differences has to do with the attachments - the smaller "under the bed" head doesn't swivel down as flat as the one that comes from Dyson through Amazon or other stores. It's also a grey color (both of the external attachments for the Sam's are grey as well as the trim - where as it is different shade of purple on this model.). I decided I could live with the color differences for now as I mostly needed to use the main vacuum and the attachments more then I did the stair beater attachment or the under bed attachment. If I need to, I can order the specific ones from Dyson or get lucky and find one on eBay. They also included a 2nd motor filter so one can be drying while you continue to vacuum with the second filter that was (presumbably) already clean and dry. Fortunately I haven't had to wash the filter that often, maybe once since I bought mine back in March or April 2005.
But this thing works great! I don't vacuum as often as I should and so when I do, it pulls up massive amounts of dust, long haired cat, and the day to day dirt that our son tracks in the house. It's amazing the different colors and layers of dirt. Reminds me of those "sand paintings" only not as colorful, more in chiascaro(sp?).
It is not too good at vacuuming up styrofoam packing "popcorn" -tends to get stuck at the top where the dirt comes in from the hose and gets pulled into the cyclone - there's just not that much space between cyclone and the top of the cannister for really bug chunks of stuff (just because it "fits" the hose doesn't necesarily mean it'll take the item without choking.). My husband thought he had wrecked it... but there are enough of the sections of "hose" along the path where I could release it (after I turned off the machine!), and then clear out the backlog of styrofoam "popcorn"). Don't ask why it was in a mess on the floor in the first place.
I was concerned by one of the reviewer's follow-up review about how his Dyson was losing suction and what the TV was saying differently. I never listen to TV commercials since a) our TV died and b) I have yet to see a cable service offer 100% captioning on every channel 24 hours a day 7 days a week and so that's my personal boycott and it saves us a lot of money each month that the cable company can't have, so I can't really comment on why Dyson changed their commercials.
I have noticed that at times it seemed like I was "losing suction" and then discovered that the head had been bumped up to the "bare floor" mode and I was trying to vacuum the carpet with it in bare floor. Doesn't work very well in that case and the suction is virtually nill.
The other thing I've noticed is that I can't release the top part of the cannister from off the cyclone (leaving bottom on), unless I release the bottom flap door first. It's annoying. I'm not sure if it's because I don't have long strong fingernails and can't just pry it off, or if it's because the suction is so strong that it just jams up there, and I have to release the pressure by releasing the bottom first. In any case, assuming I have a trash bag underneath it to catch it, it works out, but there are times when I've wanted to take the canister off from the top and leave the bottom still attached and I've not been able to do it. The instructions don't clearly say it has to be done one way before another - so I'm not sure what's up with that.
However, once it is emptied then it is very easy to wash and clean that clear cannister and the ring seal and dry it so that it's clean for "the next time", if that's your thing. Believe me, I don't wash it all the time. But I have noticed that it seemed the lid would close better and have a tighter seal if I did at least wash the dirt off of it. I guess that's one reason why I want to pull it off from top, then tip it over and pour dirt out, like out of a pitcher, so as to not dirty up the seal and make it harder to latch back closed again.
If I had not been so impatient, I would have ordered it here, but seeing it at Sam's and thinking "WOW! I'd have it NOW!!" kinda colored my decision. I don't believe you would go wrong buying this one here from Amazon, even if you are paying a bit more. But hey, if you live 500 miles from the nearest Sam's Club, then the price of gas might be the same as paying the Sam's price (I think it was $429. something plus tax but no shipping).
Oh and this Dyson is quieter than a Kirby... with or without earplugs!
Customer Review: If You Want Top Quality, You Must Pay For It. Do So!
Summary: 5 Stars
Two weeks before Thanksgiving, my Hoover Windtunnel Mach 7.0 upright died in the middle of vacuuming a rug. This was the fourth time in the four years I'd owned it that it had conked out on me. I switched with reluctance to my wife's Miehle upright (which I referred to as "that worthless hunk of junk" due to its low suction even with a fresh bag installed). A week later, that one gave up the ghost too. It was less than 2 years old. We obviously needed a new vacuum cleaner we could both use.I did the research. We'd seen the ads for Dysons, and thought it was too good to be true. Despite the fact that Consumer Reports rated it as 14th out of the uprights they tested, enough people on this site raved about it that we felt it was worth considering. What held me back from an online order was the price tag. My first car cost less than what a Dyson Animal costs! A field test seemed indicated before forking over that much money for a vacuum cleaner.
A local big box store was selling Dysons. I went in and tested one by the simple expedient of vacuuming a high traffic area in the store, them dumping the dirt out of the canister and trying it again on what I'd dumped. It picked up every speck, no muss, no fuss. The price tag notwithstanding, I wrote a check and mindful of what some reviewers have said, insisted that the salesman help me assemble and test it before leaving the store.
Assembly was easy. I agree that the diagrams molded into the Dyson's plastic are cryptic, but the instructions and illustrations in the manual are perfectly clear; we had no trouble putting it together. I took the Animal home and tested it on the living room rug, which had been vacuumed a week before.
We have 8 cats. The Animal sucked a cat's-worth of hair and enough dirt to fill the collection bin in 5 minutes out of an 11 x 16 rug with no fuss at all. I also decided to test the animal hair pneumatic attachment. The test subject was a cat condo of 5 shelves that had not been vacuumed since it was put up. Even on the top shelf, which had turned a gunmetal gray from accumulated cat hair, the Animal had no trouble pulling the hair off the flat, though the head wouldn't reach into the corners. When it was done, the cat condo was the same color it had been when new. Even my old Windtunnel could not have done as good a job!
I also discovered that the people with long hair and/or small area rugs are correct in their assessments. The Dyson does not like small area rugs that are not anchored. If you try to clean them on the 'Carpet' setting, it will give you the warning 'granch' noise. Shift to the bare floor setting or use a head on the wand, and it will clean a small rug just fine.
If you are dealing with a household that sheds a lot of hair, you will have to shut down and use scissors to clear the beater bar fairly frequently. This does not take long, and the beater bar bearings are designed in such a way that hair cannot get into them. What's more, the casing that holds the beater bar is intended to be user-servicable, unlike any other vacuum I have used.
I will agree with some posters that a retractable cord would be desirable. Also, the Dyson could use a headlight, possibly two; the second being an ultraviotlet light that would show where pets have been naughty so you'd know where to apply carpet cleaner or a carpet steamer. I'll also agree that the Dyson requires you to move chairs to clean under them unless you use the floor attachment, which means having to shut off the vac for all of 30 seconds while you extract, connect and put the floor head on the wand and hose. These are not, however, fatal flaws in day to day vacuuming.
The Dyson is not as quiet as a Miehle, but it's nowhere near as loud as a Hoover. You do have to raise your voice and listen sharply, but it is possible to carry on a conversation with someone standing 6 feet away while you are vacuuming. In terms of weight, it's lighter than any upright I've used except a Miehle. In terms of maneuverability, it is superior to any self-propelled vacuum I've ever used. Single-hand operation is possible and even pleasant. The hose setup does take some getting used to, but it's not as cumbersome as some posters allege. It's a sight easier than fiddling with multiple wands!
The bottom line is that the Dyson performs exactly as advertised. Take the time to read the manual before you use it, and it will do any household vacuuming chore you ask to to do. Its suction is superior to any vacuum, canister, upright or shop, that I have ever used. It is unmatched in accessibilty to the places where clogs might occur, and its design is such that opening the accesses to check for clogs is intuitive even if you haven't bothered to read the manual.
The Dyson's one drawback is its price tag; but in this case if you pay the price you WILL get what you paid for. Its performance is worth every penny and then some.
Customer Review: Yes, it's worth the buy
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a clean freak and when I was looking for a vaccuum I had heard so much about the Dyson that after three months of thinking about it I decided to try it out. Let's just say I was very pleased.If you're reading this, you're probably a pet owner sick of all of the hair around you and want a solution to the mess. This is definitely it. The Dyson really does follow through on its promises -- hands down. (Oh, and I'm NOT a sales rep for Dyson. I think that post is pretty funny.)
My problem was from the one cat that I have; He is a Maine Coon with very fine, almost rabbit-like hair. His hair is NOT easy to clean up, especially when it's on a surface that it can really tangle up in. So I whipped out the vaccuum and decided to see if it could handle my cat's coat.
Worked great on the floor, I can say that for sure. Good vaccuum, uh huh, yeah you probably already read that part. BUT -- when I grabbed the animal tool I was shocked at what it could pick up. I have some throw pillows that would gather his hair as well as lint and after a few good sweeps, it really pulled it all up. In fact, it did better than using a lint roller -- you know, the kind that you pull off a piece of tape and roll it along the surface? Yes, it did great.
The biggest test was the cat tree I owned. I made the mistake of ordering a burgandy color carpet which the creator claimed was high quality carpet, but ended up looking and feeling like astro turf. Nothing in the past got this thing clean. I went through a whole roll of lint tape on it once and it didn't do anything. Then I tried a rubber sponge, which on less textured surfaces can get up cat hair in a pinch, but that didn't do anything. When I got out the animal tool and took a sweep across it, it sucked it right up. On that one instance I was completely sold on this vaccuum!
What about the rest? Pretty good! It takes a little bit to get used to the rest of the accessories but they're easy to figure out if you even have half a brain. The only complaint is the hose. It claims that it can stretch very far, but it's a bit stiff and you have to hold the vaccuum with one hand in order to extend it to it's full length; It will fall over if you don't hold onto the vaccuum. Also, I have long hair and it does catch it, but I have to unwind it from the brushes. Then again, this has happened will all of my vaccuums in the past so I'm used to it.
Cleaning hardwood floors is easy enough. Switch it to the hardwood floor indicator (with it off or it will make an awful noise) and it sucks it right up. The difference between this and a regular vaccuum is that it turns OFF the rotating brushes and simply uses suction. Ever try to vaccuum up kitty litter with a regular vaccuum? Notice how it always scatters? That's because the brushes are moving. With the Dyson, it doesn't move anything so therefore vaccuuming kitty litter is a snap.
Just a small tip on vaccuuming: whatever vaccuum you buy you need to remember one thing try to move it a little slower than usual. A lot of people make this mistake when vaccuuming -- they sweep it very fast and don't give the vaccuum enough time to catch the debris in the carpet. When you take a little more time and go slower it picks up much more. A good rule of thumb would be when you hear it picking up something like kitty litter, keep sweeping until it stops making noise.
On a last note, I emptied the canister and used it on my hallway. Considering the fact my cats don't sleep in the hallway, I was surprised at the ball of hair it actually accumulated after I was finished.
This is a quality product, hands down. You can buy a more inexpensive vaccuum but how long will it last? The Dyson was built for quality and it shows. Read up on Dyson's other inventions and why he built this vaccuum and you'll be pleasantly surprised how much you like him. He came up with this idea ages ago, but major companies didn't want to develop it because they made millions off of selling bags. What does that mean to you? They would rather you spent the extra money on bags rather than giving you a quality product. Nothing ticks me off more than finding out that a company cares more about your buck than satisfaction. In fact, after he developed it, he had to sue a few companies to keep them from stealing his idea after they rejected it. I believe one even said: "It's too bad we didn't obtain the patent and let it sit on our shelf." After reading that, I'll never buy from them again.
Dyson makes quality products -- something you don't see much anymore -- and it shows. I believe he's also developed a washing machine and I'll be happy to buy it when it comes out.
Give it a shot. I'm sure you'll be as pleased as I was.
Customer Review: So much better than any other vacuum!
Summary: 5 Stars
*My last vacuum, prior to finally purchasing a Dyson Animal, was a top-of-the-line Hoover WindTunnel V2. When it was new, the Hoover performed well, and I really loved the Turbo Tool (a smaller version of the similar attachment which comes with the Dyson); but the main H.E.P.A. filter cartridge was clogged and ruined in short order by the super-fine local dust in my carpet (I live on a hill, surrounded by protected, undeveloped County land, in a semi-semi-semi-rural area, and there is always a fine coat of dust on everything), not to mention the dog hair and cat hair, the parakeet down and birdseed, dried bits of grass, burrs and foliage which get dragged-in stuck to the cats, and the dirt left behind by a messy plumbing contractor husband (he comes home with his jeans covered in clumps of dried-on mud, which of course flakes off and crumbles all over the place as he walks around the house, and he wonders why that upsets me).
In my house, the Hoover H.E.P.A. filters only lasted about 20% of the recommend filter life. After replacing the filters only 5 times, I had already nearly doubled the original cost of the Hoover vacuum within about a year!
I had known about the Dyson for quite a while, but was reluctant to invest the extra money...until I allowed myself to face the fact that replacing the Hoover filters was costing an arm and a leg on a fairly frequent basis, and continuing to buy filters was just dumb, when there was an alternative.
I started searching for the best price on the Dyson (I'm virtually always a staunch comparison shopper anyway, just on principle). I shopped and shopped and waited and waited and finally got the Dyson Animal on sale.
Man, I wish I had just broken down and bought it earlier.
What a difference! Like another of the Reviewers here, I tested the Dyson by first vacuuming with the Hoover WindTunnel (new filters installed), and following immediately with the Dyson Animal. The Dyson made the Hoover seem like a toy! It removed 2 times over again the amount of dirt, dust, lint, fuzz, bits of dried grass and leaves, crumbs and pet hair from carpet I had just vacuumed with the Hoover moments earlier! And I had thought that my carpet was pretty clean after vacuuming with the Hoover WindTunnel. YUCK!
The Dyson grooms the carpet really well, too; lifting the nap and making it appear all plush and nearly new. Must be that constant suction power.
Any other readily available vacuum, bag or bag-less, upright or canister, just cannot compete with the modern Dyson cyclonic technology.
A Dyson is also simple to operate, rolls smoothly, doesn't tip over, and is not heavy (once you get it out of the box and assembled). The controls, multiple functions, cord holder, attachments, etc. are well designed and easy to manipulate. It is easy to lift (has a strategically placed handle) for moving about or to carry upstairs. The "Lifetime" filters can be easily cleaned just by rinsing or washing in mild sudsy water - follow the instructions and the recommended timetable; it even has a built-in reminder of when the filter should be cleaned.
The Dyson is also a lot easier to clean, and to empty the catching bin. It seems to generate far less static electricity than other plastic-housed machines, and dust doesn't build-up on it as readily.
It is far more versatile than most other vacuums, especially with the accessories that come with the Animal model, and - considering its power - IT IS VERY QUIET! You can actually carry-on a conversation while vacuuming with a Dyson, by speaking only a little louder than normal, instead of shouting "WHAT?!" or having to stop your cleaning when somebody just simply cannot wait to ask you something.
Based on my experience, I would highly recommend a Dyson for anyone who is shopping for a full-sized vacuum cleaner.
Yes, it seems quite a bit more money to spend for a small household appliance, and is even very expensive for many people; save-up for it if you can! It will be well worth it. The Dyson cleans better than any other vacuum currently on the market, and keeping your carpets and upholstery clean will extend the fabric life, and help keep them looking in top condition.
I can hardly wait for Dyson to come up with a compact, "light-weight", "stick" version. Wonder if that's in the works?