_asterisk_'s Full Review: Dyson DC17 Animal Bagless Upright Cyclonic Vacuum
INTRODUCTION: the situation, moving on
I'm a student currently living at home with my 3 cats, a dove, and a canary. A few years ago I started developing serious allergies. Having been tested, I'm not allergic to anything on your typical panel (not the cats, not the birds), so my allergist suggested it must be dust. Since no one in my house seems to ever be home, the cleaning just doesn't happen as often as it should. Our vacuum (a Bissell bag less Clean view II 3576-2) was mediocre at best and came with no attachments and a heavy hose. Since my room is crowded and there's not a lost of space, I end up needing to use the hose a lot, but the vacuum is unstable so when I am on my hands and knees, I have had that vacuum crash down on my head on several occasions. For my health and my brain cells, it was time to get another vacuum.
ARRIVAL: It's here! And incomplete :(
My mom and I ordered the Dyson DC17 vacuum through samsclub.com because that's where we could find it cheapest. It came in the mail yesterday and I immediately tore into the box - my house is an allergy h-e-double l and I couldn't wait to see what this vacuum could do. As I started the very minimal assembly, I was immediately disappointed to see that this particular package did not include the low floor tool. There was almost no information on the website to have known, but part of the reason we bought the DC17 was because it was said to come with it on every website we checked. Grr. I angrily put it away and waited to discuss what should be done with my mom (it's her $). I've ordered the part on ebay and will update the review with that later.
EXCITEMENT: the 2nd wind, but how do you use this crazy thing?
Today, with excitement renewed, I took out the vacuum to check it out once again. Right away I had trouble figuring out how to disconnect the hose; tugging from all directions and searching for buttons. The scraps of papers and the "instruction booklet" were no help at all! Those diagrams don't always make sense until AFTER you figure out how to do it on your own (oh, so THAT's what they're trying to show). I ended up having to go on the dyson website to figure out that you have to pull the wand all the way out (which I'd already figured out) but then you also have to pull up from the wand, not the handle, to detach it. Oops. Well now that's settled.
LET'S GO!: the upright, the mini turbine, crevice
First, I did a quick once over in the main open area of our living room berber carpet. The area's only about 5'x7' so I was surprised to see the dirt and lint in that area had already filled about a fifth of the canister (up to the fill line, that is, never want to go above that). The vacuum's maneuverability is incredibly easy and smooth, and I could get right up to the edge of the couch with no problem. It seems self propelled enough to me; it required practically no pushing effort on my part (I guess I won't be building my triceps this way). Also, the vacuum itself was surprisingly quiet in comparison to any other vacuum I've used. I could hear my thoughts (and later, on of my cat's hissing and smacking at the attachments)! For a machine this size, what a shocker!
Next, I disconnected the wand from the hose (there's a red lever just under the handle of the wand, press that down with your thumb and just give the hose a tug) and connected the mini turbine tool to the hose to test it's ability to remove the cat hair from our shenile-ish glider. Just as one of my classmates told me (she has a D14 animal), if you press down too much, the turbine stops spinning, but I find that if you keep the attachment moving, the turbine continues to move also. I prefer circular movements, but the dyson website shows a simple set and pull. *shrug* There were still a couple of scattered hairs visible on the chair, but I looked to find the vacuum had already accumulated a serious about of fur and dirt.
Impressed, I then moved out to the cat tower. That thing is just COATED in cat hair, but of course. I start out on the landings, around the sides of the basket. It sucked up a colossal amount of hair, here. There's a fuzzy faux fur inlay my mom puts in the basket that she's always combing out to remove the hair, and the turbine took care of that in a breeze. The only thing I noticed was that the mini turbine doesn't edge clean. Not the end of the world, for me, I went around the edges with the crevice tool (not the fancy flexi-crevice tool, however, that did not come with this model) and that took care of it no problem.
INTERMISSION: emptying the DC17
After the chair and tower, the canister held an appalling amount of filth that I was quick to be rid of. I pressed the little gray button about the handle of the canister and it popped right out.. without a mess! Our other vacuum leaves dust crumbles when you remove the canister. I strolled on over to the garbage can, pressed the little red trigger and out dropped the bottom. I had to tap it a bit to coax the fur out, and even then, I didn't get a back draft of dust in my face, which would have taken me out of commission for sure. The stuff your vacuum sucks up does tend to accumulate toward the back more than the front, so be sure to check that out on occasion. Letting it overfill is a sure way to burn out your vacuum and from what I've read, dyson customer service is not quite top notch, so let's be preventative and just not go there.
BACK TO THE SHOW!: more of the mini turbine, crevice tool
Alright, now for the couch. We have this hideous poor-quality couch with cheap corduroy wannabe upholstery (am I bashing my parents taste? No! ...well yes) and it collects cat hair, crumbs, lint, and dirt like the dickens! Just awful! The turbine took on the challenge with gusto. My cats like to sit on the back and on the arm rests of the couch so those areas were just packed - the color brightened significantly in those areas after the treatment. After getting all aspects of the cushions, I moved to the base. The turbine doesn't have enough suction to pick up the peanut husks and other random crumbs, here- it's not meant for that, so I switch to the crevice tool and snag all the grit that grates your fingers when you reach down between the cushions to search for the remote. Woo hoo! I emptied the canister again and did the other couch. Great fun ^_^
Then, I saw my dad's fleecy green bay packer blanket. The cats like to sleep on that whenever it's accessible, and so I wondered what kind of difference the turbine could make for it. With my afore mentioned circular movements, I was not only able to suck out the hair, but the little pill-ish fuzzes and some crumbs, also! No wonder that blanket always felt so greedy to me. It was nice and pleasantly plush after I was done. I emptied the canister once again (hey, I'm a safety girl, and it's so simple, why the heck not?)
I move to the corner of the room, which has 2 huge windows and an old lamp. I use the "up top tool" just because I wanted to on the windowsills and the lampshade at the 170' angle. Took some dust off of the lampshade, but there wasn't a lot of suction so there's still some bird seed lodged in the fold from when the birds inhabited the living room. I used the crevice tool in the sliding space of the windows. Nothing terribly exciting happened here; just a few beetle remains were disposed of. Gosh, those are a nuisance!
I put the hose and wand back in place and sat the vacuum upright. I moved the furniture and took care of all the spots missed before. Then I also went down the hall. After all this cleaning, I was getting really tired and kind of hungry, so I wrapped it up. I emptied the canister one last time. There was a little dust build up at the back of the cyclone deal in the middle of the canister, so I popped the plastic off (again, with a simple clear lever at the back of the canister) and used the stiff bristle brush attachment - which up to now I had no other use for - to slough the dirt into the trash. Simple enough!
I looked at my beloved mini turbine tool and saw that it had pulled up a bunch of fiber from dad's blanket and they were wrapped around the turbine. Not being a fan of razors or scissors like most people suggest, I went and grabbed one of the cat combs (a flea/lice comb with the fine metal teeth is great!) and that pulled the gunk out of the bristles effortlessly making the turbine look brand new all over again! I was quite pleased.
SUMMARY: If you can't stand my rambling
*Instruction manual = pretty useless, the website's a little better.
*Vacuum is efficient, effective, and probably a LOT quieter than you think. Also, at 5', 115lbs, this vacuum is NOT the hindrance I'd expected - so it's probably a lot lighter than you think, too!
*Be sure you know which materials come with your specific package!
*The price is always an issue, but considering it has a lifetime filter, I think it makes up for itself pretty quickly. Also, I should hope it will last a goodly amount of time, so I'm considering that I we wont have to buy another anytime soon because of poor quality.
*Oh, you do have to unwrap the entire cord to use an attachment. Oh well. We had a vacuum with a retractable cord, but when that device broke, haha, yeah, then what? I suppose they might figure to hang the cord somewhere else in their next model.
*Attachments/Features:
Mini turbine - 5 out of 5 . once you're used to it, works like a charm!
Crevice tool - 3 out of 5 . Alright, the rating for this has gone down. The more I use this tool, the more aggravated I am. The airflow holes leave it almost no suction, and it gets to the point where I have to coax the mess directly into the mouth of the tool before it even tries to pick it up. Aggravating. Yes, it doesn't get clogged, but it doesn't pick up a whole lot either.
Hose - 4 out of 5 . It's durable, it's a work out to keep it extended, but it does NOT pull the vacuum over to fall on my head, so it's got my vote, there!
**Updated!** These are not, however, included in the long-winded review above. Read on!
Stiff Bristle Brush - 5 out of 5 . I used this tool in my boyfriend's car. It helped pull up all the sand and grit from the carpet and seats that he'd accumulated from his time at a military base in Texas. What a mess! This made the job easier by far!
Brush Tool - 5 out of 5 . I use this in corners, for cobwebs, and for the layers of fur that accumulate in the crevice between the carpet and the wall. Also great for the air ducts. Very useful tool.
Stair tool - 1 out of 5 . I've really found no use for this tool at all. My curtains are rubber-coated on the one side so it just clogs the tool. There are airflow holes, but I've got to say, it doesn't seem to make much of a difference. I tried using it on a woven rug, also, and it didn't pick up anything at all. It's possible I'm just using it wrong.
Low Reach Floor Tool - 2 out of 5 . I really cant get the hang of this tool. With the wand, it seems like you really can't push or pull at all. The bristles on the bottom make it near impossible. Perhaps it would work on a hard floor? Without the wand, I'm on my hands and knees and I still run into a problem of trying to keep the tool contacted with the floor and not tipped this way and that. Again, perhaps I'm doing something wrong.
Brush Control - 5 out of 5 . Frankly, I've had no problems with the vacuum adjusting to the different heights of carpet and hard floor in my house. None whatsoever. No complaints here.
Wand - 5 out of 5 . I must admit, I have little use for the wand. My family is generally short, so everything is within reach. Still, I wanted to test this, so lazily, I extended the wand without a tool attached and went around the bird cage picking up the seed. It worked just fine. What can I tell you? It's a sturdy wand, so if that worries you, rest assured.
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