Dyson DC14 All-Floors Cyclone Upright Vacuum Cleaner

• All-floors upright vacuum cleaner with motorized brushbar
• Root Cyclone technology ensures powerful, continuous suction
• Quick-draw Telescope reach; edge-cleaning whiskers; wide channel
• Hygienic 5/7-gallon dust bin; lifetime HEPA filter; certified asthma friendly
• Measures 13-3/8 by 14 by 44-6/7 inches; 5-year warranty

Powerful:
This vacuum has a lot of power ! very good for hard floors. A little heavy but you get use to it. My house lasts clean longer now. I love it. I regret not getting the Animal.

Expensive plastic junk, poorly designed:
We've owned our DC07 for 3 years now and the plastic piece that holds the dust bin door shut just snapped off. What gets me is that the vac came with a sample piece of plastic attached to a small chain when we bought it. Dyson bragged that their plastic was super tough. Obviously from the poor reviews you can tell that the overall construction of this is poor. Dyson doesn't sell just that one part and wanted about $100 (includes s/h) for the entire cyclone unit. No thanks. Here's what's wrong with the design-- 1. The straight shaft of the hose/tube assembly makes for a bad angle when using the attachments. So we find ourselves having to attach the attachments to the other end of the hose which requires pulling the shaft out of about 2' of hose, turning it around, attaching the hose back on the other end of the shaft, then attaching whatever attachment you want to use. Now the vac is unsuitable for normal vaccuming! You now have to reserve the dis-assembly/assembly steps in order to vaccuum floors. This takes much longer than a vac that has a more typical setup where you can use the hose/wand assembly while still having access to the normal vac. 2. The hose is very stiff which usually means that the vac will tip over if you need to stretch it any amount of distance. Even if you get it to work propertly, you find that it takes a lot of effort to use the wand/hose because it wants to always pull itself back. 3. Many of the attachments, including the narrow one, have slots in them that act as breathers when you are using the attachment. Those slots are too large and actually take away from the suction that is need to use the tool! The narrow one in particular loses about half of its suction because a large portion of the tool is wide open on top. Duh! 4. This vac is suppose to automatically adjust for different floor heights. It does that in a very basic way by allowing itself to tilt as it rolls across the floor. This was poorly designed and the beater brush will usually snag on the carpeting/rug if you approach carpeting from a level wood floor. It would have been much better to have a user adjustable floor setting like the majority of vacuum cleaners out there. 5. "never loses suction" is a complete lie!!! There are two filters that need to be cleaned regularily or the unit will indeed lose suction. Both of those filters occasionally have to be replaced and are expensive. 6. The joint between many of the parts that have a suction going into them leaks air when you first turn the unit on. It isn't until a few seconds after its on that those parts pull together with their seals and eliminate the leaks. Its during those few seconds that dusts blows out of the unit. 7. Manueverability is poor because the base of this vac is heavy and so tall that it rarely can get under beds. Its so heavy that the typical user will find themselves pushing and pulling it through their house rather than being able to lift it up. 8. Difficult to carry because you can very easily grab the wrong part of the vac which will make it become disassembled when you carry it- dropping it on your foot or breaking some of the cheap plastic. 9. The belt is not user servicable. What a joke. You have to send the entire unit back to a dealer just to replace the belt. Have you ever checked into shipping costs for such a large and heavy package? 10. Dyson is a UK company that has inadequate US support. Just try and find replacement parts here in the US. Even when you can find them you see that only large components are available for sale, and not the smaller parts that break. Overall, cheap plastic, poorly designed, difficult to get parts for, and way too expensive.

Disregard the 4 star rating....Very Disappointed!:
Updating my review a week later.... The Dyson will be going back to the store in a day or so. I've discovered that it is pulling long carpet strings out of my carpet which are getting wound around the brush. The hair from my Aussie then gets caught in the strings from my rug and everything must be disassembled and cut out. Of course, this would happen with any vacuum which tore your carpeting apart as it cleaned it. I suggest that anyone who is considering buying a Dyson take the sole plate off and look at the way it is fastened on. It fasteners are the cheapest of plastic and would likely break if something ever gives them even a moderate bump. I thought I'd found a really good vacuum because the suction is great, too great, as it turns out. And for $400 I would think that Dyson could manage to put a little more into the plastic they use to make this hunk of junk. ------------- Vacuuming is the chore I hate most, even more than cleaning the litter box. The Hoover died on Christmas Eve right after finishing the living room and hall. I hated it so much that I wasn't willing to spend the money to have it repaired so I started reading reviews. The only reason that I finally bit the bullet and went for the Dyson was that Walmart had it for $399 with a $100 Walmart gift card when you bought it. That seemed like the best deal I was ever likely to see so the Dyson 14 joined the family. I like it better than any vacuum I've ever used. Even though it isn't self-propelled it's far easier to push and pull than the Hoover. It's also much lighter to carry up and down stairs. There is a learning curve with the wand but after 3 uses I'm getting it. Your arms and shoulders really get a work out on the stairs but it's much easier on the lower back. As someone else said in a review, stairs are easier if you just remove the wand and put a tool on the hose. I've seen several reviews that claimed Dyson makes an old rug look new. I wouldn't go that far but it certainly does make it look a lot better than my Hoover Windtunnel did. The Hoover used bags and this is my first experience with a large bagless vacuum. It's a little messy but I empty the cylinder into a trash can in the garage so it's really not bad at all. The cylinder is small and needs emptying often but I think because it's emptied often the suction remains better. The tools that come with the vacuum are unexceptional but the actual vacuum is better than any I've owned including the Kirby that I had a long time ago. I'll have to see how it holds up but so far I'm happier about vacuuming than I've been in a long time. It was a lot of money but look for a deal. Just not having my back hurt makes the amount I spent worthwhile.

Best thing that happen to carpets:
I've had the Bissell for about a year and the band broke. I bought a cheap Eureka model, and realized I got what I paid for. I've been looking at Dyson for a couple of years now and thought, who in the blue h e ll would buy a 400 dollar vacuum?! Besides me that is. That old saying, you get what you paid for couldn't be more true. This thing is worth every penny and more. I like the fact that has a 5 year warranty, parts/labor. The job it does is amazing. Buy the DC 14 Animal if you have pets, otherwise, stick with this. Pros: Suction is second to none, easy to handle, Filter lifetime warranty Cons: Trying to figure out how to use it. I hate manuals.

Beater Brush/ Rotator Cracked On Mine in Less Than 5 Minutes. TWICE!!!:
Read a lot of reviews and decided to take the plunge and spend the money on a DC 14. Went into Best Buy, and bought a "demo/open box" for $309. Returned home happy with my purchase and immediately started vacuuming. No Problems on the hard wood floors, I transitioned to the carpet and almost immediately heard a loud crackling sound from the brush housing. Looked and noticed it had cracked and warped at one side. Figuring this was the bad luck of a "demo", I returned to Best Buy, returned the "demo" and paid $399 for a new one. Returned home and returned to vacuuming. This one lasted all of 5 minutes before I heard the same dreadful crackling sound. Low and behold to my utter horror and dismay, the same piece had cracked once again! It is absolutely ridiculous that a vacuum at this price has such a pi## poor design. I would avoid this model like the plague.