WOW, another vacuum!!! But wait its a Dyson, O yea they always have a vac up for sale!! Everyone needs a $300 vacuum, great invetment.
Bought this vacuum a few woot-offs ago. Overall an excellent vacuum.
The Good:
- Exceptional job at pulling up my dogs hair from the carpet, couch, rugs, etc.
- Easy to empty
- Filters are easy to clean/replace
- Lots of attachments
- Works with a Mac
The Bad:
- Heavy. Not too heavy for us but I could see why a smaller, less manly man than me could have a problem carrying it up stairs
- Loud (this could be because it is a vacuum)
- It isn’t a vacuum/toaster combo, that would be too convenient.
I’ve had a Dyson DC14 for a while now, and it’s held up great; my guess would be that all of the refurb’s are due to people buying newer models. I’ve taken mine apart just to see how it works and put it back together and it’s a design that is really quite elegant in it’s simplicity, and also incredibly well-designed in regards to durability, so long as you KEEP IT CLEAN!
I’ve used a number of Dyson models, and while they are all quite nice, I actually don’t like the ball-style ones much at all. They are good for corners, so if you live in a house that is one big circle then it makes sense; otherwise, you’ll end up with a sprained wrist after one vacuuming session (very hard to keep in a straight line).
Also, all of the Dyson models after the DC14 have a significantly lower air-flow rate, and thus less suction (although still more than 98% of vacuum cleaners available under $1500). This is a result of a change to the head, the area with the bristles, by making it “flatter” but “wider”, and as a result the air flow dropped from around 500cfm for the DC07/DC14 to around 175-210cfm for all models since. The addition of 4 more “suction tubes” in the canister helps compensate for this (the DC14 has 7).
I have owned my DC14 for over 18 months and it is used to vacuum a ~5200sq*ft house completely 2-4x/week, every week. It gets a workout, too, as I have one dog (an Australian Shepherd, so plenty of medium-long hair everywhere) and 5 cats (3 short-hair, 1 very-long-hair, and 1 is an outdoor so it doesn’t matter).
Back to back with a brand new DC17, DC25, DC28, and two of the “Ball” models. NO contest, the DC14 out-performed them all. If you look on review sites as well as “vacuum specialist” sites, you’ll hear the same thing (I checked after I bought two newer vacuums from Dyson and found that, well, they didn’t suck as well as my DC14). Some design changes are not for the better.