Dyson DC14 - Worth every penny!

We had a Filter Queen canister vacuum prior to buying the Dyson. I'd seen the Dyson commercials on TV and been impressed with the idea of not having to change filters & that the vacuum wouldn't lose suction. I'd been feeling for awhile that our old vacuum just wasn't doing a very good job, and so decided to try the Dyson.

The Dyson DC14 All Floors and the DC14 Animal vacuum are the same vacuum, the animal one just comes with some extra attachments. I didn't think we needed the extra attachments, so we decided to go with just the plain jane model.

The basic idea behind the Dyson is that it never loses suction because of the way the air flows and the dirt doesn't have a chance to clog up any filters. It's designed so the height adjusts automatically for different carpets and you can turn the brush off for use on lino or hardwood floors. There's a telescopic wand on the back with a stretchy hose designed to make stair cleaning and dusting or getting into small spaces easier and it comes with 3 tools for cleaning the smaller spots or dusting. The vacuum comes with a 2 yr warranty.

We bought our Dyson DC14 at Linens N Things with a 20% off coupon, so that really helped soften the price. Having used the Dyson now though, I can say even if I had paid full price for it, I would have no regrets at all.

My hubby brought the vacuum home from the store and I could hardly wait to put it together. It was packed into the box really well and I needed help in order to pull it out of the box, but putting it together was easy enough & the instructions were easy enough to understand. Having read some of the reviews on here, I knew to read the instructions before trying to vacuum, and really there wasn't too much to remember or learn.

So having done the basics, I had my hubby vacuum the hall with our old vacuum first. Then I came along and vacuumed with the Dyson DC14. Keep in mind that our old vacuum wasn't just a cheap thing... but the amount of dirt the Dyson DC14 sucked up with the very first vacuuming just amazed me and disgusted me too. Our carpet actually felt softer to walk on after being vacuumed with the Dyson. Even my husband who didn't understand what the big deal about a vacuum could possibly be, noticed a huge difference.

Emptying the dirt container is very easy. A push of the button snaps it off the main vacuum, and another push of a button releases a latch on the bottom of the container so all the dirt/hair/whatever drops straight into the garbage can. A few taps on the side of the container released any tiny pieces of stubborn dust and the bottom of the container is simply put back up in place & snapped in to close it. The container snaps back onto the vacuum just as easily as it comes off and there's no fussing or mussing to make sure you get it on just the right way. I absolutely love this feature. And I love having a clear container so I can see just how much dirt is in there and when it's time to empty it. Dyson has put a line on the container so that you know when to empty it. There is a little filter that the instructions say to remove and rinse every 6 months. We haven't had to do that yet so I can't comment on it.

I've only used the wand a very little bit and did notice that the hose is very stretchy and quite tight right now. I can see it will really have to be pulled on in order to get it the full distance it's supposed to be able to go. I imagine if you used it on a regular basis though it would stretch out easier as it got used more. I did find sliding the metal wand back down into the stretchy part of the hose to be a bit tricky to do, that could have something to do with me not wanting to use too much force with it though.

Some have mentioned a grinding type noise when changing from lino to carpet or things of that nature. The instructions do say that the vacuum should be fully upright when going on to a different surface, and as long as this is done I've only had the ratcheting sound once when my hair was a bit wrapped in the brush bar. And it's designed to make that noise so that you know you need to check the brush bar, so while it's noisy and startling to hear it, I'm actually glad it's there so that nothing gets worn out.

As for hair, I have fairly long hair and had recently lost ALOT of it after having had my daughter. Our old vacuum wouldn't pick it up at all, and it was everywhere. It was really quite annoying. After vacuuming with the Dyson DC14, it picked up ALL my hair off the carpet. I was absolutely amazed looking at all the hair in the dirt container. And despite how much hair it picked up, very little actually got caught by the brush bar itself. I attributed that to the strong suction so that hair is getting pulled into the vacuum before it has a chance to get super tangled in the brush.

I've read other reviews complaining about the lack of a light on the front of the vacuum. I can honestly say this doesn't bother me. And if that's the only thing missing from this vacuum, I'll gladly trade having to turn the light on in a room for having an awesome vacuum cleaner.

The cord is very long and has to be wound by hand, again not a big deal for me because I also had to wind the cord by hand on our old vacuum. And I've found that the space between the two cord holders is big enough that it really doesn't take much time or energy to wind the cord.

Really, I have nothing negative to say about this vacuum. I was impressed from the moment I first used it and continue to be amazed when I vacuum now. Our carpet is continuing to improve and I have to wonder if we're starting to vacuum up stuff that had been missed the last time our carpets were steam cleaned. It's just that big of a difference.

I would recommend when making a decision as to which model to get, to compare what attachments come with it as that's really the only difference amongst the DC14 models. In retrospect I think the mini turbine tool would've been nice to have, and if you're undecided about it I'd recommend just going ahead and getting the Animal model or one from Costco that has the mini turbine because it's rather expensive to buy it separately. On the whole though, this will forever be the vacuum I recommend to others.